The Great Tudor Christmas Quiz

Thank you, everyone! I wanted to get a Christmas themed quiz out today so you can enjoy it with your friends and family.

Without further ado, why don't you play along and see if you can do better than Tim?

THE QUESTIONS (The answers are below ... no cheating!) -------------------------

1. What date is the Feast of St Nicholas? 2. On the Feast of St Nicholas, in medieval and Tudor times, it was traditional for a choir boy to be chosen as this… 3. On Christmas Eve, the men of the house would go out and get this to bring into the home… 4. It was traditional to decorate homes with greenery, such as holly, laurel, ivy and rosemary, but there was no rush to take these down by Twelfth Night, when were they traditionally taken down? 5. What could happen if you didn’t take the decorations down by this date? 6. Elizabeth I ordered this to be roasted and enjoyed at Christmas 1588 following the defeat of the Spanish Armada because it was the first meal she enjoyed following the victory. 7. Frumenty was a food enjoyed at Christmas, but what was it? 8. This traditional wassail drink was made from mixing hot cider sherry or ale, with apple and spices. 9. How many ingredients were traditionally used in the Tudor minced pie? 10. What was different about the Tudor minced pie, compared to our modern mince pies? 11. This traditional Christmas vegetable made its debut in England in the 1580s 12. This person would be in charge of organising the revelry and presiding over it for the 12 days of Christmas. 13. What would you find at the bottom of the communal wassail cup or bowl? 14. What is the name of the feast day commemorated on 28th December? 15. Twelfth Night or Epiphany was celebrated with a cake containing a hidden…. The person who found it would be the king of the feast. 16. This Monday (a special name) was the first Monday after Epiphany and was when things would return to normal and people would get back to work.

THE ANSWERS ------------------------

1) 6 December 2) Boy Bishop 3) Yule Log 4) Candlemas Eve (1 Feb) 5) You might get goblins in your home. 6) Goose 7) A spiced porridge. It was made from cracked wheat, ale, spices, currants, egg and cream. 8) Lambswool 9) 13 to symbolise Jesus and his apostles. 10) It contained meat – mutton. 11) The Brussels sprout 12) The Lord of Misrule 13) A crust of bread – it would be given to the most important person present. 14) Holy Innocents’ Day or Childermas 15) A bean. Sometimes it would contain a pea too for the queen. 16) Plough Monday.