Stir Up Sunday! Time To Start The Christmas Pudding!

Happy Stir Up Sunday!

Traditionally the day when good housewives...or their cooks... stirred up the dish that would become Christmas Pudding on that festive day coming soon!

The tradition dates... as best as can be seen... from the 14th century. There are traditionally supposed to be 13 ingredients... 1 each for Jesus and the 12 disciples.

Stir Up Sunday refers to the traditional day to start it... the first Sunday before Advent, or the coming of Christ's birth begins.

The  collect for the Sunday before Advent in the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer begins with the words 

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works...". 

This led to the custom of preparing Christmas puddings on that day which became known as Stir Up Sunday.

 The tradition is that for good look in the coming year to fall on the family, every member had to take their turn stirring, and make a wish...

There also developed in the early Victorian era the mixing in of small silver fortune telling tokens in the wealthier families, or a sixpence or two in the more simple puddings. 

The sixpence or threepence for luck or wealth

a wishbone for a granted wish

a boot for travel

a thimble either for thrift or for spinsterhood if recipient was an unmarried lady

an anchor for a safe voyage or safe harbor

a bell for married in the year

horseshoe for luck

and several others that vary by region.

Whatever, you always have to be careful eating, so no teeth are broken.

Sets are handed down in the family. As my husband was a 4th child and a boy to boot, the oldest sister got them, and they are now with their oldest daughter.

My family also passed them to an oldest daughter,  but they were lost about 30 years ago. Sigh...

There is a bit of a debate between calling this steamed pudding or plum pudding...some say the same, just varied by ingredients, some staunch if favor of one or the other...

But all agreed it is dense, full of fruit and steamed.

Also debated, is whether it should be topped with brandy sauce, hard sauce or brandy butter... and whether to be flaming or no...

how nice to have choices! 

I was brought up brandy butter sauce...

Here are several great websites and recipes 

From Downton Abbey Cooks:

https://downtonabbeycooks.com/recipe/traditional-christmas-plum-pudding/

From The National Trust:

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/recipes/christmas-pudding

From BBC Food:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/christmas_pudding_41498

 

 Greeting card featuring a Christmas pudding with a face... from 1880. British Library

Final Days! Ends Wednesday night Nov. 27th! Time Was Antiques https://www.timewasantiques.net

Nov. 14 Prince Charles' Birthday, 1940 Anniversary of Bombing of Coventry, THANKFUL Sale

 Happy Birthday to Prince Charles, Duke of Cornwall!

Born November 14, 1948

And also on November 14th...

 The nave at Coventry Cathedral, before and after November 14, 1940...

The 70th anniversary of the Nazi blitz on the town of Coventry, England was marked today. A horrible day during World War II for the family of my husband, living in Birmingham, England 20 miles away. Along with his younger sister, he was not evacuated to Wales for safety with his 2 older sisters. His oldest brother was serving in the Coldstream Guards.

The bombing was remembered as horrific and John often wonders how his parents coped with the terrors of war  and just trying to feed the family between times spent in the bomb shelter at the end of the garden.  Coventry was a strategic site for the bombers because of it's heavy industrial plants and rail interchanges. Over 1200 people were killed and most of the city was destroyed. John's father and brother who was on a short leave had walked to the bridge over the railroad bridge close to their home and watched the planes dropping their payloads and the subsequent explosions and fireballs.

As they stood there watching, John's father Sam thought he hear Annie his wife calling him so they left the railroad bridge and started quickly home. A few minutes later the railroad bridge went up in an explosion as it, too was bombed. Annie hadn't called, but if they had stayed they would have gone up in the explosion. 

story at the BBC of the anniversary of the Coventry bombing Nov. 14, 1940

Thousands were killed, much of the city was destroyed....
I can't imagine what living through it was like... but the BBC has an interesting webpage with recordings and accounts of what it was like...

BBC: What was it like living through the Coventry Blitz Timeline

From World War II era, this is a handmade silk... parachute silk, probably, embroidered RAF tea cozy from Time Was Antiques .

For more info, click on the photo.

And... our THANKFUL 15% Off coupon code sale
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