The 25 Strangest days of Christmas Day 18 - Boars Head, No Not The Lunch Meat

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the Strange History podcast and

0:03 Speaker 1: day eighteen of our Victorian Christmas countdown the twenty five

0:06 Speaker 1: Strangest Days of Christmas. Let's talk about Victorian Christmas dinner tradition,

0:11 Speaker 1: the bore and head, well mostly the noggin. Victorian Christmas

0:16 Speaker 1: dinner could feature a boar's head centerpiece, carried in with

0:19 Speaker 1: ceremony like a celebrity guest who is not currently alive.

0:23 Speaker 1: This wasn't just decor, it was performance. Universities, gentlemen's clubs,

0:28 Speaker 1: and manor homes re enacted medieval banquet rituals where the

0:32 Speaker 1: boar's head was garnished with rosemary, surrounded by oranges, and

0:37 Speaker 1: escorted in by singing servants, Yes, singing servants. Queen's College

0:43 Speaker 1: in Oxford still performs the Boar's Head Gaudy, a tradition

0:46 Speaker 1: dating back to the thirteen hundreds. The official procession song

0:49 Speaker 1: includes the line caput apri de ferro I bring the

0:53 Speaker 1: boar's head translation, dinner has arrived and it is dramatic.

0:58 Speaker 1: Victorian's adored showman. Food was not just nourishment, it was

1:02 Speaker 1: theater with tusks.

1:04 Speaker 2: Today's sponsor is centerpiece Holiday table dramatics want your meal

1:09 Speaker 2: to enter the room with grandeur. We provide spotlight lighting,

1:14 Speaker 2: musical accompaniment, and optional theatrical fog centerpiece. Your ham deserves

1:19 Speaker 2: a moment next time.

1:22 Speaker 1: How Charles Dickens permanently rewired the global image of Christmas

1:25 Speaker 1: and why snow is involved even in places that do

1:28 Speaker 1: not get snow.