{"id":88379,"date":"2022-12-16T10:53:11","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T15:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=88379"},"modified":"2024-05-03T11:20:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T15:20:05","slug":"ye-olde-christmas-party-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/ye-olde-christmas-party-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Ye Olde Christmas Party, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her story about a 1908 Christmas party in Boston that echoed the merriment of Old England. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I continue my story about the \u201cYe Olde English Christmasse\u201d celebration that happened in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1908. Residents of the New England area, all members of the Field and Forest Club (including some Mayflower<\/em> scions) gathered to recreate the ancient rituals of an old English Christmas. It was a night of pure folly and dalliance for the 200 attendees.<\/p>\n

To recap: Part 1<\/a> covered the Lord of Misrule and the ceremony with the Yule Log. I found some photos of similar celebrations from Christmases past to show more of the spirit of the event. Also check out this video from Forgotten History: A Very Merry Tudor Christmas! | What Was Tudor Christmas Like?<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Photos:<\/a>
Photos: Cleveland Boar\u2019s Head and Yule Log Festival collage: photos of the Procession of the Beefeaters, Three Wise Men with Live Farm Stock, Mince Meat Pie, Damsels and Pages, and Plenty of Tankards! Courtesy of Trinity Cathedral, Cleveland, Ohio, and The Boar\u2019s Head and Yule Log Festival.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Boston Herald<\/em> covered the 1908 celebration.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Boston Herald (Boston, Massachusetts), 3 January 1909, page 5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here are more details from this article:<\/p>\n

Grand Masque of St. George.<\/p>\n

After one of the yellow-haired pages had recited a quaint old English ballad, followed the grand masque of St. George and the Terrible Turk. [The old Christmas play of \u201cSaint George and the Dragon\u201d can be read from The Christmas Book<\/a>.] Delightfully enough, St. George had a remarkable facial resemblance to his famous Donatello prototype, and very stern and splendid he seemed with his glinting shield and sword and strong young arms. The Terrible Turk was all right, too, even if his costume did suggest a crazy quilt and a tam-o\u2019-shanter to the irrelevant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: marble sculpture of St. George by Donatello,1415-1417. Credit: Bargello National Museum, Florence, Italy; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But the best joke of all was the dragon. He was positively ferocious. Clatter, clatter, clump he came over the stairs and wriggled in at the open door, head and tail wagging, face one big scarlet-lined yawn, and \u201cover all and through all and in all\u201d a combined groan and roar and yowl that completely spoiled the Turk\u2019s dignity, and even set doughty St. George\u2019s shoulders shaking under his weighty shield. It was young Percy Plunkett who \u201cdragoned\u201d it, and as he emerged later red-faced and breathless from his gray shell he was heard to remark: \u201cGee! I wonder if the real drag[on] had such hard work!\u201d<\/p>\n

But English revelers were always hungry folk, and after a little \u201cSpirit of Christmas\u201d fairy had footed it for a few moments the supper pageant was ushered in. Real Christmas cheer was there \u2013 a huge boar\u2019s head, a \u201cChristmasse\u201d mince pie, plum pudding, and full tankards. First the pages bore it in all its glory before the assembled multitude, then came the actual feasting.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, upstairs in the gallery was a bit of \u201cIvanhoe\u201d \u2013 the baron at his board, around him retainers and noble adventurers, before him a right merry feast. They were brilliant in red coats and high hunting boots, the baron and his guests, and they jested and drank like true knight crusaders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: the Twelfth Night (Boar\u2019s Head) Feast held annually by Henricus Historical State Park. Courtesy of Henricus Historical Park, Chester, Virginia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Folly Dancers of Robin Hood.<\/p>\n

Fitly as a companion piece to this lofty merrymaking came the folly dancers of Robin Hood and his merry men and maids. Scarlett-flowered bodices, caps and overskirts for the girls, brown, leathery doublets and knee breeches for the dwellers in \u201csweet Sherwood,\u201d and a dance as swift and glad and natural as the daily dance of the leaves in that forest \u2013 that was the Robin Hood mumming, for the honor of the most alluringly romantic gentleman that ever lived and laughed in merry England.<\/p>\n

And then came the last finishing touch, perhaps the very best of all the old Christmas customs. From that gallery where only a little while before the baron\u2019s courteous jests had rung out, came now very clearly, and at first very softly, but gathering strength from verse to verse, the strains of the old, old Christmas carols that one learns when one is too small to remember how, and that one doesn\u2019t forget ever. \u201cCarol, brothers, carol, carol joyfully,\u201d came the glad refrain. People all through the room below joined softly in the familiar words, the goodbye to the Christmas that was past, the greeting to the Christmasses yet to be. And thus endeth the oldest and, perhaps, the most Christmas-y Christmas in all Boston.<\/p>\n

Miss L. Gertrude Howes [daughter of Isaiah Howes and Lizzie Frank Gardner, descendant of Stephen Hopkins, William Brewster, and Thomas Prence. She was a teacher at the Mary Hemenway School in Boston] had charge of the entire program for the evening. Others who took part were: Harold W. Martin, St. George; William P. Edwin, the Turk; Percy Plunkett, the dragon; Joseph Rowe, the harper; Robert John and George Gordon Nilsson, pages [sons of Nils Emil Nilsson and Maude Ella White, descendants of William White and Susanna Jackson]; and James Frederick Sayer Jr., the Lord of Misrule [son of James Frederick Sayer and Cordelia Pease, descendant of John Howland and wife Elizabeth Tilley, John Tilley and his wife Joan Hurst. Sayer was the husband of Isabella Randall Blackman].<\/p>\n

Those at the baron\u2019s board included: Robert Johnson, C. C. Littlefield, T. H. Angell, Vernon Field, Edward H. Hagarty, A. F. Newell, George Nilsson.<\/p>\n

Robin Hood and his company were taken by: Harry Adams, Stella Adams, Walter Boss, Lillian Watts, Ruth Gray, and Frank Haines.<\/p>\n

The carolers were: Francis Elijah Morse [son of James Herman Morse and Mary Elizabeth Vane, descendant of Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Prence, William Brewster, and Thomas Rogers]; Henrik Renstram; Miss Alice Lancaster [daughter of Edward Moulton Lancaster and Anna Winslow Stackpole, descendant of Edward Winslow and wife Mary Chilton]; Miss Annie D. Drowne; Dr. Grille; Arthur F. Newell; Miss Lena Freeman; with Miss Louise Drowne as accompanist. Miss Dorothy Blake was the \u201cSpirit of Christmas.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas!!!!<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial. <\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> carrying the Boar\u2019s Head at the Boar\u2019s Head and Yule Log Festival, University Christian Church, Fort Worth, Texas. Courtesy of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Corpus Christi, Texas.<\/p>\n

Related Article:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n