Family members try their hand at snap-dragons, snatching as many coins as they can from a platter of raisins and burning brandy. (Photo by Matthew Ginn © 2010)
For the third and final post in our Christmas traditions series, we’re talking about snap-dragons. No, not the flower.
Snap-dragons (which is really more of a New Year’s tradition for us) is an old parlour game most popular (according to Wikipedia, at any rate) from the 16th through 19th centuries.
As with all ancient folk rituals there are innumerable variations. In our family’s tradition, you hide coins on a silver platter covered raisins, and then pour brandy over it and (in a darkened room) set the whole thing alight. Children gather around the platter attempting to snatch as many coins as possible from the blazing inferno.
I don’t know where the coins come into the tradition—other references I’ve found (like Wikipedia and this) just talk about collecting the raisins. By the time we’ve collected all the coins, the brandy is usually burned off and then we eat the extra-tasty raisins!
katy
You will find reference to it in Alice in Wonderland too. Or one of those books. I had understood it was a Victorian tradition, but perhap came to Victorian England from Germany with Albert?
Jan 05, 2011 @ 5:43 pm
Bonnie D
Crazy!
Jan 05, 2011 @ 7:09 pm
Matthew
The Wikipedia link cites references in Henry IV, Part 2 (1598) as well as works by Dryden, D’Israeli and Dickens (among others) before Lewis Carroll’s “Through The Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There” in 1871.
The section on the game’s origins suggests several possibilities, some extending back as far as Roman times.
Jan 05, 2011 @ 11:42 pm
George Ginn
I’m willing to bet that the coins were Grandad’s idea. The best way to get the children involved. Imagine that! Teaching kids to stick their hands in the fire for finacial gain
Jan 06, 2011 @ 3:40 pm