Christmas Ghosts
Our Free Lectures
•
48m
For centuries, the telling of ghost stories was an activity associated with the Twelve Days of Christmas - the period between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night (Epiphany), when households would feast through the long winter nights and entertain one another with chilling tales. The tradition survived into more recent times, and is associated above all with Charles Dickens and M. R. James, both of whom routinely terrified their audiences with new ghost stories at Christmas. This talk explores the origins of the association between ghosts and the festive season and the development of the Christmas ghost story.
This lecture is given by Dr Francis Young who returns to give a second lecture following the popularity of his talk on Macabre Church Lore in October. Dr Young is a historian and folklorist, the author of 14 books, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Up Next in Our Free Lectures
-
Ghosts of Music, Shades of Light: The...
By taking us through a normal day in the life of an average parish church, we will explore how medieval churches were used on a daily basis and why they were therefore designed and built as they were – and then why they were modified as time went on (an aspect that frequently puzzled Pevsner) bec...
-
The Box of Whistles: a short history ...
Pipe organs have been used in English parish churches for more than a thousand years. Early organs were often small and portable. Their use changed radically at the time of the Reformation. Later organs grew in size, becoming permanent features of church buildings with architectural casework and ...
-
Memorials of The Darks Days: Arts and...
The First World War saw an outpouring of grief like nothing England had seen before. Most communities had lost people, and all wanted a lasting memorial to those who were gone. It brought art to the forefront of the British public’s mind, and was thus a business opportunity like no other for arch...
