In these hectic pre Christmas days it is good to think back to simpler less complicated times. Admittedly past eras had complications of their own, I'm sure, but the commercialisation of our lives would have been a total unknown.
A visit to the Weald and Downland Living museum last month gave an insight to how past lives would have been lived. Where basic needs such as warmth and food were paramount. Raising crops, looking after livestock and manually working from dawn until dusk were the driving forces for everyday folk.
Celebrations during December were all about enlivening the dark days of the Winter Solstice. They celebrated with fire , light and jollity. Such basic concepts are still at the heart of our Christmas celebrations and probably the ones we still enjoy the most today.
In the evenings people would have sat around the open fire, telling stories and keeping warm.
Christmas decorations would have been greenery brought in to scent the home. Usually holly, ivy and evergreen herbs such as bay and rosemary.
A kissing bough would be hung from the rafters, consisting of twigs and greenery and decorated with seasonal fruits such as apples.
In medieval times the yule log was brought into the house on Christmas Eve. It was lit and burnt for the twelve days of Christmas so it would have needed to be a massive piece of wood.
Over the last fifty or more years a variety of dwellings have been re-sited to this fantastic museum. They have come from the earliest times to the Victorian period. Workers cottages sit beside shops and mills, carpentry sheds and churches. All to be explored. On our visit the sun was shafting through the remaining autumn leaves on a glorious November day.
Barbara xxx
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