Christianity was widespread in late-Middle Ages Europe, and Christmas celebrations every December were the norm in cities and villages.
For Christians, the days that lead to Christmas Day are days of joy and anticipation. It is the coming of Jesus and the days are as bright as the Star of Bethlehem.
The month-long fast of Advent, the Coming of Christ, preceded Christmas in the Middle Ages. Christians fasted, avoiding rich foods and overall culinary overindulgence during that period.
Advent and Greek Orthodoxy
Advent begins on the first Sunday after St. Andrew’s Day (November 27th), observed since the 4th century. It was viewed as a time for Christian converts to prepare for Baptism on Epiphany (January 6th), a total of 40 days. It was believed to signal not only the birth of Christ but also his Second Coming. Adventus means “Second Coming” in Latin, although the term was used earlier.
Advent was celebrated for a longer period in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, spanning five Sundays. The celebration officially began in the late 5th century when the Gallic Bishop Perpetuus of Tours ordered fasting for three days every week from the Feast of St. Martin on November 11th, until Christmas. This was Quadragesimal Sancti Martini (Forty Days Fast of St. Martin).
Advent was shortened to four weeks during the 8th century. However, many liturgical differences were not resolved until the 11th century. It is a time for penance, reflection, fasting, and prayer.
Greek Orthodox Christians worldwide observe a pre-Christmas preparation period. The Orthodox Church does not call it Advent. There is the Nativity Fast instead, lasting for 40 days, but differs from the Catholic and Protestant Advent traditions.
The traditional Orthodox Nativity Fast begins on November 15th, lasts 40 days, ending on December 24th, Christmas Eve. It starts approximately two weeks earlier than Advent and it is more solemn. Orthodox Christians also do not have the custom of the wreath with four candles, with each candle standing for hope, faith, joy, and peace, respectively.
The wild Christmas celebrations were common for both Churches on the feast day, December 25, when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem.
Christmas Day feasts
The holiday began in earnest before dawn on Christmas morning. A special Christmas mass signaled the official end of Advent and the start of the feasting season, running for twelve days from December 25 through January 5.
In England, most people would have a pig slaughtered in November and salted and smoked to be ready for the Christmas bacon and hams. Wealthy people would give their servants and laborers twelve days off to enjoy the Christmas festivities.
In “The Goodman of Paris,” written in 1393, the author outlines the required courses for a “special feast.” Something like the savoir vivre for the medieval Christmas table: The meal would begin with a course of pasties, sausages, and black pudding; four courses of fish, fowl, and roast meats; and a final course of custards, tarts, nuts, and sweetmeats.
Medieval royalty was more extravagant, of course, regarding Christmas celebrations. King Henry III ordered 40 salmon, heaps of venison and boar meat, and plenty of lampreys for a Christmas dinner at the Reading Abbey in 1226. Henry V, who ruled in the early 1400s, had ordered even more exotic delicacies on his Christmas menu like crayfish, eels, and porpoises.
The royals enjoyed all the delicacies, accompanied by many fine wine casks. Commoners were satisfied with ale and spiced cider.
The Christmas spirit would soon be forgotten, and revelers would return to the pagan customs their ancestors enjoyed. Dress-up games and role reversals surprisingly became part of medieval Christmas celebrations. Some of them were holdovers from earlier pagan Winter Solstice customs.
Italian diplomat and historian Liutprand of Cremona was sent to Constantinople in the mid-10th century. While there, he spent Christmas at the palace of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. He wrote that the emperor and his guests reclined on couches to eat in the old Roman style. The Christmas celebrations were lavish. Cremona recalled how “everything is served in vessels, not of silver, but of gold”.
It involved a lot of culinary theatrics. The Italian diplomat witnessed how “the solid food fruit is brought on in three golden bowls, which are too heavy for men to lift and come in on carriers covered over with purple cloth.” Four or five men would lower the fruit bowls to the guests via holes in the ceiling. Each bowl was attached to “three ropes covered with gilded leather and furnished with golden rings”.
A popular Christmas custom with obvious pagan roots was mumming. Mummers in medieval English villages wore masks and women’s clothing sang festive folk songs, and told jokes door-to-door. Some mummers expected a few coins or small gifts in exchange for their performance. Mumming would evolve into Christmas caroling.
It was also a strange Christmas tradition for royalty to parade through the feasting hall dressed as whole animals and singing special songs. The most common costume was a boar’s head, replaced with a wooden boar’s mask in later periods.
The Feast of Fools, held on January 1 amidst the 12-day party, gave priests, deacons, and other church officials a brief license to act silly. Role reversals were popular. The lowly subdeacons delivered sermons in gibberish, and things sometimes got out of control.
Similarly, young men in Scandinavia would go around in the middle of the night scaring people in the streets or on their farms. They would wear frightening masks “disguised according to the old fashion of the devil.” During the long winter nights, the young yule mummers would try to scare people by pretending to act like ghosts, trolls, or other strange creatures.
The Bean Cake
The Twelfth Night or Twelfthtide was a holiday all its own in the Middle Ages, the culmination of 12 days of merrymaking and mischief. The centerpiece was the bean cake, a fruit-filled cake with a hidden dry bean.
One would slice the cake and whoever got the bean in their slice would be the “king” for the night. They ordered people to do silly things they had to obey. Another term for the king was the “Lord of Misrule.” He could upend social hierarchies and demand embarrassing tasks from authority figures like parents, schoolmasters, and lords.
Twelfth Night was the climax of the nearly two weeks of feasting, drinking, dressing up, and rule-breaking that characterized medieval Christmas.
Predictions for the future
Christmas Day is very close to the New Year, so the festive days include attempts to see the future, believing that the new year will bring all that we hope. The 12 days of Christmas also hold special significance for the medieval pseudo-science of prognostication.
Byzantine priests used to read texts called “prognostics” that explained the Bible-centered practice of interpreting signs from nature such as storms, strong winds, and rainbows to predict the weather for the coming year and also foretell important events. The idea is that God sends signs to the ones who can read them.
For instance, if it was sunny and clear on Christmas Day, that was a sign that the spring would be warm and mild, leading to successful crops and good overall health. At the same time, strong winds on Christmas Day signaled a bad year for the rich and powerful.
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