Pupils celebrate festive tradition at Stir Up Assembly

Junior School pupils stirred-up a storm this morning at their Stir Up Assembly, a long-standing and well-loved festive tradition with all in School House. First, the boys learned about the history of Stir Up Sunday, the Sunday before Advent, when everyone in the family would take a turn at stirring the Christmas pudding, whilst making a secret wish. Other Christmas pudding traditions were discussed too, such as stirring from East to West in honour of the three wise men, and adding a coin to the ingredients to bring wealth to whoever found it on Christmas Day.

Then, the boys got the chance to make their own puddings, starting by adding the wet and dry ingredients together. The recipe included a variety of customary ingredients, including candied peel, vegetarian suet and freshly grated nutmeg. After everything was added to the bowl, the boys gave the mixture that all-important stir! While the stirred, they had to chant an historic children’s rhyme:

“Stir up, we beseech thee,
The pudding in the pot;
And when we get home
We’ll eat the lot!” 

After all the mixture was thoroughly stirred, pupils then decanted it into individual pots and added their colourful homemade gift tags. As is tradition, the puddings are given as gifts to OWs attending their annual lunch at MCS on Saturday. The puddings are always warmly received by our guests who enjoy reading the messages from the Junior School boys.