Eat, Drink and Be Merry Trivia Quiz

Answer: Advent

Advent was a time of fasting, and even today is observed with fasting by some communities such as Eastern Orthodox communities. More recent traditions include Advent calendars, with some European towns featuring these in prominent places such as town halls and church buildings.

Lent is the period leading up to Easter and is also a period of fasting, beginning with Ash Wednesday.

Answer: Plum pudding

Over time, flour was added to thicken the mixture and it was served as a pudding or cake. By Victoria times the meat was removed and became the pudding associated with Christmas which is served today.

This information was sourced from 'A Tudor Christmas' by Alison Weir and Siobhan Clark.

Answer: Wild boar

As wild boar had to be hunted and could be quite dangerous and difficult to catch, it was a sign of prestige to be able to serve one to your guests. The boar was hunted to extinction several times, and It is recorded that the King of France sent a wild boar to Henry VIII as they had become so scarce in England.

As the boar was large, the head became the featured item, and was ceremoniously decorated and carried in on a platter, accompanied by music. Wynkin de Worde's 'Christmasse Carolles', published in 1521, includes the famous 'Boar's Head Carol', which describes the tradition of sacrificing a boar and presenting its head at a Yuletide feast, 'bedecked with bay and rosemary'.

Answer: Turkey

It is believed that Henry VIII first served turkey as part of the Christmas feast around 1523. There are documents recording large groups of turkeys being walked from Norfolk to London to be sold. It remained a popular Christmas meat, but it was only in the twentieth century that it gained its high level of popularity.

All of the other choices feature regularly on Christmas menus of that period.

Answer: Coffin

Pastry cases were made from a dough of flour and water, and were often discarded once the dish was served. The case was known as the coffin, and recipes from that time refer to 'the coffin', a word which at that time was used to describe a box or basket.

Answer: Thirteen

Baked in the shape of a manger, the pie had a number of sweet and savoury ingredients. The thirteen ingredients represented Christ and the 12 apostles. These included: dried fruit such as raisins, prunes and figs, lamb or mutton to represent the shepherds and spices (cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg) for the Wise Men.

Over time the pies became round and the meat ingredient was omitted to leave us with the sweet, fruit based mince pies we know today.

Answer: Gingerbread

It is from the court of Elizabeth I that we have the tradition of the gingerbread man. This was a dish that she had prepared for her guests, and had the gingerbread men made in their likenesses as a gift. It is recorded that she had her own gingerbread maker responsible for these delicacies.

Answer: Wassail

The wassail was first recorded in the twelfth century where it was recorded as a salute or drinking toast, and had spread to become a traditional Christmas drink less than a hundred years later. It is traditionallly drunk from a communal wooden bowl, with the person carrying it shouting 'Wassail' and the response 'drink hail' being returned.

Mummers were actors who performed traditional plays, often at Christmas time, and were recorded as performing for Henry VII, the first Tudor king.

Answer: Lambswool

Lambswool was made from hot cider, sherry or ale, spices and apples, which when hot exploded to create a white 'woolly' top.

Lambswool is traditionally a wassail drink. It is sometimes associated with Hallowe'en and parts of the West Country in England drank lambswool as part of their wassailing traditions in apple orchards.

There are some suggestions that this drink was associated with Twelfth Night festivities.


Gluhwein is the German name for mulled wine, often served at German Christmas markets.

Answer: Twelfth Night

The custom was that the person who found the bean became 'King' of the Twelfth night celebrations and whoever had the pea in became the 'Queen' of the celebrations.

These were associated with the Misrule celebrations, which ran for the traditional twelve days of Christmas.