Sunday, November 23, 2008

Stir-Up Sunday

Stir-Up Sunday is the traditional day for everyone in the family to take a turn at stirring the Christmas pudding, whilst making a wish. They always stirred the pudding from East to West in honour of the three Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus. Children were often heard chanting the following rhyme: Stir up, we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot; And when we get home we'll eat the lot. A coin was usually added to the ingredients and cooked in the pudding. It was supposedly to bring wealth to whoever found it on their plate on Christmas Day. The traditional coin was an old silver sixpence or threepenny bit. Other traditional additions to the pudding included a ring, to foretell a marriage and a thimble for a lucky life.

2 comments:

  1. Rachel and I saw some lovely tiny silver pudding charms this morning (used in place of the coin). But R thought their use might result in some expensive dental work! I was just worried they might be swallowed (they were really quite small)... K x

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  2. Kristina, the charms sound like they'd be so cute! I was thinking the same thing as Rachel about the dental work though. D x

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