Cooking Up Some Christmas Cake Luck

Christmastide brings Christmas treats, and whether you are cuddled up warm and cosy by a log fire in the northern hemisphere, or enjoying a sizzling summer in the south, sooner or later you are likely to find yourself cutting some Christmas cake. Christmas cake has been part of the festivities for centuries. Originally, it was an oatmeal based dish called ‘plum pudding’ which was eaten on Christmas Eve as a prelude to fasting on Christmas Day - how times have changed! Eventually, flour replaced oatmeal, and this dish took on its current form. In time, the stirring of the mixture became more and more significant with every member of the household taking a turn: even babes in arms would have their hands held to the ladle whist an adult stirred. It was thought that stirring the cake brought good luck - but only if it was stirred clockwise. Woe betide anyone who stirred the mixture anti-clockwise or ‘widdershins’ as bad luck was sure to follow. The reason direction mattered so much was twofold. From pre-Christian times, it was considered unlucky to do anything that went against the natural turn of events, so moving in a direction opposite to that of the sun spelt disaster. Whereas Christians thought it was believed that anti-clockwise was the devil’s direction, and any movement this way would bring you to Old Nick’s attention!