Childermas Day is an old English name for Innocents' Day, a festival celebrated by the Anglican Church and the Church of Borne on the 28th of December in commemoration of the massacre of the Innocents. Research Childermas Day
The Feast of Fools was the name given to festivals regularly celebrated, from the 5th to the 16th century, in several countries of Europe, by the clergy and laity, with the most absurd ceremonies. The feast of fools was an imitation of the Roman Saturnalia, and, like this, was celebrated in December. The chief celebration fell upon the day of the Innocents, or upon New-year's Day;
but the feast continued from Christmas to the last Sunday of Epiphany. The young people, who played the chief parts, chose from among their own number a mock pope, archbishop, bishop, or abbot, and consecrated him, with many ridiculous ceremonies, in the chief church of the place. They often travestied the performance of the highest offices of the church, while others, dressed in different kinds of masks and disguises, engaged in indecent songs and dances, and practised all possible follies in the church. Except from their association with the Saturnalia nothing is known of the origin of these extravagancies, which appear to have been very ancient. They were most common in France, but the feast was also observed in Spain, Germany, England, and Scotland. In France it survived until the year 1644. Research Feast of Fools
William Holman Hunt (also known as W Holman Hunt) was an English painter. He was born in 1827 at London and died in 1910. He was trained in the Royal Academy school, and began to exhibit in 1846. He belongs to the so-called Pre-Raphaelite school of English artists. In 1853 his Claudio and Isabella first attracted public attention, followed next year by the Light of the World (Christ teaching in the temple). William Hunt then made a journey to the East, the results of which are observable in the local colouring and strength of realization in his succeeding pictures of Eastern life, amongst which be mentioned The Scapegoat (1856); The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1860); Shadow of the Cross (1873); Plains of Esdraelon (1877); Triumph of the Innocents (1885). Outside of Biblical subjects William Hunt painted some notable pictures: Isabella and the Pot of Basil, The After-Glow, The Festival of St Swithin, etc.
William H Hunt was an American jurist and politician. He was born in 1824 at Louisiana and died in 1884. was appointed Judge of the US Court of Claims in 1878. He was Secretary of the Navy in Garfield's Cabinet from 1881 to 1882, when he was appointed Minister to Russia. Research William Hunt
Abbreviations
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