Literature
Time out of Mind: How Victorian Writers Invented Christmas “There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!” I
-
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
t is fitting that Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmas journey of redemption begins with his gut. It is also fitting that I've never read A Christmas Carol. I've seen The Muppet Christmas Carol; I watch it every year, silently mouthing along the familiar songs and dialogue, like you would at mass – this coincidence is not wholly coincidental. One of the many facets of contemporary Anglophone culture that took recognisable form during the reign of Queen Victoria was the celebration of Christmas. Changes in the way people viewed the midwinter festival were the product of paradigm shifts in public attitudes towards religion, commerce, and the nature of time. Ireland today is firmly capitalist and increasingly irreligious; it follows that Christmas has overtaken Easter as our primary “religious” festival, particularly among younger generations and in urban centres. Religious festivals have long been flashpoints for cultural exchange and transmission. Irish emigrants brought the festival of Samhain with them to North America, where it metamorphosed into Halloween and was reimported to Ireland with new rituals like trick-or-treat. Christmas in western Europe grew out of the nexus between Roman imperialism, Christian evangelism, and indigenous paganism.
12
