Christmas 2010
The seventh of January, and the carol singers who still come to the door in some places.
A blessed Christmas to everyone marking it today.
In cities the carolling has mostly become something you watch. In villages and smaller towns it is still something that arrives at your door: a group, often young, sometimes with a star on a pole, occasionally with someone dressed as a goat, singing at the threshold and expecting to be given something.
The goat is the detail that gives it away. There is nothing Christian about a man in a goat costume being ritually killed and revived at your doorstep, which is what the older versions of the performance involve. It is a fertility rite that has been attending Christmas for a very long time and has never been asked to leave.
A peaceful evening to your household.
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