Yule VS Christmas: Origins

Tis' the season for stuffing your body into your special suit and fancy dress, eating way too much, and howling Silent Night over the church choir. Or at least that's what I recall as a child. The festival of Christmas has changed over the years for me. Now it means family and friends, good food, and making crochet gifts for nieces and nephews. (Watch out guys for that tea cozy you always wanted)

Historyminion wise, I'm going to celebrate by posting a lot on the history of Christmas, traditions, and terrors.

Let's start with Yule versus Christmas. Is it really the same thing?

The Scandinavians in the 1500s getting ready to burn the Yule log and get wasted! Imp included.

Yule goes back, way back, to the 700s. The word is from the Old English geol, geola "Christmas Day, Christmastide," from Old Norse jol (plural), a heathen feast, later taken over by Christianity, as a lot of things were. The priests wanted to con everyone into falling for their new fangled religion by adopting already know traditions. They were assholes like that.

The Old English giuli was the Anglo-Saxons' name for a two-month midwinter season corresponding to Roman December and January, a time of important feasts but not itself a festival. After conversion to Christianity it narrowed to mean "the 12-day feast of the Nativity" (which began Dec. 25), but was replaced by Christmas by the11th century. However, the northern areas of Danish settlement it remained the usual word and festival. Across Scandinavia, great yule logs were burned, and people drank mead around the bonfires listening to minstrel-poets singing ancient legends. It was believed that the yule log had the magical effect of helping the sun to shine more brightly.
 
Yule was revived in the 19th century by bored writers to mean "the Christmas of Merrie England." probably because it sounds sort of old and cool. Now neo-pagans like followers of Wicca, who I think like to pretend to be spell casters and like to run nude in the woods, celebrate Yule. For them, it's part of the Winter Solstice. 

Very few people today would shout out "Happy Yule Tidings" or "Merry Yule" though.

Christmas, on the other hand, is not as old as Yule, but is up there. It's Middle English for Christemasse, which is from Old English Cristes mæsse, literally, Christ's mass. It was used before 12th century.

Early Roman texts and calenders (about 360 CE) mentions the celebration on December 25 of a Christian liturgical feast of the birth of Jesus. In Eastern Christianity, the birth of Jesus was celebrated, and still is on January 6th at the Epiphany. (When they figured out Jesus was god born as man). The Donatists of North Africa celebrated Christmas may indicate that the feast was established by the time that church was created in 311.

Roman carving of celebrating the God of Light, which the Christian god stole a lot of ideas from. Check out the halo.

And was Jesus actually born in the winter? Most scholars agree that the presence of shepherds and their sheep suggest a spring birth. When church officials settled on December 25 at the end of the third century, they likely wanted the date to coincide with existing pagan festivals honoring Saturn (the Roman god of agriculture) and Mithra (the Persian god of light). Again, the Christians knew how to piggy back on someone elses good time. And because of that religion's ability to change and adapt everything around it like the borg, (geek reference), it beats out Yule. How do we know? I don't hear Have Yourself a Merry Little Yule, do you?

Next Time: How did they celebrate Christmas in Medieval Times? If you're expecting any gifts, you're going to be disappointed.

History Mondays - You say brunch and I say where?

One of my favourite treats is brunch: the decision where to go however is less so. After many texts and facebook notes, my friends and I settled on one place at 10. Then we waited an hour for a table, starving. But it was worth it. My salmon eggs Benedict with duck fat taters was delicious and made my earlier annoyance of being sequestered in their 'waiting room' almost worth while. I love brunch so I put up with it. 

Sigh - the love...

I've only started making my journey to eggy happiness mid morning in the last fifteen years. Before this, my city had limited brunch locations. We just went for a late breakfast/early lunch and enjoyed the luxury of having bacon, eggs and toast. To my surprise, the tradition of brunch is much older, and is shrouded in mysterious but delicious origins.

There are a few theories about the origins of brunch. Some believe it was due to Catholics, who fasted before receiving the Eucharist at mass would come home to their mix of breakfast/lunch. In the 1800s, English elite like to dine on meats, eggs, fresh fruit and sweets on Sunday mornings, either after a hunt or because they woke late. There was also a meal called Second Breakfasts, where in Europe it still goes on at about 10 am and is usually taken at work or school. However, this was a daily activity at work and not with friends and family as modern brunch is. 

The element of partying then getting up late might have had something to do with it. In Jane Austen's Persuasion, the characters often have their breakfast very late after a night at a ball.

"Look buddy, eventually she's going to have brunch with me, not you"

The actual term brunch first appears in 1890s. The online Etymology Dictionary cites 1895 in Hunter's Weekly article by British writer Guy Beringer as the first time this portmateau word was used.  In "Brunch: A Plea", he states that:

"Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting. It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week."

It is further reference in 1896 in the magazine Punch, as a slang term used by students for a late morning meal. The movement of yummy-ness crossed the big pond to North America by the 1920s. In the book American Food, author Evan Jones cites the famous Pump Room in Chicago serving brunch in 1933. Jones believed that it was due to many movie stars stopping off in Chicago on their way to either coast. In the 1940s, the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City was known to offer a Sunday Stroller's Brunch of sauerkraut juice, clam cocktails, calf liver and hash browns, fish balls, and bacon.

I don't know if I want this first thing in the morning - looking at me.

The practice continued to grow in Europe and North America, becoming a bigger event. A huge surge in specific brunch places has surged in recent years as a When Mother's Day was created, the restaurants tried to jump into the food dish:

What could be more fun than...morning brunch for the whole family on Mother's Day? Brunch is a sort of glamourous, leisurely, combination of breakfast and lunch that is more hearty than an ordinary breakfast. In fact, it often includes a dessert too. Start the menu with grapefruit shells filed with icy cold grapefruit sections and with fresh or frozen strawberries. A fluffy omelette with a tomato and ripe olive filling is quite delicious with crisp bacon curls and broiled canned cling peaches..."

---"Menus and Recipes," Philadelphia Tribune, May 8, 1948 (p. 8)t

But where's the booze for mom?