Red Letter Days

Holidays or Holy Days?

Welcome to my newest readers, fellow bibliophiles, and educators!

Antique primers from the grammar school era appeal to me. I recently acquired one of my new old favorites for a few dollars, a 1951 copy of Poems for Red Letter Days. A school edition, it includes wistful poems for the normal American holidays, poems for various President birthdays, and poems for holidays that no longer exist. What happened to Bunker Hill Day, Moving Day, or Robert E. Lee’s birthday? Time has already effaced these days of remembrance.

Stranger still, centuries ago red letter days were once church holy days, identified on medieval church calendars with the color red. In English, William Caxton writes in The boke yf Enyeydos (1490): “We wryte yet in oure kalenders the hyghe festes wyth red lettres of colour of purpre.”

In 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer included a calendar with the holy days marked in red, thus spurring use of the phrase; however, the first print reference to red-letter day is not seen until 1663, when Edmund Gayton wrote in The religion of a physician: “the Red-letter daies being the Ornament of her Year.”

From Old English, haligdæg (c.1200) meant Sabbath, rest, or holy day, eventually becoming holiday. I wonder at what has been lost. I hope, like Gayton, that the red letter days I celebrate are the multiple ornaments of the year.

if leaves could be letters . . .

On My Desk

Three weeks ago I submitted my book proposal for The Humble Fig to four Christian publishing houses that don’t require an agent. Two standard rejections came within days, but I have hope that God has a place for these words of mine. I pray and wait.

Thank you, readers, for emailing me since I last wrote. I learned that Sehnsucht: The C.S. Lewis Journal now has open access of their review of my C.S. Lewis study guide through George Fox University! Look at that!

For Marking Holy Days

Several readers also emailed that my bookish gift suggestions were helpful for all of the November shopping. Here are a few more ideas:

1. I want to share an absolute treasure, a free one. Charlotte Mason Institute has published their 2023 Advent Guide, brimming with songs, poems, scripture, crafts, food, activities for every day of the next four weeks. I may not have littles at home anymore but I have already begun using a number of these resources with my high school students.

2. Plough Books collected twenty stories for Home for Christmas: Stories for Young and Old. Paperbacks are $18.

3. I observed classes at another classical school this week, and during a Bible class, I witnessed students happily using the wide margins of a journaling Bible. They range from $20 to over a $100.

   

   “It’s a great thing to be owned, and Jesus Christ owns us. He is our Chief who we delight to honor and serve; and He is our Savior, who delivers us, our Friend who cherishes us, our King who blesses us with His dominion.” —Charlotte Mason, Ourselves

Do comment or feel free to email me. And don't forget that the List Library at my website is always available to you, my readers. The book lists are great printable gifts or seasonal lists for any book lover!

Christine