January 6 – last of the 12 Days of Christmas – leads to “Plough Monday…”

Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

For more on expanding your mind and horizons, see the Introduction.  For more on the theme here – exploring the “mystical side of Bible reading” – see the notes below.

In the meantime:

Here’s a corrected version of an earlier post confusing January 6 and Plough Monday.

For starters, Christmas Day has come and gone.  But that doesn’t mean the Christmas season is over.  As noted last year at this time, the 12 Days of Christmas are “both a festive Christmas season” and the title of a “host of songs and spin-offs (including one on a Mustang GT):”

The Twelve Days of Christmas [begin] on Christmas Day (25 December)[, celebrate] the birth of Jesus [and are] also known as Christmastide…   The Feast of the Epiphany is on 6 January [and] celebrates the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) and their bringing of gifts to the child Jesus.  In some traditions, the feast of Epiphany and Twelfth Day overlap.

The post also said that technically this holiday season really started back on Halloween.

The thing is, winters back in the really old days – when life was nasty, brutish and short – were really long and really boring.  So folks back then looked for any good reason to throw a party and get sloshed.  (Which explains why the “party season” started on Halloween.)

In one sense you could say the end of that extended holiday season comes on January 6.  But in another sense you could say the season extends to the Monday following January 6.  That’s the Monday known as Plough Monday.  Which is another way of saying some of the post-Christmas holidays and/or Feast Days can be extremely confusing.

For example, another name for January 6 was Twelfth Night.  That in turn was the name of famous play by William Shakespeare.  The play “expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion,” to wit: the “occasion of the ‘drunken revelry’ of 12th Night.”

And January 6th has yet another name.  It’s perhaps best known as the Epiphany, the Christian feast day celebrating “the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.”  And yet another name for the Day is The Presentation of Our Lord.

But getting back to Plough Monday:  In England it marked the start of the new Agricultural Year.   (And thus – in a sense – the end of the “old” agricultural year.)  Anyway, the Church of England had a long church service to mark the occasion.  The service included prayers for a bountiful harvest, and both a blessing of the seed to be planted and a “blessing of the plough” – as illustrated at right:

Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation:  for in your abundant care you have given us fertile land, rich soil, the seasons in their courses…  By your blessing, let this plough be a sign of all that you promise to us.  Prosper the work of our hands, and provide abundant crops for your people to share.

In turn, Plough Monday was preceded by Plough Sunday.  Plough Sunday was seen as a way of celebrating farming and the work of farmers, in church.  But since you weren’t supposed to work on Sundays – back in the good old days – the new agricultural year didn’t really start until the next work day:  “work in the fields did not begin until the day after Plough Sunday.”

Put another way:  Since the the date of Epiphany always came on January 6, Plough Sunday came on the Sunday after the Epiphany.  (The Sunday between January 7 and January 13.)  Thus Plough Monday is usually the first Monday after Twelfth Day (Epiphany), 6 January.

The point of all this – January 6, Plough Sunday, Plough Monday, etc. – was to have one more big blast before getting back to work.  (Resuming farm-work after the extended holiday season.)  As such it was one more occasion for general tomfoolery, as shown in the top picture:

In some areas, particularly in northern England and East England, a plough was hauled from house to house in a procession, collecting money.  They were often accompanied by musicians, an old woman or a boy dressed as an old woman, called the “Bessy,” and a man in the role of the “fool.”

In turn it may  help to remember that one big reason for all this general tomfoolery was that – otherwise – life back then was indeed “nasty, brutish and short.”

And finally, people usually celebrated Plough Monday by eating Plough Pudding, as seen at left:  A “boiled suet pudding, containing meat and onions.  It is from Norfolk and is eaten on Plough Monday.”

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In other news – and in preparation for 2016 – I’ve been tweaking the “pages” above.  (Pages including The basics, The Blog, and The Scribe.)  But I’ve been working especially hard on the INTRODUCTION and CONTENTS.

Part of that work included updating post-links, including the one on how reading the Bible on a regular basis can by like an ongoing “transcendental meditation.”

You try to do what you know you can’t do, yet you try anyway…  It’s as impossible a goal as – say – as trying to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your mind.  This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

(See Matthew 22:36-40, on the Two Great Commandments.)  But there are rewards from this “impossible meditation” – reading the Bible on a daily basis, with an eye to “being one” with God and your neighbor.  Those rewards include but are not limited to:

1)  Greater personal efficiency in everyday life;  2)  The “comprehension of a different view of reality than the one we ordinarily use;”  3)  A capacity to transcend the painful, negative aspects of life;  4)  The ability to live with a serene “inner peace;”  and 5)  The ability to live  with “a zest, a fervor and gusto in life...”

All of which means that starting – or continuing – the meditation of Bible-reading is a great way to ring in the New Year!  (Not to mention reading this blog for color commentary…) 

“Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books…”

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Re:  The theme of this blog.  It is that taking the Bible literally is a great place to start.  (That is, to start the process of evolving on your earthly pilgrimage.)  But if you really want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*”

That’s what this blog is about.  Exploring that mystical side of the Bible.

Which is another way of saying the blog is all about “evolving.”  On that note see You Want Pies With That, on the quote by “Nick,” the character in The Big Chill played by William Hurt.  Asked about his “coming home from Vietnam a changed man,” Nick answered, “What are you getting at?  I was e-VOL-ving.”   (As we all should be…)

That’s another way of saying that exploring the mystical side of the Bible can help you “be all that you can be.”  On that note see Slogans of the United States Army – Wikipedia, re: the Army recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001.  In  turn, the related image at  left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.”

*  Re: “mystical.”  As first used, the term mysticism “referred to the Biblical liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.”  See Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“That’s what the Bible was originally about!”)

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR?

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Re: Mustang GT.  See also Jeff Foxworthy – Redneck 12 Days Of Christmas lyrics.

Re: “Nasty, brutish and short.”  That’s a quote from the book Leviathan, written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651.  Hobbes described the natural state of mankind as a “warre of every man against every man,” a life which was in turn “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”  See Wikipedia, and also Nasty, brutish and short – meaning and origin.

The lower image is courtesy of New Year – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The full caption:  “Baby New Year 1905 chases old 1904 into the history books in this cartoon by John T. McCutcheon.”  See also ‘Ringing’ Or ‘Bringing In The New Year:’ A History.

“The Mayflower leaving English shores” – the voyage that led to the first Thanksgiving… 

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It’s that time of year again.  Time to re-enact the First Thanksgiving.

Last year I wrote The first Thanksgiving, Part I and Part II.  But there is a change.  This year the Bible readings are different.  This year they are:  Joel 2:21-27, Psalm 126, 1st Timothy 2:1-7, and Matthew 6:25-33.  (To see the full readings go to Thanksgiving Day.)

On the other hand, the Collect of the day has stayed the same:

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them.  Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need…

Note the prayer-parts:  First, thankfulness.  For both the “fruits of the earth” and the work of those who harvest them.  But with that comes a prayer that God make us “faithful stewards.” Which means providing for both our own necessities and for “all in need.”

But enough of the Soapbox.  Suffice it to say that next Thursday – or Wednesday, if your Dulce works Thanksgiving (say at Grady Hospital) – is a time to give thanks.  For every blessing from above.

Now, getting back to those Bible readings.

Joel 2:21-27 notes in part that the “threshing floors shall be full of grain” and “the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.”  Beyond that, God will repay “for the years that the swarming locust has eaten…”

A word of explanation:  The Book of Joel was based on a “literal locust invasion” that happened around 845 B.C. The prophet then lamented over the great locust plague and severe drought, after which he compared the locusts to an army.  An army of God, that is:

The literal swarms of locusts that invaded in successive waves to destroy the crops of Israel spoke of a soon-coming invasion of enemies as well as a future day of judgment.

See also Wikipedia.  But the book ended with Joel saying Israel would later be vindicated.

Psalm 126 begins in a similar vein.  With a note of vindication.)  To wit:  “When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, then were we like those who dream.”  Verse 6 reads, “Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.”   So in a sense that passage foreshadowed the trials and tribulations of the Pilgrims and their first Thanksgiving, as noted below.

Then in 1st Timothy 2:1-7, the Apostle Paul urged that “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” (Even those you don’t like.)  And Matthew 6:25-33 included the “lilies of the field” discourse.  (Illustrated at right and explained below.)

Jesus told his followers not to worry about food, because even the lowly birds are provided for by God.  In this verse Jesus presents the example of the lilies, who also do no labor.

On the other hand, the original Pilgrims had lots to worry about before they could celebrate the first Thanksgiving.  For starters – as noted in Part I – they had to survive a rough trip across the North Atlantic.  That rough trip included – but was not limited to – almost losing “lusty young” John Howland, who fell overboard.  (As shown below.)

But finally they set foot back on dry land, on November 11,1620.  Whereupon:

… they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from the perils and miseries thereof …

But – as noted in Part II – “even then their ordeal was far from over.”  102 people landed in November 1620.  Less than half survived the next year.  (To November 1621.)  Of the handful of adult women – 18 in all – only four survived that first winter in the hoped-for “New World.”

And – as at Jamestown – there was a whole lot of suffering. (Alleviated in part by the leadership of Myles Standish, who would have been accoutred like the soldier at left):

The major similarity between the first Jamestown settlers and the first Plymouth settlers was great human suffering…  November was too late to plant crops.  Many settlers died of scurvy and malnutrition during that horrible first winter.  Of the 102 original Mayflower passengers, only 44 survived.  Again like in Jamestown, the kindness of the local Native Americans saved them from a frosty death.

(See First Thanksgiving.)  Note that the Jamestown landing came in 1607, 13 years before the Pilgrims.  Then too, those Jamestown settlers had their own Starving Time:  “What became known as the ‘Starving Time‘ in the Virginia Colony occurred during the winter of 1609–10.  Only 60 of 500 English colonists survived.”

The point is this:  As noted in Part II, the men and women who first settled America paid a high price, so that we could enjoy the privilege of stuffing ourselves into a state of stupor.

Which brings us back to the subject of these Pilgrim Fathers.  And pilgrimages in general…

“In the spiritual literature of Christianity, the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude.”

And the Pilgrims of 1621 certainly met that test.  (Going from a state of wretchedness to beatitude.)

As also noted in Part II, during the worst part of that first harsh winter of 1620-1621, only six or seven surviving colonists were fit enough to feed and care for the rest.

And they had to let the graves in the new cemetery “overgrow with grass for fear the Indians would discover how weakened the settlement had actually become.”  (And then attack the weakened settlement.)  All of which led to the thought that “freedom isn’t free, and it isn’t cheap either.  Sometimes the price is paid in human lives.”

But again as noted in Part II, the effort can be worth it:

Do the best you can, and – after taking all due and sensible precautions – trust God to help you with the rest.  Some of those bad things [ – that you worried about – ] might not happen, and some bad things might be prevented with foresight and preparation.  Then too, if you’re “on a mission from God,” you might reasonably expect His help.

Or it could be summed up this way:  “If it was easy, anybody could do it!”

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The upper image is courtesy of Mayflower Collection – Mike Haywood’s Artwork – Mayflower HMS, with the caption, “A prosperous wind  The Mayflower leaving English shores.”  The ship in the background is the Speedwell, which had to turn back.  (As explained in “2014.”)  Then too, the home-page of the Haywood site notes that he “has a growing International reputation as a marine and portrait painter.  He has a Doctorate in Oceanography and loves painting rough or lively seas.  Each painting is painstakingly researched to ensure accuracy.”

The soap box image is courtesy of thepoliticalpotteries.com/2015/05/31/tony-walley-on-my-stoke-on-trent-soapbox.  The image was included in a blog-post from THE POLITICAL POTTERIES, “A Political News and Debating Website for Stoke-on-Trent.”  Stoke-on-Trent is a city in Staffordshire, England.  In turn it is “the home of the pottery industry in England … commonly known as the Potteries,” and also now “a center for service industries and distribution centres.”  See Wikipedia.

According to the “Potteries” blog, the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent have a population of 249,000, represented by three Members of Parliament.  The blog in turn seems designed to foster an exchange of thoughts and ideas, presumably for the benefit and guidance of those MPs.

See also Soapbox – Wikipedia.

The “Miles Standish” image is courtesy of mayflowerhistory.com/standish-myles.  The caption:  “17th century image of a man in armor with musket.  Myles Standish would have worn similar armor, clothing and used similar weapons to those seen here.”  See also Myles Standish – Wikipedia.

Re: the ‘Starving Time‘ in Jamestown, during the harsh winter of 1609-1610:

Archaeologists have found evidence that they ate cats, dogs, horses, and rats.  Cannibalism has been confirmed to have occurred in at least one case;  the remains of a teenage girl of about fourteen years of age has been forensically analyzed and shown to have telltale marks consistent with butchering meat…    

Re: the image at right of the paragraph – “And the Pilgrims of 1621” – is courtesy of Pilgrimage – Wikipedia.  The caption:  “Jews at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem during the Ottoman period, 1860.”

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The original post had a lower image courtesy of Mayflower Collection – Mike Haywood’s Artwork, about the passenger John Howland. With the caption,  “Yet he held his hold (Rescue of John Howland who fell overboard during the voyage).” Or see John Howland – Biographies – Society of Mayflower Descendants, which noted that he arrived as a servant to John Carver, the first Governor of Plymouth Colony.  He went on to sign the Mayflower Compact. He also went on to serve the colony as selectman, assistant and deputy governor, and surveyor of highways.  He died “over 80″ in 1672.  (No one knew when he was actually born).  But that long and productive life was almost cut short on the voyage over, in 1620:

“In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail…   And in one of them … a lusty young man called John Howland, coming upon some occasion above the gratings was … thrown into the sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards which hung overboard…   Yet he held his hold [and] got into the ship again[,] his life saved.   And though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.”

I did an update on Howland this past Thanksgiving, On Thanksgiving 2022 – and “He-e-l-p!!”

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For more on the upcoming holidays, see also On the 12 Days of Christmas.