Historical Vandals

Hi, this is my history blog. I set it up because I love history and want to share it with others. It's mainly English history, medieval to pretty recent, although I'm not containing it to anything so be prepared for all sorts. Also, feel free to ask me anything you like, share an opinion, ask about a fact or give me suggestions about what else you'd like to see =)

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Queen’s Christmas Message 1992 - The year of her Annus Horribilis

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The Christmas Message 1957 

This was the first televised Christmas Message and as such is particularly interesting. 

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The Impact of A Christmas Carol 

A Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens and released in December 1843. It reflects his personal views about giving charity to the poor and his troubled childhood. The story has had a massive impact on Christmas, particularly in Britain. The celebrations of Christmas had dwindled over the years and by the Victorian period, many traditions had been lost. An interest in old traditions, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and new traditions such as the Christmas tree and cards, all led to making Christmas important again, as well as shaping many traditions we follow today.Christmas had previously been more focused on more solemn aspects related to the Church. It is thought that many modern traditions come from A Christmas Carol, such as family gatherings, Christmas food and drink and the idea of a festive spirit. Language too, has been affected by the novella, with Merry Christmas being popularised as well as Scrooge and Bah Humbug becoming part of the vernacular. 

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Christmas Deaths

Charlie Chaplin, the famous silent movie star whose first movie was released in 1914, died on 25th December 1977, aged 88. 

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Christmas Day 800

On Christmas Day in the year 800, Carlemagne was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor, becoming the first person to be given the title. 

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A Brief History of Christmas Trees

The Christmas tree has a long history. It can be seen to originate from pre-Christian times, when trees were often worshipped. These customs survived in some areas like Scandinavia, where the tree continued to be used to decorate the house at New Year. 

The modern Christmas tree can be seen to have come from the Renaissance period in Germany, where trees were used in the Christmas period. The first recorded use of a tree for Christmas was in Latvia and Estonia, which at the time were combined as Livonia, in guild halls in 1441. This trend was repeated in 1442, 1510 and 1514. These trees were small and decorated with nuts, berries, paper flowers and apples. This then slowly spread to the upper class Protestant homes, becoming more popular by the 18th Century. The tradition did not begin to spread until the 19th Century, with expensive wax candles being placed on the trees. It was during this time that it was spread across the nobility of Europe, and even reached Russia.

In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced by George III’s wife, Queen Caroline. However it did not become popular beyond the royal family until later. Queen Victoria grew up with a Christmas tree in her home, which the presents were placed under. The idea that Prince Albert introduced the Christmas tree to Britain is therefore not true, however they did become more popular around the time he married Queen Victoria and he was a big fan of the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree has since evolved to include plastic trees, with baubles, bows and chocolates, with the safer fairy lights instead of candles. 

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The History of Turkey at Christmas

Christmas dinner varies from country to country, dependent on culture and tradition and has evolved over years. In Britain the traditional main food is turkey, or some other kind of poultry such as chicken or capon. In medieval England, the main course was boar or peacock. Turkey was not brought to England until the 1520’s, where it immediately became popular with the upper classes, due to its size, taste and the amount of meat on the bird. Other large birds such as swans were seen as attractive centerpieces to a meal, but were not considered the tastiest meat. Eating turkey at Christmas did not become widespread in the country immediately, because of the high price of the bird. Due to this issue, goose was preferred until the Victorian era, with the price not making turkey available as a widespread Christmas meat until the 1950’s. However turkey was long associated as a part of the Christmas feast for the upper classes. 

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Christmas Births 

Sir Issac Newton, famous scientist and mathematician, was born on, what was at the time, Christmas Day 1642.  

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A Brief History of Christmas Carols

The first Christmas related hymns were sang in fourth century Rome and in Latin. The carol as it is recognised today, was first introduced around the 12th Century and became popularised in the 13th, with the words of ‘O come all ye faithful’, possibly originating at this time. The music from carols often dates to the medieval period, or are later based upon medieval music. An example of this is The Holly and The Ivy, which comes from a medieval composition. Christmas carols in the English language are first recorded in 1426, in a list of 25 carols that would be sang by ‘wassaliers’, who would travel from house to house. Carols were sang by people in gatherings at this time, only later were they sang in church. The Reformation helped to spread the popularity of carols, as music was widely encouraged in Protestantism. The picture above shows a popular Latin carol of that time. Many of today’s widely recognised Christmas carols originate in the 19th Century, with Good King Wenceslas, I Saw Three Ships, The First Noel and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing all coming from this time. 

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Royal Christmas Message

The Royal Christmas Message, which depending on the monarch is either called the Kings Christmas Message or the Queens Christmas Message, is a tradition started by George V in 1932. The head of the BBC suggested the idea, to help launch the World Service on the radio, and George V eventually agreed. The first message was heard by around 20 million people across the Commonwealth. George VI carried on the tradition and his daughter, Elizabeth II continues it today. Elizabeth II gave the first televised message in 1957. 

The message generally follows a theme and talks about events that have happened in that year, with regards to the Commonwealth, and discusses the monarch’s own personal feelings for the year. There have been several times when the tradition has not gone ahead. One example was due to Edward VIII’s abdication just weeks before Christmas and another was in 1969, when the Queen delivered a written message instead. The message is pre-recorded a couple of days before Christmas and is now aired in the UK at 3 pm on Christmas Day. 

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Christmas under Cromwell

After the Reformation, certain Protestant groups, such as Puritans, began to see Christmas is a negative way. It was associated with Catholicism and also with drunkenness and promiscuity. After the Parliamentary forces won the Civil War, Christmas was banned in 1647. People were banned from attended any kind of religious services on Christmas Day and all shops were forced to stay open. There were many protests and riots about this across the country. Canterbury was held by rioters for weeks, who decorated places with holly and sang royalist carols. Many people secretly celebrated Christmas despite the laws and were arrested for these attempts.

Charles II ended the ban when he was restored the throne in 1660 and celebrated the return of Christmas in style, with all old traditions being brought back. This in turn, was viewed with disgust by many Puritans. 

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A History of Mistletoe 

Mistletoe has been used historically in many ways, with the Celtic Druids considering it a sacred plant. Kissing under the mistletoe was first associated with the winter festival of Saturnalia. It was thought that mistletoe had the power to give fertility and long life to people. By the eighteenth century in England, it was said that a young lady under mistletoe cannot refuse a kiss and that kiss could lead to love or long lasting friendship, but if no one kissed the girl, it was thought she would not marry in the following year. Some people then burned the mistletoe after twelfth night, believing that if left, all the people who had kissed under it would never marry. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe still happens today, although less significance is attached to the idea.  

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The Date of Christmas Day 

Christmas is now celebrated on the 25th December each year. However this was not always the case. The decision for Christmas celebrations to happen on the 25th December, is something that has happened over time. The actual birth date of Jesus is not referenced in the Bible, although from very early on, it was guessed to be in December some time. 

The first recorded time the birth of Jesus was celebrated on 25th December was in 336 AD in Rome, under the Roman Emperor Constantine. In the East, there had long been a tradition of celebrating this on the 6th of January, but soon the 25th December spread as the prevailing tradition. It has been suggested that the 25th was chosen as it was when several sun festivals occurred in Rome, including the Roman winter solstice. The connection of Jesus to the sun comes about because Jesus is referred to as the ‘Sun of righteousness’ in Malachi 4:2. As the date was the same as previous celebrations, it would have helped to encourage more people to celebrate and over time, become more involved in Christianity. Winter was also a time when less work would have been needed to be done in agriculture and so it would have enabled people to celebrate the occasion more easily.  

Modern Christmas traditions also come from the other December celebrations, as the occasions were tied together over time, due to similarity of dates. For example, the idea of giving gifts on Christmas is taken from the Roman festival of Saturnalia and lights and charitable acts from the Roman New Year. Yule logs and festive foods were taken from German traditions. 

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The History of NORAD Tracks Santa

NORAD Tracks Santa is an annual program that was started in 1955, as a Christmas entertainment program. Every year they ‘track’ Santa on his journey across the world as he delivers presents.

In 1955 the program started due to an error. A Sears department store in Colorado Springs placed an advert in a newspaper with a telephone number for children to contact Santa. The number placed with the advert was wrong and the calls went through to Colorado Springs’ Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center. The Colonel of the centre instructed his staff to give children the location of Santa in the night sky. The tradition was continued, with CONAD eventually becoming NORAD. 

Today NORAD relies on a volunteer system and handles both phone calls and emails. There are also Facebook and Twitter pages, both followed by thousands of people. 

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A Brief History of Santa

Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas or more traditionally Saint Nicholas, is a character with many different origins, stories and traditions around the world. There are many historical and legendary figures that the modern day Santa is based on. He can be seen as largely a mix of Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas and Father Christmas. The name Santa Claus for example, is an Americanised version of the Dutch Sinterklaas. 

Possibly the earliest of these figures is Saint Nicholas of Myra, who was a 4th Century bishop who was generous with gifts and money, including giving dowries to three woman who otherwise would have had to become prostitutes. Another possible influence on the idea of Santa is the Norse God, Odin. Odin apparently rode through the sky on an eight legged horse and some children left food for the horse out near their chimneys, which Odin would apparently take and replace with sweets for their kindness. The Dutch Sinterklaas is another popular figure, who has a list of good and naughty children and rewards the good children with presents, with his helpers, the Black Peter. Sinterklass is described as riding a horse over rooftops, dropping presents into the chimneys of the well behaved, while the helpers carry sticks and sacks, to catch the naughty children with. The British tradition of Father Christmas dates back to the 15th Century but became popular only in the 17th Century. Father Christmas is shown as a bearded man who wore a green, fur lined robe. He was associated with drinking and adult feasts initially, until the various Santa’s merged, and Santa Claus and Father Christmas became synonyms in Britain. 

In the 1800’s, the Santa figure began to evolve into the figure we are familiar with today. He became drawn as a chubbier man who lived at the North Pole, an idea which was popularised by the famous cartoonist Thomas Nast. It is suggested that Nast began to make the idea of a red suited Santa popular in the late 1800’s, although he had appeared in red before this in many depictions. It was the Coca-Cola advertising campaigns in the 1930’s and on that made the image the commercialised success that it is today. 

Children today can write letters to Santa that are replied to by volunteers working for the postal services of many countries. Santa can also be ‘tracked’ online, through various websites that show Santa’s progress around the world on Christmas Eve. Other than these technical advances, over the last 200 years, Santa has gained a wife, reindeer and a team of elves who help in his job of delivering presents.

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The Christmas Truce of 1914

In the week before Christmas 1914, the attitude in the trenches was very different to the usual trench misery that is usually associated with the Western Front. There was a series of unofficial ceasefires and occasions of soldiers singing carols across to each other. By Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, soldiers were crossing No Man’s Land to exchange small gifts and food with one another. They also became friendly enough to play football matches with each other. In all, about 100,000 British and German soldiers took part in these unsanctioned truces. 

The truce did not take place everywhere on the Front, with some sections still fighting on Christmas Day and others only agreeing to stop fighting to recover the dead, but they were relatively widespread. Some truces lasted until New Years Day, whilst others merely lasted through Christmas night. When the high command of both sides heard about the truces, they prohibited such fraternisation in future. Despite this, some truces took place in 1915, however not nearly as many. There is evidence that the soldiers were unhappy with this ban on truces and many tried to disobey and start football matches and gift swapping once more, but most were ordered back on threat of punishment. There is a record that the German soldiers continued to try and start truces, as the British soldiers were being forced to continue fighting. Adolf Hitler, fighting at this time, was apparently opposed to the truces. With the escalation of violence at the Somme and the use of poison gas in 1916, meant that the truces were mostly over by this Christmas. 

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A Brief History of the Christmas Cracker

Christmas Crackers were invented in 1847 by Thomas J Smith. He had produced sweets that were wrapped in paper with twists at either end, in the traditional sweetie style. Thomas wanted to make his sweets more interesting, by adding small love messages. To further increase the sales of his sweets, he came up with the idea of adding a bang to the sweet wrapper. From here the idea developed into the cracker we would recognise today, containing small toys and paper hats instead of sweets. By the end of the century, many other companies were developing their own and the cracker becoming widespread.