December Holidays — Part 1

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!Six festivals, one darkest month, every table lit. In the premiere of December Holidays, Merry Hearth travels the world's December in feast-date order — from a saint's secret gold in old Myra to the last night of the year in Japan — hearing each festival described by someone who stood close to it: a medieval storyteller, an eyewitness traveller, a first-century historian, an Icelandic saga-writer, and a resident writer in Matsue.Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.THE FEASTS0:49 St. Nicholas Day (December 6) — The Golden Legend, the Life of St. Nicholas: the gift of gold for the three daughters, and the ships of wheat in the famine.7:55 Las Posadas (December 16–24) — Frances Calderón de la Barca, Life in Mexico (1843): the last night of the Posadas at the Marquesa's house in Mexico City.13:03 Saturnalia (December 17–23) — J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (1922): masters and slaves change places at Rome's feast of Saturn.21:10 Hanukkah (25 Kislev) — Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews: the temple cleansed, the lamps relit, and the festival of Lights founded.25:47 Yule (midwinter) — Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: Hakon the Good's Yule feast at Throndhjem, and the law that every man brew his ale.29:31 Omisoka (December 31) — Lafcadio Hearn, "Two Strange Festivals" (1894): the Japanese New Year in Matsue — its straw ropes, pine gates, and offerings.Read by Merry Hearth, of the Christmas Company. Opening carol: "Deck the Halls." Closing carol: "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." No music plays under the readings: in the Christmas seasons the carols sing at the open and the close, and the stories hold the middle alone.December Holidays is KacheliTV's season of the world's December festivals, told from period sources that pass the same two keys as the whole catalogue: printed by 1929, by makers gone by 1949. KacheliTV — the world's folk tales and classics, read aloud. Old stories, new meanings.