Christmas Quiz #2

2nd Quiz

1) If you were given some frumenty at a Medieval Christmas party, you
would probably:
A) Eat it
B) Burn it
C) Put it in your sweetheart's hair
D) Use it to polish your boots

2) The first charity Christmas card was produced by UNICEF in 1949. The
picture chosen for the card was painted not by a professional artist but
by:
A) A chimpanzee
B) A blind man
C) A seven-year-old girl
D) A Buddhist monk

3) "Hot cockles" was popular at Christmas in medieval times. It was:
A) A dish of oysters and mussels
B) A hot spiced drink
C) A game in which a blindfolded person was struck
D) The title of a popular drinking song

4) During the ancient 12-day Christmas celebration, it was considered
unlucky to:
A) Let the log in the fireplace stop burning
B) Sneeze
C) Spill wine or ale
D) Hunt reindeer

5) "Mumming plays" with traditional plots have been enjoyed at Christmas
time in Europe since the Middle Ages. In England, the central character
is usually:
A) King Arthur
B) Pinnochio
C) Robin Hood
D) St. George

6) At lavish Christmas feasts in the Middle Ages, swans and peacocks
were sometimes served "endored". This means:
A) The feet and beaks were coated with gold
B) The guests knelt in adoration as the birds were brought in
C) The birds had been raised on grain soaked in brandy
D) The flesh was painted with saffron dissolved in melted butter

7) One of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes takes place during the
Christmas season. The tale hinges upon:
A) A burglar disguised as Father Christmas
B) A blue diamond found in a goose
C) A cat trapped in an organ pipe
D) A poisoned flask of Napoleon brandy

8) In the Ukraine, if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas
morning it is believed to mean:
A) Good luck
B) Misfortune will strike in the coming year
C) The winter will be unusually cold
D) Your house needs cleaning!

9) Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called "robins". This was
because:
A) The British postal service was founded by Sir Robin Spence
B) Their uniforms were red
C) They were famous for whistling as they made their rounds
D) They also delivered eggs

10) "Little Jack Horner" in the nursery rhyme may refer to the man who
was chief steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury in the early sixteenth
century. If so, then the "plum" he pulled from his Christmas pie was
actually:
A) A gem - a gift from the abbot for faithful service
B) Six golden guineas
C) An order banishing him from England
D) A deed to a manor in Glastonbury

11) As early as 1822, the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by
the amount of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution to
the problem was to:
A) Recruit volunteer postmen for the Christmas season
B) Raise the price of postage to reduce the number of cards sent
C) Request that people put holiday greetings in the newspaper instead
D) Limit by law the number of cards a person could send

12) George Frederick Handel's great Christmas oratorio, "The Messiah",
was first performed in 1742, in:
A) London
B) Dublin
C) Vienna
D) Jerusalem

13) For the winter solstice, Druids in ancient Britain would gather a
forest plant that we now associate with Christmas. It was:
A) Holly
B) Ivy
C) Mistletoe
D) Poinsettia

14) In Victorian England, turkeys were popular for Christmas dinners.
Some of the birds were raised in Norfolk, and taken to market in London.
To get them to London, the turkeys:
A) Were herded by sheep dogs
B) Flew
C) Rode in huge wagons called "turkey-vans"
D) Were supplied with boots made of sacking or leather

15) America's official national Christmas tree is:
A) Displayed at the Rockefeller Center in New York
B) Brought from Canada and erected in Washington each year
C) Located in King's Canyon National Park in California
D) A Scotch pine

16) The Philadelphia Mummers parade is a Christmas tradition of long
standing. Many members of Mummers clubs call themselves "two-streeters".
This is because:
A) The parade route covers the whole of two main streets
B) Two popular Mummers songs are "Easy Street" and "Lonely Street"
C) The original Mummers clubs were mostly located on Second Street
D) The din of the parade can easily be heard two streets away

17) The first commercial Christmas card is generally agreed to have been
the one illustrated above. The card had a hostile reception from some
people because:
A) It depicted a family, children as well as adults, drinking wine
B) A mass-produced card was felt to be contrary to the Christmas spirit
C) The ivy leaves surrounding the design were originally a pagan symbol
D) They feared that overuse of the cards would lead to a paper shortage

18) The Irish custom of "feeding the wren" on December 26 consists of:
A) Taking one's in-laws out to dinner
B) Carrying a wren door to door, to collect money for charity
C) Leaving a basket of cakes at the door for passers-by
D) Putting out suet and seeds for the wild birds

19) A modern Christmas custom borrowed from ancient Rome's New Year's
celebrations is:
A) Putting up mistletoe to make a "kissing bough"
B) Decorating a tree
C) Displaying a wreath on the front door of one's house
D) Hanging stockings by the fireplace

20) St. Nicholas is a very hard-working saint, being the patron saint of
children, merchants, apothecaries, pawnbrokers, scholars and:
A) Teachers
B) Librarians
C) Mariners
D) Music

21) The fifth Sunday before Christmas has been called "Stir-up Sunday".
On this day, it is considered lucky to:
A) "Stir up" the house by cleaning it from top to bottom
B) Have everyone in the family help to stir the Christmas pudding
C) Rouse the neighbors out for a community sing-song
D) Make a big pot of soup or stew for the poor

22) The tradition of erecting a tree at Christmas is believed to have
started in:
A) England
B) France
C) Germany
D) Norway

23) In Britain, the Holy Days and Fasting Days Act of 1551, which has
not yet been repealed, states that every citizen must attend a Christian
church service on Christmas Day, and must NOT:
A) Use any kind of vehicle to get to the service
B) Consume any meat that day
C) Give presents or put up decorations
D) Sing in public thoroughfares

24) Some people like to hide a coin or trinket in the Christmas pudding.
This may have originated in the ancient custom, in Rome and elsewhere,
of concealing a particular object in food. The object was:
A) A key
B) A piece of parchment with a fortune written on it
C) A ruby or sapphire
D) A dried bean

25) Louis Prang, a 19th-century German immigrant to the United States,
made an important contribution to Christmas in popular culture by:
A) Printing the first special Christmas edition of a major magazine
B) Being the first to use an image of Santa Claus in an advertisement
C) Publishing the first children's book featuring Santa Claus
D) Popularizing the sending of printed Christmas cards

26) In many countries, Christmas is considered a propitious time for
fortune-telling. In Switzerland, an onion and salt are traditionally
used to predict:
A) Whether a girl will marry in the coming year
B) The weather for the coming year
C) The outcome of a journey
D) The state of the family's health

27) An ancient religion, which has since died out, celebrated the birth
of a god on December 25th. The god was:
A) Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods
B) Mithras, the Persian god of war
C) Odin, the chief of the Norse gods
D) Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and learning

28) All through the Christmas season in old England, "lambswool" could
be found in the houses of the well-to-do. It was:
A) Imitation snow used in decorations
B) A brew of hot ale with roast apples floating in it
C) The material used for knitting Christmas gifts
D) A fluffy confection made from almonds and sugar

29) One Christmas ritual NOT drawn from an ancient tradition is the
British monarch's broadcast on Christmas day. The tradition began in
1932 with a speech written by:
A) The king himself, George V
B) Children's author Enid Blyton
C) Rudyard Kipling
D) Sir Winston Churchill

30) In Victorian times, most Londoners would have been familiar with the
"goose club", which was:
A) A pantomime troupe specializing in slapstick
B) A stout stick used for slaughtering geese
C) A banjo-like instrument used in door-to-door caroling
D) A method of saving to buy a goose for Christmas