According to a statement issued by Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II died peacefully today at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highlands, with her family around her. She was 96 years-old.
Elizabeth reigned as Queen of England from 1953. In 2015, she became the country’s longest-reigning monarch. She lived to see the massive celebrations in honor of her 70th year on the throne, held only this past June. Now Charles is King.
Under the circumstances, it doesn’t seem appropriate to link a bunch of festive coronation marches. Instead, here’s Herbert Howells’ “Behold O God Our Defender,” composed on Christmas Day, 1952, also for Elizabeth’s coronation.
“When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.”
Just in case you missed out on this year’s Twelfth Night revels on the 6th (or the 5th, depending on the tradition), you’ve got one more chance tonight!
January 17th is Old Twelfth Night, a time of joyous celebration, marking the last day of the medieval Christmas festivities and the end of Twelfthtide, the Twelve Days of Christmas, which follows on the heels of Christmas Day.
What’s that, you say? Christmas is on December 25th? This Anglo-Saxon custom pre-dates the Gregorian calendar. Charmingly, it is still observed in parts of the United Kingdom, particularly in southwest England.
Families feast on cakes and cider and ale. When they’ve imbibed enough, they go out and wassail the trees. They sing and dance and maybe fire off a few guns (loaded with powder, but no shot), in the certitude that the racket will wake the trees for the coming season and drive off any bad energy.
Of course, to make the most of it, you’ll have to assemble a gang of folks as steeped in arcane Christmas lore as yourself, unless your idea of a good time is banging pots and pans in the woods alone while wearing yellow stockings and cross-garters.
A final Merry Christmas to you, until November 27th!
By the way, according to tradition it’s bad luck to leave your Christmas decorations up beyond Twelfth Night. In order to avert misfortune, if you forget, you’ll need to leave them in place all year. Horrors!
Perhaps of interest, I found this article in praise of wassailing:
