In medieval times, the boar’s head was served at Christmas, and it is still served at Queen’s College in Oxford. The dish is carried in with great pomp and circumstance, along with the singing of the ‘Boar’s Head Carol’ written in 1521. The head of the boar was often carried on a silver platter decorated with gold leaf on the tusks and served with an apple in its mouth.
The boar's head, as I understand,
Is the bravest dish in all the land,
Which, thus bedecked with a gay garland,
Let us servire cantico.
~The Boar's Head Carol by Birket Foster
illustration for the Christmas carol (1872) image from Alamy
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