Stir-up Sunday is an informal term in

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of t ...

churches for the last Sunday before the season of

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek '' parousia''. ...

. It gets its name from the beginning of the

collect The collect ( ) is a short general prayer of a particular structure used in Christian liturgy. Collects appear in the liturgies of Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches, among othe ...

for the day in the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

, which begins with the words, "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people". But it has become associated with the custom of making the

Christmas pudding Christmas pudding is sweet dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of ...

s on that day. The Christmas pudding is one of the essential British

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

traditions and is said to have been introduced to Britain by Prince Albert, husband of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

(the reality is that the meat-less version was introduced from Germany by

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgor ...

in 1714). Most recipes for Christmas pudding require it to be cooked well in advance of Christmas and then reheated on Christmas Day, so the collect of the day served as a useful reminder.

Family activity

Traditionally, families gather together in the kitchen of their homes to mix and steam Christmas pudding on Stir-up Sunday. Parents teach their children how to mix ingredients for the pudding. Everyone takes a turn to stir the pudding mix for each person involved is able to make a special wish for the year ahead. Practically, stirring the mixture is hard work, therefore as many as possible are involved. By tradition the pudding mixture is stirred from East to West in honour of the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus. In some households, silver coins are added to the pudding mix. It is believed that finding a coin brings good luck. In a 2013 survey, two-thirds of British children reported that they had never experienced stirring Christmas pudding mix, reflecting consumers' preference for ready-made puddings widely available in shops.

History and etymology

The term comes from the opening words of the

for the day in the ''

1549 Book of Common Prayer The 1549 ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the original version of the ''Book of Common Prayer'', variations of which are still in use as the official liturgical book of the Church of England and other Anglican churches. Written during the ...

'' and later (a translation of the

Roman Missal The Roman Missal ( la, Missale Romanum) is the title of several missals used in the celebration of the Roman Rite. Along with other liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the Roman Missal contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of th ...

's collect used on the last Sunday before Advent): In the

and later editions, this collect is listed for "The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Trinity", with a

rubric A rubric is a word or section of text that is traditionally written or printed in red ink for emphasis. The word derives from the la, rubrica, meaning red ochre or red chalk, and originates in Medieval illuminated manuscripts from the 13th ...

specifying that this collect "shall always be used upon the Sunday next before Advent". This reinforced the significance of this day as forming part of the preparation for the season of Advent. The rubric is necessary because the last Sunday before Advent does not always fall on the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity:

Trinity Sunday Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost in the Western Christian liturgical calendar, and the Sunday of Pentecost in Eastern Christianity. Trinity Sunday celebrates the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the three Persons of God: th ...

is a

moveable feast A moveable feast is an observance in a Christian liturgical calendar which occurs on different dates in different years.John Ayto ''Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms'' 2010 p123 019954378X "a movable feast an event which takes place at no reg ...

and the

season is fixed, so the number of weeks in between varies from year to year. Thus, this collect was always read just before Advent - as it in the ( pre-reform) Roman Missal whence it came (where the Sunday is called the "24th Sunday after Pentecost", but the Sundays left out after Epiphany are "caught-up" between the 23rd and the 24th, making it always the last before Advent). Since most recipes for Christmas pudding call for the pudding to be kept for several weeks to mature, the day subsequently became connected, in countries which used the

, with the preparation of

s in readiness for

. Supposedly, cooks, wives and their servants would go to church, hear the words "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord ...", and be reminded, by association of ideas, that it was about time to start stirring up the puddings for Christmas. In recent years most provinces of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

have adopted the practice of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in observing this Sunday as

Christ the King Christ the King is a title of Jesus in Christianity referring to the idea of the Kingdom of God where the Christ is described as seated at the right hand of God. Many Christian denominations consider the kingly office of Christ to be one of ...

(sometimes under the name "The Reign of Christ"). Popular attachment to the "Stir up" collect has, however, caused it to be retained (in contemporary language) in the liturgies of several provinces. The

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

's "

Common Worship ''Common Worship'' is the name given to the series of services authorised by the General Synod of the Church of England and launched on the first Sunday of Advent in 2000. It represents the most recent stage of development of the Liturgical Move ...

" uses it as the Post-Communion prayer, with a rubric stating that it "may be used as the Collect at Morning and Evening Prayer during this week". In the Catholic Ordinariates for former Anglicans, Divine Worship: The Missal appoints the "stir up" collect for use on any of the weekdays between the Solemnity of Christ the King which are not themselves Feasts or Obligatory Memorials. The Collect thus functions as the Collect for the Sunday Next Before Advent, even though the Sunday with that title is now a liturgical fiction always being impeded by the higher ranking Solemnity of Christ the King. Yet the fictional Sunday nonetheless provides the real Collect for the following weekdays, as in other weeks in the calendar where a Sunday is occasionally impeded by a higher ranking Feast. The collect thus continues to be used the week before Advent, and thereby ensures that cooks will still be reminded to stir up their Christmas pudding in time, as long as they attend Daily Mass or read the Daily Office on at least one of the unimpeded days during the week. In addition, one of the two choices in Divine Worship: The Missal for the Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent begins with the words, "Stir up our hearts, O Lord." The other collect option on the Second Sunday in Advent is the more famous "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" collect, which some pastors are likely to prefer. But Christmas pudding is important, and yet another possibility for reminding the cooks was provided: the Collect for Ember Friday in Advent, which in the Ordinariates occurs on the Friday in the first week of Advent, begins "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power." In the Episcopal Church in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, the collect appointed for the Third Sunday of Advent in the Book of Common Prayer (1979) begins with the phrase "stir up your power O Lord." Thus, in many Episcopal Churches, the Third Sunday of Advent, also known as

Gaudete Sunday Gaudete Sunday ( ) is the third Sunday of Advent in the liturgical calendar of Western Christianity, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, Lutheran Churches, and other mainline Protestant churches. It can fall on any date fr ...

, is referred to as "Stir-up Sunday." Marion J. Hatchett in his definitive work "Commentary on the American Prayer Book," notes that in the Pre-Reformation English

Sarum Rite The Use of Sarum (or Use of Salisbury, also known as the Sarum Rite) is the Latin liturgical rite developed at Salisbury Cathedral and used from the late eleventh century until the English Reformation. It is largely identical to the Roman r ...

, collects for four of the last five Sundays before Christmas began with the word "excita" or "stir up." A similar collect to the one appointed in the BCP 1979 appears in the recent book authorized for use in the Church of England, "Common Worship", appointed for the Second Sunday of Advent, but the phrase "raise up" is used instead.

Dates

*2020: 22 November *2021: 21 November *2022: 20 November *2023: 26 November *2024: 24 November

References

External links

Stir Up SundayChristmas pudding’s Stir Up Sunday – Head Chef Rob KirbyStir Up Sunday at CatholicCulture.org
{{Advent Advent Anglicanism English folklore Christian Sunday observances November observances

Family activity

History and etymology

Dates

See also

References

External links