The Everyday Lore Project

23 November 2020 – St Clement’s Day

23 November 2020 – St Clement’s Day

A quick one today after extended shenanigans over the weekend. It’s St Clement’s Day, but unfortunately it being lockdown, there’s no Clementing processions, no firing of anvils, no singing in the streets, or pelting of small children with oranges and apples to be joining in with. And after all the St Edmund’s buns, mince pies and Christmas pudding over the last couple of days, I couldn’t face making a rice pudding which the fisherman in Tenby traditionally used to eat. So I made a St Clement’s to toast Old Clem instead.

Working out the ingredients of a St Clement’s isn’t rocket science, you just have to follow the old children’s rhyme. I squeezed one orange and one lemon, added sparkling water, and stirred it with a slightly too small cinnamon stick (which admittedly doesn’t appear in the rhyme). It was delicious. And for once, no gin was required as the sharpness of the lemon did the trick. So, chin chin, St Clement! 

Or should that be chip, chop, chip, chop, the last man’s dead…? 


Resources

Cooper, Q. and Sullivan, P. (1994) Maypoles, Martyrs & Mayhem: 366 Days of British Myths, Customs & Eccentricities, London, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

https://www.comfortbites.co.uk/2018/11/winter-st-clements-mocktail.html

Published by Liza Frank

Author of My Celebrity Boyfriend. Obsessed with hula hooping, sons of preachermen and fresh dates, sometimes all at the same time. Curator of Folklore Agony and The Everyday Lore Project.

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