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Have You Read Suzi Love’s Books: Romance, Mystery, Military and History? #Romance #ReadARegency #HistoricalRomance #EroticRomance #Reading #Nonfiction

Suzi Love Posted on February 20, 2025 by Suzi LoveFebruary 20, 2025

Have you read Suzi Love’s Books? Romance, Mystery, Military and History. Regency, historical and contemporary romance. Plus non-fiction history and writing.

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Have You Read Suzi Love's Books: Romance, Mystery, Military and History?https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00AFSU7JQ

The Viscount’s Pleasure House Book 1 Irresistible Aristocrats  Disenchanted Viscount tutoring three Regency Ladies. What could go wrong? #Regency Erotic https://books2read.com/suziloveTVPH

Four Times A Virgin Book 2 Irresistible Aristocrats: The countess will do anything to prevent her younger sisters being forced into sordid marriages like hers, even if it means joining forces with the Duke of Stirkton and revealing the horrors of their intertwined pasts. books2read.com/suziloveFTAV

Pleasure House Ball Book 3 Irresistible Aristocrats: Lord Mallory attends his first courtesan’s ball in ten years to appease his concerned friends, though he’d rather stay home and read to his motherless daughters. Though mortified that Brenton unmasks her at a scandalous ball, Lady Lillian Armstrong doesn’t regret their night together. books2read.com/suzilovePHB

Petunia and the Pearl Diver  Book 4 Irresistible Aristocrats Series: The pearl diver needs a working girl to rouse his body. Petunia needs money to save her family. A night at a London brothel could be the solution to both problems. But walking away is impossible when one night leaves them craving more…and more. https://books2read.com/suzilovePetPD

Loving Lady Katharine Book 5 Irresistible Atistocrats: When Lady Katharine Montgomery flees London after her scandalous husband was murdered, the Pacific islands of the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) become her haven. Her life changes when Lord Alexander St. John, British ship’s captain and trader, sails into Port Vila. https://books2read.com/suzi

Embracing Scandal Book 1 Scandalous Siblings: Lady Rebecca Jamison saves her family from financial ruin by investing in railways, but when a greedy syndicate murders her friend, Becca is forced to beg assistance from Cayle St. Martin, the new Duke of Sherwyn. https://books2read.com/suziloveES

Scenting Scandal Book 2 Scandalous Siblings Series: Richard, Earl of Winchester, may not know it yet, but he’s Lady Laura Jamison’s perfect match. Lady Laura Jamison believes her extraordinary olfactory senses will sniff out her perfect match, but will Richard prove her theory wrong? https://books2read.com/suziloveSS

December Scandal Book 3 Scandalous Siblings: The Jamison family joins the Duke of Sherwyn and the St. Martin clan at the duke’s country estate, but guest numbers double when early December snowfalls make roads impassable. #HistoricalRomance https://books2read.com/suziloveDS

Love After Waterloo: When Lady Melton and son join antagonistic Captain Belling and the last group of wounded British soldiers evacuating Waterloo, she anticipates hardship and trouble with deserters. Not her relationship with a belligerent Captain. #RegencyRomance #military books2read.com/suziloveLAW

Self Publishing: Absolute Beginner’s Guide.
Information, contacts, and checklists steer you towards professionally produced books. Helps both fiction and non-fiction authors and available in digital and paperback.
Co-Authored by two Australians: multi-published Imogene Nix and best-selling and award winning Suzi Love. http://books2read.com/selfpublishing

History Notes Books 1-28: Do you need more factual and visual information for your historical fiction? Non-fiction Series: Fashion, music and social manners in the 18th and 19th centuries books2read.com/suziloveFashWomen1700s

Regency Life Series Books 1-5: Historic images, historical information, and funny anecdotes give an overview of life in the early 1800s, or the Jane Austen and Bridgerton years. Information for history buffs and pictures to help readers and writers of historical fiction visualize the people and places of the long Regency period. https://books2read.com/suziloveROver
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Posted in Australia, Bridgerton, Canada, England, Europe, History Notes, History Of Christmases Past, Irresistible Aristocrats, Jane Austen, Love After Waterloo, Regency Life Series, Royalty, Scandalous Siblings Series, Self Publishing, South Pacific, Suzi Love Books, U.S.A | Tagged 1700s Mens Fashion, 1700s Women's Fashion, 1800s men fashion, 1800s women's fashion, Bridgerton, Erotic Romance, fiction, Georgian era, Historical Mystery, historical romance, Jane Austen, military romance, nonfiction, Regency Era, Regency Fashion, romance, Victorian Era | Leave a reply

Auld Lang Syne Traditionally Sung To Farewell the Old Year. #NewYear. #2025 #Scotland #BritishHistory

Suzi Love Posted on December 31, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 30, 2024

Auld Lang Syne is traditionally sung to farewell the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. It’s a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 in Scotland, but based on an older Scottish folk song. In 1799, it was set to the traditional tune.

The song begins by posing a rhetorical question: Is it right that old times be forgotten? The answer is generally interpreted as a call to remember long-standing friendships.[9] Alternatively, “Should” may be understood to mean “if” (expressing the conditional mood) referring to a possible event or situation.

George Thomson‘s Select Songs of Scotland was published in 1799 in which the second verse about greeting and toasting was moved to its present position at the end.[9]

Most common usage of the song involves only the first verse and the chorus. The last lines of both of these are often sung with the extra words “For the sake of” or “And days of”, rather than Burns’s simpler lines. This makes these lines strictly syllabic, with just one note per syllable.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?


(Chorus)
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.


And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.


We twa hae run about the braes
And pu’d the gowans fine;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot
Sin auld lang syne.


We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
Frae mornin’ sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.


And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll tak a right guid willy waught,
For auld lang syne.

English version

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And old lang syne?


(Chorus)
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.


And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
And surely I’ll buy mine!
And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.


We two have run about the slopes,
And picked the daisies fine;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
Since auld lang syne.


We two have paddled in the stream,
From morning sun till dine;
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne.


And there’s a hand my trusty friend!
And give me a hand o’ thine!
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
For auld lang syne.

Robert Burns
Robert Burns Robert Burns, engraving from A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, 1870.

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Christmas Three Wise Men Bringing Gifts. #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs

Suzi Love Posted on December 23, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 17, 2024

Gifts From The Three Wise Men

The Star of Bethlehem, or Christmas Star appears in nativity story of Gospel of Matthew where wise men from the East, or Magi, follow the star and travel to Jerusalem. The Three Wise Men brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn king. Myrrh being commonly used as an anointing oil, frankincense as a perfume, and gold as a valuable.

Three Kings came riding from far away,

Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar;

Three Wise Men out of the East were they,

And they travelled by night and they slept by day,

For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.

The Three Kings by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were the three presents brought by the Wise Men to the Infant Christ, lying in the manger stall, at Bethlehem. Gold to Christ means that all the affluence of the world surrendered to Him and Gold paid the way for Joseph and Mary and the divine fugitive into Egypt. The gold for Christ, the silver for Christ, the jewels for Christ. The bright, round, beautiful jewel of a world set like a solitaire on the bosom of Christ. The wise men shook myrrh out of their sacks and the cattle snuffed at it but didn’t eat it because it was bitter. This pungent gum resin of Abyssinia was brought to the feet of Christ to show bitter betrayal, persecution, days of suffering and bitter nights. Myrrh was put into His cup when He was dying and put under His head in the wilderness and Myrrh was used on His from the cattle-pen in Bethlehem to the mausoleum. Frankincense means worship and was brought to temples, sprinkled over the living coals, and when they were ready to worship, the cover was lifted and perfumed smoke arose and filled the places of worship and altars.

In modern times, gifts are given on December 25th, or Christmas Day, in most countries but in others it is December 6th, or Saint Nicholas Day, and January 6th, or Epiphany. European countries generally follow the custom of giving each other presents on Christmas Eve.

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Christmas: Lord Of Misrule #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs

Suzi Love Posted on December 19, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 17, 2024

The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant, or sub-deacon, and the revelries followed the Pagan tradition of Saturnalia and was a time of drunkenness and wild partying. The Church’s festival with a Boy Bishop, the leader of children’s festivities in choir schools, was similar, but was abolished by Henry VIII in 1541, restored by the Catholic Queen Mary, but again abolished by Protestant Elizabeth I. On the Continent, the Council of Basle suppressed it in 1431 but the custom was revived in some places from time to time, even as late as the eighteenth century. After the death of Edward VI in 1553, the English court stopped appointing a Lord of Misrule.

From A Survey of London by John Stow: Reprinted from the text of 1603.

‘…in the feaste of Christmas, there was in the kings house, wheresoeuer he was lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or Maister of merry disports, and the like had yee in the house of euery noble man, of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall.’

During the late medieval and early Tudor periods in England, Lord of Misrule, also called Abbot Of Misrule, or King Of Misrule, was appointed to manage the Christmas festivities held at court, in the houses of great noblemen, in the law schools of the Inns of Court, and in many of the colleges at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

His reign lasted anywhere from 12 days to 3 months and his role was to direct the masques, processions, plays, and feasts. Although this was mostly a British custom, in ancient Rome from the 17th to 23rd of December, a Lord of Misrule took on the guise of Saturn for the feast of Saturnalia and the ordinary rules were changed so that masters became slaves and the offices of state were held by slaves. The Lord of Misrule presided and could command anyone to do anything. Our contemporary Christmas holidays seem to have originated from this idea of festive holidays.

The custom began in December 1551 when the Duke of Somerset, Edward VI’s uncle Edward Seymour, was in the Tower of London awaiting execution. He sent a note to the Master of Revels to appoint George Ferrers as Lord of Misrule. Ferrers was a courtier and poet who later contributed to A Mirror for Magistrates, described by Scott Lucas as a “compendium of tragic monologues” by a series of historical personages.

Scotland had the Abbot of Unreason (suppressed in 1555) as their equivalent to the Lord of Misrule and scholars believe both ideas came from the “king” or “bishop” who presided over the earlier Feast of Fools.

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Christmas: Candy Cane And It’s Fascinating History #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs

Suzi Love Posted on December 17, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 16, 2024

Legend has it that during the 17th century, craftsmen created straight white sticks of candy in the shape of shepherds’ crooks at the suggestion of the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. The treats were given to children to keep them quiet during ceremonies at the living creche, or Nativity scene, and the custom of passing out the crooks at such ceremonies soon spread throughout Europe.

‘The legends of the candy cane are many, including that the cane was shaped like a “J” for Jesus, the three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity, the hardness of the candy represented the Church’s foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor reflects the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament.’ via Encyclopedia Britannica

In celebrations of Saint Nicholas Day, candy canes are given to children as they are also said to represent the crosier of the Christian bishop, Saint Nicholas; crosiers themselves allude to the Good Shepherd, a title associated with Jesus. Some people explain the symbolism of a striped cane as white representing Christ’s purity, red the blood he shed, and the three red stripes the Holy Trinity.

In the mid 1600s, sugar roses were added but weren’t popular so plain white canes remained until red stripes were added around 1890. In 1847, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio, U.S.A. looped candy canes that he brought with him from Europe over the boughs of his Christmas tree.

In 1919,  Bob McCormack of Albany, Georgia, made candy canes for family, friends and local shopkeepers. The canes were bent by hand as they came off the assembly line into the  ‘J’ shape of a shepherd’s crook, so breakage was often over 20 percent. In the 1920s, a cherubic child in a red-and-white hat sold peppermint candy cane to Albany natives in an advertisement for Bob’s candy company.  McCormack was the first manufacturer to wrap his candy in cellophane. Bobs moved to a larger facility in the 1930s so that it could expand its product lines and was one of the few candy companies to remain solvent during the Great Depression.

As the economy improved, people bought more sweet treats,  but Bobs Candy was then leveled by a tornado and, as the company had no tornado insurance, they had to rebuild on their own. By August 1940 the company was back in business and employed McCormack’s three children.

During World War II (1941-45), when sugar was rationed, coconuts were in short supply, and pecans were expensive, Bobs took advantage of a plentiful local product—the peanut—and sold peanut-butter crackers and vacuum-packed peanuts. During the 1950s, Bobs began making money with such innovations as break-proof packaging, moisture-proof candy wrappers.

In 1952, Bob McCormack’s brother-in-law, Catholic priest Gregory Keller, invented the Keller Machine which automated the process of twisting soft candy into spiral striping and then cutting them into precise lengths as candy canes.

Harding Keller invented the Keller Machine around 1950 for his brother-in-law Bob McCormack. The machine twisted and cut stick candy, allowing for the mass production of the company’s signature candy canes and other items. – Courtesy of Farley’s and Sathers Candy Company, Inc.

First, candy sticks cut to the desired length enter the machine. Each stick is bent individually, but the machine has a system of multiple grippers and rollers to continually bend the sticks, one after the other. As each stick enters the machine, it is positioned in a gripper which holds the straight portion of the cane with the part to be bent protruding out. Each gripper has on one side a curved die which the protruding end will be bent over. The candy stick is first bent to a right angle as it is moved past and put into contact with an inclined face. The patent application describes two potential versions of the mechanism which complete the bending process.

The first version of the mechanism has a chain around two sprockets on which are mounted bending rollers. Each bending roller is attached to a cam which rides along another inclined face to move the roller along the protruding surface of the cane to complete bending it around the die. In the second version, the chain and sprockets are replaced by a wheel on which the bending rollers are mounted. In modern candy cane production, the sticks are wrapped in cellophane before they are bent.

By the middle of the century, Bob’s company – originally the Famous Candy Company, then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company, and later Bobs Candies, had become one of the world’s leading candy cane producers.Bobs Candies was sold to Farley’s and Sathers in Spring 2005. Farley’s and Sathers merged with the Ferrara Candy Company which continues to make candy canes under the Bobs name.

By the middle of the century, Bob’s company – originally the Famous Candy Company, then the Mills-McCormack Candy Company, and later Bobs Candies, had become one of the world’s leading candy cane producers.

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Christmas: European Traditions #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs

Suzi Love Posted on December 17, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 17, 2024

Christmas European Traditions

From Harper’s Bazaar:- ‘Advent is the herald of Christmas. In Protestant as well as Catholic countries, choristers and school-boys during the “holy-nights” go from house to house singing songs or Christmas carols to usher in the auspicious day. In the south of Germany, they accompany the singing by knocking at the doors with a little hammer, or throwing pease, beans, or lentils at the windows. Hence the origin of the name of “knocking nights.”

In Bohemia, Styria, Carniola, and other German provinces, people group together and perform Christmas plays during Advent, with simple plots about the story of the Savior’s birth, his persecution by Herod, and the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt. The players usually consist of the Christ-child, St. Nicholas or St. Peter, St. Joseph and the Virgin, Herod, the varlet Ruprecht, several angels, together with shepherds and other less conspicuous personages.

The devil is the merriest character because he capers about through the village and furiously blows his horn, frightening or bantering with, the old and young, despite portraying the humble rôle of a messenger. A handsome youth of the strictest morals is usually selected to represent the Virgin Mary. The rehearsal is usually accompanied by a certain rhythmical movement, the players going four steps to and fro, so that a meter or foot corresponds to every step, and on the fourth, which includes the rhyme, the performer turns quickly around. The holy personages sing instead of rehearsing their parts, but accompany their singing with the same rhythmical movement.

On the first Sunday in Advent the play is inaugurated by a solemn procession, headed by the master singer bearing a gigantic star, followed by the others drawing a large fir-tree ornamented with ribbons and apples; and thus they go singing to the large hall where the play is to be performed. On arriving at the door they form a half circle, and sing the star-song; then, after saluting sun, moon, and stars, the emperor, the government, and the master singer, in the name of all the “herbs and roots that grow in the earth,” they enter the hall, and the performance begins.

The prologue and epilogue are sung by an angel. As the whole stage apparatus often consists of only a straw-bottomed chair and a wooden stool, every change of scene is indicated by a procession of the whole company singing an appropriate song; after which only those who take part in the next act remain standing, while the remainder go off singing.

These dramatic representations are often very simple, or only fragmentary, consisting, it may be, of a troop of boys and girls disguised as shepherds and shepherdesses, who go about singing shepherd songs, thus announcing the approaching advent of our Savior. At other times, they are performed from house to house and are associated with the distribution of Christmas presents.

In such cases, they are made the occasion of a solemn inquest into the conduct of the children, and constitute in Germany — which appears to be at once the paradise and purgatory of Christmas-loving juveniles — a potential auxiliary of pedagogic and parental discipline.

The archangel Gabriel, it may be, first appears upon the scene, and thus announces his advent: “May God give you a happy good-evening! I am his messenger, sent from angel-land. My name is Gabriel. In my hands I bear the scepter which the Son of God has given me. On my head I wear the crown with which the Son of God has crowned me.”

Thereupon the Christ-child, wearing a gilded paper crown, and carrying a basket full of apples and nuts, enters, singing the song commencing,

“Down from the high heaven I come,”

and greets the company with a similar salutation.

In the course of his song he informs the children that the object of his coming is to learn whether they have been good and obedient, and if they “pray and spin diligently.”

If so, they are to be rewarded with gifts from his golden chariot which stands at the door; if not, their backs are to be belabored with rods. St. Peter or St. Nicholas, as the case may be, is then called in to furnish a faithful account of the children’s deportment.

If it be St. Nicholas, he enters with a long staff or crozier in his hand, and a bishop’s miter of gilt paper upon his head. His report is not usually a flattering one. On their way from school the children loiter in the streets, they tear their books, neglect their tasks, and forget to say their prayers; and as a penance for all this evil-doing, he recommends a liberal application of the rod. The Christ-child interposes, almost supplicating,

“Ah, Nicholas, forbear.

Spare the little child.

Spare the young blood!”

The two then join with the angel in singing a song, when St. Peter is summoned, who promptly enters, jingling his keys. The saint, who rather plumes himself on his high office of heavenly janitor, carries matters with a high hand.

He examines the children’s copy-books, it may be, bids them kneel down and pray, and then, by virtue of his high prerogative, pronounces sentence upon the unfortunate delinquents, and calls upon the black Ruprecht, who stands waiting outside the door, to execute his orders.

“Ruperus, Ruperus, enter!

The children will not be obedient.”

The frightful bugbear, dressed in fur, and covered with chains, with blackened face and fiery eyes, and a long red tongue protruding out of his month, stumbles over the threshold, brandishing an enormous birch, and as he falls headlong into the room, roars out to the children, “Can you pray?” Whereupon they fall upon their knees and repeat their prayers at the top of their voices.

The five heavenly visitors, standing in a half circle, then sing another song or two descriptive of the heavenly joys, or freighted with wholesome advice to both children and parents. The latter give them in return a few farthings, while the Christ-child scatters apples and nuts here and there upon the floor for the further edification of the children, and then Christ-child, St. Nicholas, St. Peter, the archangel Gabriel, and devil exeunt.

St. Nicholas, as all the world knows, is the patron of children, with whom he is the most popular saint in the calendar. Bishop of Myra, in Lycia, in the time of Constantine the Great, if we are to credit the Roman breviary, he supplied three destitute maidens with dowries by secretly leaving a marriage-portion for each at their window. Hence the popular fiction that he is the purveyor of presents to children on Christmas-eve.

He usually makes his appearance as an old man with a venerable beard, and dressed as a bishop, either riding a white horse or an ass, and carrying a large basket on his arm, and a bundle of rods in his hand. In some parts of Bohemia he appear dressed up in a sheet instead of a surplice, with a crushed pillow on his head instead of a miter.

On his calling out, “Wilt thou pray?” all the children fall upon their knees, whereupon he lets fall some fruit upon the floor and disappears. In this manner he goes from house to house, sometimes ringing a bell to announce his arrival, visits the nurseries, inquiries into the conduct of the children, praises or admonishes them, as the case may be, distributing sweetmeats or rods accordingly.

St. Nicholas is the Santa Claus of Holland, and the Samiklaus of Switzerland, and the Sönner Klâs of Helgoland. In the Vorarlberg he is known as Zemmikias, who threatens to put naughty children into his hay-sack; in Nether Austria as Niklo, or Niglo, who is followed by a masked servant called Krampus. In the Tyrol he goes by the name of the “Holy Man,” and shares the patronage of his office with St. Lucy, who distributes gifts among the girls, as he among the boys. Sometimes he is accompanied by the Christ-child. In many parts of Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands St. Nicholas still distributes his presents on St. Nicholas’s Eve — the 5th of December — instead of on Christmas-eve.

In the Netherlands and adjoining provinces he is especially popular, and is perhaps the only saint who has maintained his full credit, even among the Protestants. For days previous to his expected advent busy housewives have been secretly conspiring with the bakers in gilding nuts, cakes, and gingerbread, and torturing pastry, prepared with flour, sugar, honey, spices, and sweetmeats, into the most fantastical forms, from which the good saint may from time to time replenish his supplies.

As to the children, St. Nicholas or Sünder Klaas is the burden of their prayers, the staple of their dreams, and the inspiration of their songs. As they importune him to let fall from the chimney-top some pretty gift into their little aprons, they go on singing with childish fervor,

“Sünder Klaas da gode Bloot!

Breng’ mi Nööt un Zuckerbrod,

Nicht to veel un nich to minn

Smiet in mine Schörten in!”

In Belgium, on the eve of the good bishop’s aerial voyage in his pastoral visitation of his bishopric of chimney-tops, the children polish their shoes, and after filling them with hay, oats, or carrots for the saint’s white horse, they put them on a table, or set them in the fireplace. The room is then carefully closed and the door locked. Next morning it is opened in the presence of the assembled household, when, mirabile dictu! the furniture is found to be turned topsy-turvy, while the little shoes, instead of horse’s forage, are filled with sweetmeats and toys for the good children, and with rods for the bad ones. In some places wooden or China shoes, stockings, baskets, cups and saucers, and even bundles of hay, are placed in the chimney, or by the side of the bed, or in a corner of the room, as the favorite receptacles of St. Nicholas’s presents.

In the Western world, where Christmas is characterized by the exchange of gifts among friends and family members, some of the gifts are attributed to a character called Santa Claus. He is also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, St. Nikolaus, Sinterklaas, Kris Kringle, Joulupukki, Weihnachtsmann, Saint Basil and Father Frost.

Father Christmas, who predates Santa Claus, was first recorded in the 15th century and then associated with holiday merrymaking and drunkenness. Today’s version of Santa Claus was created by the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902), who drew a new image of the character annually, beginning in 1863.

By the 1880s, Nast’s Santa had become the one now know and in the 1920s, this image was used in most advertising. In Victorian Britain, his image was remade to match that of Santa and France’s Père Noël (Papa Noël) evolved the same way and eventually began using the same Santa image.

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Christmas: Symbols and Their Meanings #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs

Suzi Love Posted on December 17, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 16, 2024

Christmas Symbols and Their Meanings

Angels – Heralds for the news of the birth of a baby in a manger.

Bells – Bells have rung out for all important events for centuries, plus lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell.

Candy Cane  – Symbolizes the crook of the shepherds who visited Christ.  Red represents the blood that was spilled and white is for purity. The peppermint oil that flavors is known for its strong healing properties.

Cards – Produced in Britain in 1843 to be sent with love to family and friends around the world by the new Postal services.

Xmas_First Christmas Card

Carols – Poems and stories of worship made into songs.

Carolers – Groups of people who strolled the streets singing Christmas songs

Feasting – To celebrate the joy of the baby’s arrival on the 25th December. 

Gift Giving – The Wise Men bowed before the baby and gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Gold – Decorating using the color of one of the gifts of the wise men.

Green – Decorating using the color of evergreens which show everlasting love.

Holly – Represents Eternal Life and the crown of thorns worn by Jesus.

Mistletoe: In the 18th Century, men kissed a woman who stood under mistletoe to show love, friendship and goodwill. If a woman was un-kissed, she would (supposedly) never marry.

Nativity: The birth of Jesus Christ

Poinsettia –  Red flowers used in countries such as Mexico to symbolize Christmas time.

Xmas Poinsettia

Stockings – Hung by children to receive gifts

Twelve Days of Christmas: Twelve days between the birth of Christ on December 25 and the coming of the Magi on January 6, the Epiphany.

Tree – Evergreen tree symbolizes eternal life and love

Wreath – Made of evergreens to symbolize never ending love

Christmas: Symbols and Their Meanings #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs https://books2read.com/suziloveHOCP Share on X
Posted in 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, Bridgerton, Christmas, Customs & Manners, Edwardian Era, England, Europe, Food and Drink, Georgian Era, History Of Christmases Past, household, Jane Austen, Pastimes, Regency Era, Suzi Love Books, Victorian Era | Tagged Bridgerton, British history, Christmas, Customs and Traditions, europe, History Of Christmases Past, Jane Austen, Regency Era, Victorian Era

Christmas Greetings Around The World #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs

Suzi Love Posted on December 16, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 16, 2024

Christmas Greetings Internationally.

  • Merry Christmas  – English
  • Joyeux Noël    –    French
  •  Meri Kurisumasu     –    Japanese
  •  Nollaig Shona Dhuit    –    Irish – Gaelic
  •  Meri Kirihimete        –     New Zealand (Maori)
  • Manuia Le Kerisimasi     –     Samoan
  •  Blithe Yule    –     Scottish
  •  Finnish –  Hyvää joulua
  • Greek  – Καλά Χριστούγεννα (Καλά Χριστούγεννα)
  •  Italian – Buon Natale
  •  Spanish. –  Feliz Navidad
  •  Turkish  – Mutlu Noeller
  • Vietnamese. –  Giáng Sinh vui vẻ
  •  German – Frohe Weihnachten

Christmas Greetings Around The World #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #Customs books2read.com/suziloveHOCP Share on X
Posted in 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, Australia, Canada, Christmas, England, Europe, History Of Christmases Past, South Pacific, Suzi Love Images, U.S.A | Tagged Christmas, England, europe, France, Germany, History Of Christmases Past, Regency Era | Leave a reply

Christmas: Tree History #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #RegencyEra

Suzi Love Posted on December 15, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 14, 2024

Christmas Trees and Their History

Our modern Christmas tree tradition probably began in Germany in the 18th century, though some argue that Martin Luther began the tradition in the 16th century. An  evergreen fir tree was used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian) for thousands of years. Nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees but it probably began 1000 years ago in Northern Europe. Many early Christmas Trees seem to have been hung upside down from the ceiling using chains.

The English phrase “Christmas tree”, first recorded in 1835, came from the German words Tannenbaum (fir tree) or Weinachtenbaum (Christmas tree). The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianization of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship.   At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel or fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wisemen saw.

Christian tradition associates the holly tree with the crown of thorns, and says that its leaves were white until stained red by the blood of Christ. Along with a Christmas tree, the interior of homes were decorated with plants, garlands, and evergreen foliage and in Victorian times, Christmas trees were decorated with candles to represent stars.

The early Germans conceived of the world as a great tree whose roots were hidden deep under the earth, but whose top, flourishing in the midst of Walhalla, the old German paradise, nourished the she-goat upon whose milk fallen heroes restored themselves. Yggdnafil was the name of this tree, and its memory was still green long after Christianity had been introduced into Germany, when much of its symbolic character was transferred to the Christmas-tree. At first fitted up during the Twelve Nights in honor of Berchta, the goddess of spring, it was subsequently transferred to the birthday of Christ, who, as the God-man, is become the “resurrection and the life.”

Queen Victoria saw a Christmas tree as a girl in 1832. The little princess wrote excitedly in her diary that her Aunt Sophia had set up two “trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed around the tree.” In 1841, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s German husband, arranged for a fir tree to be brought from Germany and decorated. By 1850, Victoria and Albert had Christmas trees erected in the British Royal Palaces and their children started the tradition of gathering around the tree.

‘The Christmas-tree is doubtless of German origin. Though in its present form it is comparatively of recent date, yet its pagan prototype enjoyed a very high antiquity.’ From 1873 Harper’s Bazaar, America.

A print of the royal family gathered about the Christmas tree at Windsor Castle appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848, then in Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1850, and was reprinted again ten years later. The six-foot fir sits on a table, each tier laden with a dozen or more lighted wax tapers. An angel with outstretched arms poses at the top. Gilt gingerbread ornaments and tiny baskets filled with sweets hang by ribbons from the branches. Clustered around the base of the tree are dolls and soldiers and toys.

Christmas trees did exist in America before Queen Victoria made them famous, but mainly only amongst migrant groups from Europe. The writer of an 1825 article in The Saturday Evening Post mentions seeing trees in the windows of many houses in Philadelphia, a city with a large German population. He wrote, Their “green boughs laden with fruit, richer than the golden apples of the Hesperides, or the sparkling diamonds that clustered on the branches in the wonderful cave of Aladdin.” Gilded apples and nuts hung from the branches as did marzipan ornaments, sugar cakes, miniature mince pies, spicy cookies cut from molds in the shape of stars, birds, fish, butterflies, and flowers. A woman visiting German friends in Boston in 1832 wrote about their unusual tree hung with gilded eggshell cups filled with candies.

Not until the mid-nineteenth century did Christmas trees start spreading to homes with no known German connection.  But once Queen Victoria approved of the custom of a Christmas tree,  the practice spread throughout England and America and, to a lesser extent, to other parts of the world, through magazine pictures and articles. Upper-class Victorian Englishmen loved to imitate the royal family, and other nations copied the custom. Late in the century, larger floor-to-ceiling trees replaced the tabletop size.  

Christmas: Tree History #Christmas #holidays #Traditions #RegencyEra https://books2read.com/suziloveHOCP Share on X
Posted in 1700s, 1800s, 1900s, Australia, Bridgerton, Canada, Christmas, Customs & Manners, Edwardian Era, Europe, Georgian Era, History Of Christmases Past, household, Jane Austen, Pastimes, Regency Era, Romantic Era, South Pacific, Suzi Love Images, U.S.A, Victorian Era | Tagged British history, Christmas, Customs and Traditions, europe, History Of Christmases Past, household, Regency Life, Regency Royalty, Suzi Love Research, Victorian Era

Christmas: Mistletoe and its long history. #Christmas #Holidays #Customs #BritishHistory

Suzi Love Posted on December 14, 2024 by Suzi LoveDecember 13, 2024

Another Christmas Tradition is kisisng under the Mistletoe. So have fun this Christmas and find someone to kiss. The problem in hotter climates is to find the Mistletoe, of course. Darn!

Mistletoe was used by Druid priests 200 years before the birth of Christ in their winter celebrations. They revered the plant since it had no roots yet remained green during the cold months of winter. The ancient Celtics believed mistletoe to have magical healing powers and used it as an antidote for poison, infertility, and to ward of evil spirits. The plant was also seen as a symbol of peace, and it is said that among Romans, enemies who met under mistletoe would lay down their weapons and embrace.

Scandanavians associated the plant with Frigga, their goddess of love, and it may be from this that we derive the custom of kissing under the mistletoe. Those who kissed under the mistletoe had the promise of happiness and good luck in the following year. Mistletoe was associated with Christmas as both a decoration under which lovers kiss, as well as a protection from witches and demons. Sounds romantic, although mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant that grows on other trees or plants and comes in many varieties.  

In Britain, mistletoe was mainly found in the western and southwestern parts, so the custom wasn’t even followed in all parts of England. But where the mistletoe custom was followed, it was hung in doorways and the greenery was watched by young gentlemen in hopes of catching a pretty girl to kiss, usually on the cheek.      

Traditionally, a man was allowed to kiss a woman who was standing underneath mistletoe and bad luck would befall any woman who refused. In some places, it was the custom to pick a berry for each kiss and when all the berries were gone, no more kisses could be taken.

Christmas Mistletoe
Christmas: Mistletoe and its long history. #Christmas #Holidays #Customs #BritishHistory https://books2read.com/suziloveHOCP Share on X
Posted in 1700s, 1800s, Christmas, Customs & Manners, England, Europe, Georgian Era, History Of Christmases Past, household, Regency Era, Suzi Love Images | Tagged British history, Christmas, Customs and Traditions, europe, Georgian era, History Of Christmases Past, Regency Era

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