Market Drayton, England Gingerbread cookies are one of the holiday season’s great culinary traditions. Gingerbread was probably introduced to Europe as early as the 17th century, but did not become popularized in Christmas cookie form until much later. The earliest recorded major producer of gingerbread was a bakery in the west England town of Market Drayton, which was … [Read more...]
CHARLES DICKENS SITES
London, England & New York City, New York With the exception of the Nativity and Santa Claus, there is no holiday phenomenon bigger than Charles Dicken’s immortal classic, A Christmas Carol. If The Nutcracker is Christmas’ musical cornerstone, than A Christmas Carol is its literary counterpart. Aside from being one of the great masterpieces of the 19th century, Dickens … [Read more...]
GEORGE HANDEL SITES
London, England Christmas songs come in many forms, from traditional carols to modern pop music. But there is only one true masterpiece of the classical era that is dedicated exclusively to the life of Christ: George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. This masterpiece, the greatest choral work of the baroque period, has been a staple of both the Christmas and Easter seasons ever … [Read more...]
QUEEN’S COLLEGE AT OXFORD
Oxford, England The term ‘carol’ was originally a derivation of a French word referring to a dance. Sometime around the 15th century, it was in regular use in English as a reference to religious songs. While the word ‘carol’ now generally refers to any sacred Christmas hymn, true carols were a body of work created in England between the 15th and 17th centuries. A large … [Read more...]
COVENTRY MYSTERY PLAY
Coventry, England Mystery Plays were one of the major cultural developments of Europe in the Middle Ages, and one of the only forms of theater permitted by the Roman Catholic Church. Probably originating some time in the 13th or 14th centuries, Mystery Plays generally involved theatrical depictions of major Biblical events from both the Old and New Testaments. A related … [Read more...]
CHRISTMAS MARKETS OF CENTRAL ENGLAND
Lincoln, Manchester, Birmingham & Leeds, England The tradition of Christmas Markets in the British Isles seems to have migrated over from Germany as early as the 16th century. Unfortunately, due to the somewhat overzealous efforts of certain religious factions in the 1600s, England’s holiday markets experienced a long hiatus that would continue more or less into the … [Read more...]
MUMMERS FESTIVAL
New Inn, Ireland Mumming is now an all-but-forgotten art form, pushed aside by more modern forms of entertainment. However, it was once all the rage in Europe, particularly in the British Isles. Here and there, a handful of small towns still cling to this medieval tradition of live performances, most famously in the village of New Inn, Ireland. Every year during the … [Read more...]
BRITISH LIBRARY & THE BALFOUR DECLARATION
London, England In 1917, at the height of World War I, the worldwide Zionist movement picked up momentum when the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James Balfour, issued one of the most controversial documents of the 20th century: the Balfour Declaration. Actually composed by Alfred Milner, a member of the British war cabinet, the Balfour Declaration formally acknowledged … [Read more...]
CLIFFORD’S TOWER
York, England The history of the Jews in England in the Middle Ages was a short and tumultuous one. Arriving with the Normans in 1066 AD, they were expelled barely two centuries later. Despite the relatively tolerant climate the Jews of England enjoyed during this brief period, one of the most infamous pogroms in Western European history took place in the city of York. … [Read more...]
BRITISH LIBRARY
London, England The British Library in London is one of the world’s largest repositories of books and knowledge. It is not surprising to find, therefore, that its absolutely immense collection includes a number of extremely rare and priceless Christian writings; and among these may be the rarest and most priceless of all: the Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete copy of … [Read more...]
