Wrington Dickensian Christmas Fayre and its links with the Carol Philosophy
In the September of 2001, a small group of friends in Wrington were at a party
discussing what was special about Christmas to them. The conversation began
to centre on the importance of family, friends and the village community in Christmas
celebrations as well as the birth of Christ. But the celebration at the lighting of the village
Christmas tree had seemed to many to have lost a little of
its magic and sparkle in recent years, and had become rather low key,
motivating only a few hardened souls to turn out on a cold winters night to
witness the tree being illuminated, along with the traditional sight and sounds
of the Salvation Army Band. We all concluded that it needed some new life breathed into
it, and more people would come and enjoy this simple festive celebration if something a
little bit special could took place.... but what?
Charles Dickens has probably had more influence on the way we celebrate
Christmas today than any single individual in human
history except of course Jesus himself. Dickens was the most
popular English novelist of the Victorian era, but at the beginning
of the Victorian period the celebration of Christmas was in decline.
The medieval Christmas traditions, which combined the celebration
of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia
(a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and
Germanic winter festival of Yule, had come under intense scrutiny
by the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell in the 17th Century.
With the Industrial Revolution in full swing in Dickens' time (mid
19th Century) it allowed workers little or no time for the c
elebration of Christmas. The romantic revival of Christmas
traditions that occurred in Victorian times had several contributors including
Prince Albert who brought the German custom of
decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas Carols
(which had all but disappeared at the turn of the 19th
century) began to thrive again, and the first Christmas card
appeared in the 1840's. But it was the Christmas stories of Dickens,
particularly his masterpiece A Christmas Carol (published in
1843) that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. Today, after nearly 170 years,
A Christmas Carol continues to be relevant, sending a message that cuts through the materialistic trappings of
the season and gets to the heart and soul of festive holidays in our cities, towns
and villages.
Dickens described the holidays as 'a good time: a kind,
forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know
of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women
seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely,
and to think of caring about people below them as if they
really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another
race of creatures bound on other journey's. This was what Dickens
described for the rest of his life as the 'Carol Philosophy'.
Dickens name had become so synonymous with Christmas
that on hearing of his death in 1870 a little costermongers
girl in London asked, 'Mr Dickens dead? Does this mean Father
Christmas will die too?'
A good enough reason we thought, to embark on a village Christmas celebration in Wrington which embraced the
Dickens carol philosophy, by staging an open air celebration, the theme being simply
to have a good time, charitable, and to bring the community together for an evening of free
entertainment, with festive stalls, food and drink, all culminating in the lighting of the village
Christmas tree. Now in its 10th year, the Wrington Dickensian Christmas Fayre has gone from
strength to strength and is arguably the most popular village community event in the year.
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