Editing Stir-up Sunday

{{Short description|The last Sunday before Advent}}
{{Infobox holiday
|holiday_name  = Stir-up Sunday
|type          = Christianity
|image         = Christmas pudding.JPG
|caption       = Traditionally, the preparation of [[Christmas pudding]]s began on Stir-up Sunday.
|observedby    = Western Christianity
|date          = Sunday before [[Advent Sunday]]
|date2022      = 20 November
|date2023      = 26 November
|date2024      = 24 November
|date2025      = 23 November
|celebrations  = 
|observances   = 
|relatedto     = [[Christmas|Christmas Day]]
|frequency     = annual
|duration      = 1 day
}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}

'''Stir-up Sunday''' is an informal term in [[Catholic]] and [[Anglican]] churches for the last Sunday before the season of [[Advent]]. It gets its name from the beginning of the [[collect]] for the day in the [[Book of Common Prayer]], 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]]s on that day.<ref>''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''. Second edition, 1989 (first published in ''New English Dictionary'', 1917). "Stir-up Sunday (colloq.): the Sunday next before Advent: so called from the opening words of the Collect for the day. The name is jocularly associated with the stirring of the [[Christmas]] mincemeat, which it was customary to begin making in that week."</ref> The [[Christmas]] pudding is one of the essential British [[Christmas]] traditions and is said to have been introduced to Britain by [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]], husband of [[Queen Victoria]] (the reality is that the meatless version was introduced from Germany by [[George I of Great Britain|George I]] in 1714).<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8896690/Who-needs-Nigella-Stir-up-Sunday-the-idiots-guide-to-home-made-christmas-pudding.html Who needs Nigella? Stir-up Sunday: the idiot’s guide to home-made Christmas pudding] Retrieved 24 July 2013</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/family/this-weekend-is-stir-up-sunday---263526 This weekend is Stir Up Sunday – traditionally the time to make your Christmas pudding] Retrieved 24 July 2013</ref> 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 people as possible are involved. By tradition the pudding mixture is stirred from East to West in honor of the three [[Biblical Magi|wise men]] who visited the baby Jesus.<ref>[http://projectbritain.com/Xmas/stirup.htm Stir-up Sunday Christmas Pudding Day] Retrieved 4 November 2015</ref>

In some households, silver coins or other charms are added to the pudding mix.<ref>[http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/blogs/editor/2012/11/christmas-pudding-stir-up-sunday.html Christmas Pudding "Stir Up Sunday"] Retrieved 24 July 2013</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=A History of the Christmas Pudding |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/inspire-me/history-of-the-christmas-pudding/ |access-date=2024-12-11 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> It is believed that finding a coin brings good luck.<ref name=":0" />

In a 2013 survey, two-thirds of British children reported that they had never experienced stirring Christmas pudding mix,<ref>[http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/stir-up-sunday-time-to-make-a-start-on-christmas-pud-1.1016161?referrerPath=home/2.1962 Stir-Up Sunday – Time to make a start on Christmas Pud!] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219022240/http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/stir-up-sunday-time-to-make-a-start-on-christmas-pud-1.1016161?referrerPath=home%2F2.1962 |date=19 December 2013 }} Retrieved 24 July 2013</ref> reflecting consumers' preference for ready-made puddings widely available in shops.

==History and etymology==
{{more citations needed|section|date=November 2024}}

The term ''stir-up Sunday'' comes from the [[incipit|opening words]] of the [[collect]] for the day in the ''[[Book of Common Prayer#1549|1549 Book of Common Prayer]]'' and later (a translation of the [[Roman Missal]]'s collect {{lang|la|"Excita, quæsumus"}} used on the last Sunday before Advent):
{{Verse translation|lang=la|
Excita, quæsumus, Domine, tuorum fidelium voluntates: ut divini operis fructum propensius exsequentes, pietatis tuæ remedia maiora percipiant: Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
|
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.}}

In the [[Book of Common Prayer#1662|Book of Common Prayer]] and later editions, this collect is listed for "The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Trinity", with a [[rubric]] 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 25th Sunday after [[Trinity Sunday]]. Trinity Sunday is a [[moveable feast]] and the [[Advent]] 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 ([[Tridentine Mass|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 [[Book of Common Prayer]], with the preparation of [[Christmas pudding]]s in readiness for [[Christmas]].<ref>{{cite news | title= Home-made Christmas puddings die out |author= Gary Cleland |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570379/Home-made-Christmas-puddings-die-out.html |newspaper= The Telegraph |date=  24 November 2007 |accessdate=30 December 2010}}</ref>

In recent years{{as of when|date=November 2024}} most provinces of the [[Anglican Communion]] have adopted the practice of the Roman [[Catholic Church]] in observing this Sunday as [[Feast of Christ the King|Christ the King]] (sometimes under the name "The Reign of Christ").{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} 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]]'s "[[Common Worship]]" 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 [[Personal Ordinariate|Catholic Ordinariates for former Anglicans]], [[Divine Worship: The Missal]] appoints the "stir up" collect for use on any of the weekdays between the [[Feast of Christ the King|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 [[Feast of Christ the King|Solemnity of Christ the King]]. However, 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.

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. However, another collect featuring the phrase "stir up" within the Advent season is the collect for Ember Friday in Advent, which in the [[Personal Ordinariate|Ordinariates]] occurs on the Friday in the first week of Advent, beginning "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power."

In the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in the [[United States]], the collect designated for the Third Sunday of Advent in the Book of Common Prayer (1979) commences with the invocation, "stir up your power, O Lord." Consequently, within numerous Episcopal congregations, the Third Sunday of Advent, commonly known as [[Gaudete Sunday]], 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 collects for four of the last five Sundays preceding Christmas commenced with the words {{lang|la|excita}}, or 'stir up'. A comparable collect to the one appointed in the Book of Common Prayer 1979 is found in the recent book authorized for use in the Church of England, "Common Worship," designated for the Second Sunday of Advent; however, in this version, the phrase "raise up" is employed instead.

==See also==

*[[Advent Sunday]]
*[[Feast of Christ the King]]
*[[Gaudete Sunday]]
*[[Totensonntag]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://news.warwickshire.gov.uk/blog/2012/11/29/stir-up-sunday/ Stir Up Sunday]
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11806219 Christmas pudding’s Stir Up Sunday – Head Chef Rob Kirby]
*[http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=959 Stir Up Sunday at CatholicCulture.org]

{{Advent}}

[[Category:Advent]]
[[Category:Anglicanism]]
[[Category:English folklore]]
[[Category:Christian Sunday observances]]
[[Category:November observances]]