Ash Wednesday

Today is the official start of lent.

The ashes are blessed today. These are usually the ashes of the burnt palms used last year on Palm Sunday. This is mixed into a paste with blessed holy water.

The day would have started with mass. Your forehead would be marked with this ash mixture with an ash cross by the priest it is at this point your fasting and repentance started.

This is a reminder of Christ's celebrated Arrival where the palms were laid at his feet, the events that followed ultimately lead to him dying for our sins on the cross. Also a reminder that it is from ashes we come and shall return.

This was a time of reflection and penitence for the population. Women busied themselves more about the home and you were expected to retain a respectful sombreness. The alters and lecterns and Holy images were covered in the church. And absolutely no fun, sexual relations were held off too.

We would fast for forty days to commemorate the forty days Christ spent in the desert fasting and preparing for his role.

Back in Medieval and early Tudor times this meant no meat dairy products or eggs for forty days. Excluding Sundays as these are traditionally celebrated.

In reality it is unlikely that you would have a lot of these food stuffs left now any way and the geese may not yet be laying.

This is a good time to start stockpiling what dairy products become available.

Your diet during this time may consist mostly of dried peas, bread, ale, salt fish, grains, dried food and the early greens. It can all be made more interesting by the addition of seasonal and dried herbs. A nice one at this time of year is Winter Savoury.

Shrove Tuesday

Today would have been and is Shrove Tuesday. We tend to refer to it as Pancake Day theese days!

Today is the last day before lent.

It is traditionally the day you would use up your dairy products. During lent these too are off the menu. Except Sundays!

Hence the consumption of Pancakes.

In times past this would be a day to let your hair down and have fun. It is the last chance to do so.
You may partake in cock fighting and other such blood sports on which much gambling was done. And the notorious FOOTBALL. A game that was repeatedly banned due to the violence and disturbance it caused. Of coarse the ban never really worked and we are still trying to control the violence and disturbance the game causes!
Football was quite a different game in which anything went. It may involve whole settlements or villages pitted against one another, this often got out of control.

You may then choose to be shriven after this... to have your sins absolved!

Collop Monday

Today (Ignoring all the confusing calendar reforms of the 1750s) would have been Collop Monday in Medieval and Tudor England.

This is the day you would use the last of your meat before lent, if you had any!

A collop usually refers to a lump or slice of pork or bacon. This is because of all the meats this one preserves the best with salt. So this is the meat you were most likely still to have after winter.

Traditionally you would have slaughtered one or more of your pigs at Michealmas in September and began the labourious task of salting to preserve the meat. Every bit was used. After the cuts had been salted for a number of days they were then hung in a smokey area of the house. In the kitchen or in the chimney in later times. This keep the flies off and also helps the preserving of the meat. It dessicates the outer layer and leaves a residue on the meat that bacteria do not like.

My Statute cap got a test on Saturday. It Worked! My head stayed dry. When I removed the cap I shook off the surplus wetness.
Wool has amazing properties. It can absorb water and still conduct heat.

Happy Valentine's everyone!

My Statute cap

One of my favourite pieces of Tudor kit is my Statute cap. Ironically one of the only things I have not made. I bought it from the re-enactors market last spring. I think the lady who makes them also makes them for the Tudor Group. It is a work of art!

What is a Statute Cap...?

Well, with out doing any research and trying to rely on poor old memory:
During Elizabeth's reign she laid down a law that all men must wear a knitted cap produced in England on a Sunday. This was to help keep people in work (The spinners and knitters). Because it was a law it was also called a statute = A statute cap.

It is knitted in the round and has been felted.

I love this hat, and wanted to make it even more useful...
Well, I thought it would be a good idea to waterproof my cap.

This I did by dissolving a tiny bit of lanolin in boiling water. I then poured it into an old washing up tub and filled the rest with cool water. In went the cap. This the soaked in the greasy solution for some hours. I then took out the soggy mass and squeezed very very gently and left it to drip all night over the sink on an old oven shelf. It has to be kept flat. The next day I cleared a space in the airing cupboard and let it dry fully.
I hope now to have a water resistant Statute cap!
No doubt I will not have to wait long to find out.

Watch this space... as they say....

Another ongoing task is to look after the shoes. Most of them being hand made are pricey and as such need to be taken care of. I had let my Tudor Latchetts (this is what Tudor shoes were called, the boots were start uppers) go after a muddy Christmas. I had to brush off the mud and soak in a new layer of Dubbin. This is used for horses tack and such like. It is a mixture of tallow and oil. Similar concoctions were probably used throughout history.
I use it on my hand made Saxon boots. I must say it is the best thing. If you keep it up regularly you will end up with a water resistant and very comfortable pair of shoes.

ERGH

I came down with a rather disturbing virus after the Story Club! (I do link the two!) I have just had my first sips of coffee for nearly a week.
My husband came down with it but his barely lasted 24 hours. I do not expect he could cope with not eating and his body rejected the virus. That is my theory.

Southampton Story Club

IT IS STORY TELLING WEEK.

Went to Southampton Story Club last night. I am still exhausted...
I do not do late nights. That is anything past 10.00pm.

It was the most amazing evening with exciting tales from around the world, told by local story tellers. Some of these people are professional and others amateur. I can not tell the difference in the telling though. All tales were told with equal enthusiasm and passion.

We meet at The Art House in Southampton's Above Bar street, near the Cenotaph, on the first Thursday of every month.

We are a casual group who try and be organised and sometimes succeed. Entrance is by magic hat. That is, you donate what you can afford.
My husband and I have been attending for years and years. Possibly the longest standing members apart from Mike the legend.
This night was just a little different in that they were being filmed by a local media group. They hope to edit the video and have it on UTube by the end of next week. I will try to post a link.

My husband is one of those story tellers, he is an ameteur, and a very good one! He told a tale about Glam's Ghost. It is part of the Icelandic Sagas.
Tales of Spiders, Chinese sculpters, and the Viking gods were all devoured last night along with chocolate cake...

Yesterday at the Museum

We removed and burnt the Christmas decorations from Pendean house yesterday.

Today is Candle mas. Candles are blessed today. This is to commemorate the day Jesus was recognised as the Messiah by Simeon the Righteous. The link to candles is because he said that Jesus was the light to light up the world:

Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel (Luke 2:29-32).

This took place forty days after the birth of the baby Jesus . Mary went to the temple to be blessed or cleansed after child birth. A sacrifice was given in this case two doves.

In Tudor England (1480-1547 & 1553-1558 Excl Elizabethan & Edward's reign)

Women went to be 'Churched' after child birth, forty days after birth of a boy and thirty days for a girl.

Candle mas marked the end of Epiphany. It was officially the end of the Christmas season. to mark this the Christmas decorations would be removed from the house on this day or on Candle mas eve.

This would have been the last feast day of the Christmas season. So dairy products and meat were on the menu, if you had them!

In this country this is when the first signs of spring start to show themselves in nature. The buds on trees are starting to swell and the snow drops are blooming and the daffs are starting to wake up. In my case next door's daffs have been in full flower for a week or so already. So it is a significant time to remove the Christmas decorations after nature has been asleep and is starting to wake.

Pendean Farm house has been furnished as it may have been in approximately 1630. At this time there were differing factions of the Christian faith in this country. Some -the Puritans- not decorating or celebrating Christmas at all. In fact anything they considered Idolatry or Superstitious was deemed inappropriate.
The museum have interpreted Pendean as a Catholic residence, whilst Poplar house (furnished as it may have been in 1630 but a Puritan residence) has no signs of any festive cheer at Christmas.

This has no reflection on the actual people who lived in these dwellings at these times. But is used as an educational device.

In fact we do not really know what people inwardly thought or practised. Very much like today. But people would be outwardly conforming to what was acceptable practise of their time, keeping their heads below the bunker, as it were.