Anne here, offering a little bit of Festive Season fun with the Regency Christmas Quiz No.2.
As usual, you will need a pen and paper to jot down your choices, then at the end, click on the link to check your answers. Don't forget to come back and tell us how you went. (The illustration on your right is not Regency, but is from the Victorian Era, when Christmas as we know it really got going.)
1) Who was the Lord of Misrule?
a) The Lord of the Manor, who had to pay penance for his sins during the year by distributing nuts and beer to the poor.
b) A judge appointed to review appeals over the twelve days of Christmas.
c) A man chosen to rule over drunken Christmas revelries.
d) The target person in a game of Hunt-the-Fool.
2) Which Christmas carol might have been sung by Regency people?
a) Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
b) The First Noel.
c) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.
d) We Three Kings of Orient Are.
3) Which Christmas carol would NOT have been sung by Regency people?
a) Away in a Manger.
b) I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing By.
c) Silent Night.
d) All of the above.
4) Which of these plants are traditionally part of Christmas greenery?
a) bay.
b) laurel.
c) rosemary.
d) all of the above.
5) Stir-Up Day is:
a) The last Sunday before Advent, when the minister traditionally gives a fiery sermon to stir the congregation from sin and complacency.
b) The day when in the country, the winter hay is turned, to prevent it going moldy.
c) the day when all the members of the family gather to stir the Christmas pudding.
d) The day when the foxes are stirred from their dens to prepare for hunting on Boxing Day (26th December).
6) Mummers are:
a) Men who dress up at Christmas and silent act out a play — never speaking.
b) Groups of poor men who come around before Christmas looking for odd jobs. They are traditionally paid with coal or food.
c) A men-only choir who sing Christmas songs in church.
d) A group of men who at Christmas dress up, sing and act out plays.
7) The Christmas game "Hot Cockles"
a) involves snatching shells tossed in a bowl of burning wood shavings.
b) involves putting your head in someones lap and guessing who is smacking your bottom.
c) involves standing on one foot as long as you can while ducking balls of wool thrown at you.
d) involves hiding a golden shell (or nut) somewhere in a room and setting others to find it.
8) Syllabub is
a) a drink made of sweetened cream curdled in wine or cider.
b) a non-alcoholic drink popular at Christmas containing cream and cinnamon.
c) a game involving bobbing for plums floating in a tub of water.
d) a savory Christmas tart containing cream and eggs but no meat or salt.
9) If you were given a "fire spill" for Christmas it would probably be:
a) A bucket of sand with a scoop for smothering a fire or an escaped hot coal.
b) A candle holder with a deep circular dish for catching hot wax.
c) a specially folded piece of paper for transferring fire or lighting candles or pipes.
d) An alcoholic dessert that is set alight just before serving.
10) When gathering mistletoe for a kissing bough, people
a) preferred mistletoe with no berries (because they were poisonous).
b) preferred mistletoe with lots of berries.
c) cut the berries off, to discourage lewdness.
d) had to cut the branches with a special sickle.
11) Buffy Gruffy was
a) a fictional character from the north of England (like an early sort of Santa Claus) who put coal in the stockings of bad children.
b) a Scottish term for a snowball fight.
c) a masked character who distributed food boxes to the poor on Boxing Day.
d) a game, a bit like blindman's buff, only with questions.
12) The Yule log was
a) made from dried plums, cocoa, crushed biscuits (cookies) and cream.
b) set alight on Christmas Eve and burned for up to twelve days.
c) in some places made from rolls of newspaper, dipped in tar and pitch.
d) a tree cut down on Boxing Day and stored for a full year before burning.
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I hope you enjoyed my little quiz. Now you've noted down your answers, click here to find out how many you got right. Then come back and tell us how you went.
And if you're still in the mood for more Christmas quizzing, the first Regency Christmas Quiz can be found here, a Quiz on Dickens's A Christmas Carol is here, and for the well-read romance reader, try my Ten Lords a'Leaping Quiz.
Wishing you all the very best for Christmas and the festive season, whatever you're celebrating (or not.) As usual, the Word Wenches will be posting their daily short posts over the Christmastide period (the 12 days of Christmas starting with 25 December). See you then.