Lentorama 2021: Take Your Holiday To Go

Day 14: Stir-up Sunday

This is an informal name in the Anglican church for the last Sunday before Advent. It takes its name from a prayer for the day in the Book of Common Prayer that starts, "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord." This would then remind churchgoers that it was time to "stir up" the ingredients to make the Christmas pudding. 

That you would start making your Christmas pudding nearly a month before Christmas should tell you something about Christmas pudding. A dense cake made with dried fruit, spices, dark sugar/treacle, and usually some sort of alcohol, the pudding would be boiled or steamed for several hours, after which it would be left somewhere to mature until Christmas. At which point it could be reheated or doused with brandy and set aflame before serving. Which probably helped kill whatever would be growing on it after several weeks of sitting around.

The association between this particular day and Christmas pudding has waned a bit, between the growing popularity of store bought puddings and the adoption of the Feast of Christ the King on the same day. 

In the US, Episcopalians hear this prayer on the third Sunday of Advent, which I assume reminds them to stir up a Jello mold or something.