Today is Christmas Eve according to the old calendar, and tonight millions of people (including Ukrainians like me) celebrate with a twelve-dish dinner.
With the disaster surrounding us and a house full of smoke, this is going to be an odd one.
Tag Archives: Christmas
On this day: the Christmas Season in Spain
5th January 1962: The Three Wise Men arrive at Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, where crowds of children wait to greet them.
Christmas on the Western Front
British troops eat Christmas dinner in a shell hole in Beaumont Hamel, France on the 25th of December, 1916. The commune was almost completely destroyed during the Battle of the Somme that took place that year.
A Wartime Christmas
December 1916. First World War: Injured soldiers celebrate Christmas in the 3rd Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, England. Sheffield was bombed by a German zeppelin during the war, and soldiers from the region suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of the Somme.
A Prison Camp Christmas
This painting depicts Christmas dinner in the Ruhleben internment camp in Germany in 1917. The camp, located west of Berlin, housed between 4000 and 5500 mainly British prisoners during the First World War.
The work was created by Anglo-Dutch artist Nico Jungmann, who was interned at Ruhleben because he was a naturalised British citizen.
1820s Christmas Fashion
To begin the Christmas season, here is an amazing holly-themed muslin gown from the 1820s.
It is in the Met collection, and I discovered it via Dr Kate Stradin‘s amazing fashion history Twitter account.
Happy Ukrainian Christmas!
Christmas Eve and Koliada
Today is Christmas Eve by the old calendar, and is still celebrated by millions of people around the world, especially in Eastern Europe.
The 6th of January is also the date of the beginning of Koliada, an ancient Slavic winter festival that predates Christianity. The festival is now incorporated into Christmas festivities.
Koliada in the Mogilev region of Belarus at Christmastime in 1903.
The festival in Lviv, Ukraine.
Christmas 1914
25th December 1914: British and German officers pose for a photograph in No-Man’s Land during the famous unofficial Christmas truce in the first year of World War One.
For one day soldiers put down their weapons and celebrated the holiday with their enemies.
The British officers pictured here are from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector.
Christmas Day 120 Years Ago
Bethlehem. 25th December 1898: A man and a woman recreate the approach of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. At the time the city was ruled by the Ottoman Empire.
