Ghost stories on Christmas?

In August, I found the book "Told After Supper" from 1891 by Jerome K. Jerome in whose introduction he wrote “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories. Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters. It is a genial, festive season, and we love to muse upon graves, and dead bodies, and murders, and blood.”

Photo by Phil Robson via Unsplash

Yes, there was the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, and although it's not a tradition that has really been kept alive, it's still very much being talked about, even in countries where it has never been practiced.
Take the USA. Ghosts get their exclusive time slot on Hallowe'en, and although a lot of Christmas traditions of today brought into the country by immigrants go back to old times, ghost stories are not among them. And yet there is a line in the 1963 song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" going "There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago."

Picture from "Told After Supper"
by Kenneth M. Skeaping

Christmas has always been connected with superstitions.
In German, we call the twelve days of Christmas "Rauhnächte" (mostly, some start counting on the winter solstice). The etymology is unclear, it could mean "hairy", but also refer to smudging the stables with frankincense to protect the animals from the demons and ghosts prowling the land during those nights.
Of course, there are also the tales of the Wild Hunt.
It is also said that animals can speak during those nights and tell the future. Another version is that the animals can speak at midnight on Christmas, just for one hour to announce the birth of Christ. You are not allowed to listen, though, or you will die.
There are many more mid-winter traditions, such as the quite scary Krampus or Perchten, some of which have become more popular again
So ghost stories on Christmas Eve don't even sound that unusual anymore, do they?

Picture from "Told After Supper"
by Kenneth M. Skeaping

If I asked you which Christmas ghost story comes to mind first, it would be a rather safe bet to say you'd pick "A Christmas Carol" from 1843.
It was around this time that Christmas traditions were re-evaluated in Britain, but also new ones introduced, such as Christmas cards and trees (the first tree was put up by Queen Charlotte, by the way, although the idea only got popular due to Albert and Victoria).
When we think of British Christmas, our first thoughts probably go to the images ingrained in our heads thanks to countless adaptations of Dickens's novella - images of generosity, family gatherings, special food, drink, and games. And singing Muppets (after I finally got to watch them last year).

It wasn't the first Christmas story Dickens wrote and he also wasn't the first one to write one.
It also wasn't his last ghost story. The Christmas issues of the magazines he edited, first "Household Words", then "All the Year Round", also had ghost stories every year.
The Victorian ghost story's roots lie in a superstitious rural culture which it brings to the more secular and modern times of the industrial revolution in a nostalgic way. It also takes ghosts from castles inside the private home implicating that everyone can be haunted. That seems to have hit a nerve with the readers and other publications followed Dickens's example.
By the way, "somewhere between 50% to 70% of Christmas ghost stories published in the Victorian era were written by women".

Picture from "Told After Supper"
by Kenneth M. Skeaping

So yeah, why don't you give it a try this Christmas Eve?
Gather the family round, pick a nice Victorian ghost story from the vast selection (check out this bibliography for example and see what you can find online) and enjoy.
Maybe it will become your new favorite Christmas tradition!

"Christmas Story-telling" by Sir John Everett Millais (Illustrated London
News, Christmas Supplement, December 20, 1862, p. 672)

Sources:

1. Colin Dickey: A Plea to Resurrect the Christmas Tradition of Telling Ghost Stories. In: Smithsonian Magazine, December 15, 2017
2. Josie Q.: Christmas Ghosts: A Victorian Tradition. On: A Biblioteca Noturna, December 14, 2021
3. Caley Ehnes: "Winter Stories - Ghost Stories... Round the Christmas Fire": Victorian Ghost Stories and the Christmas Market. In: Illumine, 11, 2012, 1, pages 6 - 25 (published in 2014, https://doi.org/10.18357/illumine.ehnesc.1112012)
4. Simon Cooke: Victorian Ghost Stories. On: The Victorian Web, June 2021

Happy Hanukkah - The eighteenth door

Today we step out from the usual Christmas topics in this advent calender.
I'd like to wish my Jewish friends a very Happy Hanukkah!

I did this here once before when I got the chance to, and in that post you will find a little information on Hanukkah, a little because that's what a friend told me back then (a special hug to you, Sharon!).

I know it is Sunday, but for the life of me, I don't know a Hanukkah movie with a quote that I could use. In fact, there's no Hanukkah movie in my DVD collection. Please forgive me.

Now why don't you read up on the menorah, dreidels, and gelt, and if there's anyone out there making latkes, I would love to have some!! :-D

Lucia - The thirteenth door

A procession of girls carrying candles and dressed in white gowns, one girl wearing a red sash with her white gown (sometimes all of them do) and a light crown on her head - exactly, today is Saint Lucy's Day.
I don't know about you, but I wasn't aware where this tradition has come from, and to be honest, I always thought this was an exclusively Swedish feast because whenever I have read or heard about it, it always took place in Sweden.
Although other countries have their own traditions on this day, like Italy where Lucia came from, but also Germany, Croatia, and more, the Swedish tradition is probably most widely known. Actually it is celebrated in other Scandinavian countries as well. Lucy is called Lucia there.

Who was Saint Lucy?
Lucia of Syracuse (Sicily) was a Christian martyr in the late 3rd century. The (shortened) story goes that she dedicated her life to Christ, but her mother who was sick didn't know that and arranged a marriage for her. After a pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint Agatha, the mother recovered and accepted her daughter's wish. They distributed Lucia's inheritance among the poor and her betrothed promptly denounced her to the Governor who ordered to have her taken to a brothel.

"St. Lucia in front of the judges" from the St. Lucy Altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto

Not even a team of oxen and 1,000 men could move her, however, and neither the torture with hot oil nor the attempt to burn her were successful. She finally died through a sword that was thrust into her throat, but only after a priest gave her sacramental bread.
One story about Lucia is that she wore a wreath with candles on her head, so she could hold the food she brought to other early Christians hiding in the catacombs - which brings us back to her feast.
In fact the name Lucia comes from the Latin word "lux" which means light.

Von Claudia Gründer - Claudia Gründer, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The custom of celebrating Saint Lucy's Day was first recorded in West Sweden in the 18th century, but only at the end of the 19th century, thanks to a Stockholm museum, it started spreading, and it became really popular after a newspaper in Stockholm elected an official Lucy in 1927.
It also spreaded to other Scandinavian countries where there were Swedish people and was then adopted by the other inhabitants as well.
By the way, there are not only girls involved in the celebration. Boys can be star boys in white robes with pointy star-embellished hats, gingerbread men, or even Christmas elves.

I read that nowadays no real candles are used anymore for reasons of safety, but in a documentary I've seen the Lucia wear real candles. Underneath her crown she wore a cloth over her hair and both the cloth and hair had to be wet. The candles were "Kanalljus", special candles manufactured with four channels into which the excess stearin can flow which also helps to make the candle burn more calmly and regularly, made for the use in drafty churches to prevent wax stains and more. In case you are curious, it didn't work perfectly for her, she still got stearin drops in her hair.

Another big part of the fest is food of course, for example "lussekatter" meaning Lucia cats (check the link for a recipe on "Visit Sweden"). These are saffron buns shaped into the letter S which reminds of a curled up cat.
If I could bake, I would have tried to make them for you, but yeast and I get along as badly as glue and I.

Send me some if you make them! :-D