Christmas Trivia..

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Caroling

In the Middle Ages in England and France, carols were dances accompanied by singing. In the French Midi, for example, the "carol" was a kind of round dance. We get the word "carol" from the French word "Caroler", which translated into the meaning "dance in a ring". In time, the word "carol" changed its meaning, referring only to certain kinds of songs. The Anglo-Saxon tradition favored gathering together small choirs on the village green to sing carols and Christmas songs for the pleasure of passers-by.
History shows us that there has been recorded Christmas music as far back as the 4th Century. Medieval music was the first to be enjoyed and was eventually followed by music in the Gregorian style. Italy and the Renaissance brought forth a more festive and joyous quality of song.


During the mid-19th century, there was an upsurge of music from the Scandinavian countries. During the latter part of this century, many more carols were written. As the 20th century progressed, so did the music. Each new decade and style of music brought new carols, however, the classics of the past remain.

In 1818, the most famous of Christmas Carols was written, "Stille Nacht" or "Silent Night" was written and composed by an Austrian priest, and his church organist.



Fruitcakes

This ancient cake has a history which is as full of lore and rumor, as it is actual fact. It seems to have been designed to be kept over a period of time and is quite a heavy cake because of its rich ingredients.
In general, fruitcakes can include any and all of the following: candied fruit, dried fruit, fruit rind, nuts, and spices. After being slowly baked, the finished fruitcake is wrapped in cheesecloth which may soaked in brandy, bourbon, whiskey, rum or other liquor. It is then wrapped in foil and put aside to age properly.

Fruitcakes are one of the oldest surviving traditional holiday pleasures. Although in modern times we associate fruitcake with Christmas, it has been used in ceremonial celebrations of all kinds throughout Europe, including religious holidays, harvest celebrations, birthdays and weddings since the 1700's.



Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer

To most of us, the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, immortalized in song and a popular TV special, has always been an essential part of our Christmas folklore. But Rudolph is a decidedly twentieth-century invention whose creation can be traced to a specific time and person.

Rudolph came to life in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company asked one of their copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story they could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. The Montgomery Ward stores had been been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year, and May's department head saw creating a giveaway booklet of their own as a way to save money. May, who had a penchant for writing children's stories and limericks, was asked to create the booklet.

May, drawing in part on the tale of The Ugly Duckling and his own background settled on the idea of an underdog ostracized by the reindeer community because of his physical abnormality: a glowing red nose. Looking for an catchy name, May considered and rejected Rollo as too cheerful and carefree a name for the story of a misfit, and Reginald as too British, before deciding on Rudolph. He then proceeded to write Rudolph's story in verse, as a series of rhyming couplets, testing it out on his 4-year-old daughter Barbara as he went along. Although Barbara was thrilled with Rudolph's story, May's boss was worried that a story featuring a red nose, an image commonly associated with drinking, was unsuitable for a family Christmas tale. May responded by taking Denver Gillen, a friend from Montgomery Ward's art department, to the Lincoln Park Zoo to sketch some deer. Gillen's illustrations of a red-nosed reindeer overcame the hesitancy of May's bosses, and the Rudolph story was approved. Montgomery Ward distributed 2.4 million copies of the Rudolph booklet in 1939, and although wartime paper shortages curtailed printing for the next several years, a total of 6 million copies had been given to customers by the end of 1946.

The post-war demand for licensing the Rudolph character was tremendous, but since May had created the story as an employee of Montgomery Ward, they held the copyright and he received no royalties. Deeply in debt from the medical bills resulting from his wife's terminal illness (she died about the time May created Rudolph), May was finally able to persuade Montgomery Ward's corporate president, Sewell Avery, to turn the copyright over to him in January 1947. With the rights to his creation in hand, May's financial security was assured. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was printed commercially in 1947 and shown in theaters as a nine-minute cartoon the following year.

The Rudolph phenomenon really took off, however, when May's brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, developed the lyrics and melody for a Rudolph song. Marks' musical version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" sold two million copies that year, and went on to become one of the best-selling songs of all time, second only to Bing Crosby's "White Christmas". A TV special about Rudolph narrated by Burl Ives was produced in 1964 and remains a popular holiday favorite.



Candy Canes

Have you ever wondered how it came to be that we enjoy candy canes each Christmas season? Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Nativity ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds’ crooks. The symbol of the shepherd's crook is an ancient one, representing the humble shepherds who were first to worship the newborn Christ.

Candy canes have come to be regarded as much an ornament as it is a confection to be eaten. They appear in stockings, on tabletops as part of an ornamental display, and frequently attached to gift packages. And of course, what would a Christmas stocking be without candy canes?



Probably more than you really wanted to know but what the heck it's Christmas.

Stay tuned for more.......

[prariepoodle]

Very Interesting!

[Bill and Ann]

Way too much time, Glenn