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The Boar’s head At Christmas.

Christmas in the Olden Time by Walter Scott.

Then was brought in the lusty brawn

By old blue-coated serving man;

Then the grim boar’s head frowned on high,

Crested with bays and rosemary.

Well can the green-garbed ranger tell

How, when and where the monster fell;

What dogs before his death he tore,

And all the baitings of the boar.

The wassal round, in good brown bowls,

Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls.

There the huge sirloin reeked: hard by

Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pye;

Nor failed old Scotland to produce,

At such high-tide, her savory goose.

Because wild boar was the most feared animal, serving it at a meal represented the victory of good over evil. During the 17th century, wild boar became extinct in Britain so a pig’s head was used instead. The head was often presented on a decorated platter with an apple in its mouth and carried in by bearers in a dramatic manner. The tradition of serving ham for Christmas lunch or dinner probably came from the idea of serving boar’s head or roasted boar joints to guests at Christmas.

To say nothing of the roast beef and plum-pudding, Christmas pies, furmity, and snap-dragons, the Yule-log and the mistletoe have not finally abdicated, while the boar’s head, decorated with rosemary or prickly holly, maintains its place at the English Christmas dinner, and is still served up in great state at the royal Christmas table. At Oxford, U.K., the boar’s head was carried in by the strongest of the guardsmen, singing a Christmas carol, and preceded by a forester, a huntsman, and a couple of pages dressed in silk and carrying the mustard which was regarded as a great luxury and an infallible digester.

The following celebrated carol of the Boar’s Head is found in the book of ‘Christmasse Carolles’ published in 1521 by Wynkyn de Warde:

The boar’s head in bande bring I,

With garlandes gay and rosemary,

I pray you all synge merely,

Qui estis in convivio.

“The bore’s head, I understande,

Is the chefe servyce in this lande.

Loke wherever it be fande,

Servite cum cantico.

“Be gladde, lordes, both more and lasse,

For this bath ordayned our stewarde,

To chere you all this Christmasse,

The bore’s head with mustarde.”

At Oxford, U.K., the boar’s head was carried in by the strongest of the guardsmen, singing a Christmas carol, and preceded by a forester, a huntsman, and a couple of pages dressed in silk and carrying the mustard which was regarded as a great luxury and an infallible digester. A similar custom appears to have prevailed in Genoa in the times of the Dorias when a boar decorated with branches of laurel and accompanied by trumpeters was annually presented to the Doria family by the Abbot of San Antonio at Pré at midday on the 24th of December.

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Early Christians appropriated pagan customs and turned them into religious observances and, therefore, a victory over Paganism and a way to win more souls. By the end of the second century, numerous dates were being proposed as the correct date for the birth of Jesus. One popular method, allegorical theology, thought Christ must have born on the same day the sun was created, though our modern theorists estimate that the birth of Jesus was between 7 and 4 BC.

Unlike Easter, the earliest Christians didn’t celebrate the nativity or Christmas, which began in the late 3rd century AD as an alternative to pagan winter holidays. In the beginning, Christians only celebrated the baptism and resurrection of Christ and the death of the martyrs. The first evidence of Christmas being celebrated is in Rome in 336 AD and by the early fourth century, the 25th of December became the celebration day for the birth of Jesus Christ.

Origen of Alexandria, amongst others, opposed the celebration of Christ’s birth and pointed out that only Pharaoh and Herod celebrate their birthdays in the Bible, and that birthdays were for pagans, not Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses follow this belief and reject the celebration of both Christmas and birthdays. Early religious Christmas customs began with special services held by candlelight and often at midnight. In Bethlehem, Midnight Mass is celebrated at the place of Jesus’ birth in the ancient Church of the Nativity.

But as the years passed, going to church, especially at Christmas, was something done by villagers and landowners as a custom, an obligation, or to show respect to the local clergyman rather than for any great religious reasons. People attended Church services on Sunday and Holy Days and donated money to village or church causes but the religious fervor of early years had dimmed. If a person was particularly devoted, they would read the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, or a book of sermons on a regular basis and probably attend the Church of England, which was the main church by the late Georgian and early Regency years.