English Christmas Ghost Stories: Told After Supper

Recently I shared a little bit about the history of the English Victorian practice of gathering around a warm fire on Christmas Eve in order to share ghost stories. 

This tradition was as prevalent to the English Victorian as Santa Claus is to Americans today. The ghost stories these Victorians shared are fascinating.

Here is more of the history of why the Victorians chose Christmas Eve to share these stories.

The Victorian Christmas was based upon many Roman pagan and Northern European beliefs and traditions that the early Christians adopted. Some of these traditions include the Yule log, holly berries, and even Father Christmas. 

The Victorian Christmas also embraced the winter pagan festival that commemorated the winter solstice. The winter solstice, which is the longest night of the year, symbolized “the death of light and its subsequent rebirth the following day.”

Believing in the death of light resulted in a belief that the winter solstice night was the most haunted night of the year. It was believed that the barriers between the world of the living and the deceased were thinnest on this day. 

Therefore on Christmas Eve ghosts could walk the earth and finish unsettled business. The character of Marley in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol epitomized this concept.

As mentioned in my previous two posts on this subject this tradition is almost completely forgotten today in America. In England ghost stories are still shared at this time of year.* The stories that were told during this period of time should not be forgotten—they represent a rich literature history.

            “Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round the fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories.”

            “Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about spectres.”

                                                                        ---Jerome K. Jerome

Jerome K. Jerome an English writer and humorist wrote these words as part of an introduction to an anthology he wrote in 1891 entitled Told After Supper. This is a superb collection of stories that the Victorians told each other on Christmas Eve. 

Click on the link below to hear an audio version of Jerome’s book. This audio player shares the entire book one section after another. The first part is a wonderful overview of the kind of stories that were told. Then the following sections share just a few “true ghost stories that were told.”

Free Audio Books - Told after Supper by Jerome K. Jerome

* Another reason ghost stories became popular at Christmas time in Victorian England was this was a relatively cheap entertainment for the aspiring middle classes. Starting in the 1840's publishers were able to produce cheaper special editions for serials and magazines. These stories were often ghost stories. 

Charles Dicken's twopenny weekly "Household Words" launched in 1856, always had a short story in its Christmas edition and this story was more often than not a ghost story. He also wrote ghost stories for its successor "All The Year Round". 

So these ghost stories became an integral part of the Victorian Christmas. Read around the fire, they were popular home amusement in those households that could not afford the expense of going to the theatre or a concert.

Cultural Beliefs in Ghosts and Spirits

If you travel around the world, you will encounter beliefs about ghosts and spirits in most places you visit. * 

Yurel: The Ghosts of Japan.

These beliefs date back several centuries. The terminology changes from country to country but these beliefs are similar and fascinating in nature. 

This also applies to religions. From Christianity to Buddhism, ghosts or spirits play a role. Here are just a few of these traditions and beliefs.

One similar belief found in many rural cultures around the world is “White Ladies.” These ladies frequently are described as having suffered a tragic death or suffered some major trauma in life-- they are often harbingers of death. 

Irish Banshees are White Ladies. These female ghosts are often described as having lost or betrayed a husband or fiancé.

Classic Ghost Story image.

Another universal theme is the belief that the dead manifest in the form of spirits. 

Most religions believe the spirit is the soul of a deceased person. This dates back to ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. 

Spiritual practices, such as funeral rites are designed specially to appease the spirits of the dead. 

One common belief in many cultures is ghosts are being held from the afterlife as punishment for sins committed while they were alive.

Most religions mention guardian angels or protective spirits. 

For example, some cultures believe in ancestral spirits. These ancestral spirits are considered the soul continuing on without the physical body. This, as mentioned above, is a belief in most religions. 

In China, these souls or ghosts are held in high esteem. In fact, they are considered an active member of the family. They are respected and honored because the Chinese believe these ancestral spirits will help them achieve their goals, e.g., better crops, or to thrive in business, etc. **

Victorian Era Ghosts

Often cultures describe ghosts as solitary essences that are often mist-like. It is said they are connected to particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. 

Scores of cultures have stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, like the Flying Dutchman and the soldiers at Gettysburg. A belief in ghost animals is common as well.

Most cultures have some ritual to contact the spirits of the dead, such as séances. 

Many believe the dead return to haunt the living. Also, most distinguish between the more malignant, restless ghost, and positive spirits.

While the era we live in now is considered the "age of science," this fact has not dampened many people's belief in ghosts. People still find them as compelling and interesting as ever. 

The reason for this might be that since science alone cannot explain the broader questions, we have about life and death. Hence, some seek other fields, such as religion or the supernatural for reassurance.

In a future post, I will share more specific beliefs surrounding ghosts and spirits from around the world.

* Of course not everyone who believes in ghosts agrees on what exactly a spirit is. Some insist that the appearance of ghosts proves survival after death. Others state that such phenomena represent other dimensions of reality. And today, many cultures that once held a strong belief in ghosts have now left these beliefs to their ancestors.

** When communism took hold in China, many of the traditional ghost beliefs were discouraged.