Christmas, best wishes.

Christmas in Haworth.

  Every year at Christmas time, Haworth is lit by twinkling fairy lights and pretty shop windows. Our cobbled street is home to wonderful independent shops, bars and restaurants, cafes, hotels and pubs, and every weekend in December leading up to Christmas, Haworth's residents and traders host bands, choirs, carol singers, processions and parades for visitors to enjoy. Home | Christmas In Haworth

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Photographes of Maggie Gardiner: It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas 🎼…Haworth getting ready for the festive season ❤️ …Haworth getting ready for the festive season

Comfort and Joy with Nick Holland.

Christmas day itself would have been a joyous one for the Brontës; beginning with a Christmas service at their father’s church, they would then settle down to a festive meal and doubtless the Haworth Brass Band would have called at the parsonage too. 

The Brontë sisters loved fun and laughter, and they especially loved music, so we can easily imagine them gathered round the parsonage piano. We know that Emily was a brilliant pianist, indeed she briefly gave piano lessons in Brussels, and that Anne Brontë liked to sing along in a voice described as ‘soft, yet sweet’.

This year has been a strange one and this Christmas will find many of us separated from those we love and want to be with, but better times are rapidly approaching and until then we can find solace and escape in great books such as Wuthering Heights.

 Nick Holland -  felixstowebookfestival 

Haworth's Christmas tree.

 This beautiful photograph is taken by Andy Sheppard

Friday evening with a chill in the air and a foggy night ahead on the moors

Haworth was still and quiet

The village tree this year looks splendid

Haworth residents spruce up village in bid to make it "more beautiful than ever" following cancellation of Christmas events.

Residents in Haworth have committed to sprucing up the village’s famed Main Street with as much cheer as possible this year to keep up spirits, and businesses have urged people to continue to shop local and support independent businesses in an extremely difficult period.

Read all the article: yorkshirepost/haworth-residents-spruce-village-bid-make-it-more-beautiful-ever-following-cancellation-christmas-events

bronteadventures/haworth-shops

Two more books by Nick Holland and Auld Lang Syne.

Read all the article: annebront/anne-bronte-2020-and-auld-lang-syne

-------Two more Brontë books published------- 

It’s a year that will see me have two more Brontë books published – probably my last ever Brontë books, so I hope I’ve done their subjects justice. ‘Charlotte and Ellen‘ will be out in autumn, and ‘Crave The Rose: Anne Brontë At 200’ will be out later this month! It’s worth pointing out that whilst Amazon seems to say that it’s out on the 2^nd, tomorrow, it will be a little later than this as the festive period have slowed down the usual typesetting, printing and distribution service with Valley Press. Fear not, however, it will be out later in January, hopefully in time for Anne’s 200^th birthday, so you can pre-order now

-----Auld Lang Syne-----

How lovely to think of Anne at the piano, maybe Emily alongside her as she so often was, as they all sang the words written by Robbie Burns in 1788 and which have now become forever associated with Hogmanay celebrations.

Only a dream? Actually, it’s almost certain that this is what took place in the Brontë’s parsonage over the new year period. How do we know this? Because we still have Anne Brontë’s music books. She loved to copy pieces of music by hand onto blank music paper that she would then play on the piano – and we still have Anne’s own handwritten and annotated copy of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ – here it is!

Auld Lang Syne, cop

The Brontës were fans of anything Scottish, and especially of Walter Scott, James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, and Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire. Whilst Burns’ name will forever be associated with these New Year words he himself said it was an ancient song which had been passed on to him by an old man, and he had merely set it in print.

A beautiful store in Haworth, The Store Haworth.

On Facebook I found information about a beautiful store in Haworth
I love all of it
The floor, everything

The Store Haworth

56 Main Street

Haworth, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

On their Facebook page facebook/thestorehaworth:

and here is the very special wreath we created today.... see it’s journey up sparkling Main Street and it being hung on the most cherished front door in Haworth!!! So privileged to create this wreath for Bronte Parsonage Museum .....

Christmas in Haworth.

facebook-videos- Christmas in Haworth

CHRISTMAS lights were switched on in Haworth and Steeton.

CHRISTMAS lights were switched on in Haworth  as local villages gear up for the festive season.

The first-ever Haworth switch-on was hailed a great success by local business people who organised the family event last Saturday.

Crowds flocked to watch the official switch-on at the Christmas tree at the bottom of Main Street by BBC Look North presenter Harry Gration.

Spokesman Josie Price, who runs Weavers Guesthouse, said: “The switch-on exceeded all our expectations in terms of attendance, and feedback has been really encouraging. Harry Gration was super, a real gentleman. You could tell his fondness for Haworth, which resonated with the mainly local crowd. Look for beautiful pictures on this page keighleynews-christmas-lights

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Enjoy Christmas in Haworth this year.

Happy New Year to all of you.

Haworth, Christmas decorations and Bronte Treasures by Candlelight

I was searching on Facebook and Twitter

for beautiful photographs about
Haworth and the Bronte Parsonage

preparing themselves for Christmas

These photographes are from

James-Hogg-photography

Yarnbombed wreath Haworth

twitter/haworthfairtrad

Pull out and save the @HaworthXmas events pages this month. Let the season begin!

Liz George Barker

Yule Window, The Apothecary, Haworth 

(c) Karen Hild facebook/Karenarthilder

One evening in Haworth...
(c) Karen Hild

Decking the halls @BronteParsonage

Bronte Treasures by Candlelight

08-12-2017. In this special hour-long session, a member of our curatorial team will share facts and stories about a number of carefully-selected objects, offering a specialist insight into the lives and work of the inspirational Brontë family. You will also have the chance to experience the historic rooms of the Parsonage by candlelight. Fascinating and moving in equal measure, this Brontë Treasures by Candlelight is a not-to-bemissed experience. Places are limited to 12 so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Tickets £85 per person which includes a glass of wine. Please book in advance at  www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on or by calling 01535 642323.

Christmas with the Gaskells.

So far as secular celebration of Christmas was concerned, they seem to have done the usual things.  They gave each other Christmas presents.  In 1853, Elizabeth discusses with Marianne what she wants for Christmas, and reminds her about the two younger daughters: “think what Flossy & Julia would like for Xmas presents”. [4]  Later, in 1861, she comments that “Meta [her second daughter] and I wearied ourselves out for Xmas presents”, but then oddly adds: “We made no great ado about presents this year. Julia a scarlet Connemara Cloak … Florence a remnant of silk for a gown”.[5]  They had special Christmas food.  In 1852, Elizabeth recorded that “there is a great concoction of mince-meat & plum-pudding going on”, noting that one of the servants, “Huddlestone has never tasted either”.[6]  Did they, like so many people in the Victorian period, have a Christmas goose?  There is no evidence, but Elizabeth, visiting London in December 1847, noted the geese hung up outside poulterers’ shops (to keep them cool in the days before refrigeration), and commented: “they sell geese here with their necks hanging down full length, instead of being tidily tucked up like Lancashire geese”.[7]  Did they have a Christmas tree? Elizabeth commented appreciatively on other people’s trees.[8] When she notes in 1852 that the Gaskells are “not having a tree”, this may imply that they usually did.[9]

This reference to the absence of a Christmas tree is followed, in a letter to Elizabeth Holland by the words: “Our Xmas days are always very quiet, principally a jollification for the servants.”[10]  This has sometimes been taken to indicate that the Gaskells always had a quiet Christmas, but the significant factor in 1852 was that both the older daughters were away from home.  In a letter to Marianne, at the same time, Elizabeth writes: “I wish you were at home, though it will be exceedingly quiet here.  No one coming, nor going out, except to Chapel.  Flossy & Julia send their very very very best loves; we are not going to keep Xmas day till New Years day, partly because you won’t be here, partly because the presents are not ready.”[11] They evidently did not feel they had to make a big thing of Christmas, but they duly enjoyed it: “we are all deep in preparations for Christmas”, Elizabeth wrote in 1849”.[12]  Doubtless they shared the common Victorian view that Christmas was a family festival, and their celebrations were affected by which members of the family were at home or away.[13]

A vivid memory of Christmas that remained in Elizabeth’s memory from her childhood was of country children singing carols.  “At Knutsford we have Christmas carols, such a pretty custom, calling one from dreamland to almost as mystic a state of mind; half awake and half asleep, blending reality so strangely with the fading visions; and children’s voices too in the dead of the night with their old words of bygone times.”[14]  Such a carol is quoted in Elizabeth’s story, “Christmas storms and Christmas sunshine” (1848). Anthony Burton, Volunteer and Trustee at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

Read all: elizabethgaskellhouse/christmas-with-the-gaskells

A Brontë Advent – Haworth Christmas Events

What a beautiful photograph

I found it on the weblog from Nick Holland 

annebronte/a-bronte-advent-haworth-christmas-events/

Anne Brontë was undoubtedly the most devout of the Brontë siblings, so she in particular would have loved the Advent celebrations advancing week by week in her father’s church a short walk from the parsonage she called home – such as the lighting of advent carols and the singing of hymns. Christmas music was a particular delight to Anne – so much so that she wrote a poem called ‘Music on Christmas Morning’, which begins:

‘Music I love – but never strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine –
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
Upon the wintry breezes born.’

We can imagine this warming sight as Christmas day dawned at the Haworth Parsonage: Emily Brontë, a highly accomplished pianist, playing a carol while Anne, who Ellen Nussey said liked to sing in a quiet yet sweet voice, sang to her family.

The village of Haworth also loves music at Christmas – and indeed the Advent Christmas period as a whole is one of particular joy in this beautiful moorside village. In recent decades the modern tradition of ‘scroggling the holly’ has drawn the crowds, but there is no scroggling this year – fear not, for there are lots of other exciting activities coming that are great for Brontë lovers and families alike.

This weekend is ‘choral weekend’ – one the whole Brontë family would surely have enjoyed. The 9^th of December is the night of the torchlight procession, a moving spectacle as folks in Victorian attire process up the steep and picturesque Main Street. Sunday the 10^th is even more spectacular, as a there is a candelit carol procession from 4.30 which culminates in a traditional carol service at St. Michael and All Angels’ Church.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is also particularly magical throughout December – particularly on Thursday 8^th December – as there’s a chance to experience the parsonage by candlelight and then look at some of the Brontë treasures including manuscripts by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. It’s a tour I’ve done myself, and it truly is thrilling. Places are limited but you can find out more at the Brontë Society website here – where you’ll also find details of other events including Christmas wreath making workshops.

It’s certainly beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here in Yorkshire, by which I mean that it’s absolutely freezing of course, but life feels good when you wrap up warm and read a Brontë book with a warm drink near to hand!

Merry Christmas to all my readers.

Christmas Eve

Max Nicoll ‏     

Christmas Eve in Haworth

Music On Christmas Morning - Poem by Anne Bronte

Music I love--but never strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine--
As that we hear on Christmas morn,
Upon the wintry breezes borne.

Though Darkness still her empire keep,
And hours must pass, ere morning break;
From troubled dreams, or slumbers deep,
That music KINDLY bids us wake:
It calls us, with an angel's voice,
To wake, and worship, and rejoice;

To greet with joy the glorious morn,
Which angels welcomed long ago,
When our redeeming Lord was born,
To bring the light of Heaven below;
The Powers of Darkness to dispel,
And rescue Earth from Death and Hell.

While listening to that sacred strain,
My raptured spirit soars on high;
I seem to hear those songs again
Resounding through the open sky,
That kindled such divine delight,
In those who watched their flocks by night.

With them I celebrate His birth--
Glory to God, in highest Heaven,
Good-will to men, and peace on earth,
To us a Saviour-king is given;
Our God is come to claim His own,
And Satan's power is overthrown!

A sinless God, for sinful men,
Descends to suffer and to bleed;
Hell MUST renounce its empire then;
The price is paid, the world is freed,
And Satan's self must now confess
That Christ has earned a RIGHT to bless:

Now holy Peace may smile from heaven,
And heavenly Truth from earth shall spring:
The captive's galling bonds are riven,
For our Redeemer is our king;
And He that gave his blood for men
Will lead us home to God again.

kleurrijkbrontesisters  The Bronte Sisters and their Christmas holidays.

kleurrijkbrontesisters/christmas-holidays-of-year-1842

Merry Christmas to all of you.

 

"Music I love - but never strain
Could kindle raptures so divine,
So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
And rouse this pensive heart of mine -
As that we hear on Christmas morn,...
Upon the wintry breezes born."

 

To tell you the truth I didn't know this poem

 

 (from Music On Christmas Morning by Anne Bronte)

 

I found it on the Facebook page of Nick Holland

Complete poem on: annebronte/music-on-christmas-morning-by-anne-bronte/

 

“A Christmas frost had come at midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over June; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hayfield and cornfield lay a frozen shroud: lanes which last night blushed full of flowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden snow; and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and flagrant as groves between the tropics, now spread, waste, wild, and white as pine-forests in wintry Norway.”
― from JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë

 

 

December 1847 at the Parsonage.

The beginning of December 1847 was a time of great excitement in the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, but it was nothing to do with the impending arrival of Christmas; it was the month that saw the joint publication of Agnes Grey, by Acton Bell, and Wuthering Heights, by Ellis Bell, and the gestation of these great novels had been anything but smooth. Read more of this wonderful post on the weblog of Nick Holland:  annebronte/the-birth-of-agnes-grey-and-wuthering-heights/