We might assume that our modern Christmas owes much to the Victorians. In fact, as historians Alison Weir and Siobhan Clarke reveal, many of our favourite Christmas traditions date back much further.
Carol-singing, present-giving, mulled wine and mince pies were all just as popular in Tudor times, and even Father Christmas and roast turkey dinners have their origins in this period. The Tudor Christmas was a time of feasting, revelry and merrymaking, a twelve-day-long festival, over which the Lord of Misrule held sway, and convention was thrown to the wind.
The festival was so beloved by English people that Christmas traditions survived remarkably unchanged in this age of tumultuous religious upheaval. This evening will fascinate anyone with an interest in Tudor life - and anyone who loves Christmas.
When | Thursday 28 November, 7pm
Where | Nave
Tickets | £16 available from Eventbrite.
Speakers | Alison Weir and Siobhan Clarke
Alison Weir is a bestselling historical novelist of Tudor fiction, and the leading female historian in the United Kingdom. She has published more than thirty books, including many leading works of non-fiction, and has sold over three million copies worldwide. Her novels include the Tudor Rose trilogy, which spans three generations of history’s most iconic family – the Tudors, and the highly acclaimed Six Tudor Queens series about the wives of Henry VIII, all of which were Sunday Times bestsellers. Alison is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an honorary life patron of Historic Royal Palaces.
Siobhan Clarke has a BA in modern history and has worked for Historic Royal Palaces for twenty years. She has also delivered lectures for the National Trust and the British Museum. Siobhan has written for BBC History Magazine and All About History and featured on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour and PBS’s Secrets of Henry VIII’s Palace.