Irish Harp

A part of the long history of harps in Ireland, the Irish coat of arms and the Guinness logo are modeled after the same harp at Trinity College.

The harp has been a part of Irish culture & mythology for millennia. The Irish goddess/mortal woman Cana Cludhmor (aka Canola) is said to have fallen asleep to the sound of music by the sea. When she awoke she realized the music was being made by sinews attached to the ribs of a rotting whale. From this she created the first harp (… or possibly her husband did). The Dagda, the chief god of Irish mythology, was said to own a magic oak harp named Uaithne that could fly to him when called. Playing this harp The Dagda could summon the seasons, bring peace, and more. (That said Uaithne may have been the name of his harpist and not the instrument itself.)

Henry the VIII and Elizabeth the I both admired the Irish harp while also stamping it out in Ireland. — Henry VIII and Elizabeth I both admired the Irish harp while also stamping it out in Ireland.

An instrument of politics

The coat of arms of Ireland is a gold harp set on a blue background. It’s the only country to have a musical instrument as its national symbol. The harp had been the heraldic symbol of Ireland since at least the 13th century but Henry VIII officially made the harp the symbol of the Kingdom of Ireland when he declared himself king of the land in the 16th century. Also Henry was apparently quite the musician himself, playing the harp among other instruments.

While the harp was an emblematic part of the British crown it was also a symbol of Irish resistance. In the 16th and 17th centuries harp music was enjoyed in the English royal court while simultaneously being outlawed in Ireland. The English government looked to stamp out Irish culture in order to control the people. In 1603 Queen Elizabeth I ordered harpists to be executed and their instruments destroyed. In 1652 the Act for the Settlement of Ireland was intended to subjugate and ethnically cleanse the Irish people which, among other things, again outlawed Irish harp playing.

Irish republicanism and militant groups have long used the harp as a symbol. In 1642 Owen Roe O’Neil used a gold winged harp on a field of green as his flag. The Irish forces in the Rebellion of 1798 used a similar flag. In America the Fighting 69th were a Union regiment in the American Civil War, made up up of mostly Irish immigrants, who had a flag of a sunburst and a harp. During the Irish War of Independence in the early 20th century a green flag with a simpler golden harp, along with the tricolor flag and the plough & stars flag, were used by the Irish fighting against the British.

the Trinity College Harp — The Trinity College harp, aka Brian Boru’s harp, is the oldest Irish harp in existence and the basis for many logos.

Brian Boru’s harp / Trinity College harp

The modern harp design on Ireland’s coat of arms, its coins, passports, stamps, etc. is modeled after the 14th or 15th century harp currently on display at Trinity College in Dublin. The Trinity College harp is also known as Brian Boru’s harp, named for the 11th century High King of Ireland, but the harp wasn’t his as it was made hundreds of years after Boru died.

It is unknown who the harp’s original owner was but given the elaborate construction it was most likely a high status individual. Its medieval design is similar to two other harps currently in Scotland and is the oldest Irish harp in existence.

the Guinness and National harp — Both the Guinness harp and the harp used for the symbol of Ireland are based on the Trinity College harp – one faces left and the other faces right.

the Guinness logo & the Republic of Ireland

In 1862 Guinness began to use a stylized version of the Trinity College harp in their branding and made it their trademark in 1876. When Ireland became a free state in 1922 the government looked to use a stylized version of the same harp but was faced with an odd problem. While the idea of representing Ireland with a harp had existed for hundreds of years, a stylized version of the Trinity College harp was already a registered trademark of Guinness. The solution: flip it.

The Guinness harp faced to the right and so the Republic of Ireland faced theirs to the left – both are modeled after the Trinity College harp, but face opposite directions.

Added info: created in 1960, Guinness named their lager beer brand Harp and used the same harp in its logo. You can see the Trinity College harp at the far end of the very photogenic Long Room in the Library of Trinity College.

Also the Samuel Beckett Bridge crossing the Liffy in Dublin is designed like a harp laying on its side.

A great crash course on the Irish harp.

Bog Bodies of Ireland

Peatlands are beneficial watery environments (… with the occasional human body hidden away).

Around Ireland you find peatlands – wetlands where, over thousands of years, Sphagnum moss and other plant matter have accumulated and degraded. These areas have watery, acidic, and anaerobic conditions so the organic material within peat lands break down but never fully degrades. This long drawn out layered accumulation & compression of vegetation means peatlands are a carbon sink. Despite covering only 3% of the Earth’s surface peatlands store more carbon than all the world’s forests combined.

Peatlands and peat harvesting — Peatlands have been a source of fuel in Ireland for centuries.

Beyond the environmental benefit, peat (aka “turf” in Ireland) can be a building material as well as a fuel source. Peat has been harvested for centuries in Ireland where it is cut from the ground into long rectangular briquettes, dried (it’s 80% moisture when fresh), and then burned. A special shovel called a sleán is used when cutting by hand, but tractors and other industrial machinery can do the job faster. That said by the 1970s most people in Ireland were running their homes with coal, electric, or oil heating, no longer relying on turf.

It’s during the cutting of the turf, digging out sections of peat, that people occasionally find human bodies.

Bog bodies

Bog bodies are naturally mummified human remains found in peatlands. Because of the ground conditions the bodies are remarkably well preserved (considering their age). Tollund Man, who was found in Denmark in 1950, looks as if he is sleeping he is so well preserved (despite having died around 405–384 BCE).

Ireland has numerous bog bodies, most of whom are men having died between the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Some examples include:

Cashel Man, died circa 2000 BCE Early Bronze Age, found in 2011
Gallagh Man, 400-200 BCE Early Iron Age, found in 1821
Clonycavan Man, 392-201 BCE Early Iron Age, found in 2003
Old Croughan Man, 362-175 BCE Early Iron Age, found in 2003
Ballymacombs More Woman, 343-1 BCE Early Iron Age, found in 2023
Baronstown West Man, 200-400 CE Early Iron Age, found in 1953

Many Irish bog bodies share another characteristic – they suffered violent deaths. Old Croghan Man was stabbed in the chest and later decapitated as well as cut in half. Clonycavan Man’s skull was split open and then disembowelled. The consistent pattern of violence & mutilation leads researchers to believe that these people were ritualistically killed as human sacrifices.

Celtic bog bodies discovered in the peatlands of Ireland — Celtic bog bodies, and some objects, discovered in the peatlands of Ireland.

Looking for clues

The ancient Celts did not keep written records so it is uncertain exactly why these bodies were placed out in the peatlands, or why they died as they did, but there are clues. From the 2nd century BCE onward cremation was the standard burial practice, so non-cremated remains of people who met violent ends is unusual and purposeful.

The next clue is where these bodies were placed. The distribution of bodies is frequently at the boundaries of territorial lands. Some of these bodies were deposited alongside objects of ritual significance (weapons, jewelry, clothing, feasting equipment, horse harnesses, food, etc).

Human sacrifice & Kingship

When an ancient Celtic man became king he was thought to symbolically marry the earth goddess, the goddess who looked after the fertility of the land. If the king was good then the land & people would flourish. Conversely if the king was bad this would also be reflected in the land & people. Famine, storms, war, poor harvests, etc. could all be signs that the king was an unjust ruler and perhaps in need of replacement.

It’s possible some of these Irish bog men were kings or perhaps rejected candidates for kingship. Several of them show no signs of manual labor (for example Old Croghan Man had manicured nails) and most were well fed. An additional clue as to their potential kingship is that several had their nipples mutilated.

In ancient Celtic society you would plead fealty to the king by sucking his nipples – Saint Patrick has a story involving this practice, as he gained passage on a boat. To remove or damage a man’s nipples would deny him kingship. Old Croghan Man was found with deep cuts under each nipple while Clonycavan Man was found with no nipples at all. Its possible decomposition played a role in both, but ritualistic mutilation is a leading theory.

Kings in the Bogs

Male Irish bog bodies seem to be kings who fortune turned against and were ritualistically sacrificed to appease a higher power. In killing a king the people hoped the goddess would be happier with the new king and improve their living conditions. As this practice seems to have gone on sporadically across thousands of years it’s unknown just how many bodies may still be hidden away in the peatlands.

Added info: Ireland has largely turned away from peat as a fuel source. Burning peat is not sustainable as it was being consumed faster than it could replenish itself. Further, the burning of peat releases the very carbon it was beneficially holding onto, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021 the government owned company Bord na Móna ceased peat harvesting and in 2022 the selling of peat as fuel was largely outlawed.

Besides holding carbon and ritualistic burials, peatlands also hold bog butter. For thousands of years people would bury wooden containers of butter or cheese in the peatlands. Whether to hide it from thieves, age it in the ground, or to keep it fresh, peatlands act as (essentially) natural refrigerators.

Peatland and the cutting of the turf.

Some science explaining peatlands.

QI discusses Richard Harris as well as the nipples of Celtic Kings.

the Guinness Widget

The plastic device that, when the can is opened and the pressure drops, helps your canned Guinness taste more like draft Guinness.

Inside a can of Guinness is a plastic object, a “widget”. It’s more noticeable after the can is empty and it rattles around. The “smoothifier”, as called by Guinness, is a ping pong sized plastic ball added to cans to better replicate a beer poured from the tap in a bar.

During the canning process an empty widget is placed inside the can, followed by Guinness beer, and a small amount of liquid nitrogen. Contrary to some sources, the widget is not filled with nitrogen. Rather, because of two small holes it becomes filled with a mix of beer & nitrogen just like the rest of the can. Once the can is sealed the can and the widget are now under greater pressure than the environment outside the can.

When you crack open a Guinness the pressure drops. To balance the pressure the nitrogen rushes to escape the can and the widget. In so doing the widget spins like an agitator, mixing the beer & nitrogen, and as you pour the can into a glass it creates a creamy head of foam like that which you get from a Guinness poured in a bar.

the Guinness Widget — The Guinness widget is a hollow plastic ball ball that spins when the can is open, mixing nitrogen and beer, helping canned Guinness taste more like Guinness from the tap.

Why Nitrogen?

Most beers have carbon dioxide added to enhance the flavor, aroma, and to create a bubbly fizzy texture. Nitrogen however creates smaller bubbles which is what gives Guinness a creamier/silkier feel. While Guinness was the first brewery to use nitrogen they are no longer the only one. Today other brands also add nitrogen as well as use their own styles of widgets.

Nitrogen (mixed with a small amount of carbon dioxide) was introduced to Guinness in 1959 by mathematician and brewer Michael Ash. This nitrogen mix creates the “surge and settle” effect you see when properly pouring a Guinness. Ash wanted to create a way for bartenders of any skill level to properly pour a pint of Guinness. Adding nitrogen was an important part of his “Easy Serve System” – a two-part pouring system we still see today. He also co-designed a two-part keg that contained both the beer and the nitrogen mix, nicknamed the “Ash Can”.

In 2021, as part of never ending nitrogen nitpicking, Guinness introduced the Nitrosurge. A USB charged device the Nitrosurge is a portable tap you attach to the top of special Nitrosurge cans of Guinness that helps you get even closer to replicating a pint from a bar.

Added info: there used to be a “rocket” widget in bottled Guinness, but it was removed after bottled Guinness was reformulated to be drunk directly from the bottle (eliminating the need to create the iconic creamy head of beer).

See the widget in action, spinning & mixing Guinness.

SYSK discusses the history of the Guinness widget.

All about nitrogen in beer.

Candy Hearts

Candy hearts got their start as medicinal lozenges in Boston.

The Valentine’s Day tradition of little candy hearts began in 19th century New England. In 1847 Boston pharmacist Oliver Chase created a machine to efficiently produce throat lozenges. At the time the standard process to create a lozenge was to grind medicine & sugar by hand and press it into shape. Eventually Chase dropped the medicine part, focused just on the sugar part, and used his “lozenge cutter” to manufacture mint candy wafers. In the process he invented America’s first candy making machine and founded what became the New England Confectionery Company (Necco).

In 1866 Chase’s brother Daniel created a way to press words into the candy lozenges with red vegetable dye. These candies were larger than today’s hearts and instead of hearts they were seashell shaped. Eventually the candies came in a variety of shapes such as horseshoes, watches, postcards, baseballs, etc. Larger shapes meant they could contain longer messages. Hearts were introduced in 1902 and by the mid 20th century Necco settled on small hearts with just enough room for a few words.

In 2018 Necco declared bankruptcy and 2019 was the first year in over a century there we no candy hearts (now called “Sweethearts”) from Necco. By 2020 the Spangler Candy Company had purchased the rights to produce Sweethearts and they were available once more.

Tiki Culture

The pop culture movement of leisure, escapism, and fantasy that’s light on authenticity.

The word “Tiki” comes from the Maori name for the first man of creation. Tiki also became the name of human-like figures carved in wood or stone in the Polynesian Triangle, from New Zealand to Hawaii to Easter Island.

By the mid 20th century the Tiki name got borrowed, like so many other cultural ideas, and blended together in America to create Tiki culture.

people from around the Polynesian triangle — The peoples of the Polynesian Triangle have similar but different cultures. Tiki culture has borrowed from them all.

Set sail for fantasy

Tiki is escapism. It’s a South Seas fantasy of jungles, volcanos, rum drinks, palm trees, bamboo, headhunter skulls, the limbo, little umbrellas, leis, sand, surf, ukuleles, Hawaiian shirts, pineapples, parrots, blowfish, coconuts, Moai, and more. Tiki does not look to be authentic to any particular culture but creates something new borrowing from around the world.

To create this fantasy Tiki got its start, appropriately, in Hollywood. The founding father of Tiki was illegal rum bootlegger (and later WWII veteran) Ernest Raymond Gantt, aka “Donn Beach” aka “Don the Beachcomber”. In 1933 at the end of Prohibition, Beach created the world’s first Tiki bar “Don’s Beachcomber”. The bar’s decor of bamboo, rattan furniture, tiki torches, palm leaves, glass floats, Polynesian art, etc. set the template for all Tiki bars to follow.

Don Beach, the father of tiki — Donn Beach, the founding father of Tiki. Beach created the template all other Tiki bars have followed.

Over time competing Tiki bars around Los Angeles would hire local Hollywood art directors to help design increasingly more fantastic interiors – like stepping onto a movie set, a Tiki bar would whisk you away from reality. Also, working the other direction, Beach was sometimes hired by film studios to advise on movies set in the South Pacific.

Beyond the visual Beach’s other major contribution to Tiki was the drinks.

The Zombie, Three Dots & A Dash, Dr. Funk, Cobra’s Fang …

Don’s Beachcomber invented a fun illustrated menu of mixed drinks with exciting names such as the Zombie, Three Dots & A Dash, Navy Grog, and others which have become Tiki bar staples. The Mai Tai, another legendary Tiki drink, is generally credited to Trader Vic’s of Oakland, CA. A competitor of Don’s Beachcomber, Trader Vic’s was opened in 1934 by Victor Bergeron and has become an international chain of Tiki restaurants (which also inspired the theme & name of the grocery store Trader Joe’s).

Beach referred to his mixed drink creations as his “Rhum Rhapsodies”. They were based on the basic recipe concept of the Planter’s Punch which combines sour, sweet, strong alcohol, and water. Some restaurateurs would code their cocktail recipes to prevent competitors from stealing their best ideas. That said most Tiki cocktails are Cuban & Jamaican inspired, they use rum as their alcohol of choice, and their recipes eventually got out. Specialized ceramic Tiki mugs, carved like Tiki sculptures, helped set restaurants apart from one another while also becoming sought-after collectibles.

Tiki across mid-century pop culture — Tiki boomed in popularity in mid-century pop culture.

Bali Ha’i and Kon-Tiki

Despite starting in the 1930s Tiki really took off in the 1940s as WWII veterans came back from the Pacific. Tiki allowed them to idealize the good parts of their time in the Pacific and forget the bad. James Michener’s 1947 Tales of the South Pacific, and later the Broadway musical, were hugely influential in popularizing a romanticized idea of the Pacific islands. Thor Heyerdahl’s raft adventure sailing across the Pacific Ocean in 1947 (… in support of his racist ideas about Polynesians), and the subsequent bestseller novel The Kon-Tiki Expedition, gave a sense of adventure to Tiki culture.

Tiki’s popularity grew rapidly around the world. With Hawaiian statehood in 1959, and widely available commercial aviation, more tourists got to experience tropical destinations. Munich’s Oktoberfest in 1959 had a Hawaiian Village area. Trader Vic’s franchised by partnering with Hilton Hotels, operating as many as 25 locations at once. Restaurateur Stephen Crane created the Tiki chain Kon-Tiki in partnership with Sheraton Hotels.

Tiki also appeared in entertainment. Elvis had three Hawaii-based movies (and later he had the “Jungle Room” in his Graceland home). Disney created Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room attraction in 1963 and later Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort (the resort where John Lennon signed the paperwork officially ending The Beatles). Television gave us McHale’s Navy, Gilligan’s Island, Hawaii Five-0. Tiki and all things tropical were found across pop culture.

Tiki’s rum drinks, the visual spectacle, and the sense of exotic adventure created an environment of looser social mores allowing repressed Westerners an outlet to cut loose.

Modern tiki — Tiki’s second act has brought Tiki back into pop culture.

The tide goes out, and comes back

The tide changed for Tiki in the late 1960s / early 1970s. Young baby boomers saw Tiki as increasingly uncool and associated it with their parents’ generation. The grass huts and jungle themes were becoming reminiscent of the Vietnam War. The kitsch ornamentation, the spectacle, the recreational leisure wear – Tiki became embarrassing and began to die off.

The 1990s saw the tide come back for Tiki. The children of the baby boomers began to embrace what their parents had rejected. Hipsters gravitated towards Tiki culture. Early websites and message boards helped nascent Tiki fans learn more and make friends. New Tiki bars began to open as well as renewed interest in the originals who had managed to stay afloat.

Authenticity

With Tiki culture’s second act came a critical reevaluation of Tiki overall. Tiki is not an authentic depiction of any particular culture. Its an appropriation of Polynesian imagery, Caribbean inspired drinks, dressed-up Cantonese food, Congolese masks, a mythologizing of “noble savages” and the exoticism of Pacific Islander peoples. Tiki is a problematic blending of completely disparate cultures where the only unifying element is seemingly the “exotic” colonialist view Westerners had of them all.

Like the Irish pub-in-a-box Tiki bars focus on creating a fun environment not an authentic one. It’s an illusion, a fantasy, a melange of ideas that offer a break from your office cubicle and ordinary life. Perhaps it’s best if one goes in with eyes wide open knowing they aren’t about to see anything authentic to Polynesian culture.

That said some new Tiki bars are considering the history of Tiki as they design new experiences. Subgenres of Tiki exist such as “nautical” or “straw bars” that have some of the feeling of Tiki bars but without some of the appropriated Polynesian imagery.

Added info: The Tiki Room at Disneyland was the park’s first air conditioned attraction. This was for the comfort of the guests but also because the system that ran all of the animatronics ran so hot the attraction had to be cooled down.

A documentary on the history of Tiki culture.

Another documentary, in two parts, about the history of Tiki.

Ea-nasir’s Bad Copper Ingots

The timeless appeal of the world’s oldest customer complaint.

Around 1750 BCE a customer named Nanni was purchasing copper ingots from Ea-nasir, a Mesopotamian copper dealer. However, Ea-nasir tried to give Nanni poorer quality ingots than he had ordered. After the fact Nanni wrote an angry cuneiform complaint letter and sent it to Ea-nasir. It turns out this wasn’t Ea-nasir’s only customer complaint.

The ancient city of Ur, where Ea-nasir lived, was first excavated in 1853-54 but a later excavation by Sir Charles Woolley in 1922-34 unearthed the Nanni complaint letter among others. For example another customer named Arbituram also wrote to Ea-nasir complaining about poor quality copper. The letters, which are actually clay tablets, were found in what is thought to be Ea-nasir’s home.

Today the Nanni letter is object 1953,0411.71 at the British Museum and The Guinness Book of World Records has deemed it the Oldest written customer complaint. This fairly forgettable commonplace correspondence went relatively unnoticed until 2015 when the internet got a hold of it.

Letter to Ea-nasir — The tablet is on display at the British Museum. On the right is the translation by A. Leo Oppenheim.

Poor copper memes

In 2015 a photo of the tablet on display at the British Museum, along with an English translation of the tablet, was uploaded to Reddit. People found it humorous and from there they were off & running with jokes and memes.

The “Complaint Tablet to Ea-nasir” is now its own meme category, there are a host of products available on Amazon making fun of Ea-nasir’s bad copper ingots, a 3D printed recreation of the tablet is on Etsy, there’s a product idea to make a Lego version of the tablet, Ea-nasir’s house can be found on Google Maps, etc. The legacy of Ea-nasir and his bad copper ingots have long outlived the legacy of the merchants selling good copper ingots (or selling anything else for that matter).

memes of the complaint to Ea-nasir — Like many memes, the Complaint Tablet to Ea-nasir memes are now memes within memes, references within references.

Times change, people don’t

Perhaps the humor lies in the anachronistic nature of the complaint – that nobody today would complain about something using a cuneiform clay tablet. But there is also the universal appeal that even as times and technology change, human nature is the same. People 3,800 years ago were complaining about shady businesses just like we do today. Times change but humans don’t.

Van Halen and Brown M&Ms

Instead of being a story of rock hubris, Van Halen’s no brown M&Ms clause was a clever indicator of potential danger.

One of the most famous stories of Van Halen is that, backstage at each concert, they required M&Ms to be provided but there were to be no brown M&Ms. This has become the stuff of legend, of 1980s rock & roll hubris, rock excess, a band at their most demanding exercising their clout – and as David Lee Roth has said why get in the way of a good rumor. Publicity is publicity.

The truth, according to the band, is that the “no brown M&Ms” clause served as an easily checked indicator as to whether or not the rest of the contract instructions had been followed. The contract Van Halen would give to a concert promoter not only included what the band required for themselves but also detailed requirements & instructions on how to assemble their stage show.

At the time Van Halen was one of the biggest bands in the world, traveling with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks of equipment (where most popular bands only had two or three). All of that equipment had technical requirements that, if not assembled correctly, could lead to serious physical harm. Seeing brown M&Ms was a warning that the concert promoter hadn’t paid attention to all of their instructions and that, if they missed the line about M&Ms, what else had they missed?

Sentinel species

For Van Halen it was never about the brown M&Ms – the M&Ms were a warning sign of potential danger. In a similar fashion, sentinel species are plants & animals used as indicators of danger. The most famous example is the canary in the coal mine. Canaries are more susceptible to the toxic gasses of a mine than humans are. A sick (or dead) canary in its cage was an indicator to get out of the mine. Also canaries were used in mines for a shockingly long time – December of 1986 is when Britain finally outlawed the practice.

Roses are frequently planted in vineyards at the ends of rows of grapes because roses & grapes are both susceptible to powdery mildew and roses can serve as an early warning sign. If vintners see powdery mildew on the roses they know to treat the grapes. An added bonus is the roses (when healthy) look nice.

Other sentinel species aren’t so much employed by humans but are observed in the wild. If the birds, oysters, bald eagles, worms, etc aren’t thriving in their ecosystem then we know there are environmental problems in the area.

Added info: It should be said that as fun/clever as the Van Halen “no brown M&Ms” story is, parts of it are perhaps not as clever as it would seem. Once promoters learned of the “no brown M&Ms” trap they would make sure they at least complied with that while perhaps still not reading the rest of the contract in detail. Further, the venue employees handling the food were probably not the same ones rigging the lights. So even if the catering had been handled correctly it didn’t necessarily mean everything else had.

Diamond Dave talks about no brown M&Ms.

Christmas Boar’s Head, to Goose, to Turkey

The changing Christmas entrée and how Charles Dickens helped standardize the turkey.

Boar’s Head

Before a goose at Christmas, and long before turkey, boar was the star of the English Christmas feast. At the table of the rich in Medieval England a cooked boar’s head was the main attraction. It was so special that it had its own Christmas carol (the Boar’s Head Carol) which would be sung as it was paraded into the hall.

While recipes varied, any way you cooked it the boar’s head was labor intensive. The head would be removed from the body, the skin would be carefully separated from the skull, cured meats and other ingredients would be stuff into the skin, it would be sewn back together, the whole head would be covered in muslin cloth, boiled, garnished, then dressed up with an apple in its mouth and perhaps some black ash to simulate fur.

boar's head Christmas dinners — The amount of labor involved in preparing the boar’s head meant only the wealthiest could afford it.

An added bonus at the table was roasted “gilded peacock”. Since the wow factor of a peacock is its showy feathers, the peacock’s head & skin was removed, the body was roasted, then the bird was put back together to be both edible and a showpiece. Also like the boar’s head it was only found on the tables of the wealthiest elite. That said it was mostly for show since apparently it didn’t taste particularly good.

As for the common people, depending on their finances they might have salted pork of some kind but a reliable alternative was pottage. Pottage was anything cooked in a pot. Special Christmas recipes might add certain spices as a seasonal treat. The most unfortunate of society could expect some of the feast leftovers, trenchers, and other scraps given as donations at the gates of clergy and the upper class. That said after waves of bubonic plague in the mid 14th century, which killed more people than animals, there was more meat available in general for all levels of society.

Goose

The goose became the Christmas entrée of choice in the 16th century when (supposedly) Queen Elizabeth I ordered others to eat roast goose for Christmas because that’s what she was eating when she heard the news of the English victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588.

As a main dish goose was a smart choice since it was something almost everyone could enjoy. Geese can be farmed (unlike wild boar), they don’t lay as many eggs as chickens so there is less reason to keep them around, they don’t provide milk like cows, they are larger than chickens so they can feed more people, and they take up less room than pigs. Geese also make exceptional guard animals (during the time you are raising them … before you cook them).

In the 19th century Queen Victoria ate the traditional boar’s head for Christmas dinner but for most people goose was the standard. A goose was relatively affordable but not cheap. Goose Clubs were layaway programs, frequently run by one’s local pub, where less affluent participants could make installment payments over time in order to have a goose for Christmas. The 1892 Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle is set at Christmas time and a goose club is a pivotal plot point.

Cooking a goose could be challenging depending on the kitchen. Too close to the fire a goose burns on the outside while being uncooked on the inside. The fat from the bird can drip into the fire causing bursts of flames. Also the size of the bird was difficult to accommodate if other things were being cooked. All of which led many Victorian Londoners to take their geese to their local bakeries who had seasonal side businesses of cooking people’s geese for them in their large bakery ovens (something Scrooge sees when he is traveling with the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol).

Turkey

Turkey comes from North America and some of the first turkeys to reach England were supposedly imported by William Strickland in 1526. He later had the turkey as part of his family crest. Initially turkeys were only for the wealthy since there were so few birds available. They were a status symbol and an exotic delicacy like how peacock had been, but unlike peacock a turkey tasted good.

By the Victorian era turkey was still a luxury but was no longer solely for the ultra rich. It was becoming more accessible to more people. Charles Dickens was a fan of turkey, so much so that the Cratchit family are gifted a prize winning turkey at the end of 1843’s A Christmas Carol.

The success of A Christmas Carol was so great that it not only reinvigorated the celebration of Christmas but it also popularized the idea of having a turkey for Christmas dinner instead of a goose. By the early 20th century advancements in farming both brought the price of turkeys down, and fattened the birds up, so as to make them Christmas feasts for everyone.

Belsnickel

The dirty, unstable, angry Christmas character who brings presents & punishment to children each year.

Unhinged Santa

Belsnickel is a Christmas tradition that comes from south western Germany. He visits each year, typically operating alone, usually in lieu of Saint Nicholas / Santa Claus. His name is a combination of “bels” (fur) and “nickel” (a diminutive version of Nicholas, from Saint Nicholas) – “Nicholas in Furs” essentially. He’s dirty, dressed in furs, sometimes wearing a mask, maybe has antlers, twigs, leaves, and arrives on Christmas Eve carrying a sack of treats along with a wooden switch/whip.

Belsnickel over the years — Belsnickel is like a dirtier, unpredictable, unhinged German version of Santa Claus.

He announces his arrival by rapping on a window or a door. Like Santa Claus he comes to reward the good children and punish the bad ones, but unlike Santa he is unpleasant and unpredictable. He is loud, angry, and prone to outbursts. In days gone by Belsnickel would throw treats to the ground for the good children and hit the bad children with a switch. Even the good children, if they moved too fast for the treats, might get hit with the switch.

Pennsylvania Dutch

Belsnickel came to America with German immigrants in the early 19th century and in particular to Pennsylvania. A bit of a misnomer, the Pennsylvania Dutch weren’t from the Netherlands but were from the same German speaking Palatinate region as Belsnickel. Among the rural Pennsylvania Dutch the tradition of Belsnickel continued.

In 19th century America Belsnickel led to “Belsnickling”, the custom of dressing in masks & costumes going door to door on Christmas Eve. Like mumming, or the Mari Lwyd tradition in Wales, Belsnickling participants would cause lighthearted mischief seeking coins & treats. By the end of the century masks for Belsnickling would even outsell Halloween masks in some areas.

Over the years Belsnickel changed with the times. Instead of arriving on Christmas Eve he can arrive anytime during the Christmas season. The influence of Santa Claus (and the decline of corporal punishment) has toned down Belsnickel’s behavior. He’s still unpredictable but instead of smacking children he is more likely to ask them if they have been bad or good, giving them presents or a scolding.

Post WWII, and the influence of pop culture, Belsnickel lost popularity to Santa Claus but has seen a bit of a resurgence in recent years. In 2012 the ninth season of The Office introduced Belsnickel to a wider audience with the Christmas episode of Dwight Christmas.

Added info: Belsnickel is one of many Christmas reward & punishment characters. Père Fouettard, Knecht Ruprecht, Zwarte Piet, and of course Krampus all are folk traditions that play a part in the Saint Nicholas / Santa Claus story.

The Office introduced Belsnickel to a wider audience.

The Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center discusses the history of Belsnickel.

Humbug

Humbug the fraud, the hoax, the mint candy.

A humbug is another name for a hoax, a trick, a fraud, something that presents as one thing but is really something else. It was a mid 18th century English slang word that today is perhaps most closely associated with the character of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s 1843 A Christmas Carol (the most famous Christmas ghost story of all time).

humbug is associated with Ebeneezer Scrooge

When Scrooge barks “Bah! Humbug!” he’s commenting on how Christmas is duplicitous, that he feels Christmas tells people they should be happy when they may have nothing to be happy about. To Scrooge, Christmas presents a face of cheer when beneath the surface the world is still as corrupt and as problematic as before. Scrooge the misanthrope, Scrooge the cantankerous grump. His “Bah! Humbug” establishes a baseline of Scrooge’s dislike of the season, his dim view of humanity, and how much work the three spirits will have to do to redeem him.

Humbug was a popular term for hoaxes and charlatans — While today we think of the word “humbug” mostly with *A Christmas Carol*, it used to be a popular word for charlatans, fraudsters, and hoaxes.

P.T. Barnum, the Prince of Humbug

One man who knew a thing or two about fraud was P.T. Barnum. Nicknamed the Prince of Humbugs, Barnum drew a fine line between what was and wasn’t an acceptable deception. He felt humbugs were acceptable tricks, that it was fine to trick the audience as long as they received something fun in return. One example of this was the Fiji Mermaid which he advertised as a beautiful woman rather than the monstrous animal hybrid he had on display (which was fake either way). If the ends justified the means it was all ok in Barnum’s opinion.

Barnum’s 1865 book The Humbugs of the World documents historic deceptions and the universality of hoaxes. For Barnum his style of humbug tricks were acceptable (not surprisingly) but hoaxes that tricked people out of their money with nothing in return were wrong. He spoke out publicly against psychics and other frauds who tricked and hurt people.

humbug candy — Humbug the striped candies have been popular since the 19th century, but unfortunately were the source of a poisoning scandal in 1858.

Mint Candy

Something that’s not a trick, but is a treat, are humbug candies. Humbugs are striped candies, typically mint flavored, most commonly found in English speaking countries (except the US). While they are probably English in origin, and have existed since at least the 1820s, it’s unknown exactly who invented them or why they are called humbugs.

In the mid 19th century humbugs gained an unwanted spotlight. On October 30, 1858 a batch of humbugs in Bradford, England were accidentally made with arsenic trioxide instead of daft (a filler agent made with powdered limestone & plaster of Paris, used as a sugar replacement to cut cost). A junior druggist scooped the wrong powder and gave it to the assistant candy maker who didn’t notice. This mistake killed 20 people (13 of whom were children) and poisoned an additional 200 people. One positive is this led to the Pharmacy Act of 1868 which, among other things, required poisonous substances to be specially marked to avoid confusion.

A look back at how humbugs were made in 1967.

1
2
3
4
…
24
Go to the next page