All things considered, it was a good turn-out for the Volunteers’ Christmas Party on Thursday. It is good to see old friends in familiar surroundings! Thank you, in particular, to Katy (Volunteer Co-ordinator) and Val, both of whom we know well, and to the other staff and volunteers, all of whom make these things happen.
Of course there was a Christmas Quiz. If you missed it, try it at home. Answers after Christmas, so those of you unable to make it to the museum for the party can amuse yourselves, and perhaps friends and family, by seeing what answers you can come up with before checking your results in the new year.
1)Which English King was crowned on Christmas Day?
2)Which Royal popularised the Christmas Tree in Britain?
3)Which country, each year, gifts to us the Christmas Tree in Trafalgar Square?
4)Which period in British history would it probably be if these dishes were on the table at Christmas or other mid-winter feast?
- Diced dates and dormouse?
- Turkey and stuffing?
- A sugar dragon?
5)Who is said to be the first person to eat turkey in England?
6)What is the origin and meaning of the word Wassail?
7)When we, or our parents and grandparents, gave a few pennies to the paper boy or the dustmen as their ‘Christmas Box’ what tradition was being maintained?
8)Who must have written this in his diary on a Christmas Day: “With my boy walked, it being a most brave, cold and dry frosty morning…to Whitehall, where I came a little too late.”?
9)What were: The Whipcoll, Lambs’ Wool, and Hot Egg at Christmas?
10)Christmas was often not celebrated as in England in the early decades of settlement in America. Why not?
11)During which era was this announced: “no retailer shall provide any paper for the packing or wrapping of goods excepting food stuffs or articles which the shopkeeper has agreed to deliver.”?
12)Which famous early scientist was born on Christmas Day?
13)What popular Royal event, still a feature today, first took place on Christmas Day 1932?
14)Which religious festival commemorates the visit of the Magi to Jesus?
15)Good King Wenceslas’ conjures up a medieval Christmas like no other carol. What did he ask his page to bring?
16)A once fashionable Christmas drink was ‘braggot’. what was it?
17)In 1818 a German composer, Franz Gruber, wrote the melody for a now famous carol. Which?
18)Jesus was born four to eight years before the year celebrated today, and certainly not on 25 December. Why do we have the year wrong?
19)Christmas is celebrated in December because it replaced the many
mid-winter pre-Xian festivals. Name one of the two Roman ones.
20) St Nicholas is the patron saint of ???
Tie-breaker: Name one other thing he is patron saint of