Christmas feasts: Medieval & Tudor revelry
HistoryExtra podcast
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What Is Christmas?
In the mediaeval or early tudor era, fasting didn't mean abstinence. It had come to mean that you couldn't eat animal products at all. For those who were rich, there was certainly no abstinence. There was just amazing fish feasts. And then for the poor, it's this awful diet of stockfish and pease pudding. The 12 days really were mediaeval era, a massive excuse for a party. Every single day, named after a different saint, different customs,. All sorts of kind of cool stuff, social upheaval. But a really, really big emphasis on eating and drinking.
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