Christmastide

The carol is based on an ancient Christian tradition known as Twelvetide or Christmastide - where Christmas Day is the first day of Christmas and 5 January is the last.

“The Dead Hand” — subtitled “A Tale of a Weird and Awful Christmastide”— focuses on a smitten housemaid, her unscrupulous lover and a dead Catholic priest’s mummified hand.

At Christmastide you can’t escape from the fact that Christianity centres on the birth of a child, and glories in it.

In the medieval Christian tradition, Christmastide didn’t end until Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Presentation of the Lord, on Feb. 2.

Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” consists of six cantatas written for various days of Christmastide and not intended to be performed together, as they often are today.