Hypnogoria: THE OLDTIME YULETIDE ADVENT CALENDAR

Welcome dear friends back to the Hypnogoria Old-time Yuletide Advent Calendar! Today we are opening Door No.2 and discover what B is for in our festive A to Z! Now there are a fair few candidates for this letter - bells, Bethlehem, Boxing Day or even Bah! Humbug!

More in keeping with our theme of old time traditions and lore is the Boar’s Head Carol which dates back at least as far of the 15th century and celebrates what was once the centrepiece of many a Christmas feast! However I have picked a different B, although one which was to quote the aforementioned old carol was also “bedeck'd with bays and rosemary” and indeed “a gay garland”.

For our B shall be for Bough. In particular the now almost forgotten Christmas decoration that was known as the Christmas Bough, the Kissing Bough or sometimes the Kissing Bunch.

Now we all know how in Victorian times, the German custom of having a Christmas tree was popularised by none other than Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. But the custom of bringing in often large amounts of evergreen leaves and boughs into the home to decorate for Yuletide is a very old one. For example during the Roman midwinter festival of Saturnalia it was customary to send boughs of firs and evergreens as symbols of good wishes for the season.

We also know that many of our more northern European ancestors revered evergreens at this time of year too. Hence when Christmas came along, evergreens were soon part of the celebrations.

However over the years it became customary to have some sort of centrepiece. In some parts of Europe the tip of a fir tree was decorated and hung, point downwards, from the centre of the ceiling, with the triangular shape symbolising the Holy Trinity and radiating good blessings to all beneath. And in some parts of Eastern Europe this upside-side pendant Christmas tree can still be seen!

However in Britain from at least Tudor times, the Yuletide centrepiece was the aforementioned Kissing Bough. Now this wasn’t an actual limb of a tree. Rather it was an elaborate decoration constructed around a huge hoop. In some versions this hoop was woven with evergreen of all varieties - holly and ivy and fir branches, but also bay, box, rosehips, laurels and rosemary, and bedecked with fruits and berries, and often candles too, creating a huge crown or wreath that was hung from the ceiling.

Other Kissing Boughs were even more elaborate, built around two hoops to form a massive sphere which was then decorated with the usual suspects. However there was one evergreen that was most important, and indeed is probably responsible for these decorations having kissing rather than Christmas in their names - mistletoe! However we learn of the legends and lore of this iconic plant behind a later door…

With the advent of Christmas trees, the popularity of these boughs began to wane. However it is thought they have survived in smaller forms. For some historians of the festive season have suggested that the more modern tradition of having a Christmas wreath is a descendant of these large festive evergreen decorations. Plus there are the Advent crowns too, smaller decorations of evergreens and tinsel, which feature four candles, one to be lit every Sunday in Advent, which appears to be a more pious close relation. But the lore of candles and Christmas is a tale for another day and another door!