"A Right Handed Stir-up"

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No, it's alright......I do know what date it is......but.....

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On visiting Foody’s blog on Monday, I read that she had been making her Christmas puddings.

I enquired if she had made wishes and stirred the mixture in the correct direction? And had she heard of “Stir-up Sunday”?

She had heard of the later and of the wishes, but did not know of the “direction of stirring”.

So I did a bit of research and found out that the Christmas pudding began as “plum porridge”….raisins, spices, meat broth and wine thickened with breadcrumbs. This mixture, with varying quantities of ingredients, evolved by the 17century, into the familiar solid pudding. In Sussex and many other English counties the day reserved for the making of the puddings and the important ceremony of stirring and wishing, was called “Stir-up Sunday”.

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Indeed, in old prayer books, the Collect for the 25th Sunday after Trinity begins with the words “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord”.

This is of course nothing to do with stirring a pudding, more of “….the wills of thy faithful people”.

As the Sundays of the church year are governed by the movability of Easter, Stir up Sunday does not fall on the same day each year.

Good, then I can mention it today as I have no idea when the 25th Sunday after Trinity is.

Foody said she had made nine puddings, but on reading further I discovered that she should have made thirteen.....one for each month of the year and an extra one, known as the "Judas" pudding. This last one was not eaten but left to moulder......unless a beggar was seen on Christmas Day, in which case it could be given away.

I also discovered that it was a tradition that each member of the family stirred in turn, three times in the direction of the sun’s path (in winter it was as well to ensure that the sun would return next spring and to take any available opportunity to help it on it’s way).

The mandatory number of three stirs was important; in later years the number was conveniently associated with the Trinity and with the Three Wise Men though it had a far older significance, being a pagan good-luck number.

Finally, in order of age, each member of the family wished three times. Only one wish would be granted however, and the nature of the wish was never revealed or it would not be granted.

The pudding mixture was set aside for the return of any absent person so that no-one missed his chance.

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Five "Joey's" from my Grandmother.

The mixture itself gradually came to include, among the well-to-do, a number of silver charms. To begin with it was a silver farthing, then a penny. After the Great War, it was the smallest silver coin, a silver threepenny bit, or "Joey". When they went out of circulation it was a sixpence.

Finding a coin brought the promise of wealth to whomsoever found it on his plate on Christmas Day; a thimble denoted the prospect of a single life, while a silver ring forecast a wedding.

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My Mother's old cookbook again showing her recipe for the year 1951 (every year there was a subtle change....I can't imagine why). The silver threepenny bits are the actual ones used by my Grandmother and have been passed down in the family.

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