Claire | December 28, 2015

Today many countries around the world celebrate Holy Innocent’s Day, or Childermas, a feast day which commemorates the massacre of the baby boys which King Herod ordered in Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus Christ. The story of the massacre is told in the Gospel of Matthew: “Then Herod, when he saw […]

Category: Tudor Times | 1 Comment »
Tags: Childermas, Holy Innocents Day, Tudor feast days, Tudor Times

Claire | March 25, 2015

The Tudor tradition of Lady Day keeps Tudor historians and researchers on their toes, and causes confusion when dating events which happened between 1st January and 24th March. “Why?”, you may ask. Well, because in Tudor times the new calendar year did not start on 1st January, it started on 25th March, Lady Day or […]

Category: Tudor Times | 6 Comments »
Tags: Feast of the Annunciation, Lady Day, New Year, Tudor calendar, Tudor feast days, Tudor New Year

Claire | February 17, 2015

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day as some people call it, and it’s one of the three days which make up Shrovetide: Shrove Sunday, Collop Monday and Shrove Tuesday. You can read all about Lent and Shrovetide, plus get a Tudor recipe for pancakes, in my article Lent, Shrovetide, Shrove Sunday, Collop Monday and […]

Category: Tudor Times | 7 Comments »
Tags: Lent, Shrove Tuesday, shrovetide, Tudor feast days

Claire | January 6, 2015

Today is Kings’ Day or the Feast of the Epiphany, a commemoration and celebration of the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. Happy Kings’ Day! You can read more about how this day was celebrated in Tudor times in my article over at The Tudor Society – click here to read that now. […]

Category: Tudor Times | No Comments »
Tags: Epiphany, Tudor feast days

Claire | December 28, 2014

Today is Childermas (Children’s Mass) or Holy Innocents’ Day and it was part of the Twelve Days of Christmas celebrated in the Tudor period. This feast day commemorates the massacre of the baby boys which King Herod ordered in Bethlehem, in an attempt to kill the infant Jesus Christ. The innocent babies were seen by […]

Category: The Tudors, Tudor Times | 2 Comments »
Tags: Childermas, Holy Innocents Day, Tudor feast days, Twelve Days of Christmas

Claire | October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween! Today in many countries around the world children and adults will be dressing up in costume, carving pumpkins, going to parties, going trick or treating… having all kinds of fun, but what is Halloween really all about? Is it a celebration of all things paranormal and evil? Well, no, not originally anyway and […]

Category: Tudor Times | 7 Comments »
Tags: All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls, Feast Days, Halloween, Tudor feast days