Christmas in Sawtry in Medieval Times Part One The Peasant Christmas Christmas was one of the highlights of the medieval calendar, not only for the rich but also for the peasantry. The name Christmas, as I am sure is well known, was derived from the term “Christ Masses” and Christmas in medieval England was not only a time to truly observe the religious significance of Christ’s birth but it was also a time to give thanks, a coming together of families to observe that event and a celebration of hearth and home. For the ordinary peasant it was a respite from the agricultural toil of providing food for the masters, a time to energise the people in the darkest time of winter by having this huge feast and celebration to look forward to. For the longest holiday of the year, typically the full twelve days of Christmas, people stopped work, homes were decorated and a Yule Log burned in the hearth. Gifts were exchanged, colourful church services enjoyed and merry feasts were eaten by all where there was better food and more of it than at any other time in the year. But how would the ordinary villagers of Sawtry have celebrated Christmas in medieval times. Well of course the Church would have been the centre of the religious celebrations as it was always the centre of the community. A peasant’s Christmas was obviously rather less grand than that enjoyed in the local manor (or castle) and, for them, the season did not start well. Serfs, already subjected to all manner of odd fees and taxes over the year, were expected to give a ‘gift’ to their lord at Christmas of extra bread, eggs and perhaps even a valuable rooster or a couple of hens. In contrast, free labourers on the estate, especially the more important ones such as the estate’s shepherd, swineherd and oxherd, received presents from the lord, typically a bonus of food, drink, clothes and firewood. It is a tradition which continued into later centuries when household servants received a box of gifts on the 26th of December, hence the name of that day in Britain, Boxing Day. In earlier times these gifts were not in boxes but pennies in a clay pot which they would have to break open. These clay pots were known as “Piggies” due to their shape and the colour of the clay, which is where our “Piggy Banks” came from. Peasants would have decorated their homes much as aristocrats did, with greenery wreaths & garlands such as holly being readily available for those who searched for it. Villagers in Sawtry, as in the surrounding villages, would have attended Church many times during the Christmas season. Churches were decorated with candles, ivy, bay, winter foilage and hedgerow berries. Christmas was the longest holiday of the year by far and lasted from the night of Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, to the Twelfth Day, Epiphany, on the 6th of January. Mid-winter was a time of year which saw a lull in agricultural activity and consequently many peasants were permitted by their lord to have the entire two weeks off. The season also involved gift- giving and decorating the home with garlands & wreaths. Mistletoe, a naturally occurring parasitic foliage that grows on other trees, was deemed to be lucky and it would be gathered and made into wreaths that were hung over doorways and walkways where if, couples met, they were permitted to kiss as young women were usually chaperoned prior to marriage. There were plenty of songs, dancing, pantomimes and games, too. For many, just as today, it was the best of times. As with Christmas Eve , when the birth of Christ was marked, Twelfth night on the 6th January was also particularly important, as it marked Epiphany, the flight to Egypt by Mary and Joseph and the escape of baby Jesus from King Herod. This was often depicted in pantomimes and plays, which were the traditional beginnings to our school nativity plays. It was also the end of the Religious holiday when the celebrations would be over and everything would go back to normal so there would be another big feast on twelfth night to mark the official end of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Our modern tradition of taking our Christmas tree down on the 6th of January is based on this and an old superstition said it was unlucky to take the tree down before Twelfth Night. The Yule Log was also another important tradition. Originally it was believed to have pagan origins, but it also had a practical side. The peasant men of the family would go out into the woods and find the right size of log, which was lit on Christmas Eve in homes of all kinds and kept burning throughout the twelve days of Christmas. It meant there was enough fuel to roast the food over the fire, provide warmth for the full time of the holiday, and there was no collecting firewood for two weeks. We now have chocolate Yule Logs to commemorate that tradition at our Christmas celebrations although I don’t think they would last two weeks! For the special meals of the holiday peasants ate what was a rare delicacy for them, meat and they treated themselves to cheese and eggs, ate cakes and drank ale. Of the latter there were certainly lots, the brew was usually made by peasant women. Mince pies were a popular Christmas food although they weren’t like the mince pies we have today. These were made with real minced meat, hence the name, more of a meat pie with spices and fruits probably picked from the hedgerows. The more modern mince pies were made with a sweeter dried fruit mixture with beef suet in them to depict the historical savoury beef element however, nowadays, as many people are now vegetarians, the suet is often omitted from the recipe, although many people still make the traditional homemade mincemeat with beef suet. The Christmas pudding is another part of the Christmas fare that we still have in modern times. Known also as a “Figgy Pudding”, a tradition in families at Christmas was that everyone had a stir of the batter for good luck, when the Christmas pudding was being made, With the Christmas celebrations over, the first Monday back to work in the fields for the peasants after Epiphany was known as Plough Monday and there was a tradition amongst the children where they would go “Plough Witching”, this was associated more with banishing the evil spirits from the fields before setting their seeds in the spring to have a bountiful harvest in the coming year. It involved going round with an effigy like a scarecrow something akin to our Penny for the Guy at Bonfire Night that kids would do many years ago. This practice stopped during Cromwell’s time and the Parliamentary period because anything associated with witches was deemed as evil. However after the Reformation, children in Sawtry seemed to have started the practice up again especially in the 1940’s as I have been told by old Sawtry residents that they used to go plough witching as children. When the Twelve Days of Christmas came to an end, when the candles had burnt down, the Yule Log was ashes in the grate, the greenery taken down, the food was eaten and the family were fuelled up from the feasts, when they were energised to work again, in the fields, looking after the livestock, baking bread, in the dairy, or in the herb gardens, life in medieval Sawtry would go back to normal, back to the back breaking grind of toiling in the fields, of the servitude to their feudal vassals, barons and overlords until the next of the religious holidays that were so important to them, would give them another respite from their daily grind. References The Ancient History Encyclopedia website The Medievalists website Medieval Chronicles.com The Museum of London website British History Online The Victoria County History of Huntingdonshire Part Two of these Christmas Articles is on The Manorial Christmas .