Hypnogoria: THE OLDTIME YULETIDE ADVENT CALENDAR

Welcome dear friends back to the Hypnogoria Old-time Yuletide Advent Calendar! It’s time to open Door 18 and let fly in R for Robin!

Despite being a frequent visitor to our gardens all the year round, this little bird is inextricably entwined with the Christmas season. But why? Well, there is much folklore surrounding the robin. For example, it has long been considered to be very bad luck indeed to injure or kill a robin. However there are also many legends as to why the robin has a red breast, and one of these does tie into the robin’s connection to Christmas.

According to this tale, after Jesus was born, the night grew bitterly cold, and the small fire in the draughty Bethlehem stable began to dwindle. Joseph ventured out to find more wood but while he was away gathering winter fuel, the fire started to go out. However, just as the flames started to die, a group of little brown birds flew into the stable and began circling the fire and fanned the flames once more, and the fire roared back to life. These compassionate little fellows were of course robins and to commemorate their kindness from that day onward they have sported bright red breasts.

However, scholars who have studied the development of Christmas customs believe the robin's link with the festive season comes from far more recent events. David Lack, author of The Life of the Robin (1972) traces our present day association of robins with Christmas from a modern Yuletide custom - the sending of Christmas cards.

Now the early Christmas cards weren't exactly like the ones we know today - for example, early designs had spring flowers rather than winter scenes. And furthermore, cards were just part of a range of Christmas themed stationery that flourished in what would become the golden age of the postal service. Hence while folks on modest incomes would send the usual cards we have, the more well off folks had envelopes, calling cards and paper for letter writing with illustrated headers. And a common feature of the matching designs on these festive stationery items was a robin, often with a letter in its beak.

And the reason for this was that postmen in the UK at the time wore a bright red tunic, earning them the nicknames Robins or Redbreasts. Naturally, with the whimsy typical of greetings card art, soon robins were regularly being depicted as postmen on various cards. And indeed robins were popular not just on Christmas cards but also the early Valentine's Day cards and New Year’s cards too. However as each special day developed its own distinct iconography, the robin redbreast was left to rule the Christmas cards, and there they have remained and thrived ever since.

Interestingly, much like other famous icons of Christmas such holly and ivy, old Norse traditions hold that robins give protection against storms and lightning. Furthermore, the folklore around the robin continues to evolve in the modern day. For in the twentieth century, a new folk saying emerged, and one that has gained huge popularity - “When robins appear, loved ones are near” which reflects a belief that when a robin is nearby the spirits of our dear departed and with them too. Now, I cannot speak to the truth of this, but at Christmas when our thoughts often turn to those who we can no longer share the Yuletide with, it is nice to think that they are near when we are visited by one of these bright and colourful, friendly little birds.