Wednesday 22 December 2010

Quot estis in convivio


Has a year really gone past? It seems no time at all since last Christmas. Time is relative, of course. I can still remember when the intervals between one festive season and another seemed like an eternity. Now the chariot of Chronos is speeding up, a sign, I take it, that I am getting older, now close to a quarter century!

Christmas, Yule Tide, the Winter Solstice, call it what you will, I love the whole season. It’s the time when I am at my most reactionary, when my love for continuity, tradition and the past becomes strongest. It’s a time when Christian and Pagan unite in greenery, mistletoe, holly, burning logs and ancient ritual; a time the dark closes around the celebration of light.

It’s a time for re-reading Hilaire Belloc’s wonderful essay A Remaining Christmas, given to me when I was a child by my much beloved grandfather, a treasured memory both of him and of times past. Belloc writes with such conviction, with such moving reverence of the setting of his own celebrations, now long gone;

This house where such good things are done year by year has suffered all the things that every age has suffered. It has known the sudden separation of wife and husband, the sudden fall of young men under arms who will never more come home, the scattering of the living, and their precarious return, the increase and the loss of fortune, all those terrors and all those lessenings and haltings and failures of hope which make up the life of man. But its Christmas binds it to its own past and promises its future; making the house an undying thing of which those subject to mortality within it are members, sharing in its continuous survival.

Tomorrow I will be joining family and friends at our old house in the country, away from all distractions; away from garish city lights and garish city people. Yes, there is a television, but on Christmas Day it only ever goes on for the Queen’s Speech. Otherwise our tradition is to ignore the dreadful idol, whose votaries sit around in dumb amazement, gaping at its even dumber antics. We have fun, a simple celebration of family, of close friends, of conversation, games and frolics aplenty; cocktails, good food, and always punch or mulled wine - or even a bowl of steaming bishop! - to see in Christmas Day. The Lord of Misrule still presides over our Feast of Fools!

On Saint Stephen’s Day mother, father and I will all be out on the local hunt, the first time in three years we have ridden together on this annual occasion. Last year the meet clashed with my skiing holiday; the year before that with a trip to Morocco with my former boyfriend. This year I will be there, in fulfilment of a promise, and I never break promises!

The day after I leave with a party of friends on another skiing trip, this time to Saint Anton in Austria, something I mentioned in a previous post (I love to ski). I’ve been so looking forward to this, something I started to plan almost as soon as I came back from Central America in the summer, which has a counter-aging effect: it slows time right down! Christmas in England; New Year in Austria, it could not be better.

I wish for you the Christmas I wish for myself: one of simple contentment, however it takes you. May the New Year bring us all the things we deserve. All hail Odin; all hail old Saturn; all hail good company; all hail the Boar’s Head!

The boar's head in hand bring I
Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary.
I pray you, my masters, be merry
Quot estis in convivio.
Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino.

The boar's head, as I understand
Is the rarest dish in all this land
Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland
Let us servire cantico.

Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino

Our steward hath provided this
In honour of the King of Bliss;
Which, on this day to be served is
In Reginensi atrio.

Caput apri defero
Reddens laudes Domino


35 comments:

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  2. Thank you and do have a decent Christmas and a happy New Year, if you can.

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  3. To family and friends, have a wonderful time.

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  4. Lovely post Ana. Happy Christmas everybody.

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  5. Merry Christmas, Ana. Enjoy the snows!

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  6. Merry Christmas to you too, Calvin. The thing is if I simply wanted to enjoy snow I would have no need to leave England. :-))

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  7. "Yes, there is a television, but on Christmas Day it only ever goes on for the Queen’s Speech. Otherwise our tradition is to ignore the dreadful idol, whose votaries sit around in dumb amazement, gaping at its even dumber antics."

    You're singin' my song. But look, you can get the Queen's Speech off the radio!

    Anyway, it's just about ready to snow here.. everything else has happened. There's actually been rain in the past few days. The normal situation is dry heat and approx 40C temperatures.

    I'll be off line at least until Wednesday, so I'll wish you the best now. Have a suckling pig and a tankard of ale for me.

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  13. OMG! I'd better wizz out and buy some presents!
    Merry Christmas!
    :-)

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  14. A very merry Christmas to you Ana; although (as a fellow reactionary, esssentially) I did feel like asking just when it might be that you generally feel at your least reactionary? .. ;) ! All the best of the season to you.

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  15. Ana, love your spirit. Enjoy the holidays.

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  16. Since I am posting from the U.S. as pro se party in re: the Federal Discouragement Clause regarding the employment of words or phrases construed to be offensive by various complaintents (not to be confused with the prohibited “Santa” Clause, use of which would indicate probative non-compliance with Regulation B and subject to possible interlocutory disapproval), I am able under color of law, pending disposition of regulatory changes under FCC Net Neutrality Order dated 12/23/2010, and review by the Federal Internet Advisory Committee to:
    1) Wish you a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

    Bob Mack

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  17. Merry Christmas from Australia, you gorgeous thing, you! :-)

    From Don.

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  18. Merry Christmas, Ana. Thanks again for your kindness.

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  21. =hug= Hope you're having good fun :-)

    Coll

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  22. hi ana, im starting to follow ur blog. u are smart. and oh ya, merry christmas... :)

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  23. A belated merry Christmas and a very happy new year Ana.

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  24. Happy New Year, guys. As you can see I'm back!

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  25. Thanks, Adam, and a Happy New Year to you!

    As always your arguments are unique and interesting, though I’m finding your thesis here a little bit difficult to follow. It’s almost Reichian in the emphasis on sexual politics. I can think of all sorts of reasons why nations go to war, none of which involve sex, other than the Trojan War, and that was more about honour than lost love. Almost all wars in history, outside the pages of literature, have been fought over limited resources, territory, religion, prestige or power. But even if you could prove to me for a certainty that humanity from a bottle would mean perpetual peace I would still resist, along with the other irrationalists you wish to castigate. If war is the price of love then play on. I’m reminded of a science fiction story I read in which the survivors of some apocalypse seek comfort in certainty, selecting the most unimaginative and mediocre figure they could find as a perpetual president. One of his bon mots was ‘It’s better never to have loved than have loved and lost.’ I do not want your brave new – peaceful - world that has such people in it.

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  28. I think also that we have exceedingly different definitions of mediocre. I frankly have come to dislike the word because of its manifold implications. Perhaps an example of a figure from history would be better.

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  29. Too many, but you can start with Meneleus!

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  31. Compared with Achillies, Hector and Paris. Actually that was a lame attempt at a joke. :-)

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