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“You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me why?"
"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
"I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost. "I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
*****
Written by Andrew Hagerty
It is odd when two dissimilar situations collide and become one situation. Last week I was focusing heavily upon the Victorian era and their fascination and familiarity with death. During the same week My wife and I were in the car going somewhere and over the radio was playing Christmas music. Over the radio came Andy Williams’ classic Christmas song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,”. She pointed out one particular verse “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” At the time, I brushed it off, thinking it referred to ‘A Christmas Carol’, which was Charles Dickens Christmas story with some ghosts in it. Well, it may appear that the story is more of a Ghost story with a little Christmas in it.
Our current Christmas is still very Victorian. Most of the customs that they molded into their Christmas celebrations are still in use today. There has been very little change over the past two centuries. Christmas cards, caroling around the neighborhood, stuffing stockings and decorating evergreens all were adopted in the Victorian era. We have added to the practices, but we kept, and built on the Victorian era’s base.
Apparently, some of the traditions have fallen on the wayside. The practice of gathering around the fire on Christmas Eve to tell ghost stories was as much a part of Christmas for the Victorian English as Santa Claus is for us. So The Christmas Carol (1843) may in fact be meant as one of these ghost stories. There is an argument among historians if That story single handedly saved Christmas from dying out during the industrial Revolution. Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell tried to abolish Christmas during the mid-17th century. Cromwell argued, nowhere in the Bible does it tell Christians to celebrate Christ’s birth on the 25th of December. Nor, in fact, does it mention any “holy
day” other than the Lord’s Sabbath. Due to that thought process and several other reasons, England was not really celebrating Christmas. Dicken’s story re-introduced many centuries-old traditions with his Story. There has been any other story base, remade and reworked as much as A Christmas Carol.
Apparently Charles was not the only one. In 1823 Edgar Taylor’s first English translation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales caused an explosion of Fairies and goblins into Victorian culture. Other authors, such as Charles Kingsley, Christina Rossetti, MR James and Lewis Carroll all added new fairy tales. Of course we mentioned “a Christmas Carol, but in it’s time “The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy-tale of Home (1846)” was also very popular for Charles Dickens.
As in current days, Christmas was a time for Victorian family get-togethers. Unlike today the average Victorian household was unable to afford the theater or musical concerts. So they would spend cold winter evenings entertaining themselves at home. The natural gathering place was the hearth. It was where families ate, kept warm, conversed and entertained themselves with singing, parlor games, miming and acting. Reading aloud and story-telling were favorite occupations on cold winter evenings. Ghost stories were the most popular form of stories at the time.
In an Anthology of Christmas ghost stories in 1891, Jerome K wrote, “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories, nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters.” Jerome also wrote “There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas, something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails… For ghost stories to be told on any other evening than the evening of the twenty-fourth of December would be impossible in English society as at present regulated.“
Mr James writes in the preface to his first collection of tales, Ghost Stories of An Antiquary(1904) “I wrote these stories at long intervals, and most of them were read to patient friends, usually at the seasons of Christmas…” He also wrote More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925) for the same reasons.
Henry James began his classic novella of spectral terrors, The Turn of the Screw in the following fashion: “The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.”
There is no evidence in existence that shows the ghost story tradition being linked to pre-Victorian times. However, Christmas is located close to the Winter Solstice. This night was traditionally held to be the most haunted due to its association with the death of the sun and light. It was the one night of the year when the barrier between the worlds of the living and the deceased was thinnest. On Christmas Eve, ghosts could still walk the earth and finish unsettled business. This was the time of Germanic Yule, Roman Saturnalia and Sol Invictus (the birthday of the Unconquered Sun), all of which commemorated the longest night of the year. These festivals celebrated the death of light and its subsequent rebirth the following day.
Victorian England also had a Celtic renaissance and drew heavily upon These pre Christian traditions. In 1819, Washington Irving wrote “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., “ He had his literary alter-ego visit an English country house over the festive period in a section entitled Old Christmas. Amid the Christmas Day festivities it is noted” When I returned to the drawing-room, I found the company seated around the fire, listening to the parson, who was deeply ensconced in a high-backed oaken chair, the work of some cunning artificer of yore, which had been brought from the library for his particular accommodation. From this venerable piece of furniture, with which his shadowy figure and dark weazen face so admirably accorded, he was dealing forth strange accounts of popular superstitions and legends of the surrounding country, with which he had become acquainted in the course of his antiquarian researches.”
Shakespeare’s “A Winter's Tale”(1623) has Prince Mamillius proposing to tell the court a story. He says” A sad tale's best for winter: I have one
Of sprites and goblins…”
So, the scary ghost stories of long ago, were written about almost 400 years ago. I wonder how much further back they go. Did our caveman ancestors huddle around their fires on the longest night of the year and speak of ghosts? Did we loose touch with something primordial in our modern age? We may never know, unless we can speak to our ancestors on the longest night of the year. Wouldn't that be interesting to regain that lost knowledge our forefathers had? Gather your family, turn the TV to the fireplace channel, and speak of “ scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago”. You may not contact a spirit, but you may just have a good time.
Our current Christmas is still very Victorian. Most of the customs that they molded into their Christmas celebrations are still in use today. There has been very little change over the past two centuries. Christmas cards, caroling around the neighborhood, stuffing stockings and decorating evergreens all were adopted in the Victorian era. We have added to the practices, but we kept, and built on the Victorian era’s base.
Apparently, some of the traditions have fallen on the wayside. The practice of gathering around the fire on Christmas Eve to tell ghost stories was as much a part of Christmas for the Victorian English as Santa Claus is for us. So The Christmas Carol (1843) may in fact be meant as one of these ghost stories. There is an argument among historians if That story single handedly saved Christmas from dying out during the industrial Revolution. Lord Protector of England Oliver Cromwell tried to abolish Christmas during the mid-17th century. Cromwell argued, nowhere in the Bible does it tell Christians to celebrate Christ’s birth on the 25th of December. Nor, in fact, does it mention any “holy
day” other than the Lord’s Sabbath. Due to that thought process and several other reasons, England was not really celebrating Christmas. Dicken’s story re-introduced many centuries-old traditions with his Story. There has been any other story base, remade and reworked as much as A Christmas Carol.
Apparently Charles was not the only one. In 1823 Edgar Taylor’s first English translation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales caused an explosion of Fairies and goblins into Victorian culture. Other authors, such as Charles Kingsley, Christina Rossetti, MR James and Lewis Carroll all added new fairy tales. Of course we mentioned “a Christmas Carol, but in it’s time “The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy-tale of Home (1846)” was also very popular for Charles Dickens.
As in current days, Christmas was a time for Victorian family get-togethers. Unlike today the average Victorian household was unable to afford the theater or musical concerts. So they would spend cold winter evenings entertaining themselves at home. The natural gathering place was the hearth. It was where families ate, kept warm, conversed and entertained themselves with singing, parlor games, miming and acting. Reading aloud and story-telling were favorite occupations on cold winter evenings. Ghost stories were the most popular form of stories at the time.
In an Anthology of Christmas ghost stories in 1891, Jerome K wrote, “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories, nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters.” Jerome also wrote “There must be something ghostly in the air of Christmas, something about the close, muggy atmosphere that draws up the ghosts, like the dampness of the summer rains brings out the frogs and snails… For ghost stories to be told on any other evening than the evening of the twenty-fourth of December would be impossible in English society as at present regulated.“
Mr James writes in the preface to his first collection of tales, Ghost Stories of An Antiquary(1904) “I wrote these stories at long intervals, and most of them were read to patient friends, usually at the seasons of Christmas…” He also wrote More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), A Thin Ghost and Others (1919), and A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories (1925) for the same reasons.
Henry James began his classic novella of spectral terrors, The Turn of the Screw in the following fashion: “The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child.”
There is no evidence in existence that shows the ghost story tradition being linked to pre-Victorian times. However, Christmas is located close to the Winter Solstice. This night was traditionally held to be the most haunted due to its association with the death of the sun and light. It was the one night of the year when the barrier between the worlds of the living and the deceased was thinnest. On Christmas Eve, ghosts could still walk the earth and finish unsettled business. This was the time of Germanic Yule, Roman Saturnalia and Sol Invictus (the birthday of the Unconquered Sun), all of which commemorated the longest night of the year. These festivals celebrated the death of light and its subsequent rebirth the following day.
Victorian England also had a Celtic renaissance and drew heavily upon These pre Christian traditions. In 1819, Washington Irving wrote “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., “ He had his literary alter-ego visit an English country house over the festive period in a section entitled Old Christmas. Amid the Christmas Day festivities it is noted” When I returned to the drawing-room, I found the company seated around the fire, listening to the parson, who was deeply ensconced in a high-backed oaken chair, the work of some cunning artificer of yore, which had been brought from the library for his particular accommodation. From this venerable piece of furniture, with which his shadowy figure and dark weazen face so admirably accorded, he was dealing forth strange accounts of popular superstitions and legends of the surrounding country, with which he had become acquainted in the course of his antiquarian researches.”
Shakespeare’s “A Winter's Tale”(1623) has Prince Mamillius proposing to tell the court a story. He says” A sad tale's best for winter: I have one
Of sprites and goblins…”
So, the scary ghost stories of long ago, were written about almost 400 years ago. I wonder how much further back they go. Did our caveman ancestors huddle around their fires on the longest night of the year and speak of ghosts? Did we loose touch with something primordial in our modern age? We may never know, unless we can speak to our ancestors on the longest night of the year. Wouldn't that be interesting to regain that lost knowledge our forefathers had? Gather your family, turn the TV to the fireplace channel, and speak of “ scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago”. You may not contact a spirit, but you may just have a good time.
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