With Halloween and Bonfire Night done and dusted for another year, the next big date on the calendar is Christmas.
With the festive season fast approaching, there’s many things to start planning – when to start your Christmas shopping, what foods to buy and prepare and who you’re inviting around for the big day.
Another early preparation ahead of Christmas is sorting the pudding, a dish which needs weeks of prep.
This preparation is typically done on the same day each year, Stir Up Sunday.
What is it and when is Stir Up Sunday this year?
What is Stir Up Sunday?
Stir Up Sunday is a tradition that dates back to Victorian times when the family would gather together to stir the Christmas pudding five weeks before Christmas.
The opening words of the Book Of Common Prayer, reads: ‘Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people,’ so the tradition came to be that people would come together on this day to get stirring.
It is believed that, traditionally, children would be taught the ingredients as they went, and everyone would be given a turn to stir the Christmas pudding for good luck.
When is Stir Up Sunday 2021?
Stir Up Sunday always falls on the last Sunday before advent so, this year, the date is November 21.
Advent is the period of four Sundays and weeks before Christmas.
The term advent means ‘coming’ in Latin and Christians celebrate this period as the coming of Jesus into the world.
Stir Up Sunday traditions
The traditions centre on the Christmas pudding, with symbolism and meaning attached to the different ingredients or stages.
For a start, Christmas pudding would traditionally contain 13 ingredients – one to represent each of Jesus’ disciples and Jesus himself.
Traditionally, these ingredients include: raisins, currants, suet, brown sugar, breadcrumbs, citron, lemon peel, orange peel, flour, mixed spices, eggs, milk and brandy.
On Stir Up Sunday, the pudding is traditionally stirred by each member of the family from East to West, to remember the Wise Men who travelled to visit Jesus in the Nativity Story.
The customary garnish of holly represented the crown of thorns (wit holly being toxic, this should be artificial and for decoration only).
Another tradition involved adding coins to the pudding to bring luck to whoever found them on their plate on Christmas Day.
Older traditions use different charms as well as coins.
The traditional lucky charms were a silver coin for wealth, a wishbone for luck, a thimble for thrift, a ring for marriage, and an anchor for safe harbour.
MORE : How to make a perfect vegan Christmas pudding
MORE : When are the Christmas school holidays?
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source https://metro.co.uk/2021/11/07/when-is-stir-up-sunday-2021-and-why-do-we-celebrate-it-15558765/
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