Pew Sheet – 7th December 2025

December

Monday 8th

Mens’ Coffee Morning 10am Carrigaline Court Hotel

Tuesday 9th

Parish Movie Night 7:30pm Parish Hall

Friday 19th

7:30pm Carrigaline Community Carol Service St Mary’s Church

Sunday 21st

4pm Nine Lessons and Carols Service St John’s

Christmas Eve 24th

4pm Carols around the Crib St Mary’s

11pm First Eucharist of the Nativity St Mary’s

Christmas Day 25th

9:30 & 11am Services as normal

Sunday 28th

11am United Christingle Service St Mary’s Church

NO 9:30am Service

Available from Brenda Haubold or Deirdre Hickey

€10 each

Supporting the Charities : RNLI , Bernardos , Carrigaline Family Resource Centre

Random Notes DXII

Many people consider chocolate as a treat, whether drunk as hot chocolate or eaten as a bar. The first record of chocolate as a beverage dates back over 1500 years ago in Central America.

Cocoa beans were roasted and then were pounded together with chili and maize, which doesn’t sound very appealing by today’s standards. Water was then added, and the bitter mixture was left to ferment.

When the Spanish conquerors arrived in South America, they took cocoa beans back to Spain, along with the knowledge of how to prepare the drink.

The Spaniards disliked the bitter taste and replaced the chili pepper with sugar, vanilla, allspice, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. In the centuries that followed, chocolate remained a popular drink. It wasn’t util 1847 that Joseph Fry discovered how to make the first chocolate bar. In those days, however, some unorthodox ingredients including brick dust, were added to the cocoa powder, according to a report in the Lancet, a British Medical Journal.

In 1860, the first Food and Drugs Act was passed. Since then, the Scots have found some inventive ways of enjoying their favourite choc. Bars, such as Fry’s Cream bar sandwich (thin slices of the bar placed between two slices of bread and butter) and, of course, the equally appealing deep fried Mars bar!