Advent Calendar Day 5: P&P Party Crashers

Welcome to DAY 5 of our ADVENT CALENDAR. I hope you’re enjoying these special posts. Today I’ve got a fun, mash-up scene that should be brand new to most of you! But first a few words about the phenomenon of the Advent Calendar itself.

In case you’re wondering, no, it’s not a Regency thing and Jane Austen would never have heard of an advent calendar. However, the concept of “advent” would not have been foreign to her, since she was raised in a Christian home and claimed the faith herself. Advent, which means “coming” in Latin, is a season in the church: the 4-week period leading up to Christmas, traditionally a time of preparation and waiting expectantly for the day that celebrates the birth of Christ.

Like many of our other modern Christmas practices (such as putting up a Christmas tree), the advent calendar originated in Germany. What began with Protestant Christians there literally marking the days  until Christmas (in chalk on a wall or door frame), evolved into hanging up a new devotional image each day during the advent season, and then finally to the creation of the first actual Advent Calendar (handmade, wooden) about 1851. The first calendars printed on paper or cardboard showed up in the early 1900s, with the innovation of the little individual doors added around 1920. So it’s actually a relatively modern phenomenon and has since been adopted all over the world, adapted for various secular as well as religious purposes.

I remember advent calendars from when I was a kid, the anticipation and fun of opening a new door each day to reveal some little treasure. Here at Jane Austen Variations, this year’s non-traditional advent calendar is meant to capture a bit of that same same spirit, the enjoyment of finding a new little treat each day as we wait expectantly for Christmas. We hope our efforts help to make the season a little brighter!

Now it’s story time! Here’ how this one came about.

About three years ago, I was in the process of writing The Ladies of Rosings Park. And when I mentioned on Facebook that I was working on a scene where Anne de Bourgh crashes Georgiana Darcy’s 18th birthday ball, I started to receive comments from enthusiastic friends about what they thought that scene should contain – funny and creative suggestions I wished I could use but couldn’t, since the book had to match the more serious tone of Pride and Prejudice. Then came this messaging conversation:

Friend: Wow! Anne crashing Georgie’s birthday ball sounds like it might be fun to read.

Me: Probably sounds more dramatic than it is. These people are all much too polite to cause an ugly scene, more’s the pity.

Friend: Bummer!

Me: Hmm. Maybe I’ll write a mash-up version just for fun!

So rather than wasting a good idea, that’s what I did. (You see, we do listen to our readers’ suggestions!)

If you bring together a crowd of partyers, an emboldened and rebellious Anne de Bourgh, her imperious mother, and one very large bowl of punch, what do you suppose will happen? Read on!

Anne de Bourgh made her way determinedly toward the door, outside of which a carriage waited to take her to London. “I am going to Georgiana’s ball, Mama. I am of age now, so there is nothing you can do to stop me.”

Lady Catherine followed close upon her heels, shaking her fist in the air. “You may be of age, but I still hold the purse strings. Just you remember that!”

Her daughter paused to deliver her parting salvo. “Perhaps I will find myself a rich husband at the ball, and then all your threats will be meaningless. In any case, I am going. Good-bye, Mama!”

The astonished but straight-faced butler opened the door, and Miss de Bourgh marched through it and on to the adventure ahead. She was quite shocked, really – probably no less so than her mother – that she had actually done it. She had stood up for herself and declared her emancipation from her domineering parent at last! Perhaps it was the recent upturn in her health that had given her the courage. Or perhaps she had finally reached her limit. It mattered only that she was liberated.

“Woohoo!” she shouted as the carriage left the grounds of Rosings Park…. (PLEASE  CONTINUE  READING here and let me know what you think!)