“What are we to do with ourselves today?” Lizzy asked at one point. “Have you made any specific plans?” Darcy put the newspaper down and gave his full attention to his wife. “Nothing specific,” he replied. “We could always stay here all day.” He gave his wife a naughty leer....
Continuing the quest to cover the alphabet! That may prove impossible due to the vast number of words in the English language, but I can try to find a few fascinating examples. For a list of all my archived posts covering the topic: VOCABULARY Ketchup The Chinese invented ke-tsiap in...
I doubt any of these words associated with the Christmas season are unfamiliar, but often the meanings and origins of even the most common words can be fascinating and surprising. At least to me, an avowed vocabulary nut! Read on for Christmas fun facts and knowledge (Additional fuel to dazzle...
What Child is This? was written by William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898), the manager of an insurance company in Glasgow. In 1865, when only 29 years of age, Dix was struck with a near fatal illness and consequently suffered months confined to his bed. During this time, he read the Bible comprehensively and...
In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit entered — flushed, but smiling proudly — with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with Christmas holly stuck into the top. – Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol All of us, I presume,...
According to Clement Clark Moore, sugar-plums are so special that of all the possible delights a child might dream of, they top the list. The children were nestled all snug in their beds,While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads… So what exactly are these “sugar-plums” dancing in dreamland? At...
As my readers already know, the first three novels in The Darcy Saga series moved very slowly in time, covering the first year of Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy ended as the winter of 1816 turned into 1817 with spring budding on the horizon and Lizzy...
Decorating with Evergreen— Placing boughs of evergreens into the house is a practice dating to ancient times and present in numerous cultures for various reasons signifying life, prosperity, good luck, and so on. Church records dating to the 7th century tie evergreen boughs and trees to religious symbolism. Martin Luther...
Charles Wesley (1707-1788), younger brother of Methodist preacher John Wesley, is the author of this famous Christmas carol. Charles was a hymn writer and a poet, also known as one of the people who began the Methodist movement in the Church of England. Hark the Herald Angels Sing was composed specifically...
Santa Claus, tinsel on trees, Frosty the Snowman, reindeer pulling a sleigh… These are a few of the current Christmas images we are familiar with in the US. What about yule logs, a boar’s head, community wassail bowls, a king of misrule, mince meat pies, and figgy pudding? Rarely are...
The general opinion is that wassailing is all about the apples and/or an ancient pagan ritual. Neither is true, but the origins are interesting nevertheless. Earliest traces are to a simple Anglo-Saxon/Old Norse toast — Waes Hael! — which translates to “be hale!” To this wish for good health, a fellow drinker...
A Visit from St. Nicholas, more commonly know today as ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas, by Clement Clarke Moore was written in 1822 and published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823. He would not claim to be the author until 1844 and there has been...
A Regency Era Christmas centered on food and dining with family, much as it does today. For the dinner entrée, the cook would include goose, pheasant, venison, or a beef haunch. Turkeys and other foul might be served, but not as the main meat focal point. If fortunate they would...
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night” ~Luke 2:8 Unlike most Christmas carols, the origins of Silent Night are rooted in well-established facts AND steeped in dramatized legend. The Facts: Father Joseph Mohr (1792-1848), a young priest in the parish church at...
Food historians tell us the practice of serving large, stuffed fowl for Christmas is like many other Christian holiday food traditions in that the idea was borrowed from earlier cultural traditions. Peacocks, swans, geese, duck, pheasant, guinea fowl, and turkeys have topped the list for centuries. The larger the bird,...
