Editing Father Christmas (section)

==16th century—feasting, entertainment and music==

In most of England the archaic word '[[Yule]]' had been replaced by '[[Christmas]]' by the 11th century, but in some places 'Yule' survived as the normal dialect term.<ref name="ODEF402">{{cite book | title=A Dictionary of English Folklore | url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryenglis00simp | url-access=limited | publisher=Oxford University Press |author1=Simpson, Jacqueline  |author2=Roud, Steve | year=2000 | location=Oxford | pages=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryenglis00simp/page/n414 402] | isbn=0-19-969104-5}}</ref> The City of [[York]] maintained an annual [[Thomas the Apostle#Feast days|St Thomas's Day]] celebration of ''The Riding of Yule and his Wife'' which involved a figure representing Yule who carried bread and a leg of lamb. In 1572, the riding was suppressed on the orders of [[Edmund Grindal]], the [[Archbishop of York]] (term 1570–1576), who complained of the "undecent and uncomely disguising" which drew multitudes of people from divine service.<ref name="Duffy581">{{cite book | title=The Stripping of the Altars | publisher=Yale University Press | author=Duffy, Eamon | year=1992 | location=New Haven and London | pages=[https://archive.org/details/strippingofaltar00duff/page/581 581–582] | isbn=0-300-06076-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/strippingofaltar00duff/page/581 }}</ref>

Such personifications, illustrating the medieval fondness for pageantry and symbolism,<ref name="ODEF402"/> extended throughout the [[Tudor period|Tudor]] and [[Stuart period|Stuart]] periods with [[Lord of Misrule]] characters, sometimes called 'Captain Christmas',<ref name="EnglishYear385"/> 'Prince Christmas'<ref name="EnglishYear385"/> or 'The Christmas Lord', presiding over feasting and entertainment in grand houses, university colleges and [[Inns of Court]].<ref name="ODEF119-120"/>

In his allegorical play ''[[Summer's Last Will and Testament]]'',<ref name="SummerOnline">
{{cite book | url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10467 | title=Summer's Last Will and Testament | date=1600 | access-date=12 January 2016 | author=Nashe, Thomas | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112225708/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10467 | archive-date=12 January 2016 | url-status=live}}
</ref> written in about 1592, [[Thomas Nashe]] introduced for comic effect a miserly Christmas character who refuses to keep the feast. He is reminded by Summer of the traditional role that he ought to be playing: "Christmas, how chance thou com’st not as the rest, / Accompanied with some music, or some song? / A merry carol would have graced thee well; / Thy ancestors have used it heretofore."<ref name="Whitlock181">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhZ348IKVDcC&q=nashe+Summer%27s+Last+Will+and+Testament+christmas&pg=PA181 | title=The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader | publisher=Yale University Press | author=Whitlock, Keith | year=2000 | location=New Haven and London | pages=181 | isbn=0-300-082231}}</ref>