Posts Tagged: feast day

  • Outside the chapel—Saint Martin of Tours cutting his cloak in two, miniature from the Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany (1503-1508) by Jean Bourdichon

    How we get chapel from Saint Martin’s cape

    Here is a Christian story for Easter. It is about Saint Martin of Tours, the patron saint of the poor, soldiers, conscientious objectors, tailors, and winemakers. I will try to explain how this all came to be as we follow the story of this most interesting early Christian. His story gives us the word “chapel”. […]

  • During a wayzgoose, the head of the printing and publishing houses would organise a dinner or celebration for their employees and apprentices to feast, drink, and celebrate. Maybe even eat a goose.

    Is it time to celebrate the wayzgoose?

    What is the meaning of wayzgoose? When I worked in publishing in England almost two decades ago, one of the graphic design companies we used was called Wayzgoose Design. I had never come across this unusual word before and, of course, I looked it up. It proved to be an industry word with a delightful […]

  • Madrigal Communications word of the week bauble a Christmas tree decoration

    Pretty, pretty Christmas baubles

    When I was a boy living in Scone, in country NSW we still had a traditional Christmas along the lines of that which my parents had had growing up in England. This meant two things: firstly, that we sat around at midday on Christmas Day in sweltering heat (we had no air conditioning, see below) […]

  • Gorumand is not a super gourmet

    The sophisticated gourmand

    I have been hearing, every now and then, people in the media referring to lovers of fine dining as gourmands. However, it is quite wrong and quite comical. It is used as if it were the superlative of gourmet, ie one starts as a simple consumer of food, graduates to being a gourmet, a lover […]

  • Feasting at christmas

    Feasting and fasting

    Christian and other religions have commemorative days we know as festivals. A festival is a celebration or commemoration where participants rejoice and seek to find an elated state. Festivals are often celebrated by abundant eating and drinking. Therefore, festival days and feast days are the same thing. And, not surprisingly, the words feast and festival […]

  • Wassailing's most common meaning is door-to-door Christmas carol singing - a common practice in England.

    Wassailing—be healthy at Christmas

    Behind the modern rituals of Christmas lurk old traditions tied to our magical, pagan past. Words provide a link to that magic. We have looked at Yule, a word that predates most native languages of Europe. Wassailing is our Christmas word. Wassail arrived in English from the Old Norse salutation ves heill meaning “be healthy” from […]