Enjoy a 12th Night Madrigal Feast with Family and Friends

Have you ever attended a Madrigal Feast? If not, you’re in for a treat that your family and visiting relatives of all ages will enjoy. The Madrigal tradition originated as a celebration of the end of the 12 Days of Christmas in Medieval and Renaissance England.  More commonly known as “Twelfth Night”, the tradition is still celebrated in many communities as the official end of the holiday season.

In keeping with our theme of 7 Sentimental Gifts for the Holidays, how about surprising your family and friends by stuffing tickets in their stockings to attend a Madrigal Feast together. They’ll enjoy the opportunity to spend time together in a festive atmosphere long after the holiday hustle and bustle has worn off.

What’s a Madrigal Dinner like? Think of it as Dinner Theater. The Madrigal Feast is served in several courses based around a comedic play with a Renaissance theme. In most cases, a grand song is sung before the introduction of each new course is served at dinner and the audience is invited to participate and sing along. Many audiences are asked to play roles during the dinner, such as guests at the wedding of a princess or as participants in a royal proceeding.

If you enjoy a bit of light hearted theater with Kings, Queens, jesters, minstrels, wenches, knights, wizards, thieves and enchanted and mythical figures, consider attending a Madrigal Feast with family and friends each year as part of your new Yule holiday tradition. The camaraderie, playfulness and fantasy continues the lighthearted fun of the holiday season into January. After all, who doesn’t like to start the New Year with merrymaking, feasting and theater?

In North Carolina, the NC Historical Enrichment Society is hosting a Twelfth Night Madrigal Feast on January 8, 2011. Their celebration is hosted by King Henry VIII who will bring songs, dance, mischief, revelry and skits to keep all members of his court entertained and amused during the feasting.

As guests of King Henry and the NC Historical Society, you’ll dine like royalty with a four course meal which includes:

• First Course – Mushroom Tart
• Second Course – Tomato Bisque
• Main Course – Half Herbed Cornish Hen with New Potatoes, Baby Carrots, String Beans en Papillote and Crusty Bread
• Fourth Course – King Cake

Drink – Mulled Apple Cider and 1 glass of Wine or Beer included with meal. For tickets and more information, visit http://www.historicalenrichmentsociety.org/historicalMadrigal.html

Madrigal Feasts can be found all around the US. Check your local area for listings.

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Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at the National Haunted History Examiner and the National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom.

Enjoy a chocolate Yule Log this holiday season

Yule, a festival of light with twelve days of feasting and public celebrations, begins at the Winter Solstice. Symbolic rituals are observed including the lighting of candles and a Yule log is kept burning throughout the twelve days to symbolize the returning of the light and the Sun after the darkest day of the year on Winter Solstice. A tasty addition to the festivities has been added in the form of a Chocolate Yule log cake.

The origin of this holiday comes from over 2000 years ago, originating in Northern Europe. The holiday began as a pagan tradition known as Yule, which was celebrated for 12 days.  During this time, Scandinavian people celebrated the Norse God Odin, a bearded god who flew through the air on a horse and handed out gifts. The Pagan Romans held a seven-day festival of Saturnalia beginning on December 17th, which included the celebration of the God Mithras, who was born on December 25th. They exchanged gifts, enjoyed feasts and once this festival culminated, the New Year festivities began. Modern day examples of how we celebrate these pagan traditions today include candles in the windows of our home and what we now call Christmas lights, which we hang on a Christmas tree (our modern adaptation of the yule log and evergreen branches that the ancient Europeans brought into their homes).

In the 4th century, Rome changed from a pagan society to a Christian society and the church began to replace and absorb pagan traditions. Since there was already a holiday in place to celebrate the birth of the God Mithras, the decision was made to switch this birthday and dedicate the day as a symbolic birth date for Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church holds a ritualistic midnight mass for this event, which became Christ’s Mass, i.e. Christmas.

Like many pagan traditions under siege in the attempt to be absorbed and overwritten by the church, the campaign was met with mixed success. The European people continued their own traditional pagan celebrations and simply added the new religious connotations into the mix.  Over the centuries, the festivals, feasts, gift giving and celebrations continued including the adoption of medieval carolers who went door to door singing while enjoying a cup of alcoholic punch at each stop.  Over the decades, Yule became the celebration of Christmas.

The festivals continued in this manner until around the 17th century when Protestant reformers decided that Christmas should be banned. Their reasoning was based on the premise that the holidays was built upon pagan traditions, which were then further embellished by the Catholic church with the adopted birthday celebration on December 25th. Both traditions, the pagan revelry and the Catholic traditions, were customs that they wanted no part of and they were able to ban Christmas in England. This only lasted for a few years, but many people who held this protestant belief moved during the 17th century to America, the New World and brought their religious beliefs with them. They were the Puritan settlers who formed the colony of Massachusetts. In 1659, they banned Christmas as a holiday in Massachusetts.  As new settlers including Catholics, Pagans, the Irish, Scottish, Dutch and others with moderate religious beliefs migrated to America establishing colonies in New York, Virginia and other Atlantic states, they brought their Christmas traditions and festivities with them and the celebration of Christmas was restored in the U.S.

How do we celebrate Christmas today? According to the History Channel’s documentary, The Real Story of Christmas, the preservation and evolution is credited to two influential Americans. The first is Clement Moore, who in 1822 wrote Twas the Night Before Christmas, which gave inspiration to new customs for the holiday, based on old world traditions. Moore combined the white bearded Norse God Odin who flew through the air handing out gifts with St. Nicholas, a 4th century Catholic Bishop who was known for gift giving in stockings and the two were then melded with Sinter Klaas, the Dutch version of St. Nicholas. Odin was known as the God of Thunder and was said to have flown on a horse with eight legs. Moore substituted Odin’s eight-legged horse into eight reindeer, which he gave individual names including Donner, which means thunder, and Blitzen, which means lightning.  He also combined old European stories of elves, making Santa Claus a wizard like magical elf.

The second influential figure was Thomas Nast, a famous illustrator who created the images of the donkey and the elephant for the Republican and Democratic parties and created the image of Uncle Sam.  In 1862, Nast took Moore’s poetic descriptions of Santa and drew the illustration of Santa Claus. He changed the image of Santa Claus from a smaller elf into a full size elf man with a white beard. He also created the concept of St. Nick’s naughty or nice list. (A lesser-known fact about St. Nicholas was that the original story of St. Nicholas said that when he visited houses, he was followed by a demon named Krampus who punished bad children). Nast glossed over this story by creating a gentler naughty or nice list. Nast also captivated his audience by capturing the growing sentiment of this time where children were becoming the focus of the family and thus Santa Claus was very attentive to children, bringing them gifts.

From the light filled traditions and festivals of the ancient Europeans, to the migration of Odin into Santa Claus and the bringing in of the evergreens from Northern Europe morphing into the Christmas tree, Christmas as a holiday has continued to evolve. The Industrial Revolution provided the opportunity for a variety of good and products to become mass produced and accessible to consumers and soon after, gift giving for the holiday began in earnest and became the American staple of the holiday that is widely celebrated today.

The holiday season continues to mix old and new, with a rise of neo-paganism bringing a resurgence of old traditions and returning back to the ancient customs and celebrations of Yule. This along with a growing distaste of Black Friday shopping complete with people fighting and trampling others over bargain gifts and thousands of Americans going into debt each year with over the top gift giving, may stimulate an entire new series of traditions and festivities in the 21st century.

******************************************************************
Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at the National Haunted History Examiner and the National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom.

Decorate like the ancients with boughs and garlands of evergreen and holly

I admit it, I’m a tree lover. I’ve written poetry and short stories about trees and have an ongoing crush with a gorgeous river birch tree in my backyard. I feel confident that several of my past lives were spent as part of a Druid community and trees hold a special place in my heart.

At this time of year, one of my favorite sights and smells of the holiday season in the home is the greenery. Ancient cultures have celebrated bringing in the green for thousands of years, adorning their homes with evergreen branches and boughs and adding a little mistletoe to keep the season merry and bright.

I’m known for my tree decorating skills and have an elaborate seven stage decorating ritual for my Christmas trees. Yes, I said trees, as I’m known to have several around the home each year.  With all that I love during the holidays, there’s one aspect to tree decorating that I’ve never been comfortable with, which is the tradition popularized in the Victorian age of chopping down a living tree and bringing it into the home.

I can acknowledge that the look and sentiment is endearing, but in our current time, I think perhaps it’s time to be more conscious of the fact that we are chopping down trees, (which provide oxygen when rooted in the ground) to be used for two weeks in our home and then discarded. In this age of pollution and toxins, maybe we can find a better way to bring the spirit and significance of evergreens into our homes.

If you are open to this sentiment, here are some ideas I’ve explored that you may enjoy as well:

1. In ancient cultures, greenery was brought into the home in evergreen swags, boughs and garlands, which were placed above doors and around the home. I love the look as it used today on fireplace mantels, stair rails, and in wreaths and swags hanging from windows and doors.  Using green cuttings and branches as garland and wreaths, allow the tree to continue to live while only removing a few branches.
2. Artificial Christmas trees have come a long way and are beautiful, very life like and can be used over again each year, saving both the forest and your budget. An added bonus is that the trees do not have to be watered, and they don’t dry out creating a potential fire hazard in your home. For those who love the ‘christmas tree smell’, the live evergreen branches on the mantle, wreath and around your home provide this beautiful scent.
3. Consider wreaths made from herbs, which can be used in cooking after the holiday season. One of my favorites is from Williams-Sonoma, the ‘Cooks Herb Wreath’, which contains rosemary, sage, bay leaf, oregano and other herbs. Not only are the wreaths beautiful and exude an aromatic scent through the home, they make wonderful gifts. Nothing says an old fashioned Christmas than plucking bay leaves from the wreath hanging on the wall to throw into your recipe.
4. I believe I’ve found the perfect compromise to satisfy those who wish to preserve trees and help the earth and those who love real christmas trees in their home. This year I wanted to bring in the energy of a living tree as a second tree for the holidays, so I purchased a live European Cypress tree from ProFlowers, which arrived in a red pot and included a mini string of colored lights and tiny wood ornaments. The tree come with instructions of how to care for it during the winter and in the spring, it can be removed from the pot and planted in the ground. My husband loved it and this spring we look forward to planting the tree in our backyard. We plan to continue this tradition each year, creating a forest of trees in our backyard, which will contain the many memories of our holidays over the years.  It’s the perfect sentiment for our family and each tree will carry the memories of the holiday spent in our home while continuing its life for many years to come on our land.  We look forward to the day when the young trees planted each year mature and can be decorated outside in the traditions of the ancients. It feels as though we’ve come full circle, it’s good for us, good for the trees and good for the earth.

Enjoy decking your halls with boughs of holly and perhaps creating a nourishing new holiday tradition for your family with a live tree which you plant in the spring.  Read about my other recommended 7 Sentimental Gifts for the Holiday Season.

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Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at the National Haunted History Examiner and the National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom.

Evergreens and Light Represent the Season of Yule

Do you know the history and origin of Christmas? The traditions that you hold near and dear may not be as old as you think they are. Early Christians didn’t celebrate birthdays and the actual birth date of Jesus is still unknown. Some astrologers and historians have surmised that the location of the star over Bethlehem and the presence of lambs in the story represent a spring birth, but the actual date was never recorded. (For more information on this topic, check out my interview with Courtney Roberts, about her book and research on The Star of the Magi on the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show)

The origin of this holiday comes from over 2000 years ago, originating in Northern Europe. The holiday began as a pagan tradition known as Yule, which was celebrated for 12 days.  During this time, Scandinavian people celebrated the Norse God Odin, a bearded god who flew through the air on a horse and handed out gifts. The Pagan Romans held a seven-day festival of Saturnalia beginning on December 17th, which included the celebration of the God Mithras, who was born on December 25th. They exchanged gifts, enjoyed feasts and once this festival culminated, the New Year festivities began. Are any of these customs beginning to sound familiar?

Yule is a festival of light, with twelve days of feasting and public celebrations. A large Yule log was kept burning throughout the twelve days to symbolize the returning of the light and the Sun after the darkest day of the year on Winter Solstice.  Later candles were added to keep the light burning, along with oil burning in lamps to symbolize the eternal light. Modern day examples of how we celebrate these pagan traditions today include candles in the windows of our home and what we now call Christmas lights, which we hang on a Christmas tree (our modern adaptation of the yule log and evergreen branches that the ancient Europeans brought into their homes).

In the 4th century, Rome changed from a pagan society to a Christian society and the church began to replace and absorb pagan traditions. Since there was already a holiday in place to celebrate the birth of the God Mithras, the decision was made to switch this birthday and dedicate the day as a symbolic birth date for Jesus. The Roman Catholic Church holds a ritualistic midnight mass for this event, which became Christ’s Mass, i.e. Christmas.

Like many pagan traditions under siege in the attempt to be absorbed and overwritten by the church, the campaign was met with mixed success. The European people continued their own traditional pagan celebrations and simply added the new religious connotations into the mix.  Over the centuries, the festivals, feasts, gift giving and celebrations continued including the adoption of medieval carolers who went door to door singing while enjoying a cup of alcoholic punch at each stop.

The festivals continued in this manner until around the 17th century when Protestant reformers decided that Christmas should be banned. Their reasoning was based on the premise that the holidays was built upon pagan traditions, which were then further embellished by the Catholic church with the adopted birthday celebration on December 25th. Both traditions, the pagan revelry and the Catholic traditions, were customs that they wanted no part of and they were able to ban Christmas in England. This only lasted for a few years, but many people who held this protestant belief moved during the 17th century to America, the New World and brought their religious beliefs with them. They were the Puritan settlers who formed the colony of Massachusetts. In 1659, they banned Christmas as a holiday in Massachusetts.  As new settlers including Catholics, Pagans, the Irish, Scottish, Dutch and others with moderate religious beliefs migrated to America establishing colonies in New York, Virginia and other Atlantic states, they brought their Christmas traditions and festivities with them and the celebration of Christmas was restored in the U.S.

How do we celebrate Christmas today? According to the History Channel’s documentary, The Real Story of Christmas, the preservation and evolution is credited to two influential Americans. The first is Clement Moore, who in 1822 wrote Twas the Night Before Christmas, which gave inspiration to new customs for the holiday, based on old world traditions. Moore combined the white bearded Norse God Odin who flew through the air handing out gifts with St. Nicholas, a 4th century Catholic Bishop who was known for gift giving in stockings and the two were then melded with Sinter Klaas, the Dutch version of St. Nicholas. Odin was known as the God of Thunder and was said to have flown on a horse with eight legs. Moore substituted Odin’s eight-legged horse into eight reindeer, which he gave individual names including Donner, which means thunder, and Blitzen, which means lightning.  He also combined old European stories of elves, making Santa Claus a wizard like magical elf.

The second influential figure was Thomas Nast, a famous illustrator who created the images of the donkey and the elephant for the Republican and Democratic parties and created the image of Uncle Sam.  In 1862, Nast took Moore’s poetic descriptions of Santa and drew the illustration of Santa Claus. He changed the image of Santa Claus from a smaller elf into a full size elf man with a white beard. He also created the concept of St. Nick’s naughty or nice list. (A lesser-known fact about St. Nicholas was that the original story of St. Nicholas said that when he visited houses, he was followed by a demon named Krampus who punished bad children). Nast glossed over this story by creating a gentler naughty or nice list. Nast also captivated his audience by capturing the growing sentiment of this time where children were becoming the focus of the family and thus Santa Claus was very attentive to children, bringing them gifts.

From the light filled traditions and festivals of the ancient Europeans, to the migration of Odin into Santa Claus and the bringing in of the evergreens from Northern Europe morphing into the Christmas tree, Christmas as a holiday has continued to evolve. The Industrial Revolution provided the opportunity for a variety of good and products to become mass produced and accessible to consumers and soon after, gift giving for the holiday began in earnest and became the American staple of the holiday that is widely celebrated today.

The holiday season continues to mix old and new, with a rise of neo-paganism bringing a resurgence of old traditions. This along with a growing distaste of Black Friday shopping complete with people fighting and trampling others over bargain gifts and thousands of Americans going into debt each year with over the top gift giving, may stimulate an entire new series of traditions and festivities in the 21st century.

******************************************************************
Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at the National Haunted History Examiner and the National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom.

On the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show, I had the opportunity to speak with Frank Joseph, the editor-in-chief of Ancient American magazine. The vision statement shared by Ancient American magazine is:

…”its editorial position stands firmly on behalf of evidence for the arrival of overseas visitors to the Americas hundreds and even thousands of years before Columbus— not only from Europe, but the Near East, Africa, Asia, and the Western Pacific. Each issue presents such otherwise neglected and even suppressed factual evidence demonstrating the lasting impact made on the Americas by Scandinavian Norsemen, Pharaonic Egyptians, Bronze Age Mediterraneans, Semitic Phoenicians, West Africans, Dynastic Chinese, seafaring Polynesians, and many other culture- bearers. All contributed to the birth and development of numerous and sophisticated civilizations which flourished throughout the American Continents in pre-Columbian times. It is the magazine’s purpose to show readers just how, when, and why these once powerful societies arose to great heights of cultural splendor and fell into deep obscurity as dramatic object lessons for our time. No rehash of well-worn theories, Ancient American offers up-to-the-moment news about ongoing discoveries and original perspectives, bringing to light a surprising abundance of fresh material that is seriously challenging entrenched conceptions of our past.”

Frank Joseph is also the author of over 20 books which have been published around the world, providing thought-provoking research on the history that you often don’t find in the textbooks. His works include: Atlantis and 2012, The Lost Civilization of Lemuria, The Lost Treasure of King Juba, Opening the Ark of the Covenant and the topic of our discussion during the show, Unearthing Ancient America: The Lost Sages of Conquerors, Castaways and Scoundrels.

In Unearthing Ancient America, Frank’s research explores the lost prehistory of the U.S.  We’re featuring this show on Explore Your Spirit with Kala during the Thanksgiving holiday as it contains fresh and occasionally suppressed information documenting the tremendous impact on North America by overseas visitors hundreds and even thousands of years before Columbus. I speak with Frank on the show about this evidence which includes: a medallion left in Michigan by Buddhist missionaries from India a thousand years ago, a 5th Century Christian church in Connecticut, the Grand Canyon’s underground city, a Roman statuette washed up at New Jersey, secret maps of America Columbus used for his first voyage to the New World, an Inca skeleton in Norway’s Viking grave, Florida’s own Stonehenge, and thirty other articles by twenty-three investigators describing the impact made by overseas visitors to our continent centuries before its official discovery.

I think you’ll find this interview to be fascinating and may open your eyes and thoughts to how our history is written and by whom.  We’re looking forward to having Frank back as a guest on the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show in 2011, as I speak with him about his new book, Gods of the Runes: The Divine Shapers of Fate.

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Enjoyed this article? Kala welcomes your comments and reads them all. Don’t miss a thing! Subscribe by clicking the button at the top right corner of this article. By doing so, you’ll receive e-mail updates every time a new article by Kala Ambrose is posted – and it’s free! To read archived articles by Kala Ambrose, visit her main page at the National Haunted History Examiner and the National Metaphysical Spirituality Examiner.

More about Kala Ambrose: Kala Ambrose is an award winning author, intuitive and talk show host of the Explore Your Spirit with Kala Show. Her thought-provoking interviews entice listeners to tune in around the globe! Described by her guests and listeners as discerning, empowering and inspiring, she speaks with world renowned authors, artists, teachers and researchers delving into metaphysical, holistic and paranormal topics. Kala’s book, 9 Life Altering Lessons: Secrets of the Mystery Schools Unveiled delves into the mysteries of ancient Egyptian mystery schools and explains their wisdom teachings. Kala Ambrose is a highly interactive teacher on a mission to educate, entertain and inspire. She lectures on the Ancient Wisdom Teachings of Egypt and the Mystery Schools, Working with Auras, Chakras and Energy Fields, and Wise Woman Wisdom.