Copy Book Archive

Aaron’s Rod The Victorian practice of hanging sugared nuts on a Christmas tree was bursting with Biblical symbolism.
990-994
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Music: John Baptist Cramer

© Fabio Straniero, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0. Source

About this picture …

‘Confetti’, a basket of sugared almonds and other sweets traditionally presented at weddings in Italy. Candied almonds and other brightly coloured sweets were also a traditional part of Christmas tree decorations in Victorian times, symbolising the birth of Jesus Christ to a virgin mother, as Abbot Elfric explains.

Aaron’s Rod
Victorian Christmas celebrations included hanging nuts, typically sugared almonds, on the tree. This symbolic gesture goes back to a Christian interpretation of a passage from Numbers, which was known in England as long ago as the 10th century.

THE maidenhood of Mary was manifoldly betokened in the old law.*

God bade Moses, the leader, take twelve dry rods from the twelve tribes of the people of Israel, and lay them before the holy ark within the great tabernacle: and he would by those rods declare whom he had chosen for bishop.** Then, on the second day, Aaron's rod was found growing with boughs, and blowing, and bearing nuts.

Verily the dry rod, which was not planted in the earth, nor clothed with any rind, nor with sap quickened, and yet grew, and blew, and bare nuts, betokened the blessed Mary, who had no society of man, and yet bare the Living Fruit, who is the true Bishop and the Redeemer of our souls.

See Numbers 17.

** That is, as High Priest of the people of Israel. The word ‘bishop’ basically means ‘overseer’, one who watches over the congregation.

Précis

Elfric, an Anglo-Saxon abbot, connected the virgin birth to a story in Numbers. The tribes of Israel left twelve dry sticks overnight before the Ark of the Covenant. Aaron’s stick blossomed, though dead, and he was chosen as Israel’s High Priest; Mary gave birth to a child, though she was a virgin, and that child was the Saviour of mankind. (60 / 60 words)

Source

From Elfric of Eynsham’s Sermon on the Nativity, translated from Old English by Benjamin Thorpe.

Suggested Music

Piano Concerto No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 70

2: Larghetto

John Baptist Cramer (1771-1858)

Performed by Howard Shelley with the London Mozart Players.

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How To Use This Passage

You can use this passage to help improve your command of English.

IRead it aloud, twice or more. IISummarise it in one sentence of up to 30 words. IIISummarise it in one paragraph of 40-80 words. IVMake notes on the passage, and reconstruct the original from them later on. VJot down any unfamiliar words, and make your own sentences with them later. VIMake a note of any words that surprise or impress you, and ask yourself what meaning they add to the words you would have expected to see. VIITurn any old-fashioned English into modern English. VIIITurn prose into verse, and verse into prose. IXAsk yourself what the author is trying to get you to feel or think. XHow would an artist or a photographer capture the scene? XIHow would a movie director shoot it, or a composer write incidental music for it?

For these and more ideas, see How to Use The Copy Book.

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