CHRISTMAS has been celebrated 414 times since the first Mayor of Evesham was appointed in 1605. I sometimes wonder what my predecessors would have written for their local newspaper all those years and centuries ago.
What, for example, would Thomas Handy, Mayor in 1644, would have written after Cromwell’s Parliament prohibited the celebration of Christmas? What would George Kemp have written in 1843, the year that Charles Dickens published ‘A Christmas Carol’? And what would Charles Cox, Mayor during most of WWI, and Amy Nightingale, Evesham’s first female Mayor who served the town in 1944, have written during those dark days?
Unless someone can turn up a newspaper clipping from a vault somewhere, we’ll never know. But looking back is still valuable in a 21st century Christmas.
If you celebrate Christmas at all, then however you celebrate it, it’s a link to the past. For some, that’s no further than their own childhood memories. Others are entranced by the traditions bequeathed to us by the Victorians, the true inventors of the modern Christmas. And for some, it goes all the way back to when it was just the birthday of Mary’s lad.
But for all, it’s a reminder that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. As the current Mayor of Evesham, I’m very aware that I stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before. I’m also aware that the good things in this town are the result of the hard work of a very large number of people who made the effort to bring them to reality. Christmas is a time to celebrate our unity of purpose and reaffirm our commitment to making our town, and our world, a better place.
I wish you all a very merry Christmas, and a prosperous and fulfilling New Year.
Coun Mark Goodge, Mayor of Evesham
