Don\u2019t go over the top<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Medieval Christmas wasn\u2019t quite the all-encompassing celebration it often is today, so relax a little. Christmas, the Feast of Jesus\u2019s Nativity<\/a>, was important, but more significant was Easter<\/a>, and perhaps also the Annunciation \u2013 that moment celebrated on 25 March when God was supposedly conceived in Mary\u2019s womb. Much of the medieval world didn\u2019t celebrate Christmas, and if you were a medieval Jew<\/a>, Christmas could be a time of danger. At Korneuburg in around 1305, townsfolk accused the Jews of procuring a consecrated communion wafer at Christmas and desecrating it, whereupon it \u2018bubbled blood-drops, like an egg sweats when it is cooked\u2019. Stories like these \u2013 imagining Jews conspiring to attack Jesus\u2019 vulnerable body, present in the wafer \u2013 could lead to terrible reprisals.<\/p>\n The medieval Muslim scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263\u20131328) inveighed against those Muslims who adopted Christian festivities, particularly criticising what he saw as an imitation of Christmas in the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s birthday (mawlid).<\/p>\n For those who did celebrate Christmas, it wasn\u2019t just one day, but a season covering at least the 12 days from 25 December to Epiphany on 6 January. Sounds good? There\u2019s a rider: Christmas was preceded by a month of fasting in the season of Advent.<\/p>\n Advent was seen as a time of special preparation for God\u2019s coming, his adventus, into the world \u2013 both in the infant Jesus, and at the end of time at the apocalypse. Advent was supposed to be a time of exile, desire, longing, and repentance. So instead of trampling on your fellow shoppers, why not emulate medieval saints and trample on sin, temptation, and unfortunate demons?<\/p>\n If crushing demons is too much effort, at least keep rich foods off the menu. Fasting was central to the sacred rhythm of time in medieval Europe. (It\u2019s no surprise that when reformers wanted to protest against the church in the 16th century, they held a sausage eat-in during a fast.)<\/p>\n William the Conqueror<\/a>, also known as William of Normandy, was crowned on Christmas Day 1066<\/a>. Christmas is a clever time to inaugurate a reign: you can nod to the classical imagery of an emperor\u2019s triumphal entry into the city, his adventus. And since midwinter is too cold for battles, you can be, like Jesus, a prince of peace. Just as the kingdom of God entered the world in the infant Jesus, so too your reign could be born at Christmas.<\/p>\n If your tastes don\u2019t run to a full imperial coronation, why not celebrate Christmas by inverting the social hierarchy<\/a>? Mirroring pagan traditions, inversions of order occurred across medieval society around Christmas. One of the most colourful was the election of a boy bishop, who presided over processions and church ritual on the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December).<\/p>\n In a surviving example of a boy bishop\u2019s sermon, the boy bishop wishes that all his schoolteachers would end up on the gallows<\/a> at Tyburn. One chronicle records how, at the Abbey of St Gall in the 10th century, King Conrad tried to distract the procession of the boys by strewing apples down the processional route; the boys were, however, so disciplined that not an apple was touched.<\/p>\n Inversion could, however, be less controlled: in 1523 at London\u2019s Inns of Court, a \u2018lord of misrule\u2019 was responsible for a death.<\/p>\nBe wary<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Fast then feast<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\""Medieval\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2019\/12\/GettyImages-515507946-430be87.jpg?quality=90&resize=526%2C413"\" "\\"\"Medieval\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Reign victorious<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\""William\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/2635960-72318c2.jpg?quality=90&resize=283%2C413"\" "\\"\"William\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\u00a0Turn the world upside down<\/h3>\n<\/div>