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Claire | March 31, 2013
On Easter Sunday, in Tudor times, the candles in the church and around the sepulchre were extinguished, and then the church lights were re-lit by the priest, from a fire. The sepulchre was opened, and Christ’s resurrection was celebrated with a special mass. The Easter Sunday mass marked the end of Lent, a period where
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Claire | March 29, 2013
On Good Friday in Tudor times, people attended the ceremony known as “Creeping to the Cross”. Christ’s suffering and crucifixion, and what it meant, were commemorated by the clergy creeping up to a crucifix held up before the altar on their hands and knees. When they got to the crucifix, they would kiss the feet
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Claire | March 28, 2013
Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, that final meal that Jesus Christ had with his disciples before his arrest. In Tudor times, on Maundy Thursday, the church was prepared for Easter with water and wine being used to wash the altars, and it was traditional for people to go to confession. It was also customary
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Claire | March 27, 2013
On the Wednesday of Holy Week, in Tudor times, the priest read out the passage from the Bible concerning the veil in the Temple in Jerusalem: “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.” Matthew 27:51(AV) As
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Claire | March 25, 2013
Today is Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin and the official start of the new year, in a legal and calendar sense, in Tudor England. In fact, it was the start of the new year in England until 1752 when 1st January became the official start. What’s confusing is that
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Claire | March 24, 2013
Palm Sunday marks the start of Holy Week and commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem the week before the Resurrection. It is an event which features in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and in Tudor times the priest would read out the story and then bless branches of greenery
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Claire | March 1, 2013
Today is the feast day of St David (Dewi Sant), patron saint of Wales. According to Rhigyfarch’s “Life of Saint David”, David lived in the 6th century and founded religious centres including Glastonbury and Croyland. He then travelled to the Holy Land and was made archbishop at Jerusalem before travelling back to Wales and settling
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Claire | February 14, 2013
As it’s Valentine’s Day today, I just wanted to share with you some facts about courtship in Tudor times. David Cressy, in his excellent book Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England, writes of how “courtship was no mere game or idle dalliance” and that its goal
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