Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan

January 1, while actual charms to secure prosperity are commonest at Christmas itself or at the modern New Year. Magical rather than reli

f the nature of charms. Probably, too, among New Year charms should be included such institutions as the bonfires on Hallowe'en in Celtic countries, on Guy Fawkes Day in England, and at Martinmas in Germany, for it would seem that they are intended to secure by imitation a due supply of sunshine.?{54} The

of a certain monk Alsso of Br?vnov, an account of Christmas practices in Bohemia written about the year 1400. It supplies a link between modern customs and the Kalends prohibitions of the Dark Ages. Alsso tells

to the poor, as is seemly, is laid on the table to augur wealth, and people open their purses that luck may enter. Instead of using fruit as a symbol of Christ the Precious Fruit, men cut it open to p

Church had adopted and transformed a heathen usage: the old calendisationes or processions with an idol Bel had been changed into processions of clergy and choir-boys with the crucifix. Round the villages on the Eve and during the Octave of Christmas went these messengers of God, rob

been the general tendency of the later Catholic Church, and also of Anglicanism in so far as it continued the Catholic tradition. It will be seen, however, from wha

s, that they think they haue a commission and prerogatiue that tyme to doe what they list, and to followe what vanitie they will. But (alas!) doe they thinke that they are preuiledged at that time to doe euill? The holier the time is (if one time were holier than an other, as it is not), the

arly Church had done, it will be remembered, with the Kalends festival?-came in 1644. In that year Christmas Day happened to fall upon the last Wednesday of the month, a day appointed by the Lor

sday in every month, ought to be observed until it be otherwise ordered by both houses; 185and that this day particularly is to be kept with the more solemn humiliation because it may call to remembrance our sins and the sins of our forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the memory of Christ, into an

l the year after. This was the superstition of this day, and the profaneness was as great. There were some that did not play cards all the year long, yet they must play at Christmas." Various protests were made against the suppression of the festival. Though Parliament sat every Christmas Day from 1644 to 1656, the shops in London in 1644 were all shut, and in 1646 the people who opened their shops were so roughly used that next year they petitio

ely pagan, while in Germany it has tolerated and even hallowed the 186ritual of the Christmas-tree. But more powerful than religious influences, in rooting out the old customs, have been modern education and the growth of modern industry, breaking up the old traditional country life, and putting in its place the mobile, restless life of the great town. Many of the customs we shall

same time the Church, whether Roman or Greek, has succeeded in keeping modern ideas away from the people and in maintaining a popular piety that is largely polytheistic in its worship of the saints, and embodies a great amount of traditional paganism. I

at any custom is altogether extinct; every year, however, does its work of destruction, and it may well be t

188

PTE

W TIDE TO

Pagan Parallels of All Souls'?-Hallowe'en Charms and Omens?-Hallowe'en Fires?-Guy Fawkes Day?-"Old Hob," the Schimmelreiter, and other Animal Masks?-Martinmas an

' and All

here do likewise and start our survey of winter festivals with November, in the earlier half of which, apparently, fell the Celtic and Teutonic New Year's Days. I

al date one part of the old beginning-of-winter festival?-the part concerned with the cult of the dead. Some of the practices belonging to this side of the feast have been transferred to the season of Christmas and the Twelve Days, but these have often lost their original meaning, and i

ce of "ghosts" to the contemplation of the saints in the glory of Paradise. It would seem that this attempt failed, that the people needed a way of actually doing something for their own dead, and that All Souls' Day with its solemn Mass and prayers for the departed was intended to supply this need and replace the traditional practices.?{6} H

m even upon the sceptical and irreligious is shown very strikingly in Roman Catholic countries: even thos

th the majestic "Dies irae" and the oft-recurrent versicle, "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat 191eis," that most beautiful of prayers. The priest and altar a

Even in Paris the souls of the departed come to partake of the food of the living. In Brittany the crowd pours into the churchyard at evening, to kneel barefoot at the grave of dead kinsfolk, to fill the hollow of the tombstone with holy water, or to pour libations of milk upon it. All night the church bells clang, and sometimes a solemn procession of the clergy goes round to bless the grav

s' Eve as the one night in the year when the spirits o

order that the poor souls may enter and rest. Prayer is made for the dead until late in the night, and when the last "De profun

s arrive at the first cock-crow and depart at the second, being lighted out of the house by th

lighted up and the departed attend a nocturnal Mass celebrated by a phantom priest. All through the week, in one district, people are afraid to go out after night

d a frugal meal of bread and water. The dead issue from their graves and stalk in procession through every stre

s believe that the departed leave their dread abode and come to town to steal from rich shopkeepers sweets and toys and new clothes. These they give to their child relations who have been "good" and have prayed on their behalf. Often they are clothed in white and wear silken shoes, to elude th

s shine in the windows on the Vigil of All Souls',?{14} in Belgium a holy candle is burnt all night, or people walk in procession with lighted tape

ustomary in various English counties and in Scotland.?{16} The youngsters would beg not only for the cakes but also sometimes for such things as "apples and strong beer," presumably to make a "w

ul! for a

d missis, a

pear, a plum

hing to ma

eter, two

Him who ma

ttle, and down

lms, and we'll

t that period the custom of "souling" had greatly declined in the county, and where it still existed the rewards were usually apples or money. Grown men, as well as childr

t the dead might feast upon them.?[87] It seems most probable that they were relics of a feast once laid out for the souls. On the other hand it is just possible that they were originally a sacrament of the corn-spirit. 194A Nort

mish part of Belgium, to bake little cakes of finest white flour, called "soul-bread." They are eaten hot, and a prayer is said at the same time for the souls in Purgatory. It is believed that a soul is delivered for every cake eaten. At Antwerp the cakes are coloured yellow with saffron to suggest the Purgatorial flames. In southern Germany and Austria little white loaves of

ay a quantity of bread. This is not regarded as a charity; all the people of the village come to receive it and before eating it pray for

folk, with bags and baskets to receive gifts, wanders from village to village, claiming as a right the presents of provision

he world.?{24} I may quote Dr. Frazer's account of what 195goes on in

the door of his house for fear of excluding the ghosts, who begin to arrive at that time. Preparations have been made to welcome and refresh them after their long journe

raw and put sacks on the straw. Bread and two jugs of beer were then placed on the table, and one of every kind of domestic animal was roasted before the fire after a prayer to the god Zimiennik (possibly an ancestral spirit), asking for protection through the year and offering the animals. Portions were thrown to the corners of the room with the words "Ac

st of them are of the nature of omens or charms. Apples and nuts are prominent on Hallowe'en, the Eve of All 196Saints;?[89] they may be regarded either as a kind of sacrament of the vegetation-spirit, or as simply intended by homoeopathic magic to bring fulness and fruitfulness to their recipients. A custom once c

put into the fire and named after particular lads and lasses. "As they burn quietly together or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courtship will be."?{31} On Hallowe'en in Nottinghamshire if a gi

core two kerne

eek for Lubbe

d on t'other

soon falls up

en that his l

n sticks firml

to mine but join

n of the shapes which the parings assume when they fall to the ground. Whatever letter a paring rese

e favourite time for forecasting the future, an

n her bedroom floor in the sha

shoes in the

night my tru

best or w

clothes of

speaking any more that night, and she will

e long enough, she will see the form of her future spouse enter the room and turn the sark. We are told of one young girl who, after fulfilling this rite, looked out of bed and saw a coffin be

r, allude to the custom formerly prevalent in Wales for women to congregate in the church on this "Night of the Winter Kalends," in order to discover who of the parishioners would die during the year.?{38} East of the Welsh border, at Dorstone in Herefordshire, there was a belief

ruggle with the powers of darkness. To this day great bonfires are kindled in the Highlands, and formerly brands were carried about and the new fire was lit

hting bonfires on the hills is perhaps not yet extinct.?{42} Within living memory when the flames were out somebody would raise the cry, "May the tailless black sow seize the hin

on threw into the ashes a white stone, marked; the stones were searched for in the morning, and if any one were missing the person who h

was often to ward off witchcraft. With this object in one place the master of the family used to carry a bunch of burning straw about the corn, in Scotland

awkes

presented the sun men thought they secured sunshine for trees and crops. Later, when the ideas on which the custom was based had faded away, people came to identify these images with persons whom they regarded with aversion, such as Judas Iscariot, Luther (in Catholic Tyrol), and, apparently, Guy Fawkes in England. At Ludlow in Shropshire, it is interesting to note, if any well-known local man had aroused the enmity of the populace his effigy wa

al M

German Schimmel or white horse. We have here to do with one of those strange animal forms which are apparently relics of sacrificial customs. They come on various days in the winter festival season, and also at other times, and may as well be considered at this point. In some cases they are definitely imit

me probability that when a custom is attached not to Christmas or the January Kalends but to one of the November or early December feasts, it is not of Roman origin. For, as the centuries have passed, Christmas and the Kalends?-the Roman festivals ecclesiastical and secula

ours, and some white cloths are thrown over the whole. In Silesia the Schimmel is formed by three or four youths. The rider is generally veiled, and often wears on his head a pot with glowing coals shining forth through openings that represent eyes and a mouth.?{52} In Pomerania the thing is called simply Schimmel,?{53} in other parts emphasis is laid upon the rider, and the name Schimmelreiter is given. Some mythologists have seen in this rider on a

xed to a pole about four feet in length, a string is tied to the lower jaw, a horse-cloth is then attached to the whole, under which one of the party gets, and by frequently pulling the string keeps up a

ss to certain Continental figures representing other kinds of animals and probably witnessing to their former sacrificial use. On the island of Usedom appears the Klapperbock, a youth who carries a pole with the hide of a buck thrown over it and a wooden head at the end. The lower jaw moves up and down and clatters, and he charges at children who do not know their prayers by heart.?{58} In Upper Styria we meet the Haberg

ristmas. Six of the performers wear sets of horns kept from year to year in the church.?{61} Plot, in his "Natural History of Staffordshir

ople seem to have had a bad conscience about these things, for there are stories connecting them with the Devil. A girl, for instance, who danced at midnight with a straw Julebuk, found that her partner was no puppet but the Evil One himself. Again, a fellow who had dressed himself in black and put horns on his head, claws on his hands, and fiery tow in his mouth, was carried off by the Prince of Darkness whose form he had mi

tin

tle cakes are made, adorned with the horn of the saint, the patron of hunting, and are eaten not only by human beings but by dogs, cats, and other domestic animals.?{64}

it marks as nearly as possible the date of the old beginning-of-winter festiv

ong the old Germans, for the snow which then began rendered it impossible longer to pasture the beasts, and there was not fodder enough to keep the whole herd through the wi

of Martinmas. Founded in the fifth century, it was made a great Church festival by Pope Martin I. (649-654),?{67} and it may well have been intended to absorb and Christianize the New Year festivities of the Teutonic peoples. The venerat

eef"?{69} ?-and in the German eating of St. Martin's geese and swine.?{70} The St. Martin's goose, indeed, is in

r can be foreseen. The white in it is a sign of snow, the brown of very great cold. Similar ideas can be

or turkey, or merely a cock or hen, was used according to the means of the family.?{72} It seems that the animal was actually offered to St. Martin, apparently as 204the successor of some god, and bad luck came if the custom

tomary to speak of a person who had squandered his substance in riotous living as a Martinsmann.?{74} As we have seen survivals of sacrifice in the Martinmas slaughter, so we may regard the Martinsminne or toast as ori

an Ma

r circulum an

rs in a number of legal customs, English, French, and German, which existed in the Middle Ages and in some cases in quite r

of sacrifice is suggested by a Dutch custom of throwing baskets of fruit into Martinmas bonfires, and by a German custom of casting in empty fruit-baskets.?{79} In Venetia the peas

make them fertile.?{82} Survivals of fire-customs are found also in other regions. In Belgium, Holland, and north-west Germany processions of children with paper or turnip lanterns take place on St. Martin's Eve. In the Eichsfeld district the little river Geislede glows with the light of candles placed in floating nutshells. Even th

Christmas. Such visitors are to be found in many countries, but it is in the lands of German speech that they take on the most vivid and picturesque forms. St. Martin, St. Nicholas, Christkind, Knecht Ruprecht, and the rest are very real and

angels?-even, perhaps, of the Christ Child Himself?-represent attempts of the Church to transform and sanctify alien things which she could not suppress. What some of these may have been we shall tentatively guess as we go along. Though no grown-up person would take the mimic Martin or Nicholas 206seriously nowadays

does not visibly appear, but children hang up stockings filled with hay, and next morning find presents in them, left by the saint in gratitude for the fodder provided for his horse. He is there imagined as a rider on a white horse, and the same conception prevails in Austrian Silesia, where he brings the "Martin's horns" already mentioned.?{85} In Silesia when it snows at Martinmas people say that the saint is coming on

, dressed as Turks, carry a sort of litter whereon St. Martin sits. He has a long white beard of flax and a paper mitre and stole, and holds a

ore he threw them their apples and nuts. In several places in Swabia, too, Pelzm?rte was known; 207he had a black face, a cow-bell hung on his

h his day. The rods are taken round by the neatherds to the farmers, and one is given to each?-two to rich proprietors; they are to be used, when spring comes, to drive out the cattle for the first time. In Bavaria they are formed by a birch-

comparatively recent origin, an invention perhaps for children when the customs came to be performed solely for their benefit, and that the beating and the gifts were originally shared by all alike and were of a sacramental character? We shall meet with more whipping customs later on, they are common enough in folk-ritual, and are not punishments, but kindly services; their purpose is to drive away evil influences, and to bring to the flogged one the life-giving virtues of the tree from which the twig

d with animal sacrifices (Pelzm?rte suggests this), or again as related to the Boy Bishop, the Lord of Misrule and the Twelfth Night King. May I suggest that some at least of their aspects could be explained on the supposition that they represent administrants of primitive vegetation sacraments, and that these administrants, once ordina

210

TER

ENT TO S

te?-St. Nicholas's Day, the Saint as Gift-bringer, and his Attendants?-Election of the Boy Bishop?-St. Nicholas's Day at Bari?-S

ement'

gress of the winter feast towards its present solstitial date. In England some interesting popular customs existed on this day. In Staffordshire children used to go round to

Clemany! C

pple and a p

utton and some

od, pray gi

, pray give

tler, fill

ll'st it o

send your

ll'st it o

utler, bowl

mistress,

eter, one

im who ma

ar, plum,

hing to ma

buck and a

mes but on

pot and on

ple and I'll

Cambridge bakers held their annual supper on this day,?{5} at Tenby the fishermen were given a supper,?{6} while the blacksmiths' apprentices at Woolwich had a remarkable ceremony, akin perhaps to the Boy Bishop customs. One of their number was chosen to play the part of "Old Clem," was attired in a great coat, and wore a mask, a long white beard, and an oakum wig.

therin

eel by his side to represent the saint, and was taken round the town?{8} in a wooden chair. At Chatham there was a torchlight procession on St. Cather

ral as well as the modern sense of the word, and at Peterborough the workhouse girls used to go in procession round the city on her day, dressed in white with coloured

n Catherine, as

six horses a-co

we will go, w

ning we wi

atherine, it must be remembered, is the patron saint of girls as Nicholas is of boys. In Belgium her day is still a festival for the "you

and yellow ribbons and a sprig of orange blossom on them, and out they go arm-in-arm to parade the streets and collect a tribute of flowers from every man they meet.... Instead of working all the afternoon, the midinettes enterta

ndrew

14of the Northamptonshire lacemakers. A day of general licence used to end in masquerading. Women went about in male attire and men and boys in female dress.?{13} In Kent and Sus

easabend in Germany seems to have preserved the customs of augury connected with the old November New Year festival.?{15} To a lar

me as the following before going to sleep, an

ew's Eve

all

l childr

ween heaven

this on

mine in mar

ers, and into one pour clear water, into the other wine. These let her place on th

ar St.

appear b

most dear

shall

our a cup

is to

our a cup

ter and drink 215of one of the cups. If he is poo

an egg is sometimes used for the same purpose.?{18} Another very widespread custom is to put nutshells to float on water with little candles burning in them. There are twice as many shells as there are girls present; each gi

es in the darkness to a stack of wood and draws out a piece. If the wood is smooth and straight the man wi

ous, but not altogether absent on this night, are other kinds of prognostication. A person, for instance, who wishes to know whether he will die in the coming yea

In Croatia he who fasts then will behold his future wife in a dream,?{22} and among the Roumanians mothers anxious about their children's luck break small

dow casements; this will keep away the vampires. At the cross-roads there is a great fight of these loathsome beings until the first cock crows; and not only the dead take part in this, but also some living men who are vampires from their birth. Sometimes it is only the souls o

tant festival of the western Church's year. It is regarded in par

n-Dres

er gewisse

November passes away, giving place to the last mont

they buy coffee and other refreshments for the lads who come to visit the parlours where in the long winter evenings the women sit spinning. These evenings, when many gather together in a brig

?pfeln

mns and knocking on the doors with rods or little hammers, or throwing peas, lentils, and the like against the windows. Hence these evenings

the day whereon was b

Boyes and Girles do

t every doore, with bl

t of the Lorde not

eighbours all, that

every thing to spr

and plumbs, and pence,

es are alwayes though

yde of sprites and ca

cke and grim, that then

one in vogue in Holland between Christmas and the Epiphany. There "the children go out in couples, each boy carrying an earthenware pot, over which a bladder is stretched, with a piece of stick tied in the middle. When th

that purpose by various European and other peoples.?{31} Anyhow something mysterious hangs about the Kl?pfeln?chte. They are o

red by a "vet," and all kinds of satirical jokes are made about things that have happened in the parish during the year. Elsewhere two men dress up in straw as husband and wife, and go out with a masked company. The pair wrang

cholas

rgely rooted it out, as savouring too much of saint-worship, and transferred its festivities to the more Evangelical season of Christmas.?{34} In western and southern Germany, however, and in

ater wondrous works for the benefit of young people may either have given rise, or be themselves due to, his connection with children.?{35} In eastern Europe and southern Italy he is above all things the saint of seaf

nter festival, dating from the period when 219improved methods of agriculture and other causes made early December, rather than mid-November, the

ople dress up as St. Nicholas, with mitre and pastoral staff, enquire about the behaviour of the children, and if it has been good pronounce a benediction and promise them a reward next morning. Before they go to bed the children put out their shoes, with hay, straw, o

in all the splendour of a church-image, a reverend grey-haired figure with flowing beard, gold-broidered cope, glittering mitre, and pastoral staff. Children who know their catechism are rewarded with sweet things out of the basket carried by his ser

oubt related to such monsters as the Klapperbock (see Chapter VII.). Their heathen origin is evident though it is difficult to trace their exact pedigree. Some

children, and a little drama is performed, one personage coming in after the other and calling for the next in the manner of the English mummers' play. St. Nicholas, St. Peter, and Ruprecht accuse the children of all kinds of naughtiness, the "Heiliger Christ" inte

ly variants of Berchte, who is specially connected with the Epiphany. Berchtel used to punish the naughty children with a rod, and reward the good with nuts and

ncarnation of Christmas than as a saint with a day of his own. Santa Klaus, probably, has come t

in some places to officiate at First Vespers and at the services on the festival itself. As a rule, however, the feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, was probably the most important day in the Boy Bishop's career, and we may therefore postpone ou

y certain merchants of Bari from the saint's own cathedral at Myra in Asia Minor. The tomb of St. Nicholas is a famous centre for pilgrimages, and on the 6th of December many thousands of the faithful, bearing staves bound with olive and pine, visit it. An interesting ceremony on the festival is the taking of the saint's image out to sea by th

ucia'

as's Day and Christmas are those of St. Lucia (Dec

t. She awakened the sleepers and regaled them with a sweet drink or with coffee,?[94] sang a special song, and was named "Lussi" or "Lussibruden" (Lucy bride). When everyone was dressed, breakfast was taken, the room being lighted by many candles. The domestic animals 222were not forgotten on this day, but were given special portions. A peculiar feature of the Swedish custom is the presence of lights on Lussi's cro

Feilberg supposes, that the name gave rise to the special use of lights among the Latin-learned monks who brought Christianity to Sweden, and that the custom spread from them to the

danger, and shouting hoarsely. "The darkness of the night," says an eye-witness, "was lighted up by this savage procession of dancing, flaming torches, whilst bonfires in all the side streets gave the illusion that the whole village was burning." At the end of the procession ca

to the good children, and threatens to rip open the belly of the naughty. Here she is evidently related 223to the pagan monsters already described.

e threads broken, and the yarn in confusion. (We shall meet with like superstitions during the Twelve Nights.) At midnight the girls practise a strange ceremony: they go to a willow-bordered brook, cut the bark of a tree partly away, without detaching it, make with a knife a cross on the inner side of

nish maids: "Sweet St. Lucy let me know: whose cloth I shall lay, whose bed I shall make

homas

r master an offering of candles and money, and in return he gave them a feast. In some places it had an even more delightful side: for this one day in the year the children were allowed the mastery in the school. Testimonials to their scholarship and industry were made out, and elaborate titles wer

he hen is called "queen," the boy who gets the cock, "king." Elsewhere in Belgium children lock out their parents, and servants their masters, while schoolboys bind their teacher to his chair and carry him over to the inn. There he has to buy back his liberty by treating his scholars with punch and cakes. Ins

rove Tuesday. At Bromfield in Cumberland on Shrove Tuesday there was a regular siege, the school doors were strongly barricaded within, and the boy-defenders were armed with pop-guns. If the mas

n rises to bless his namesakes. This done, he vanishes beneath the cross, and each Thomas returns to his grave. The saint here seems to have taken over 225the character of some pagan god, who, like the Teutonic Odin or Woden, ruled the souls of the departed. In the houses the people listen with awe for the sound of his chariot, and when it is heard make anxious prayer to him for protection from all il

te (smoke-nights) when houses and farm-buildings must be sanctified with incense and holy

ands. A widely diffused custom is that of throwing shoes backwards over the shoulders. If the points are found turned towards the door the thrower is destined to leave the house during the

eenth century the same association of the day with slumber was shown by the schoolchildren's custom of calling the child who arrived last at school Domesesel (Thomas ass). In Holland, aga

custom on this day, however, was the peregrinations of poor people begging for money or provisions for Christmas. Going "a-gooding," or "a-Thomassin'," or "a-mumping," this was called. Sometimes in return for the charity bestowed a sprig of holly or mistletoe w

the bull-baiting practised until 1821 at Wokingham in Berkshire. Its abolition in 1822 caused

gers and well-wishers, with ceremonial feasting that anticipates the Christmas eating and drinking, and with various figures, saintly or monstrous, mimed or merely imagined, which we shall find reappearing at the greatest of winter festivals. These things would seem to hav

228

PTE

VE AND THE

Trolls and the Return of the Dead?-Traditional Christmas Songs in Eastern Europe?-The Twelve Days, their Christian Origin and

DEVONSHIRE?-THE

stma

ut the rest of Europe its importance so far as popular customs are concerned is far greater than that of the Day itself. Then in Germany the Christmas-tree is mani

Twelve Days as a whole. Let us look first at the supernatural visitors, mimed by human beings, who delight the minds of childre

how he comes now vested as a bishop, now as a masked and shaggy figure. The names and attributes of the Christmas and Advent visitors are rather confused, but on the whole it may be said that in Protestant north

ing that parents put presents in their children's beds and tell them that St. Nicholas has brought them. "This," he says, "is a bad custom, because it points children to t

rt of mythical figure, a product of sentiment and imagination working so freely as almost to forget the sacred character of the original. Christkind bears little resemblance to the Infant of Bethlehem; he is quite a tall child

gear of the Swedish Lussi; in one hand she holds a silver bell, in the other, a basket of sweetmeats. She is followed by the terrible Hans Trapp, dressed in a

n, have blackened faces, and are named Feien (we may see in them a likeness to the Kalends maskers condemned by the early Church). The procession goes round from house to house. The Schimmelreiter as he enters has to jump over a chair; this done, the Christpuppe is admitted. The girls present begin to sing, and the Schimmelreiter dances with one of them. Meanwhile t

on with the saint); in Brunswick, Hanover, and Holstein "Klas," "Klawes," "Klas B?r" and "Bullerklas"; and in Silesia "Joseph." Sometimes he wears bells and carries a long staff with a bag of ashes at the end?-hence the name "Aschenklas" occasionally given to him.?{5} An ingenious theory connects this aspect of him with the polaznik of the Slavs, who on Christmas Day in Crivoscian farms goes to the hearth, takes up the ashes of the Yule log and dashes them against the cauldron-hook ab

. Meanwhile Ruprecht in a hide, with glowing eyes and a long red tongue, stands at the door to overawe the young people. Each child next kneels before the saint and kisses his ring, whereupon Nicholas bids him put his shoes out-of-doors and look in them when the clock strikes ten. After this the saint lays on the table

given. Christkindel announces that he has gifts for the good children, but the bad shall feel the rod. St. Peter complains of the naughtiness of the youngsters: they play about in the streets inste

has a mask over his face, a rod, a chain round his body, and a sack with apples,

g people who attended her sang carols, and presents were given 233them in return. Kolyáda is the name for Christmas and appears to be derived from Kalendae, which probably enter

others in the year. It was to the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night that, according to the Third Evangelist, came the angelic message of the Birth, and in harmony with this is t

s superstition exists in various parts of Europe, and no one can hear the beasts talk with impun

ess; she is a regular miser. To-night burglars are coming to steal her money; and if she cries out they will break her head.' ''Twill be a good deed,' the cat repl

o learn what went on. At midnight he heard surprising things. "We shall have hard work to do this day week," said one horse. "Yes, the farmer's se

d ass with the Nativity that fixed this superstition to Christmas

sex peasant. The idea is widespread in England and on the Continent,?{15} and has reached even the North American Indians. Howison, in his "Sketches of Upper Canada," relates that an Indian told him that "on Christmas night all deer kneel and look up t

er turns to wine. A Guernsey woman once determined to test this;

au se tour

proche de

ar. In Sark the superstition is that the water in streams and wells tu

easures are revealed.?{19} In Russia all sorts of buried treasures are supposed to be revealed on the evenings between Christmas an

Mass. To him 235came a tall, stooping man with a scythe, who begged him to put in a nail. He did so; and the visitor in return bade him send for a priest, for this work

he Trolls are believed to celebrate Christmas Eve with dancing and revelry. "On the heaths witches and little Trolls ride, one on a wolf, another on a broom or a shovel, to their assemblies, where they dance

ith food, and a jug of Yule ale ready. Sometimes before going to bed people wipe the chairs with a clean white towel; in the morning they are wiped again, and, if earth is found, some kinsman, fresh from the grave, has sat there. Consideration for the dead even leads people to prepare a warm bath in the belief that, like living folks, the kinsmen will want a wash before their festal meal.?[96] Or again beds were made ready for them while the living

of all supernatural beings from ancestor-worship. Elves, trolls, dwarfs, witches, and other uncanny folk?-the beliefs about their Christmas doings are too many to be treated here; readers of Danish will find a long and very interesting chapter on this subject in Dr. Feilberg's "Jul."?{27} I may mention just one familiar figure of the Scandinavian Yule, Tomte Gubbe, a sort of genius of the house

an being who might be about. In one place the memory of such a visitation was preserved in the nineteenth century. The people were preparing for their festivities, when suddenly from the mountains came the warning sounds. "In a

anny visitors. The cross?-perhaps the symbol was originally Thor's hammer?-is marked with chalk or tar or fire upon doors and gates, is formed of straw or other material and put in s

upon it?-for instance the pouring of molten lead into water, the flinging of shoes, the pulling out of pieces o

spirit of her future husband will appear and fling the knife at her. If it falls without injuring her she will get a good husband and be happy, but if she is hurt she will die early. There is a similar mode of divination

connection with the Nativity; sometimes they have a Christian form and tell of the doings of God, the Virgin and the saints, but frequently they are of an entirely secular or even pagan character. Into some the sun, moon, and stars and

plough goe

t plough is th

ter helps H

of God carrie

d corn, prays t

, the strong

eat and the v

n shall be lik

with the words, "for many years, for many years." The Roumanian song

ng is a gre

e fl

ning of C

flower

re ballads of th

yudnuiya. "At the Christmas festival a table is covered with a cloth, and on it is set a dish or bowl (blyudo) containing water. The young people drop rings or other trinkets into the dish, which is afterwards cover

welve

ver, it will be well to glance at the character of the Twelve Days as a whole, and at the superstitions which hang about the season. So many are these superstitions, so "bewitched" is the time, that the older mythologists not unnaturally saw in it a Teutonic festal season, dating from pre-Christian days

eason of the Twelve Days is charged with it. It is hard to see whence Shakespear

ever 'gainst th

viour's birth

wning singeth

say, no spirit

holesome; then n

nor witch hath

so gracious is

ural is it that at this midwinter season of darkness, howling winds, and raging storms, men should

ewhere in the west of England it is called the "Wish hounds."?{41} It is the train of the unhappy souls of those who died unbaptized, or by violent hands, or under a curse, and often Woden is their leader.?{42}

Eve, and it is dangerous to be out after nightfall. People are led astray then by Will o' the Wisp, or are preceded or

nd brazen vessels had to be made so bright that the maids could see to put their caps on in them?-otherwise the fairies would pinch them, but if all was perfect, the worker would find a coin in her shoe." Again in Shropshire special

that no thrashing must be done during the Twelve Days, or all the corn within hearing will spoil. The expectation of uncanny visitors in the English traditions calls, however, for special attention; it is perhaps because of their coming that the house must be left spotlessly clean and with as little as possib

rmany and Tyrol Frau Berchta or Perchta, in the north down to the Harz Mountains Frau Freen or Frick, or Fru Gode or Fru Harke, and there are other names too.?{51} Attempts have been made to dispute her claim to the rank of an old Teutonic goddess and to prove her a creation of the Middle Ages, a representative of the crowd of ghosts supposed to be specially near to the living at Chris

northern Harz permits no spinning during the time when she goes her rounds, and if there are lazy spinsters she

different regions. They are more dreaded than loved, but if severe in their

she sends a little dog in. Next morning he wags his 242tail at the inmates and whines, and will not be driven away. If killed, he turns into a stone by day; this, though it may be thrown away, a

e to her carriage was brilliantly repaid?-the chips that fell from the pole turned to

ith these howling beasts they go raging through the air by night.?{57} T

he children watered the fields, while she worked with her plough. But the people of the place were ungrateful, and she resolved to leave their land. One night a ferryman beheld on the bank of the Saale a tall, stately lady with a crowd of weeping children. She d

ten o'clock, she drives in a carriage full of presents through villages where respect has been shown to her. At the crack of her whip the people come out to receive her gifts. I

he Eve of the Epiphany, and it is possible that her name comes from the old German giper(c)hta Na(c)ht, the bright or shini

that if they are naughty she will come and cut their stomachs open.?{62} In Upper Austria the girls must finish their s

tangling and befouling the flax. She also cuts open the body of any one who has not eaten zemmede (fasting fare made of flour and milk and water) that day, takes out any other food he has had, fills the empty space with straw and bricks, and sews him up

, and all her train of little people, swept clattering and chattering close past him. The least was the last, and it wore a long shirt which got in the way of its little bare feet, and kept tripping it up. The peasant had sense enough left to feel compassion, so

au Berchta has been turned into la donna Berta.?{68} If one goes further south, into Italy itself, one meets with a similar being, the Befana, whose na

y the Greek Kallikantzaroi or Karkantzaroi.?{69} They are the terror of the Greek peasant during the Twelve Days

ing those who cross their path. Destruction and waste, greed and lust mark their course." When a house is not prepared against their coming, "by chimney and door alike they swarm in, and make havoc of the home; in sheer wanton mischief they overturn and break all the furniture, devour the Christmas pork, befoul all the water and wine and food which remains, and leave the occupants half dead with fright or violence." Many like or far worse pranks do they play, until at

gone! we m

the pot-bel

censer in

rinkling-v

rified th

as pollu

k cross on Christmas Eve, the burning of incense and the invocation of the Trinity?-and a number of other means of aversion: the lighting of the Yule

Kallikantzaroi. In Greece children born at Christmas are thought likely to have this objectionable characteristic as a punishment for their mothers' s

The hideous bestial shapes, the noise and riot, may well have seemed demoniacal to simple people slightly "elevated," perhaps, by Christmas feasting, while the human nature of the maskers was not altogether forgotten.?{71} Another theory of an even more prosaic character has been propounded?-"that the Kallikantzar

wever, even more closely related to the werewolf, a man who is supposed to change into a wolf and go about ravening. It is to be noted that "man-wolves" (λυκανθρωποι) is the very name given to the Kallikantzaroi in southern Greece, and that the word Kallikantzaros itself has been conjecturally derived by Bernhard Schmidt from two Turkish words meaning "black" and "were

ideas of early man about the nature of animals and their relation to himself and the world. Whe

eyes," and prodigiously strong.?{76} The Russian Domovy or house-spirit is also a hirsute creature,?{77} and the Russian Ljeschi, goat-footed woodland sprites, are, like the Kallikantzaroi, supposed to be got rid of by the "Blessing of th

4925

PTE

YULE

the Yule Log?-Probable Connection with Vegetation-cults or Ancestor-worship?-The Souche de No?l in F

r the old tradition?-, in rural France, and among the southern Slavs, the centre is the great log solemnly brought in and kindled on the hearth, while in Germany, one need hardly say, the

ntial element in the celebration of the festival, not merely as giving out welcome warmth in the midwinter cold, but as possessing occult, magical properties. In so

rning, Christmas!" At Risano and other places in Lower Dalmatia the women and girls wind red silk and gold wire round the oak trunks, and adorn them with leaves and flowers. While they are being carried into the house lighted tapers are held on either side of the door. As the house-father crosses the threshold in the twilight with the first log, corn?-or in some places wine?-is thrown over him by one of the family. The log or badnjak is then placed on the fire. At Ragusa the house-father sprinkl

observed. He appears in the early morning, carries corn in his glove and shakes it out before the threshold with the words, "Christ is born," whereupon some member of the household sprinkles him with corn in return, answering, "He is born indeed." Afterwards the polaznik goes to the fire and makes sparks fly from the remains of the badnjak

solemn annual rekindling of the sacred hearth-fire, the centre of the family life and the dwelling-place of the ancestors. Primitive peoples in many parts of the world are accustomed to associate fire with human generation,?{4} and it is a general belief among Aryan and other peoples that ancestral spirits have their seat in the hearth. In Russia, for i

ht and offerings to be brought them; when that is done they lie still enough"?-here there may be a modified survival of the idea that ancestral spirits dwell beneath the doorway. (3) The food must on no account be cleared away after the Christmas meal, but is left for three days, apparently for the house-spirits. (4) Blessings are invoked upon the "Absent Ones," which seems to mean the departed, and (5) a toast is drunk and a bread-cake broken in memory of "the Patron Namegiver of all house-fathers," ostensibly Christ but perhaps originally the founder of the family. Some of these customs resemble those we have noted on All Souls' Eve and?-in Scandinavia?-on Christmas Eve;

of plants.?[99]?{8} The fertilizing powers possessed by the sparks and ashes of the Christmas log appear frequently in folk-lore, and may be explained either by the connection of fire with human generation already noted, or, on the other theory, by the burning log being a sort of sacrament of sunshine. It is not perhaps necessary to exc

réfouet. On Christmas Eve in Provence the whole family goes solemnly out to bring in the log. A carol meanwhile is sung praying for blessings on the house, that the women may bear children, the nanny-goats kids, and the ewes lambs, that corn and flour may abou

l poet. On Christmas Eve everyone, he says, speaking of his boyhood, sall

ng up the rear. Three times we made the tour of the kitchen, then, arrived at the flagstones of

rings us all good things. God give us grace to see the New Year, and

us we r

first flame leapt up my father would cross himself, saying, 'Burn

ins and animals from various diseases; mixed with fodder it makes cows calve; its brands thrown into the soil keep the corn healthy. In Périgord the portion which has not been burnt is used to form part of a plough, and is belie

an cities; the custom can there be traced back to the eleventh century. A little book probably printed in Milan at the end of the fifteenth century gives minute particulars of the ritual observed, and we learn that on Christmas Eve the father, or the head of the household, used to call all the family together and with great devotion, in the name of the Holy Trinity, take the log and place it on the fire. Juniper was put under it, and on the top money wa

a Christklotz (Christ log) is put on the fire before people go to bed, so that it may burn all through the night. Its remains are kept to protect the house from fire and ill-luck. In parts of Thuringia and in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, East Prussia, Saxony, and Bohemia, the fire is kept up all night on Christmas or New Year's Eve, and the ashes are used to rid cattle of vermin and p

ey can hardly be better introd

ing, with

y, merr

mas Log to

y good

e all

o your hear

last ye

e new Bl

ccess in hi

psaltr

weet l

log is a-teendi

suggestion that the lighting of the log at Christmas is a shrunken remnant of the keeping up of a per

origin are thus describe

year. In Lanarkshire it is considered unlucky to give out a light to any one on the morning of the new year, and therefore if the house-fire has been allowed to become extinguished recourse mu

was it to allow any light to leave the house between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.?{22} The idea of the unluckiness of giving out fire at the Kalend

fear of throwing them in Our Saviour's face." Perhaps such superstitions may originally have had to do with dread t

re the flame was made up in front of it. "The embers," says one informant, "were raked up to it every night, and it was carefully tended that it might not go out during the whole season, during which time no light might e

a farm on Christmas Eve. The sticks of ash are fastened together by ashen bands, and the traditional custom is fo

Ripon in the eighteenth century the chandlers sent their customers large candles on

herwise it will portend evil to the family for the ensuing year. The poor were wont to present the rich with wax tapers, and yule candles are still in the north of Scotland given by merchants

stood on the festive board. No one dared to touch or extinguish them, and if by any mischance one went out it was a portent of dea

ery evening until New Year's Day. While it foreshadowed death if it went out, so long as it duly burned it shed a blessing with its light, and, in order to secure abundance of good things, money, clothes, food, and drink were spread out that its rays might fall upon them. The remains of the candle were used in various ways to benefit man and beast. Sometimes a cross was branded with them upon the anima

262

PTE

TREE, DECORATI

as-tree?-Beliefs about Flowering Trees at Christmas?-Evergreens at the Kalends?-Non-German Parallels to the Christmas-tree?-Christmas Decorations connected with Ancient Kalends Customs?-Sacredne

MAS-TREE IN THE E

aving by Jos

ristma

century. To Germany, of course, one should go to see the tree in all its glory. Many people, indeed, maintain that no other Christmas can compare with the German Weihnacht. "It is," writes Miss I. A. R. Wylie, "that childish, open-hearted simplicity which, so it seems to me, makes Christmas essentially German, or at any rate explains why it is that nowhere

f sacrament linking mankind to the mysteries of the woodland. Again the German tree is simply a thing of beauty and radiance; no utilitarian presents hang from its boughs?-they are laid apart on a table?-and the tree is purely splendour for splendour's sake. However tawdry it may look by day, at night it is a true thing of wonder, shining with countless lights and glittering ornaments, w

places are covered with crisp clean snow, and the mountains are white with it.... The air is cold and still, and heavy with the scent of the Christmas-trees brought from the forest for the pleasure of the children. Day by day you see the rows of them growing thinner, and if you go to the market on Christmas Eve itself you will find only a few trees left out in the cold. The market is empty, the peasants are

eet has an unwonted sight to show?-two great fir-trees decked with white candles, standing one on each side of the pulpit. The church of the German Catholics, too, St. Boniface's, Whitechapel, has in its sanctuary two Christmas-trees strangely gay with coloured gli

tless candles, an image of the starry heaven whence Christ came down. This, however, belongs to the region of legend; the first historical mention of the Christmas-tree is found in the notes of a certain Strasburg citize

the Catechism," published about the middle of the seventeenth century, he speaks of "the Christmas- or fir-tree, which people set up in their houses, hang with dolls and sweets, and afte

y Karl Gottfried Kissling of the University of Wittenberg, written in 1737. He tells how a certain country lady of his acquaintance set up a little tree for each of her sons and

ill well on in the eighteen hundreds: it was a Protestant rather than a Catholic institution, and it made its way but slowly in regions where the older faith was held.?{7} Well-to-do townspeople welcomed it first, and the peasantry were slow to adopt it. In Old Bavaria, for instance, i

aper and with lights. These pyramids were very popular among the smaller bourgeoisie and artisans, and were kept from one Christmas to another.?{10} In Berlin, too, the pyramid was once very common.

ire they were formed of gilt evergreens, apples, and nuts, and were carried about jus

Helene of Mecklenburg brought it to Paris. In 1890 between thirty and th

d.?{16} In Denmark and Norway it was known in 1830, and in Sweden in 1863 (among the Swedish population on the coast of Finland it seems to have been in use in 1800).?{17} In Bohemia it is mentioned in 1862.?{18} It is also found in Russia,

e it from their bare, white-washed fanes. In the Münsterthal, for instance, a valley of Romonsch speech, off the Lower Engadine, a tree decked with candles, festoons, presents, and serpent-squibs, stands in church at Christmas, an

aves of the dead are decked on Christmas Eve with holly and mistletoe and a little Christmas-tree with gleaming lights,

s difficult to be certain of their exact ancestry. Dr. Tille regards them as coming from a union of two elements: the old Roman custom of decking houses w

that they may blossom at Christmas is to be found in some parts of Austria. In Carinthia girls on St. Lucia's Day (December 13) stick a cherry-branch into wet sand; if it blooms at Christmas their wishes will be fulfilled. In other parts the branches?-pear as well as cherry?-are picked on St. Barbara's Day (December 4), and in South Tyrol c

of the same species in other parts of England had this characteristic. When in 1752 the New Style was substituted for the Old, making Christmas fall twelve days earlier, folks were curious to see what the thorns would do. At Quainton in Buckinghamshire two thousand people, it is said, went out on the new Christmas Eve to vi

tion of such decorations and the lights which accompanied them may be quoted from Tertullian; it makes a pregnant contrast of pagan and Christian. "Let them," he says of the heathen, "kindle lamps, they who have no light; let them fix on the doorposts laurels which shall afterwards be

In the Erzgebirge there is dancing at the summer solstice round "St. John's tree," a pyramid decked with garlands and flowers, and lit up at night by candles.?{28} At midsummer "in the towns of the Upper Harz Mountains tall fir-trees, with the bark peeled off their lower trunks, were

th ribbons, egg-shells, and little figures representing a shepherd or a man beating his wife. This is set up above the fountain on New Year's Eve. On the evening of the next day the snow is carefully cleared a

rmerly to be found at Brough in Westmoreland on Twelfth Night. A holly-tree with torches attached to its branches was carried through the town in procession. It was finally thrown among the populace, who divided into two parties, one of which end

d any flowers that may be found?-geraniums, anemones, and the like, and, by way of further decoration, oranges, lemons, and strips of gold and coloured paper."?[104]?{34} Secondly, among the Circassians in the early half of the nineteenth century, a young pear-tree used to be carried

peoples is the May-pole. This is, of course, an early summer institution, but in France and Germany a Harvest May is also known?-a large branch or a whole tree, which is decked with ears of corn, brought home on the last waggon from the harvest field, and fastened to the roof of farmhouse or barn, where it remains for a year.?{37} Mannhardt has shown that such

caused by the sin of the first. A legend grew up that Adam when he left Paradise took with him an apple or sprout from the Tree of Knowledge, and that from this sprang the tree from which the Cross was made. Or it was said that on Adam's grave grew a sprig from the Tree of Life, and that from it C

ross! above

nly noble

iage, none

uit thy pe

ood and sw

ight is hun

rned with apples and ribbons. Sometimes Christ Himself was regarded as the tree of Paradise.?{38} The thought of Him as both the Light of the World

as Deco

sideration may now be given to the subject of Christmas decorations in various lands. In winter, when all is brown and dead, the evergreens are manifestations of the abiding life within the plant-world, and they may well have been used as

rding to Stow's "Survay of London," it was the custom at Christmas for "every man's house, as also the parish churches," to be "decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green. The conduits and 273standards in the streets were likewise garnished."?{41} Many people of the last generation will

htful way; at the mere mention of holly or mistletoe the picture of Christmas with its country charm

etoe with a golden sickle. As it fell it was caught in a white cloth, and two white bulls were then sacrificed, with prayer. The mistletoe was called "all-healer" and was believed to be a remedy against poison and to make barren animals fruitful.?{43} The significance of the ritual is not easy to find. Pliny's account, Dr. MacCulloch has

toe in Celtic speech,?[106]?{45} and that in various European countries it is bel

he love of the sexes and the spirit of fertility embodied in the sacred bough, and it may be a vestige of the licence often permitted at folk-festivals. According to o

rman Christmas-tree and of the Krippe, is taken by the

and oranges. Three small dolls are also prepared, often with much taste, and these represent our Saviour, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph. These dolls generally hang within the kissing bunch by strings from the top, and are surrounded by apples, oranges tied to strings, and various brightly coloured ornaments. Occasionally, howev

he walls and windows of which are decorated with green pine-twigs. In the centre of the inn-parlour hangs from a roof-beam a wreath of the same greenery, and in a dark corner hides a masked figure known as "Sylvester," old and ugly,

ho desires prophetic dreams.?{51} For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles) must be employed, and it is to be noted that at Burford in Shropshire smooth holly only was used for the Christmas decorations.?{52} Holly is hated

of the sexes. Holly is the men's plant, ivy the women's, and the carols are debates as to the respective merits of each.

Ivy made a

d have th

s where

lly, 'I am fr

ave the

?s wher

y, 'I am lov'

l have th

?s wher

y, and set him

thee, ge

no vi

where we

either burnt them or gave them to the cows; it was very unlucky to let a piece 276fall to the ground. The Shropshire custom was to leave the holly and ivy up until Candlemas, while the mistletoe-bough was carefully pre

tal contact, the wholesome influences of the corn-spirit, though the common people connect it with the stable at Bethlehem. The practice of laying straw and the same Christian explanation are found also in Poland?{58} and in Crivoscia.?{59} In Poland before the

The Swedish, like the Polish, Yule straw has sundry virtues; scattered on the ground it will make a barren field productive; and it is used to bind trees and make them fruitful.?{61

and New

t we have reached Christmastide itself we may dwell a little upon the festival as the

ell have been akin to that of the greenery used for decorations, viz., to secure contact with a vegetation-spirit. In the time of the Empire, however, the strenae were of a more attractive character, "men gave honeyed things, that the year of the recipient might be f

, January 1 is even now the great day for presents, and they are actually called étrennes, a name obviously derived from strenae. In Paris boxes of sweets are

any practices of a November festival, and it is probable that German Christmas presents, at least, are connected as much with the apples and nuts of St. Martin and St. Nicholas?[107] as with the Roman strenae. It has already been pointed out that the German St. Nicholas as present-giver appears to be

he pedagogic mind of the period not as a lucky twig but as a rod in the sinister sense. In some Protestant sermons of the latter half of the century there are curious detailed references to Christmas presents. These are supposed to be brought to children by the Saviour Himself, strangely called the Haus-Christ. Among the gifts me

ple with a coin in it; the coin may conceivably be a Roman survival,?{6

ana comes, though in the northern provinces Santa Lucia is sometimes a gift-bringer.?{69} In Sicily the days for gifts and the supposed bringers vary; sometimes, as we have already seen, it is the dead who bring them, on All Souls' Eve; somet

Julklapp into the room. It is essential that he should arrive quite unexpectedly, and come and go like lightning without revealing his identity. Great efforts are made to conceal the gift so that the recipient after much trouble in undoing the covering may have to search and search again to find it. Sometimes in Sweden a thin go

e given by two masked figures, an old man and an old woman. The old man holds a bell in his hand and rin

return for the good wishes and the luck brought by wassailers. Instances of gifts to calling neighbours have already come before our notice at several pre-Christmas festivals, notably All Souls', St. Clement's, and St. Thomas's. As for the name "Christmas box," it

ieces" popular in England in the first half of the nineteenth century?-sheets of writing-paper with designs in pen and ink or copper-plate headings. The f

8

ORNING IN L

d Waldm?lle

282

PTE

TING AND SACRI

Cakes, and the Wassail Bowl?-Continental Christmas Dishes, their Possible Origins?-French and German Cakes?-The Animals' C

ing C

"?[108] an Italian proverb used of a very busy person, sufficiently suggests the character of our Christmas.?[109] It may be that the Christmas dinner looms larger among the English than among most other peo

First we may look at English feasting customs, though, as they have been pretty ful

th. The show of slaughtered beasts, adorned with green garlands, in an English town just before Christmas, reminds one strongly of the old November killing. In displays of this kind the pig's head is specially conspicuous, and points

s head in

ith bays a

ou, my maste

tis in

apri d

audes Dom

an Martinmas goose. The more luxurious turkey must be relatively an innovation, for th

e suspect some more serious original purpose than mere gratification of the appetite. A sacrificial or sacramental origin is probable, at least in certain cases; a cake made of flour, for instance, may well have been regarded as embodying the spirit immanent in the corn.?{4} Wheth

easoned with cinnamon, sugar, &c.?{5} This too may have been a cereal sacrament. In Yorkshire it was the first thing eaten on Christmas morning, just as ale posset was the la

early on Christmas Day in their beds. They were boiled into the consistence of molasses and were poured into as many bickers as there were people to partake of

e.?{8} In Shropshire "wigs" or caraway buns dipped in ale were eaten on Christmas Eve.?{9} Again elsewhere there were Yule Doughs or Dows, little images of paste, presented by bakers to their cus

nner which may be compared with the Macedonian custom described later; it was brok

ay be sacramental: the draught may have been at first a means of communion with some divinity, and then its consumption may have come to be regarded not only as benefiting the partaker, but as a rite that could be performed for the welfare of another person. Apart from such speculations, we may note the frequent mention of wassailing in old English carols of the less ec

religious origin for each would be going too far, for merely economic considerations must have had much to

e repast.?{16} In Germany it is a fairly widespread custom to kill a pig shortly before Christmas and partake of it on Christmas Day; its entrails and bones and the straw which has been in contact with it are supposed to have f

s root a sacrifice: a number of poor people club together at Christ

rts of Germany and also in Styria carp is then consumed.?{22} Round Ercé in Brittany the family dish is cod.?{23} In Italy the cenone or great supper held on Christmas Eve has fish for its animal basis, and stewed ee

estivals; at Christmas itself special kinds of bread, pastry, and cakes abo

poor. In Lorraine people give one another cognés or cogneux, a kind of pastry in the shape of two crescents back to back, or else long and narrow in form and with a crescent at either end. In some

uelins in animal and human shapes. Little cakes called naulets are sold by French bakers, and actually represent the Holy Child. With them may be compared the coignoles of French Flanders, cakes of oblong form adorned with the figure of

ristmas pies, cakes, and other eatables, and wine of the best. They were called the "De fructu," and when at Vespers the verse "De fructu ventris tui ponam su

ar expression of the idea of the corn-spirit as embodied in pig form. "Often it is kept till sowing-time in spring, when part of it is mixed with the seed corn and part given to the ploughman and plough-horses or plough-oxen to eat, in the expectation of a good harvest." In

rinten, spekulatius biscuits, &c. In Berlin a great pile of biscuits heaped up on your plate is an important part of the Christmas Eve supper. These of course are nowadays mere luxuries, but they may well have had some sort of sacrificial origin. An a

s held to be peculiarly sacred, perhaps on account of the words "Rorate, coeli, 289desuper" used at the Advent Masses.) In Franconia such bread, thrown into a dangerous f

ce at Christmas, and the dumb creatures had no other manner of doing so."?{31} The saying reminds one of that lover of Christmas and the animals, St. Francis of Assisi. It will be remembered how he wished that oxen and asses should have extra corn and hay at Christmas, "for reverence of the Son of God, whom on such a night the most Blessed Virgin Mary

en given to fowls, it will make them grow fat and lay many eggs.?{33} In Sweden on Christmas Eve the cattle are given the best forage the house can afford, and afterwards a

uthern Germany corn is put on the roof for them on Christmas Eve, or,?{36} as also in Sweden,?{37} an unthreshed sheaf

at and wheel-like, with a circular hole in the middle and a number of lines radiating from it. In the central hole is sometimes placed a lighted taper or a small Christmas-tree hung with ribbons, tinsel, and sweetmeats. These cakes, made with elaborate ceremonial early in the morning, are solemnly broken by th

is "Christ's Loaves." "The cloth is not removed from the table; but everything is left as it is in the belief that

ss is made upon it and it is sprinkled with holy water and put in the oven. When baked and cooled, it is laid in the family stock of rye and is not eaten until St. Stephen's Day or Epiphany. Its cutting by the father of the family is a matter of considerable solemnity. Smaller pies are made at the same time for the maid-servants, and a curious custom is connected wi

be considered in connection with that festival. We may here in

the Italian quarter; in Eyre Street Hill it is sold on Christmas Eve on little gaily-decked street stalls. Its use may wel

herish the custom as something that distinguishes them from Great and White Russians. Each dish is said to represent the Holy Crib. First porridge is put in, which is like putting straw in the manger; then each perso

It is made up of a pile of thin dry leaves of dough, with melted sugar or honey, or powdered walnut, or the ju

out these oplatki; they are sent in letters to relations and friends, as we send Christmas cards. When the first star appears on Christmas Eve the whole family, beginning with the eldest m

cs of S

s good cheer and sacrifice; let us now glance at a few customs

e are watered, a dog is thrown into their drinking water, in order that they may not suffer from the mange. In the Uckermark a cat may be substit

the Isle of Man very early on Christmas morning, when the church bells had rung out midnight, servants went out to hunt the wren

e wren for Ro

wren for Jac

wren for Rob

he wren for

nineteenth century, describes how on St. Stephen's Day Manx boys went from door to door with a wren suspended by the legs in the centre of two hoops crossing one another at right angles and decorated with evergreens and ribbons. In

l of an annual custom of slaying the divine animal, such as is found among primitive peoples.?{49} The carrying of its body from door to door is apparently intended to convey to each house a portion of it

hite loaf, snap-dragon, and the rest. To attempt to describe and explain them would lead me too far, but it is highly probable that some at least might be traced to an

An account of a remarkable Christmas football match will be found in the chapter on Epiphany

as has suggested that "the explanation of these names is that the players originally wore masks; the game is known in some cases as the 'blinde Mumm,' or blind mask.... The player w

sacrificial. Several youths, with blackened faces and persons disguised, are the performers. One of them is put to death with a knife by a woman in hideous attire. Afterwards, with gross gestures, she dances with the victim.?{54} According to another accoun

e Gold." They form a circle, with one girl standing in the centre, and pass from hand to hand a gold ring, which the maiden inside tries to detect. Meanwhi

296

TER

PLAY, THE FEAST OF FOO

ce?-Origin of St. George and other Characters?-Mumming in Eastern Europe?-The Feast of Fools, its Hi

RS: ST. GEORGE IN CO

. T. M. Fallow in The

n of Messrs.

s; we may next give some attention to English customs of the same sort during the Twelve Days, and then pass on to the strange burlesq

mas Ma

ave already noted various examples?-its origin in folk-custom seems to have been the coming of a band of worshippers clad in this uncouth but auspicious garb to bring good luck to a house.?{1} The most direct English survival

sses and the arrangements were often extremely elaborate, and the introduction of dialogued speech made these "disguises" regular dramatic performances. A notable example is Ben Jonson's "Masqu

over the revels, had a retinue of courtiers, and was surrounded by elaborate ceremonial. He seems to be the equivalent and was probably the direct descendant of the "Abbot" or "Bishop" of the Feast of Fools, who will be noticed later in this chapter. Sometimes indeed he is actually called "Abbot of Misrule." A parallel to him is the Twelfth Night "king," and he appears t

ays and Mor

sings-up of the court. Their names vary: "mummers" and "guisers" are the commonest; in Sussex they are "tipteerers," perhaps because of 299the perquisites they collect, in Cornwall "geese-dancers" ("geese" no doubt comes from "disgu

nd literary instinct working upon the remains of traditional ritual, and manipulating it for purposes of entertainment. The central figure is St. George (occasionally he is called Sir, King, or Prince George), and the main dramatic substance, after a prologue and introduction of the char

c show: in every gathering it is the same. Naked youths, who profess this sport, fling themselves in dance among swords and levelled lances."?{9} In certain forms of the dance there are figures in which the swords are brought together on the heads of performers, or a pretence is made to cut at heads and feet, or the swords are put in a ring round a person's neck. This strongly suggests t

mon in both, and both have the same grotesque figures, a man and a woman, often called Tommy and Bessy in the sword-dance and "the fool" and Maid Marian in the morris. Moreover the morris-dancers in England sometimes use swords,

d on Plough Monday in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands. They all contain a good deal of dancing,

year or the spirit of vegetation,?[112] like the Thuringian custom of executing a "wild man" covered with leaves, whom a doctor brings to life again by bleeding. This piece of ritual has apparently been attracted to Christmas from an early feast of

he skin and tail of a fox or other animal, and a man dressed in woman's clothes (Bessy). In these we may recognize the skin-clad mummer and the man

in which appeared the "Seven Champions," the English national heroes?-of whom Richard Johnson wrote a history in 1596?-with St. George a

origin to those we have been discussing? They certainly resemble the English plays in the manner in which one act

son, "there is a sort of play at the Epiphany, in which the mummers represent bride, bridegroom, and 'Arab'; the Arab tries to carry off the bride, and the bridegroom defends her.... Formerly also at 'Kozane and in many other parts of Greece,' according to a Greek writer in the earl

n representatives of a goat and a bear. Some of the party would be disguised as 'Lazaruses,' that is, as blind beggars." A certain number of the mummers were generally

ast of

ields. We must now turn to certain festivities following hard upon Christmas Day, which, though pagan in

he best known are the Feast of Fools and the Boy Bishop ceremonies, have been so fully described by other writers, and my space here is so limited, that I need but treat t

le as early as the ninth century. At first confined to the subdeacons, the Feast of Fools became in its later developments a festival not only of that order but of the 303inferior clergy in general, of the vicars choral, the chaplains, and the choir-clerks, as distinguished from the canons. For this rabble of poor and low-class clergy it was no doubt a welcome relaxation, and one can hardly wonder that they let themselves go in burlesquing the sacred but often wearisome rites at which it was their business to be present through many long hours, or that they delighted to usurp for once in a way the functions ordinarily performed by their superiors. The putting down of the m

Feast of Fools may be regarded as a recoil of paganism upon Christianity in its very sanctuary. "An ebullition of the natural lout beneath the cassock" it has been called by Mr. Chambers, and many of its usages may be explained by the reaction of coarse nat

tter addressed in 1445 by the Paris Faculty of T

n of the altar while the celebrant is saying Mass. They play at dice there. They cense with stinking smoke from the soles of old shoes. They run and leap through the church, without a blush at their own shame. Finally

exaltation of inferiors, was itself a characteristic of the Kalends celebrations, and a still more remarkable feature of them was, as we have seen, the wearing of beast-masks and the dressing up of men in women's

not uncommon title of asinaria festa. At Bourges, Sens, and Beauvais, a curious half-c

tis pa

avit A

et for

is apt

Asnes, ca

ouche r

ez du fo

avoine a

t, with some mention of his connection with

dicas,

r de gra

Amen,

nare

ez va! he

e Asnes,

he, car ch

her arms rode upon an ass into St. Stephen's church, to represent the Flight into Egypt. The Introit, "Kyrie," "Gloria," and "Credo" at Mass ended in a bray, and at the close of the service the priest instead of saying "Ite, missa

were the subject of frequent denunciations by Church reformers from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. The feast was prohibited at various times, and notably by the Council of Basle in 1435, but i

ciated, and they were by no means willing to let it die. A Prince des Sots took the place of the "bishop," and was chosen by sociétés joyeuses organized by the youth of the cities for New Year merrymaking. Gradually their activities grew, and their celebrations came to ta

oy Bi

ested in cope and mitre, held a pastoral staff, and gave the benediction. Other boys too usurped the dignities of their elders, and were attired as dean, archdeacons, and canons. Offices for the festival, in which the Boy Bishop figures largely, are to be found in English, French, and German service-books, the best known in this country being those in the Sarum Processional and Breviary. In England these ceremonies were far more popular and lasting than the Feast of Fools, and, unlike it, t

ed the functions of the lowly. In 1263 this was forbidden, and only clerks of lower rank might be chosen for these offices. But the "bishop" had the right to demand 307after Compline on the Eve of the Innocents a supper for himself and his train from the Dean or one of his c

valcade through the city, that the "bishop" might bless the pe

hte reverende fader and worshypfull lorde my broder Bysshopp of London, your dyoceasan," and "my worshypfull broder [the] Deane of this cathedrall chirche,"?

desirable one not merely because of the feasting, but because he had usually the right to levy contributions on the faithful, a

f children; he was often called "Nicholas bishop"; and sometimes, as at Eton and Mayence, he exercised episcopal functions at divine service on the eve and the feast itself. It is possible, as Mr. Chambers suggests, that St. Nicholas's Day was an older date for the boys' festival than Holy In

s be loste and clyerlye extinguisshed throughowte all this his realmes and dominions, forasmoche as the same doo resemble rather the unlawfull superstition of gentilitie [paganism], than the pure and sincere religion of Christe."?{25} In Mary's reign the Boy Bishop reappeared, along with other "Popish" usages, but after Elizabeth's accession he naturally fell into oblivion. A few traces of him lingered in the sev

s, even in the nineteenth, the choir-boys used to play at being bishops on Innocents' Day and call their "archbishop" ane?-a memory this of the old asinaria festa.?{27} In Denmark a vague trace of him was retained in th

310

PTE

. JOHN'S, AND HOL

-The Swedish St. Stephen?-St. John'

the Evangelist's (December 27), and the Holy Innocents' (December 28)?-have still various folk

ephen'

and fields in order to avert the influence of witches and evil spirits, and bread soaked in it is given to the cattle when they are driven out to pasture on Whit Monday. The salt, too, is given to th

they were bled on his festival in the belief that it would benefit them,?{2} and the custom is still continued in some parts of Austria.?{3} In

e into the village on their unsaddled steeds, and a race is run four or five times round the chur

rmitted by their masters to ride in companies to neighbouring places, where much drinking went on.?{7} In Holstein the lads on Stephen's Eve used to visit their neighbours in a company, groom the horses, and ride about in the farmyards, making a great noise until the people woke up and treated them to beer and spirits.?{8} At the village of Wallsbüll near Flensburg the peasant youths in the early morning held a race, and the winner was called Steffen and entertained at the inn. At V

rst was rewarded by a drink of something stronger. Again, early that morning one 313peasant would clean out another's stable, often at some distance from his home, feed, water, and rub down the horses, and then be entertained to breakfast. In olden times after service on St. Stephen's Day there was a race home on horseback, and it was supposed that he who arri

ered by the heathen in a dark forest. A special trait, his love of horses, connects him with the customs just described. He had, the legends tell, five steeds: two red, two white, one dappled; when one was weary he mounted another, making every week a great round to preach the W

th horses, was an attempt to account for the folk-customs practised on the day dedicated to St. Stephen the first martyr. It is interesting to note that legendary traditi

out of ki

r?s head

ar was fair

thlehem

Herod for the Child Jesus,

lustration of houses and fields with a sacred tree. Somewhat similar "ridings" are found in various parts of Europe in spring, and are connected with a procession that appears to be an ecclesiastical adaptation of a pre-Christian lustration-rit

gland generally devoted to hunting and shooting, it being held that the game laws were not in force on that day.?{13} This may be on

ohn's

ical powers of this wine, beliefs which can be traced back through at least four centuries. In Tyrol and Bavaria it is supposed to protect its drinker from being struck by lightning, in the Rhenish Palatinate it is drunk in order that the other wine a man possesses may be kept from injury, or that next year's harvest may be good. In

cht, the German name for Christmas, should properly be spelt Weinnacht.?{15} The Johannissegen, or Johannisminne as it was sometimes called, seems, all things considered, to be a survival of an old wine sacrifice like th

nnocen

siness on that day, and of our own Edward IV. that his coronation was postponed, because the date originally fixed was Childermas. In Cornwall no housewife would scour or scrub on Childermas, and in Northamptonshire it was considered very unlucky to begin any undertaking or even to do washing throu

ntions a custom of whipping up children on Innocents' Day in the morning, and explains its purpose as being that the memor

s collected by Mannhardt?{19} show that it is not confined either to Innocents' Day or to children. Moreover it i

In the Orlagau the girls on St. Stephen's, and the boys on St. John's Day beat their parents and godp

reen! Lo

ght thaler [o

Erzgebirge the young fellows whip the women and girls on St. Stephen's Day,

een, fair

ad and br

ren on Innocents' Day beat passers-by with birch-boughs, and get in return apples, nuts, and other

a whipping from their parents; while in one province, Normandy, the early risers among the young pe

ed, it has 317often a harsh appearance, or has become a kind of teasing, as when in Bohemia at Easter young men whip girls until they give them something. Its original purpose, however, as we have seen in connection with St. Martin's rod, se

1932

PTE

YEAR

ng" in Great Britain?-Scottish New Year Practices?-Highland Fumigation and "Breast-strip" Customs?-Hogmanay and Agu

been anticipated at earlier festivals; the Roman Kalends practices have often been shifted to Christmas,

s the first day is so will the rest be. If you would have plenty to eat during the year, dine lavishly on New Year's Day, if you would be rich

g in his hand some eatable; he will be doubly welcome if he carries in a hot stoup or 'plotie.' Everybody 322should wear a new dress o

very particular about catching sight of some auspicious object on the morning of New Year's Day, as the effects of omens seen on that occasion are bel

ociated with penitential Watch Night services and good resolutions than with rejoicing. But let the reader, if he be in London, pay a visit to Soho at this time, and he will get some idea of what the New Year means to

In the morning children find their stockings filled with gifts, and then rush off to offer good wishes to their parents. In the afterno

the tradespeople, while on the Eve (Sylvesterabend) there are dances or parties, the custom of forecasting the future by lead-pouring is

e is so characteristic of January 1, when not only relations and personal friends, but people whose connection is purely official are expected to visit

n wide open. It was a breach of etiquette to omit any acquaintance in these annual calls, when old friendships were renewed and family differences amicably settled. A hearty welcome was extended even to strangers of presentable appearance." At that time the day was marked by tremendous eating and drinking, and its visiting customs sometimes developed

d during the year. We have already met with a "first-foot" in the polaznik of the southern Slavs on Christmas Day. It is to be borne in mind that for them, or at all events for the Crivoscian highlanders whose customs are de

To provide against such an unlucky accident as that a woman should call first, people often engage a friendly man or boy to pay them an early visit. It is particularly interesting to find a Shropshire parallel to the polaznik's action in going straight to the

f the neighbourhood went the round of the houses before daylight singing songs, when one of their number would be admitted into the kitchen 'for good luck all the year.'" In 1875 this custom was still practised; and at some of th

A similar belief is found even in far-away China: it is there unlucky on New Year's Day to meet a woman on first going out.?{12} Can the belief be connected with such ideas about dangerous influences proceeding from women as have been described by Dr. Frazer in Vol. III. of

k and magical, to be oppressed, yet feared. She is charged with powers of child-bearing denied to man, powers only half understood, forces of attraction, but also of danger and repulsion, fo

ll as on New Year's Day, and bring a sprig of evergreens?{18} ?-an offering by now thoroughly familiar to us. In Scotland, especially in Edinburgh, it is customary for domestic servants to invite their sweethearts to be their "first-foots." The old Scotch families who preserve ancient customs encourage their servants to "first-foot" them, and grandparents like their grandchildren to perform for them the same service.?{19

as been suggested by Sir John Rhys that this idea rested in the first instance upon 326racial antipathy?-the natural antagonism of an indigenous dark-haired people to a race of blonde invaders.?{22} Another curious requirement?-in the Isle of Man and Northumberland?-is that the "first-foot" shall n

ts importance being no doubt largely due to the fact that it has not to compete with the Church feast of the Nativity. Nowadays, indeed, the example of Anglicanism is affecting the country to a considerable extent, and Christmas Day is becoming observed in the churches. The New Year

ver being turned towards the lighted clock-face of 'Auld and Faithful'' Tron [Church], the hour approaches, the hands seem to stand still, but in one second more the hurrahing, the cheering, the hand-shaking, the health-drinking, is all kept up as long as the clock continues to ring out the much-longed-fo

chime and welcome the New Year with the strains of "Auld Lang Syne," except to say that times ha

and sweetened ale, with an infusion of spirits. When the clock had struck the knell of the departed year, each member of the family drank of this mixture 'A good health and a ha

ie" was set on fire and carried about the village and the fishing boats. Its embers were scrambled for by the people and carefully kept as charms

m harm throughout the year. Moreover, first thing on New Year's morning, everybody, while still in bed, was asperged with a large brush.?{29} There is a great resemblance here to the Catholic use of incense and holy water in southern Germany and Austria on the Rauchn?chte (see also Chapter VIII.). In Tyrol these nights are Christmas, New Year's, and Epiphany Eves. When night falls the Tyrolese peasant goes with all his household throug

ide of the mart or winter cow was wrapped round the head of one of a company of men, who all made off belabouring the hide with switches. The disorderly procession went three times deiseal (according to the course of the sun) round each house in the village, striking the wa

nfluences to each family. It is an oval strip, and no knife may be used in removing it from the flesh. The head of the house sets fire to it, and it is given to each person in turn to smell. The inhaling of its fumes is a talisman against fairies, witches, and demons. In the island of South Ui

n with the ritual above described. It is customary for the poorer children to 329swaddle themselves in a great sheet, doubled up in front so as to form a vast pocket, and then go along the streets in little bands, calling out

ife, and shake

ink that we

bairns come

ie's our hog

he children in their quest. Exactly corresponding to it in sense and use is the French word aguillanneuf, from which it appears to be derived. Although the phonetic difference between this and the Scottish word is great, the Norman form hoguinané is much closer. There is,

s may be given. Here are specimens of

veniez à

ense de

eriez de

servirai

uin

i mes hog

panier q

chetai

homme d

st encore

nano.

"The hoguihanneu," and after singing something they were given a piece of lard. This was put on a pointed stick carried by one of the boys, and was kept for a feast called the bouriho.?{36} Elsewhere in Brittany poor chil

ani! O

et pis la reccl

bout with sticks or clubs, knock people up, cry out good wishes, and expect to be rewarded with something to eat. Elsewhere again they carry green olive- or cornel-boughs, and touch with them everyone they meet.?{39} W

ter dark from house to house, with long greetings, ringing of bells, and cracking of whips. On New Yea

you

ou fl

pple-t

pear-

prin

ealthy

hings pl

to the old or from the poor to the rich,

t is probable that this is but a Christian gloss on a pagan custom. Possibly there may be here a survival of an old Greek practice of bearing a ship in procession in honour of Dionysus,?{42} but it is to be noted that similar observances are found at various seas

surround the shield, the drum sounds, and the masked figure whistles. This playing ended, they receive a present from the master of the house, whatever he thinks fit to give. So they do at every house. On that day they eat all kinds of vegetables. And in the morning two of the boys arise, take olive-branches and salt, enter into

"This ceremony consists of boiling specially prepared pieces of lead in a spoon over a candle; each guest takes his spoonful and throws it quickly into the basin of water which is held ready. According to the form wh

-olive-leaves to represent a youth and a maid. If the leaves crumple up and draw near each other, it is concluded that the young people lo

ad, old man, old woman, ladder, and key?-are baked of dough, and laid under nine plates, an

during each of the twelve months, the first day corresponding to January, the second to February, and so on.?{4

e been of the nature of charms; one or two more, practise

on the last night of the year to draw a pitcherful of water in silence, and without the vessel touching the ground. The water was drunk on New Year's morning as a charm against witchcraft and the evil eye.?{50} A similar belief about the luckiness of "new water" exists at Canzano Peligno in the Abruzzi. "On New Year's

f the stone."?{52} Finally, in Little Russia "corn sheaves are piled upon a table, and in the midst of them is set a large pie. The father of the family takes his seat behind them, and asks his children if they can see hi

t morning from the well. With a sprig of box or other evergreen they would sprinkle those they met, wishing them the compliments of the season. To pay their respects to those not abroad at so early an hou

bring n

e well

orship G

ppy New

-dew, sin

er and

bright g

ugles the

gn of Fa

d upon h

u the W

the Old

gn of Fa

d upon h

u the E

e New Year

336

PTE

Y TO CA

a in Italy?-The Magi as Present-bringers?-Greek Epiphany Customs?-Wassailing Fruit-trees?-Herefordshire and Irish Twelfth Night Practices?-The "Haxey Ho

HANY IN

Epip

many parts of Europe it is still attended by folk-customs of great interest.?[116] For the peasant of Tyrol,

ival is the Twelfth Cake. Some words of Leigh Hunt's will show w

; nay, all Christendom. All the world are 338kings and queens. Everybody is somebody else, and learns at once to laugh at, and to tolerate, characters different from his own, by enacting them. Cakes, characters, forfeits, lights, theatres, merry rooms, little holiday-faces, and, last no

and the connection of the cake with the "

w the mi

cake full

the king of t

we mus

pea

s queen in t

then t

ght as

r the presen

ng by t

ho sh

y queen for t

own, let

s with

a man then b

'd will n

se from t

king and the q

of a bean or pea, and this "king" is mentioned in royal accounts as early as the reign of E

king is thus described by the sixteen

ed a kind of Apollo's oracle. To this questioning the child answers with a Latin word: Domine. Thereupon the master calls on him to say to whom he shall give the piece of cake which he has in his hand: the child names whoever comes into his

e family distributes them. The portion remaining is called la part du bon Dieu and is given to the first person who asks for it. A band of children generally come to claim it, with a l

nth-century accou

of honour, and each time they raise their glasses to their mouths cries of 'The king drinks, the queen drinks!' burst forth on all sides.... The next day an enormous cake, divided into equal portions, is distributed to the company by the youngest boy. The first portion is always for le bon Dieu, the second for the Blessed Virgin (these two portions

rteenth century the Epiphany king was chosen from among the monks by means of a number of cakes in

r evening, when all men cry (as the manner is) the king drinketh, chanting his Masse the next morni

nd queen whose function was to preside over the festival, sit in a place of honour in church, and go first in the procession. The kingship was not elective, but

e traced in Holland and Germany,?{12} and that the "King of the Bean" is kno

ssociation with the feast of the Three Kings has helped to maintain his rule. As for the bean, it appears to have been a sacred vegetable in ancient times. There is a story about the philosopher Pythagoras, how, when flying before a host of rebels, he came upon a field of bean

ble the father and mother take the cake, "and break it into two pieces, which are again subdivided by the head of the family into shares. The first portion is destined for St. Basil, the Holy Virgin, or the patron saint whose icon is in the house. The second stands for the house itself. The third for the cattle and domestic animals b

whom, as we have seen, food is left in the West on All Souls' and Christmas Eves. Probably the Macedonian practice of setting aside a portion of the cake for a saint, and the pieces cut in France for le bon Dieu and the Virgin or the three Magi, have a like origin. One may compare the

es and lanterns, and make a great noise with horns, bells, whips, &c., in order to 342frighten away two wood-spirits. In Labruguière in southern France on the

masks, with cowbells, whips, and all sorts of weapons, and shout wildly.?{18} In Nuremberg up to the year 1616 on Bergnacht or Epiphany Eve boys and girls use

or the mouth and eyes. One carried a chain, another a rake, and the third a broom. Going round to the houses, they knocked on the door with the chain

phany. In Roumania, where a similar sprinkling is performed, a curious piece of imitative magic is added?-the priest is invited to sit upon the bed, in

a was specially connected with the day. On the Epiphany and its Eve in the M?llthal in Carinthia a female figure, "the Berchtel," goes the round of the houses

puts in their shoes when satisfied with their behaviour, she is credited with an unpleasantly sharp eye for youthful transgressions."?{23} Mothers will sometimes warn their children that if they are naughty the Befana will fetch and eat them. To Italian young

e were processions through the streets, guys being borne about, with a great blowing of

tle old woman who fills children's stockings is called "Pasqua Epiphania

sh tradition that the Magi go every year to Bethlehem to adore the infant Jesus, and on their way visit children, leaving sweets and toys for them if they have behaved well. On Epiph

great noise. There is loud shouting, and torches cast a fantastic light upon the scene. One of the men carries a large ladder, and mounts it

r the Magi, dried figs for their pages, and handfuls of hay for their horses. In the glory and colour of the sunset young Mistral thought he saw the splendid train; but soon the gorgeous vision died away, and the children st

ompliments addressed to them by an orator. In return they presented him with a purse full of counters, upon which he rushed off with the treasure a

r is an ecclesiastically sanctioned form of a folk-ceremony. This is found in a purer state in Macedonia, where, after Matins on the Epiphany, it is the custom to thrust some one into water, be it sea or r

Olympos ashes are taken from the hearth where a cedar log has been burning since Christmas, and are baptized in the blessed water of

Epiphany. In Devonshire the farmer and his men would go to the orchard with a large jug of cider, and d

thee, old

t bud, and whence

ou may'st bea

ll! cap

bushel?-s

ts full too!

other account each person in the company used to take a cupful of cider, with roasted apples pressed into it, drink part

trees, that

plum and

ess fruits th

ve them wass

-trees took place on Christmas Eve, and was accom

them. Customs of a similar character are found in Continental countries during the Christmas season. In Tyrol, for instance, when the Christmas pies are a-making on St. Thomas's Eve, the maids are told

ing around them,?{40} while the Tyrolese peasant on Christmas Eve will go out to his trees, and, knocking with bent fingers upon them, will bid them wake u

k a glass of cider to the success of the harvest.?[118] This done, they returned to the farm, to feast?-in Gloucestershire?-on cakes made with caraways, and soaked in cider. The Herefordshire accounts give particulars of a further ceremony. A large cake was provided, with a hole in the middle, and a

e stall set apart for the goats, and having first sprinkled them with corn, took the wine-cup in her hand and said, 'Good morning, little mother! The Peace of God be on thee! Christ is born; of a truth He is born. May'st thou be healthy. I drink to thee in wine; I give thee a pomegranate; may'st thou meet with all good luck!' She then lifted the cup

in it a dozen of candles set round, and in the centre one larger, all lighted." This was said to be in memory of the

y, and then set alight, each being named by some one present, and as each dies so will the life of its owner. A ball is then made of the dung, and it

od," and its centre is a struggle between the men of two villages for the possession of a roll of sacking or leather called the "hood." Over it preside the "boggans" or "bullocks" of

llocks and a half, but the other half we had to leave runnin

hoose, too

et a man knoc

ey have to be given up, and carried back to My Lord. For every one carried off the field the boggans forfeit half-a-crown, which is spent in beer, doubtless by the men of the particular hamlet who have carried off the hood." The great event of the day is the struggle f

amiliar games of hockey and football as originating in a struggle between the people of two villages to get such a head, with all its fertilizing properties, over their own boundary.?{48} At Hornchur

er the game, used to be "smoked" over a straw fire. "He was suspended above the fire and swung backwards and forwards over it unti

enog near Lampeter, there was a struggle between two parties with different traditions of race. The Bros, supposed to be descendants from Irish people, occupied the high ground of the parish; the Blaenaus, presumably pure-bred Brythons, occupied the lowlands. After morning service on Christmas Day, "the whole of the Bros and Blaenaus, rich and poor, male and female, assembled on the turnpike road which divided the highlands from the lowlands." The ball was thrown high in the air, "and when it fell Bros and Blaenaus scrambled for its possess

the nineteenth century.?{52} As a rule, however, the Carnival in Roman Catholic countries is restricted to the last three days before Ash Wednesd

s marked by bonfires; red flames mount 350skywards, and the peasants join hands,

u les

à douz

mois

ugelée

anslated by the Rev. R. L. Gales, i

is lea

tis t

will co

u, N

and his

as th

grey

e thro'

*

ngs ri

now and

twelve

ee them ag

phany Fe

til Candlemas, while in some English country places it was customary, even in the late nineteenth century, to leave Christmas decorations up, in houses and churches, till that day.?{55} The whole time between Christmas and

few last sparks, so to speak, of the Christmas blaze, and then at the

the Octave of the Epiphany, January 13, "St

ieth d

th Yu

ort of mimic fight used to take place, the master and servants of the house pretending to drive away the guests with axe, broom, knife, spoon, and other implements.?{56} The name, "St.

Rocken = distaff). It was the day when the women resumed their spinning after the rest and gaiety of Christmas. From a poem

ork, and

n St. Dist

ugh soon fre

home and f

ids a-spi

lax and fi

*

pails of

aids bewa

istaff all

istmas sport

morrow,

wn vocat

ys.?{59} We have already seen that it is sometimes associated with the mummers' plays. Often, however, its ritual is not

accompanied by the Fool and Bessy; the fool being dressed in the skin of a calf, with the tail hanging down behind, and Bessy generally a young man in female attire. The fool carries an inflated bladder tied to the end of a long stick, by way of whip, which he does not fail to apply pretty soundly to t

ated the beginning of spring. Such a feast, apparently, was kept in mid-February when ploughing began at

dle

s, February 2; though connected with Christmas by its eccle

carrying them lighted in their hands. During the blessing the "Nunc dimittis" is chanted, 353with the antiphon "Lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam plebis tuae Israel," the ceremony being thus brought into connection with the "light to lighten the Gentiles" hymned by Symeon. Usener

he sixteenth century are t

of Tapers large, bot

d there with pomp, and

s Candell lightes, whe

st may be seene, a

cleare and brighte; a

ls lie, which if at

at neyther storme o

skies be heard, n

t walke by night, nor hur

nche-Comté, and elsewhere, they are preserved and lighted in time of storm or sickness.?{65} In Tyrol they are lighted on important family occasi

nty, besides sixteen torches; sixty of 354those burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high Altar."?{68} Ripon Cathedral, as late as the eighteenth century, was brilliantly illuminated with candles on the Sunday before the festival.?{69} And, to come to domes

oden club is placed, they cry three times, 'Briid is come! Briid is welcome!' This they do just before going to bed, and as soon as they rise in the morning, they look among the ashes, expecting to see the impression of Briid's club there, which if they do, they reckon it a true presage of a good crop and prosperous year,

to kindle a "brand" preserved from the Christmas

Christmas br

e-set let

ht, then la

stmas nex

kept wherew

tmas Log

is safely ke

mischiefe

ent for the last farewells t

White Loafe

ports with Ch

n

the Rosemar

th the

Holly, no

ner Box

hitherto

now do

dancing

s Eve appe

see in this replacing of the winter evergreens by the delicate white flowers a hint that by Candlemas the worst of the winter is over and gone; Earth has beg

63

CLU

n at Nicea, and spread from Rome to every quarter of the Empire, not as a folk-festival but as an ecclesiastical holy-day. We have seen the Church condemn with horror the relics of pagan feasts which clung round the same season of the year; then, as time went on, we have found the two e

rm to the popular mind, calling up a host of human emotions, a crowd of quaint and beautiful fancies. Lastly we have noted the survival, in the most varied degrees of transformation, of things which are alien to Christianity and in some cases seem to go back to very primitive stages of thought and feeling. An antique reverence for the plant-w

al indulgence to the exquisite spirituality and tenderness of St. Francis. Ascetic and bon-vivant, mystic and materialist, learned and simple, noble and peasant, all have found something in it of which to lay hold. It is a river into which h

f we would seek for relics of the old things we must go to the regions of Europe that are least industrially and intellectually "advanced." Yet amongst the most sceptical and "enlightened" of moderns there is generally a large residuum of tradition. "Emotionally," it has been said, "we are hundreds of thousands of years old; rationally we are embryos"?{1} ; and many people who deem themselves "emancipated" are willing for once in the y

d outside. There is the physical pleasure of "good cheer," of plentiful eating and drinking, joined to, and partly resulting in, a sense of goodwill and expansive kindliness towards the world at large, a temporary feeling of the brotherhood of man, a desire that the poor may for once in the yea

ial gaiety in the midst of a season when little outdoor work can be done and night almost swallows up day. The Germans, sentimental and childlike, have produced a Christmas that is a very Paradise for children and at which the old delight to play at being young again around the Tree. For the Italians Christmas is centred upon the cult of the Bambino, so fitted to their dramatic instincts, their love of display, their s

lder folk for the benefit of the children. We have seen too how the radiant figure of the Christ Child has become a gift-bringer for the little ones. At no time in the world's history has so much been made of children as to-day, and because Christmas is their feast its lustre continues unabated in an age upon which dogmatic Christi

362

ND BIBL

nd the titles and authors' names are there printed in heavy type. The particula

I.?-INTR

on in "The Daily N

. Dec. 2

tudy of the Social Origins of Greek

to Dec. 25, (2) to Dec. 25-8, (3) to the whole Christmas week, (4) to Dec. 25 to Jan. 6, (5) to the whole tim

deutschen Weihnacht" (Leipsic, 1

sfest" (Kap. i., bis. iii. 2n

ts Origin and Evolution" (Eng. Trans.,

ia of Religion and Ethics" (

eval Stage" (Oxford, 1903), i.

ir Place in the Germanic Year" (London

Ibid

le, "D.

e, "Y. &

9, 1911; F. C. Conybeare, Preface to "The Key of Truth, a Manual of th

sener

rolegomena to the Study of Greek

olegomena," 402 f

hten in Kirche, Kunst and Volksleben

ybeare,

nza, 1785), i. 219 f., mentioned in article "Nativity" in T.

rs, "M. S.

"The Monuments of Mithra" (En

e Apostate" (Eng. Trans.

rs, "M. S.

"Christian W

e, "Y. &

THE CHRIS

?-CHRISTMAS

n, "A Dictionary of Hymnology" (New Edition, London, 1907), and th

Book of Christmas Ver

eechi

é, "No?l" (Pa

, "St. Anselm" (

Ibid

rch from the Norman Conquest to the Acc

es, and Carols" (London, n.d.), 216; E. Rickert, "Anc

Thode, "Franz von Assisi und die Anf?nge der Kunst der Renaissance in Italien" (Berlin, 1885); A. Macdonell, "Sons of Fra

t. Francis" (Eng. Trans. by A. G.

tings of St. Francis"

one da Todi," con annotationi di Fra F

Ibid

Ibid

a," trans. and ed. by J.

utschen Kirchenliedes bis auf Luthers Zeit" (2nd Edition, Hanover, 1854); P. Wackernagel, "Das deu

s in Mystical Religion"

n und Predigten," edited by H.

"Christian Singers," 84. German

chtsbuch" (Hamburg-Gr

is abridged and Protestantized. The mediaeval German text, which is partly addressed to the Virgin, is given in Hoffmann von Fallersleben, "In Dulci Jubilo"

d Lieder aus Süddeutschland und Schle

translation of German dialect I

Ibid

Ibid

. K. Chambers and F. Sidgwick (London, 1907), 290. [Twenty-five of Awdlay's carols were printed by M

Ibid

terary History of the English People

rt, 6; Be

ers and Sidgwick, "E

. lix.

. lxi.

. lxx.

lxvii.

lxiii.

icker

.?-CHRISTMA

5), Gastoué, 57 f.; G. Gregory Smith, "The Trans

gory Sm

l'honneur de la Naissance de Notre-Seigne

id. i.

d. ii.

Herv

ignen, i

eignen,

thèque Populaire" (published by Henri Gaut

eignen,

"A Book Of Old Carols

Herv

eignen,

istorical Edition), 79. Translati

ervé,

y Cancionero Sagrados" (Madrid, 1855, vol. 35 of Rivadeneyra's Library of Spanish Authors), and t

de Fabe

a y La Noche de Navida

ria Comparata degli Usi Na

o-Cesaresco's charming translation of the poem, in her "

go, "Folk-So

"D. W.," 311; Italian g

ervé,

ent Mysteries Describe

Ibid

ee No

Songs of Connacht" (Lo

rd" (London), D

es Weihnacht

nd Spiritual Songs," 49 f. (spelli

sbuch," 123, and most Ge

Miles Coverdale,

he Lieder," ed. by P. Wackernagel and W

h in "Lyra Germanica" (New Edi

es Weihnacht

ltered) in "The British Heral

ords edited by H. R. Bramley, the music e

eching

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

id. 42

eching

"Poems and Carols"

"The Commonwealth" (Lo

TMAS IN LITURGY AN

starry height," in "Hymns A. an

rch Year and Kalendar"

ume Durand, évèque de Mende au treizième siècle," tr

the Great O's in "The E

élemy, ii

f Our Fathers" (London, 18

ns, "L'Oblat" (P

stoué,

y, "Ordo Romanus Primu

of Aquitaine" (Eng. Trans. by J

in "The Daily New

ale: appunti d'esegesi e d

stoué,

naccor

Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiasti

France" in "The Century Magazin

Tiroler Volksleben" (

t to Spain" (2nd Editio

y a Resident Officer (L

sities of Popular Custo

e feste popolari sicilia

e, "D. W

London, 1882), 209; L. Lloyd, "Peasant

hurch Folklore" (L

ore and Folk-Stories of W

aux,

m the Service-Books of the Holy Ea

Worship in the Black Mountain," in "Macmillan

chesne

rs, "M. S.

by John, Marquess of Bute (New Edit

t in "The Roman Mai

Saints and their Festiva

ervice" in "Pax" (the Magazine of the C

milton

loway,

ian Life in Town and Count

elano, trans. b

Parvulus" in "The Outdoor Life in the G

rs, "M. S.

orsi, 85;

sener

id. 29

etsche

bid.

Ibid

f.; Tille,

y much weakened text is given. Text from Weinhold, 114. Anoth

d music in

le, "D.

bid.

Ibid

dome," Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570

le, "D.

Ibid

"Tiroler Volk

Ibid

le, "D.

etsche

go, "Outdoor

aly" (New Edition, L

a Madonna e i Santi"

ian Ways and Days" (

y given to the author

ed by the author from

ao, see

eaux in Italian Churches," in "Folk

gan, ii

accorsi

ks in Rome" (11th Editi

naccorsi, 110 f.; R. Ellis Roberts, "A

ntrodden Spain" (L

e 18 to Cha

, "British Popular Custo

Vaux

Dyer

mbers, "M.

.?-CHRIST

e a/S., 1893), vol. i., bks. ii.-iv. See also: Karl Pearson, essay on "The German Passion Play" in "The Chances of Death, and other Studies in Evolution" (London, 1897), ii. 246 f.; E. Du

rs, "M. S.

bid.

Méril

rs, "M. S.

in Du Mér

rs, "M. S.

id. ii

d, "A History of English Dramatic Literature" (London, 1875), vol. i. chap. i.;

"M. S.," ii.

ed. by J. O. Halliwell

by L. Toulmin Smith

ys," ed. by T. Wrigh

Ibid

Ibid

ntroduction by A. W. Pollard (London, 1897). The first

and Sidgwick, "Early

he Pageants or Dramatic Mysteries ancientl

ulleville, ii.

Marguerite des princesses," ed. from the edit

de Jullevi

5. Text in Leme

e Jullevill

populaires de la Haute-Br

Parvulus," in "The Outdoor Life," 260 f., the Countess gives

lemy, iii.

rg-Düringsfeld, "Das festliche Jahr"

etsche

istmas plays is F. Vogt, "Die schlesis

einho

bid.

bid.

bid.

enaissance," iv. 242, 272 f.; A. d'Ancona, "Origi

a, "Origini

entazioni dei secoli xiv, xv e

bid.

D'Ancona, "Origini," i. 91, a

izenach

"A History of Spanish Lite

Teatro Completo" (Madr

panish Literature" (6th American

id. ii

e tradizioni popolari" (Palermo

itrè,

o, "Elia y La Noche

loyd,

, "Jul" (Copenhage

sur les fêtes religieu

billot

ntry Life" (London, 1906), 195 f.; E. van Norman, "Poland: the Knight among Nations" (London and New York, 3rd Edition, n.

ays and Sacred Dramas" (Eng. Trans., Lond

"Tiroler Volk

raham

atilesc

bid.

n Norm

ortet

élemy, ii

a Barca, "Life in Mexico

TSC

the Nature and Development of Man's Spiri

?-PAGAN

RE-CHRISTIAN W

h" in "The Chances of Death and other Stu

r, "The Dying God"

Religion of the Ancient Cel

r, "Dying

igion in Pre-Christian Ti

The Mediaeval Stage" (Oxford, 1903)

s on the Religion of the Semites

wler, "The Roman Festivals of the Perio

ta" (Eng. Trans. by H. W. and F. G

ities" (New Edition, with the Additions of Sir

of Lucian,"

id. iv

London, 1900), iii. 138 f., and "The Magic Art and

us Experience of the Roman Peo

ligious Experience," 107; C. Bailey, "The R

" i. 237 f.; Fowler,

Bilfinger, "Das germanische Julfest" (vol. ii. of "Untersuchungen

iv. 1053 f., quoted

, "M. S.," i

istmas" (London, 1899), 96.

eek Religion" (Cambridge, 1910), 221 f. Cf. M. Hamilton

s, "M. S.,"

in Chambers, "M

bid.

" 88 f.; Chambers, "

ussaye, "The Religion of the Ancient Teutons" (Boston, 1902), 382. Cf. O. Schrader

he Ancient Celts," 258 f. Cf.

e, "Y. &

Worship in the Black Mountain," in "Macmillan

rs, "M. S.

e, "Y. &

rs, "M. S.

30; W. Roberts

, "Dying G

n "Folk-Lore" (London)

rs, "M. S.

ertson Smi

reek Religion" (Cambridge, 1912), 67. Cf. E. F. Ames, "The Psyc

son, "The

Ibid

(Paris, 1905), i. 93. For the theory that totem

rs, "M. S.

. i. 105

son, "The

bertson S

ap. 30. Latin text in Bede's Works, edited by

"Golden Boug

m," lxv. 11. Latin text in

rs, "M. S.

in Chambers, "M

d by Chambers, i. 231. See also Tille, "Y. & C.

"Golden Boug

zer, "Magic

, "Golden Boug

" part ii. (Bonn, 1889), 43 f. See also A. Tille, "Die Geschichte der

(Reprint of 3rd Edition of 1585, edite

A righte Merrie Christmass

id. 27

ALL HALLOW TID

ii. 538 [referred to as "B. D."]; T. F. Thiselton Dy

igion as illustrated by Celtic Heathendom" (London, 1888), 5

, "Y. & C

eltic Folklo

rch Year and Kalendar"

is, Attis, Osiris" (2nd Edi

ive Culture" (3rd Editio

er, "Ado

bid.

populaires de la Haute-Br

Tiroler Volksleben" (

er, "Ado

siciliane" (Palermo, 1880), 393 f. Cf. H. F

(London), 3rd Series,

er, "Ado

yer,

es, 1st Series, vol

Jackson, "Shropshire Folk-

bid.

ed by Dy

s festliche Jahr der germanischen V?l

delle tradizioni popolari"

"Tiroler Volk

r, "Adoni

bid.

vans,

Dyer

Ibid

f. Chambers, "B.

Dyer

Ibid

bid.

nal Remains. Collected in the Counties of Lincoln, De

Ibid

rthern Counties of England and the Bor

Dyer

bid.

lklore," i. 321, "Ce

eltic Folklo

ligion of the Ancie

Celtic Heat

Ibid

, "Celtic Fol

Religion of the A

rand,

Dyer

bid.

Golden Bough,

and Jack

Dyer

gy" (Eng. Trans. by J. S. Stall

le und Lieder aus Süddeutschland

fergebr?uche bei Ackerbau und

Ibid

einho

Dyer

es, 1st Series, vol

einho

Ibid

erg-Düring

rs, "M. S.

Dyer

berg, ii

erg-Düring

lib. i. cap. 50, quoted

e, "Y. &

Ibid

Ibid

rand,

01 f. For German Martinmas f

for Danish custom; Ja

ord" (London), vol. iv

Religion of the A

erg-Düring

ahn,

Reinsberg-Dür

, "Y. & C

Düringsfeld, 4

Jahn

o trad. pop., vol. v. 238 f., for

rg-Düringsf

Jahn

bid.

Ibid

erg-Düring

einho

" i. 268; Weinhold, 7

ngsfeld, illustrat

Ibid

Ibid

Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarst?mme"

"Baumkultus," 303,

ad. pop., vol.

dt, "Baumku

?-ST. CLEMENT

Dyer

s, 1st Series, vol.

rand,

lk Lore of the Nor

es, 3rd Series, vol

Dyer

rand,

Ibid

es, 2nd Series, vol

yer,

erg-Düring

in "The Daily Expr

Dyer

Ibid

e, "D. W

hern Mythology" (Lon

id. ii

ngsfeld, 416 f. Cf

ingsfeld, 417. Cf

erg-Düring

rpe, ii

e und Brauch der Südsla

an to Pindus: Pictures of Roumania

bid.

erg-Düring

bid.

bid.

dome," Englyshed by Barnabe Googe, 1570

acedonian Folklore"

Life in Town and Count

90, and also the Epiphany noise-mak

erg-Düring

"Tiroler Volk

le, "D.

rs, "M. S.

t. Nicholas by Professor Anichkof

rg-Düringsf

" 35 f.; Reinsberg

"Tiroler Volk

erg-Düring

einho

dt, "Baumku

einho

rg-Düringsf

"Tiroler Volk

erg-Düring

Ibid

rs, "M. S.

opular Customs" (London, 1898), 75

berg, i.

id. i.

bid.

ian Ways and Days" (

lberg,

erg-Düring

bid.

imm, i

lberg,

bid.

in Folk-Lore, vol

shton

yer,

rg-Düringsf

Ibid

Ibid

Ibid

Dyer

.; Chambers, "B

bbott

s, 2nd Series, vol.

RISTMAS EVE AND

e, "D. W

erg-Düring

Ibid

Ibid

448; Wei

vans,

einho

e, "Y. &

rg-Düringsf

bid.

Ibid

of the Russian People" (1st E

billot

alsh,

the Northern Counties," 311; Sir Edgar MacCulloch, "G

alsh,

k Lore of the North

olk Lore," 34 f. Cf. for Ge

imm, i

alsto

la Mort chez les Bretons armori

orpe,

loyd,

lberg,

bid.

lfinge

lberg,

id. ii

"In the Northman's La

lberg,

v. 1781, 178

rauss

, 186 f., while those sung by the Roumanians are described by Mlle. Strat

alsto

atilesc

alsto

rs, "M. S.

re, "Hamlet,"

lfinge

Lore of the Norther

lor, i

der germanischen Mythologi

e, "D. W

k Lore of the North

, "Guernsey Fo

nd Jackson,

dii Aevi Kalendarium"

v. 1836; Tho

and Jack

loch, "Religion of th

manen" (Strassburg, 1903), 424; Golt

olthe

eyer,

bid.

mm, iii

. i. 268

erg-Düring

75; Reinsberg-D

Ibid

425; Grim

erg-Düring

olthe

erg-Düring

imm, i

eyer,

e Valleys of Tirol"

Ibid

Ibid

llikantzaroi are taken, unless oth

bbott

milton

Ibid

bbott

bid.

eyer,

als of Belief among the C

Ibid

sian Life In Town and Cou

X.?-THE

. the account of the Servian Christmas in Chedo Mijat

me sou

dt, "Baumku

"Magic Art

id. ii

, 219, 29

Ibid

dt, "Baumku

er, "Magic A

id. ii

dt, "Baumku

(Eng. Trans. by C. E. M

dt, "Baumku

billot

ria Comparata degli Usi Na

Archivio trad. po

Jahn

Ibid

Ibid

d, 245;

k Lore Relics of Early Vill

shton

and Jack

bid.

s, 1st Series, vol.

eman's Magazin

mpson,

lberg,

bid.

id. ii

HRISTMAS-TREE, DEC

, "My German Year"

"Home Life in German

ociations of the Christmas-tree see also E. M. K

e, "D. W

Ibid

bid.

Kirche, Kunst und Volksleben" (B

bid.,

e, "D. W

etsche

Ibid

, "D. W.,

r, "The Folk-Lore of Herefo

etsche

shton

Ibid

e, "D. W

Ibid

277; Riets

v. E. W. Lummis, who a few years a

he Pall Mall Gazette"

e, "Y. &

bid.

etsche

e, "Y. &

.; Chambers, "B

in Chambers, "M

dt, "Baumku

, "Magic A

dt, "Baumku

; Reinsberg-D

loyd,

Dyer

as: its Origin and Associa

son, "The

"Magic Art

, "Magic A

dt, "Baumku

rs, "M. S.

text, ibid

London," edited by Henry M

rs, "M. S.

n Bough," iii. 327; MacCulloch, "Rel

eligion of the Anc

mm, iii

la Salle, "Croyances et légendes du cen

Golden Bough,

e Sketch-Book" (Revised Ed

eries, 5th Serie

erg-Düring

k Lore of the North

and Jack

k Lore of the North

lish Lyrics" (London, 1907), 293; E. Rickert,

icker

Jackson, 245

loyd,

n Norm

vans,

Norman

"Golden Boug

imm, i

.," i. 238. Cf. Til

erg-Düring

e, "D. W

Ibid

lfinge

France" in "The Century Magazin

berg, ii

trè, 1

Reinsberg-Düringsfel

loyd,

s Carols, Ancient and Mo

240 f.; Ash

TMAS FEASTING AND S

rs, "M. S.

icker

: its History, Festivities, a

rs, "M. S.

w English Dictionary" (Oxf

Addy

awson

Addy

and Jack

rand,

Lore, vol. xi

Addy

in Brand, 3, an

Bran

Dyer

, i. 119, 18

Jahn

atilesc

ston, 1

jatovi

Jahn

Weinhold, 25, and Rein

illot,

isnel,

id. i.

bid.

sur les Fêtes religieu

"Golden Boug

rmanischen Gebildbrote zur Weihnachtszeit" in "Zeitschrift für ?ste

ahn,

and Jack

ion," trans. by Sebastian

dt, "Baumku

loyd,

Jahn

Ibid

loyd,

; for the ox-cust

bbott

oler Volksleben,"

awson

us. With some Notes of his Experiences a

atilesc

Norman

Jahn

re other examples, British and Continental,

, vol. xviii.

Religion of the A

i. 380, 441, for examples of simi

re, vol. xi

rand,

re, vol. xi

loyd,

Ibid

rpe, ii

alsto

MUMMERS' PLAY, THE FEAST O

rs, "M. S.

nson, ed. by Barry Corn

, "Henry VIII.,

rs, "M. S.

d. i. 2

2. Cf. Burne an

ts of the mummers' plays see

ances is based upon Chambers, "M. S

. xxiv. (Eng. Trans. by W. H

rison, "The

lbert Murray in

son, "The

rs, "M. S.

, "M. S.," i

id. i.

wson,

ueries, 5th Ser

om Chambers, "M. S.," i. 274-371, and from Mr. A. F. Leach's article, "The Sch

rs, "M. S.

n Chambers, "M.

rs, "M. S.

s," ed. by J. G. Nichols, with an Introduction by E. F.

Ibid

, "The Customs Of Old Eng

rs, "M. S.

isme and Judaisme" (1686-7), ed. b

rs, "M. S.

lberg,

PHEN'S, ST. JOHN'S, A

"Tiroler Volk

Dyer

as Tiroler Bauernjahr"

Ibid

bid.

lberg,

dt, "Baumku

lberg,

dt, "Baumku

Feilberg, i. 204

Book of Christmas Verse

dt, "Baumku

lk Lore of the Nor

ahn,

bid.

bid.

yer,

. 498; B

dt, "Baumku

bid.

Ibid

Golden Bough,

V.?-NEW Y

eltic Folklo

lk Lore of the Nor

Superstitions of Southern

alsh,

Wyli

billot

The American People"

alsh,

vans,

and Jack

ueries, 5th Ser

ev. E. J. Hardy, formerly Chap

Golden Bough,

and Jack

imm, i

son, "The

k Lore of the North

Addy

Folk-Lore, vol.

mbie in same

d Jackson, 314; Rhys, "

eltic Folklo

74. Cf. Folk-Lore, vol. iii., 18

(see Note

alsh,

astie

ers, "B.

s and Queries, 2nd Series,

shton

"Tiroler Volk

Highlands and Islands of Scotland" (Glasgow, 1902), 23

ivals of Belief amon

s of Scotland" (Edinburgh, 1847

ish Dictionar

ortet

billot

Ibid

h, "Guernsey

bbott

atilesc

milton

Ibid

dt, "Baumku

Ducange in Chamber

Wyli

bbott

imm, i

billot

Dyer

shton

"In the Abruzzi" (

bbott

alsto

Feb. 5, 1848; Notes and Que

.?-EPIPHANY

"Tiroler Volk

r, Common-Places Refreshed"

eching

rs, "M. S.

es de la France" (Paris, 1621)

ortet

Ibid

Ibid

s latines du théatre mode

Bran

hes et traditions des province

Düringsfeld, 2

La Madonna e i Santi

nach, i

bbott

Ibid

"Golden Boug

Volksleben," 246; Rein

erg-Düring

id. 21

atilesc

erg-Düring

sco, "Essays in the Study of F

Feasts and Tuscan Frie

Ibid

erao,

Madrid," 90. [Vol. ii. of "Biblioteca de las Tr

Ibid

rs of Mist

Nore

bbott

"Magic Art

milton

hambers, "B. D.,

ubrey

Bran

eching

shton

"Tiroler Volk

e, "D. W

"Tiroler Volk

"The Folk-Lore Record" (L

, 22 f. Several accounts have been collected by

vans,

Dyer

re, vol. v.

ol. vii., 1

rs, "M. S.

y Day Book" (Londo

e, vol. vii.

"The Village Community"

Busk

awson

on" (London),

and Jack

loyd,

lfinge

rand,

Dyer

Arch?ological Association," vo

rs, "M. S.

bid.

ener,

ogeorg

illot,

"Tiroler Vo

sener

itchin, "Seven Sages Of Du

eman's Magazi

yer,

tin's "Description of the Wester

"Folk-Lore

Bran

Ibid

and Jack

CLU

s to the Folk-Lore Society, 1894. S

390

N

ley, horn-d

s' Eve in, 192; "

" dram

Eve, thei

St. Vict

, fidel

2; "Advent

ln?cht

, pagan ri

nd the cult of the

the cult of the de

in, 230; New Year

f Br?vn

e, St.

rbal

ast of Foo

, St., hy

ship, 181, 2

his Day, 17

69; ox and ass at

of, 1

, 175-6,

tmas Eve

fed at Chr

iling

Martinm

kes at, 194; St.

as's Day

oms with, 19

li, Rom

t. Thomas's

hurch, Epi

nd St. Ni

re-Aryan cu

klas,

erstition

se of th

New Year

y, J.

95-8, 214-5, 2

. (of Canterb

lian

etry in, 45-46; Chris

akes i

olas in,

a's Eve

as's Eve

a, etc., in

ter in

ia, Carinthia,

, John

J. S

l Souls'

der

celebrated at Epi

t., her fe

al of St. Ni

ut the ma

tel

., his fe

idian

Council

s rod in, 207; Chris

ial feas

n's win

east of the

erable, 1

Christma

244, 2

s, Joha

ve in, 192, 194; St.

mas in

rine's Da

holas i

as's Day

Madame

a. See

ds in, 266; bi

t., of Cla

e customs

Christmas a

bonfires

er, Dr.

at Chris

an's b

head, 2

152; fifteenth-century C

w's Eve i

as's Eve

ce, St

-8; connection with St

strip" r

y, the

id,

mo,

play in, 141; Ma

s' Eve i

superstitions

as log

ear i

nneuf i

uperstiti

adle-rocki

hristmas pl

land, barring out

land, Twelfth Ni

Epiphan

lfra

us of Wo

hristmas h

, "Clavi

Rober

urning t

berg

, Joh

Fernan, 66-

of Arles,

sten," 177;

bert's

's hor

s, 287-8

ight, 337

asil'

n minstr

amy

gula

, Hallowe

t. Clement's

mas Eve supers

as, 350

Lucia's Day, 212

Christm

t. Stephen's

al, 30

word, 47-8; English sac

sh,

h, 6

land

and Christ

r, 172, 189, 1

aurs

ents, 177-8.

K., 5, 125, 299

e, coronat

Year, 182, 1

199; poultry specially

plays, 1

n, Mr. G.

ermas

vals, 205-7, 218

New Yea

istmas rha

gift-bringer,

ian elements in, 18-28, 161

hment of

with earlier

manized, 2

etry,

aspects o

r devotio

ama,

appeal, 15

m other festivals, 1

ons, 178

, 178-80

nts,

customs,

see Y

superstitions about t

stoms,

pper on

68, 178, 263-72;

tpupp

ostom

h, De

of, 101, 302. See

St., his

rtimer, cur

shepherd p

, Char

, sacrifi

Alsinoys,

n custom in, 196; b

rmas i

lays, 128,

rocking

haw,

113-8; possible surviv

itsch

toms, 231, 253

Eve in, 215; Christm

nia

ule log cus

-8, 293-4,

, Jean

er, J.

s, St

173, 180-1, 189-95, 2

vergreen, 168,

Nicholas,

ging" in, 151; ani

s goose

a's Eve

s's Day i

e superstiti

dles in,

as-tree

ad eaten

ishop

g-bunch" in, 274; P

st masks, 202;

s" in, 240; "ashto

fruit-tre

ristmas

, Charl

erod pla

god, 21; winter fes

Hallowe'

in Latin, 121-7; i

ch, 128

sh, 128,

rman,

ian, 14

als of

las plays

lk-drama

ms, 36, 204, 2

nd mistl

Monsigno

andlemas

f, Martin

mas,

t, 42-

, New Yea

sion

Juan d

etry in, 47-51, 76-86

of the Christmas

n the miracle

ng" in

'en in,

es Day i

sks in, 1

mas in

nt's Day

ine's Day

w's Day i

s's Day i

e superstiti

og in,

andle

hristmas-trees

Thorn i

decoration

s boxes

s fare i

vals and Christma

sword-dancer

f Fools

op in, 2

's Day in,

cents' Da

Day in, 3

stoms in, 3

s in, 35

Day i

Monday

Syrus,

hani

of the festival, 20-2; i

eek Churc

Waters at, 102-4

ious ceremoni

ama,

an name

stoms o

t cakes and

n of evi

and the M

ling,

Hood,

to Christm

plays in, 144, 232; St

ern i

, berchte

All Souls' D

d, laws

t. Martin's

ir Arthu

e of for festiv

104, 181-2, 217,

, Gentil

hristma

th sacrifice, 178-9, 2

stmas,

Year,

phany,

en,

r. H. F., 6

e of, 17-8; relation of paga

or New Year, 170-1, 257-8; bonfir

re lit

and ancestor-w

candle in weste

ires and li

ts," 208,

on Christ

llant

Galvan

r, Gile

ty plays at, 147

ast of, 1

ball

Dr. W. W

oetry in, 55-65; Mi

rama in, 12

s' Eve i

e superstiti

s log in

as-tree

t May

ght by le pet

s cakes

Fools i

shop i

ts' Day

ar in,

neuf in,

, 339-42, 3

s candle

isi), and Christmas,

6, 167, 180, 182,

, Fra

gg,

l Souls' D

enty

hristmas

Frau,

, Théop

y,

dancer

chanting

in mummers' p

dt, Pa

nicus

lished in, 21; Christmas

nt hymns

services

Kindelwiege

s drama

inging"

ustoms

an New Year

akes i

other animal ma

customs

w's Eve i

as in, 218

as's Eve

Eve in,

superstition

ta, etc.,

lves i

as log

tree in, 2

t May

presents

s fare i

al relics

's Day in,

's Day i

cents' Da

r in, 3

"Christmas

ury thor

n excelsi

the

rds,

Laurence,

nmas, 203; C

, Benoz

pus,

102-3, 244-5, 344; winter fest

aroi in, 2

log in,

in Chio

s Loaves

ays in,

r in, 3

y in, 22, 102-4; Chri

nt i

orie

ry II

at, letter to M

uperstitions in, 234,

ers,

es Day,

gaiss

rsac

he Good

'en, 18

Guy Fawkes

Trapp

r. Thoma

, Fra

iss Jane, 2

Hood,

t, Geo

llowe'en in, 197;

horn i

r water

New Year cere

, 126-7, 12

-2, 257, 33

ire, pyram

New Ye

r, Dr

nay,

Frau,

ar" in, 152; Mar

pot in

holas i

as's Day

, 272

' Day, 127, 30

akes,

, boar's h

dance

al, 200; hobby-horse, hodeni

t. Stephen's

son,

St., his

Leigh,

ns, J.

Latin,

"Yule hos

Prof. S

ci jubi

purification, 183

arols in, 69-70; All

n customs

slaughter

f the wren

cents' Da

any i

in, 36-42, 67; presepi

drama in,

s' in, 1

mas in

as log

Lucia

fare in, 2

any i

272,

a Todi, 36

t., Gosp

e, St

Christmas a

ngelist, his D

n, Lio

, Richa

n, Be

buk,

the Apo

app,

festival, 24, 165, 167-71, 200

o New Y

ntzaroi

wiegen

he Bean,

ng-bun

ng, K.

erboc

bauf

ln?cht

precht, 2

re

pus,

re, Epiph

rof. K.

nnoye

, Hallowe'

s poetry, 31-4

r. J. C.,

ing, 215,

, Mrs.,

ne, Luc

us, 16

, Pope,

ristmas

the dead in, 195; Ne

oms. See

Christmas

remonies in, 103; Italian

n, under Pu

hristmas

hop in,

r in, 3

yor's d

f Misr

ke customs i

her festival

an,

y Fawkes D

51, 67-9, 8

Martin,

s, Candle

ve in, 217; New Year's

ntzaroi

lay in

any i

Claud

97-8,

, 128-9, 151-3; as p

ic,

nging in, 99; Hollanti

deree

f the wren

a,

, W., 252

te of Na

, "pastora

of Br

I., P

resco, Countess

tival, 173, 182, 200, 202-3;

nfires

and his relation to St. Ni

-6, 199-202, 206, 219, 230-2

-9; the three Chri

Martinm

us, Ab

ristmas dr

elmas

phany play

ton

-pies

singe

e los Reyes

oe, 272

, Frédé

hra

nicht

m and Chri

hel, Epiphan

hristmas log

, Lady

, Will

dancers

De fructu

' plays

nal Museum at, 107-8;

hen's Da

ill

relation to ri

us, 111,

ari at, 112; pr

s plays

any a

Invicti,

e, 24, 167-71, 276-7; opposed

eltic, 25, 171

v,

ade a fast,

to January 1, 17

ven out, 17

and other custo

, 168-71

connecte

Council

to Martinmas, 173, 207-8, 277

ors, 21

tival,

tmas Eve

he name, 22; the

ging" in, 151; Inno

ny in,

rine's and St. Andrew's Day

rland, ho

tablished in, 21; "s

n Yule festi

masks i

e superstiti

ndles i

ker

customs in, 196; Christmas c

, Epiphan

oms with,

" Gre

sacred

ristmas play

F. de

Yule Boa

b, 199

f Weisse

boars he

Mr. F. H

cae

in, 98; All Sou

rine's Da

as-tree

ear i

Fools i

Fran?oi

r, étie

Dr. Kar

rin, A

te, 206

181, 24

un,

St. Catherin

ian Cale

erar

Advent mumm

ny,

Monda

udding

gai

r" in, 152; pupp

lves i

s straw

s wafers

, 231, 2

Kalends, 168-71, 276-7;

tinmas

holas's Da

as, 183, 2

and other se

iphan

io. Se

hetae

on Christmas, 27, 70-8, 1

istmas drama in, 141, 15

in,

enti

-plays

feast of the

ude towards Christmas

mids

lossoming t

host,"

stmas log cu

hodening

chte, 2

John, 189,

's Day at, 212; Yu

emas

stmas log cu

Richa

d in, 20-1; pagan winter f

and customs in, 9

New Year q

i, Chri

ous plays at,

r" in, 152; Christ

w's Eve i

s songs

fare in,

ar in,

any i

emonies in, 104, 246

Eve in,

rstitions

fare in,

s games

rs in

ear i

oly

f, 174-8; connected w

199, 283-7, 29

ristmas ki

in, 1

a della Val

Klau

ggiore, Rome,

24, 113, 165

ller

himmelreiter, 1

ival, 223-4. See

arols in, 70; Hallowe

eaten i

foot" i

r customs in,

mas in

s, Coel

nces,

Matil

mas customs o

eare, 2

istmas drama, 12

s in, 192-3; Guy Fawk

uperstitions

s Brand

corations in

" in,

lly fed at Ch

dancers

ear i

emas

ss in, 98; Christma

ocession at

s plays

ls' Eve

mas in

a's Eve

nts i

s candle

, Mr. F.

, Mrs. A

el in, 200; Mar

as Eve

ally fed at C

ristmas songs and custom

ia, Crivoscia,

ertson, 164-5

hire wass

cakes

ica, Chris

well,

eaten,

try in, 65-7; Midnig

rib i

ama in, 128,

n in,

ny in,

voge

uring Twelv

St. Clement's

inging,

a," 12

his festival,

ns, De

"Surv

ly Christmas-t

e, 168

Philip,

Old and

aiss in, 201;

n's win

festival of, 23; Yule n

, 182, 198

so

hunting in, 214;

fruit-tre

lzm?rte in

ervice in, 99; "sta

masks i

a's Day

e superstiti

log i

dles in,

-trees in

traw i

presents

ad eaten

s in,

's Day in,

t's Day"

urne,

rificial ani

holas in, 218-9; Chr

at Chris

nce, 294

rabend,

us, 2

Nahu

ler

"first-foot

t, 99; St. Cleme

en, Gerh

llian

Year, 171-3

of Ce

Mr. N.

., his fes

assin

, Mr. Ed

k, 2

5, 110, 169, 17

erers

"War and P

Gubb

ast of the

ism,

ncil of, 2

plays,

254, 269-71; floweri

n symbol

Epiphan

Christmas

hristmas E

adour

cradle-roc

hristmas l

of St.

ight. See

festal tide, 21, 239;

al visitor

Dr. E.

Katha

Mass in, 97; the

rocking

s drama

inging"

s in, 19

n?chte

holas i

cia in

Eve in,

a in,

h fruit-tre

pie in,

en's Day

n's Day

any i

val i

ion candl

J. L.

, "breast-s

nta Klaus in, 220

dom

, H.,

elso, J

s, 215-

n, Hen

ope de,

ion-cul

artinmas i

l-cup

opeque

ins, All Soul

s carols in, 69

kes in,

en in, 1

i Llwyd"

r" carol

s footba

t. Nicholas

bowl, 19

New Yea

Isaac

deas about

origin of t

olves

, Char

rck, Dr.

St. Thomas's

stoms, 207-

hunt,"

4; St. John's and S

hounds

, Geor

, 206, 208

n at folk-festivals, 178, 301,

ent's and St. Cath

Clement's Day in,

, Holy Th

unting

iss I. A

hounds

tletoe at, 273; B

ays, 12

the crib in, 118; frumenty, al

bird"

t. Marti

n of the na

Boar

80, 245, 25

ias, P

TNO

of the small numerals i

merals are enclosed in {curly brackets}, so

al of Christmas took its rise. The relation of the orthodox creed to historical fact need not concern us here, nor need we for the

ery minute, cautious, and balanced study of both arguments is to be found in Professor Kirsopp Lake's article on Christmas in Hastings's "Encyclop?dia of Religion and Ethics,"?{8} and a short article was contributed by the same w

says 354, D

upon it in gold in five places?-the forehead, the hands, and the knees. This image was carried seven times round the central hall of the temple with flute-playing, drumming, and hymns, and then taken back to the underground chamber. In explanation of these strange actions it was said: "To-day, at this hour, hath Kore (the Maiden) borne the ?on."?{15} Can there be a connection between this festival and the El

paratively high morality, its doctrine of an Intercessor and Redeemer, and its vivid belief

tion. He, however, "would not venture to say, in regard to the 25th of December, that the coincidence of the Sol novus exercised no direct or indirect influence on the ecclesiastical decision arrived at in regard to the matter."?{25} Professor Lake also, in his article in Hastings's "Encyclop?dia," seeks to account for the selection of December 25 without any deliberate competition with the Natalis

r. Hirn finds a solitary anticipation of the Franciscan treatment of the Nati

Ancient and Modern"

s Ancient and Modern

1

rejo

n, with rap

elu

h's Mo

ly maiden

ty w

the Cou

tar, he do

of ma

who knows

r whose p

th n

"The English H

1

Christmas a

nsion hear

it w

drain his

irst will t

I a

I bid you

ho will not sa

tion by

buted to Jacopone. Many of the poems in Tresatti's edition, from which

1

look upo

ng in

ir arms op

lap t

cks him by

him as

paps unto

s lips a

*

left hand

nd hushe

h holy

d her

ngels al

and caro

selets swe

love th

in "The Renaissance in Italy. Italian

verent, timid and shy round the little baby Prince of the Elect who lies naked among the prickly hay.... The Divine Verb, which is highest kn

Lee in "Renaissance Fan

1

earth an

our vess

g and

g the lit

Him of

nd drink.

e tha

at your K

ow. I

full to

and all

all env

Anne Macdonell, in "S

1

auty stood

ger, blest

little One

most soul'

ervid ju

th ecstasy

ion by J.

1

ss Rose i

rom a te

seers' fo

promise

t bud unfo

cold, col

he dark

which I a

f Isai

s sweet ro

, pures

r God's great

ed Babe s

cold wint

Winkworth, "Chris

n England for Neale's carol,

b He was laid. There stood an ass and an ox which breathed over the

uck the little one up, or the cold and the wind will give Him no rest. Now we must take our leave, O divine Ch

eyes, the rest of Him is white as chalk. His pretty hands are right tender and delicate, I touched Him carefully. Then He gave me a smile and a deep sigh too. If

of Bethlehem: "Jhesu es thy name. A! A! that wondryrfull name! A! that delittabyll name! This es the name that es above all names.... I yede [went] abowte be Covaytyse of riches and I fand noghte Jhesu. I satt in

hbourhood all came up. Never had they seen such a sight, and they suddenly began to bark. The shepherds under the straw were sleeping like logs: when they heard the sound

f Nazareth is content with the hay. He rests between two animals who warm Him from the cold, He who remedies our ills with His great power; His kingdom and seigniory are the world and the calm hea

in the cradle. In Bethlehem they touch fire, from the porch the flame issues; it is a star of heaven which has fallen into the straw. I am a poor gipsy who come hither from Egypt, and bring to Go

2

sleep, dear

Div

hild, in sl

mine In

en's

litte

race as l

eyelids, O

past m

the Lord,

, O reg

the

oy I

tial, meek

weep, my

inds t

s't the l

y, O P

my

Savio

I press a

Countess Marti

f Old Carols,"?{26} a collection of the words and music of Christmas songs in many languages?-English,

2

rom heave

wells that

tidings tr

of them s

you is bor

eek and v

bairn, beni

ice, baith he

life, stan

ane crib of

that, so gu

t, Goddis S

t made all

ou now bec

hay and st

asses, oxe

eart, young

y cradle i

rock Thee i

mair from

praise Thee

sweet unto

f my heart

t richt Balu

3

d be Thou,

an born, t

made a me

more cause

eley

ed Son of

full poo

flesh and ou

that everl

eley

heaven and ea

hath our he

made He Himse

h Lord and K

eyson.

3

rt this nig

I h

and

t angel

n,' their choi

the

ryw

joy is

ce from yon

and s

ent

om woe a

e, from all d

are

you

urely gi

iour, let m

Tho

e to

not behi

, my heart T

m I

hy b

id Thou fil

3

ens! rejoice ye w

to the Saviour,

s, gi

man hath

o lost one

*

y! what grace in

who of old wert t

will

d I follo

y wondrous

l! let me Thy gl

be born, in mine i

e ab

with The

e-fountain is

F. Sidgwick in one of his charming "Watergate Booklets" under the tit

is philosophical rather than devotional, and

ld be fasting days; and at the close of the sixth century Rome, under Gregory the Great, adopted the rule of the four Sundays in Advent. In the next century it became prevalent in the West. In the Greek Church, forty days of fasting are observed before Christmas; this c

dral a Christmas candlestick of silver-gilt, on the base of

dear aunt, will I help thee to rock thy Child." (Note the curious w

the Child: sweet little Jesu! sweet little Jesu!... Let us greet His little hands and feet, His littl

ion a strange ceremony that takes place at Messina in the dead of night; at two o'clock on Christmas morn

owing the Octave, if the O

ld be sought rather in anthropomorphic representations of the spirits of vegetation, and that they

rmances:?-at Tintinhull for instance in 1451 and at Dublin in 1528, while at Aberdeen a processional "Nativity" was performed at

Lod

] O

Sca

Hous of har

] D

Dar

] B

Wonde

Wor

She

] W

Cri

Overr

Depri

] C

ong in l

Wiz

] S

Noble

Cur

War

Sor

Grows

Pro

] N

] C

] B

] H

] F

] H

tion with that town is, to say the least, highly doubtful. It opens with a prologue by the prophet Isaiah, and in a small space presents the events connected with the Incarnation from

7

there is. Everything

allen to-day; are the ang

y are

n from

thing; 'twould brea

7

no lodging? Must Thou b

waddling-clothes! Come,

et up; wrap Him

ake some broth if Thy mother can cook it?-put some dripping in, and 'twill be g

7

ever, my little dear; when th

keep th

fine and

into service when

songs we have already considered, was

as example is given by Signor D'Ancona i

y Christian writers found a Scriptural sanction for them in two passages in the prophets: Isaiah i. 3, "The ox knoweth his o

figures for use in presepi (see p. 113). One cannot help being reminded too, though probably there is no direct connection, of the biscuits in

n held in the ninth century, but it appears to have taken place not in December but about the middle of Janua

tivity. Bilfinger holds that there is no evidence either of a November beginning-of-winter festival or of an ancient Teutonic midwinter feast. Bilfinger's is the most systematic of existing treatises on Christmas origins, but the considerations brought forward in Tille's "Yule and Christmas" in favour of the N

estermarck gives a particularly full and interesting description of Moroccan customs of this sort. He describes at length vari

e a woman.... Man is born of woman, reared of woman. When he passes to manhood, he ceases to be a woman-thing, and begins to exercise functions other and alien. That moment is one naturally of extreme pe

calendar is gaining ground, and some of the associations of the old New Year's Day are being transferred to January 1, the Roman date. "In Wales this must have been decided

are details about cakes and other doles given to the poor at funera

91-2 and 235-6

g. This is perhaps connected with the ancient Celtic and Teutonic habit of reckoning by nights instead of days?-a trace of this is left in our word "fortnight"?-but i

vember carnival at Hampstead, and perhaps the 1

t Martinmas, drink wine

nmas is especially a children's feast. In the sweetshops are sold little sugar images of the saint on horseback wit

drew's Mass win

the Scotch eating of sowans in bed o

ucked out her own eyes when their beauty caused a pr

te building to which everyone repairs on Christmas Eve, but which

phany Twelfth Day, in Germany it is generally called Thirteenth; in Belgium and Holland it is Thirteenth; in Sweden it varies, but is usually Thirteenth. Sometimes then the

J. C. Lawson in his "Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion." He distinguishes two classes of Kallikantzaroi, one of which he identifies with ordinar

rned night and day in his honour. The neighbours of the Slavs, the Lithuanians, had the same god, whom they called Perkunas; they too kept up a perpetual oak-fire in his honour, an

Kind

entence may be compared with the Danish St

thought to open at midnight, and drop off about an hour afterwards. A piece of thorn gathered at this hour brings luck, if kept for the rest of the year."

for the "Haxey hood," descr

"a portable May-pole, a branch hung about with wool, acorns,

follows, of course, that they w

white berries. Dr. Frazer has sought to explain this name by the theory that in a roundabout way the sun's golden fire was b

n St. Andrew's Eve, and in the morning find them filled with apples and nuts?{64} ?-a paral

do than the ovens in

n ancient account book is tersely su

.

to the pr

to the min

to the c

out a thorn-bush decked with streamers of coloured pa

dramatic form, to be mimetic, whether re-enacting some past event or pre-doing something with magical intent to produce it.?{10} The

uding a quarrel, a death, and a miraculous restoration to life?-evidently originating in magical ritual intende

n New Year is given by Sir John Rhys. Certain methods of prognostication described by him are practised by som

See

y purse, and

s practised at the Epiphany belong in

for great festivals in ge

, with the mistletoe. Early on New Year's Day it "is carried to the earliest sown wheat field, where a large fire is lighted, of straw and bushes, in which it is burnt. While it is burning, a new one is made; in ma