first invoking the aid of the demon who lived at the bottom of the lake. (Jones's Broad Ocean.) set the bird free in the church. At Mirabeau the priest blessed the bird. If the men failed to catch a wren and the women succeeded in doing so, the women had the right to mock faces with mud and soot, if they caught them. and insult the men, and to blacken their (Frazer's The Golden Bough.) CHRISTMAS AND THE LAW. "The 25th of December, being the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, commonly called Christmas Day," is one of the old four legal quarter days; and don't you forget it if ever you are a householder in England. "There was a singular custom used for a long time by the fishermen of this place. [Folkstone.] They chose eight of the largest and best whitings out of every boat, when they came home from that fishery, and sold them apart from the rest, and out of the money arising from them they made a feast every Christmas Eve which they called a Rumbald. The master of each boat provided this feast for his own company. These whitings, which are of a very large size, and are sold all around the country, as far as Canterbury, are called Rumbald whitings. This custom (which is now left off, though many of the inhabitants still meet socially The inclination of English folk, for cen-on a Christmas Eve and call it Rumbald turies, to celebrate their "joyful'st feast" Night) might have been anciently instituted with mad "frollick" and tumultuous sport,— in honor of St. Rumbald, and at first designed as an offering to him for his protection during the fishery." (Hasted, History of Kent.) CHRISTMAS AND THE WREN. In the Isle of Man last century the custom [of killing the wren] was observed on Christmas Eve or rather on Christmas morning. On the 24th of December, towards evening all the servants got a holiday; they did not go to bed all night but rambled about till the bells rang in all the churches at midnight. When prayers were over, they went to hunt the wren, and having found one of these birds they killed it and fastened it to the top Of a long pole with its wings extended. Thus they carried it in procession to every house. "We hunted the wren for Robin the Bobbin, After going from house to house and collecting all the money they could, they laid the wren on a bier with the utmost solemnity, singing dirges over her in the Manks language, which they call her knell; after which Christmas begins. After the burial the company outside the church-yard formed a circle and danced to music. At Entraigues in France men and boys used to hunt the wren on Christmas Eve. When they caught one alive they presented it to the priest who after the midnight mass, to SERVIENS AD LEGEM. CHRISTMAS RESTRAINTS. "Dance and sing and make good cheer, comes out as clearly as in almost any way in During the reign of Henry V, in 1417, the following record was made; here translated from the Latin. "It was ordered that proclamation shall be made upon the morrow that no one shall go at night with a vised or false face. Also, that there shall be no mummying during the Feast of our Lord's Nativity. Also, that every Alderman shall have sufficient guard in his Ward during the same Feast. Also, that all Gates of the City shall be closed every night at nine of the clock and opened at five of the clock in the morning." (p. 658.) The even more stringent proclamation for the next year, 1418, is quite worth transcribing for its quaint English. "The Mair and Aldermen charged on the Kynges by half, and this Cite, that no manere persone of what estate, degre, condicioun that eure he be, duryng this holy tyme of Cristemas be so hardy in wys as to walk by nyght in any manere mommyng, plays, enterludes, or eny other disgisynges with any feyned berdis, peynted visors, difformyd or colowr'd visages in any wyse, upon peyne of enprisonement of ther bodyes, and macyng fyne after the discrecioun of the Mair and surreptitiously evaded the orders, and Aldremen; outake that hit be laful to eche showed their displeasure against those who persoune for to be honestly mery as he can obeyed. In a letter of that year, printed in within his owne hous dwellyng. And more the Hist. Com. Reports, the writer says he ouere thei charge on the Kynges byhalf, and "heard of no more than two who did so the Cite that eche honest persone dwellyng [opened their shops], and one of them had in any bye strete or lane of this Cittee, hang better have given £50, his wares were so out of her hous eche night duryng this dirty'd;" and readers of Evelyn's Diary solempne Feste, a lanterne with a candell know how opportunities were found for serther in to breune as long as hit may endure, mons to be preached and the Sacrament to up payne to pay IV d. to the Chaumbre at be administered. M. C. L. eche tyme that hit failleth" (p. 669.) New York City. The following year it was recorded (in Latin) that "since many who in the service of reverend men had a sufficiency of remuneration, yet by perverse custom were accustomed to beg like paupers and threatened those who refused and promised to conceal unlawful doings if presents were given, it was ordered by Wm. Sevenok, Mayor, and the Aldermen, that no varlet or other sergeant of the mayor, sheriffs or city should beg of any person whatever, any moneys under color of an oblation (Christmas box) or any other way." Two centuries later under Puritan influence, everything was done not only to restrain but to abolish all observation of the day, whether by way of religious ceremony or of festivity, but the people every where rebelled. In 1645 both Houses of Parliament and the Westminster Assembly of Divines continued their sessions as on any ordinary day, but the shop-keepers refused to keep open their places of business, despite the intentions of the legislators and the remonstrances of the press. The London Intelligencer, in its issue for Christmas week, exhorted all good citizens to keep open their shops and to compel the attendance of their apprentices. If the latter wanted a holiday "let them keep the fifth of November and other days of that nature." In 1646 the efforts to make the day an ordinary secular one were equally vain. Most shops were closed and many sermons were preached, while porters and apprentices put up Christmas decorations in many public places, despite the city officials, whose crusade against these evergreens exposed them to much ridicule, and created a tumult. Even after the strict order of the House of Commons in 1652, prohibiting any observance of Christmas, the people openly or In "The Vindication of Christmas, or his Twelve Yeares Observations upon the Times," Lond. 1653, Old Christmas thus describes the former festivites of the season: "After dinner we arose from the Boord and sate by the Fire, where the Harth was imbrodered all over with roasted Apples, piping hot, expecting a Bole of Ale for a cooler, which immediately was transformed into Lamb wool. After which we discoursed merrily, without either prophaness or obscenity; some went to Cards; others sang Carol sand pleasant Songs (suitable to the times); then the poor labouring Hinds and Maid-servants, with the Plow-boys, went nimbly to dancing; the poor toyling wretches being glad of my Company, because they had little or no sport at all till I came amongst them; and therefore they skipped and leaped for joy, singing a Carol to the tune of Hey, "Let's dance and sing, and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.' "Thus at active Games and Gambols of Hot-cockles, Shooing the Wild Mare, and the like harmless sports, some part of the tedious night was spent, and early in the morning I took my leave of them, promising they should have my presence again the next 25th of December." BOXING DAY IN ENGLAND. The day after Christmas is known as "Boxing day." It is simply a day for the giving and receiving of Christmas boxes, in other words, Christmas presents. This custom, however, is not nearly so general there as here. In fact, the exchange of gifts by friends is scarcely a custom at all. But woe betide the housekeeper who should forget her servants on that day or who should be so stingy as to withhold a Christmas bounty from the waterman, the dustman, the lamplighter, or the postman. It will be well, moreover, for the shopkeeper to remember his customers with some Christmas box, for otherwise he is likely to lose them. (Henry Tuckley, in Chautauquan.) "CHRISTMAS" IN GEOGRAPHY. Vasco da Gama sighted the headland at the entrance to the bay which now forms the port of Durban in Africa on Christmas day 1497 and named the country Terra Natalis; whence the present province of Natal. Another Natal is the capital of the Prov. of Rio Grande do Norte, apparently due to some analogous reason. There is yet a third Natal on the N. W. coast of Sumatra, which is also the name of the river at the mouth of which it stands. I (perhaps wrongly) suspect it to be a native name, natal or natar); some correspondent may set the matter right. Natividad smacks of Spanish and is naturally found off Lower California. The Banc de la Nativite lies off Haiti and Nativitas belongs to Flaxcala in Central Mexico. There are several Noës in France and tracing the name to the old French Noe is very tempting, but the present writer lacks any historical evidence that might justify the suggestion. Noel and Noel Shore in Hants Co. Nova Scotia, could hardly deny their origin if they tried. mas Island in the little Bras d'Or, Cape Bre- HOW BETHLEHEM PA., WAS NAMED. On Christmas Eve, 1741, Count Ludwig Zinzendorf and a few brethren met in the rude log hut on the brow of the hill above the famous Bethlehem Spring and celebrated the Lord's Supper, and the vigils of Christmas were Eve held for the first time. It was then that the incident of the naming of Bethlehem occurred. According to the old records, about the ninth hour of the night Zinzendorf (who was both Count and Bishop) after the Lord's Supper had been celebrated, passed from the room into the stable, which adjoined, singing several stanzas of the German hymn CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS. No ghosts can appear on Christmas eve and people born on Christmas eve labor throughout life under the disadvantage of not being capable of seeing ghosts; of course the best thing they can do is to always take their dog with them when they go out nights, for the dog enjoys that faculty regardless (it this connection, German peasants beat on would seem) of the date of his birth. the house-doors with mallets to symbolize the anxiety of the imprisoned spirits to hear G. H. For the following I am indebted to Lippin- the joyful tidings of the Nativity. cott's Gazetteer: Christmas Cataracts in the river Berbice British Guiana; Christmas Harbor, Verguelen Land, Indian Ocean; Christmas Island, a large atoll in the Pacific; another Christ In On Christmas Eve German peasants used to tie fruit trees together with straw ropes to make them bear fruit, saying that the trees were thus married. (Frazer's The Golden Bough.) In the district of Bruck in Styria, the grains of the wreath of the "Corn Mother" is rubbed out of it on Easter Eve by a seven-year-old girl and scattered among the young corn; and at Christmas the straw of it is placed in the manger to make the cattle thrive. (W. Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen.) In Sweden and Denmark at Yule (Christmas) it is the custom to bake a loaf in the form of a boar-pig. This is called the Yule Boar. The corn of the last sheaf is often used to make it. All through Yule, the Yule Boar stands on the table. The Yule straw, of which Swedish peasants make various uses, comes in part at least, from the sheaf out of which the Yule Boar is made. The Yule straw is long rye straw, a portion of which is always set apart for this season. It is strewn over the floor at Christmas and the peasants attribute many virtues to it. For example, they think that some of it scattered over the ground will make a barren field productive. Again the peasant at Christmas seats himself on a log; his eldest son or daughter, or the mother herself, if the children are not old enough, places a wisp of the Yule straw on his knee. From this he draws out single straws, and throws them, one by one, up to the ceiling; and as many as lodge in the rafters so many will be the sheaves of rye he will have to thresh at harvest. Again it is only the Yule straw which may be used in binding the fruit trees as a charm to fertilize them. (Frazer's The Golden Bough.) "Croire qu'une Bûche, que l'on commence à mettre au feu la Veille de Noël (ce qui fait qu'elle est appellée le Trefoir, ou le tison de Noel) et que l'on continue d'y mettre quelque temps tous les Jours jusqu' aux Rois, peut garentir d'incendie ou de tonnerre toute l'année la Maison où elle est gardée sous un lit, ou en quelqu'autre endroit qu'elle peut empecher que ceux quiy demeurent, n'ayent les Mules aux talons en hyver; qu'elle peut guerir les Bestiaux de quantité de maladies; qu'elle peut delivrer les Vaches prestes à veler, en faisant tremper un morceau dans leur breuvage, enfin qu'elle peut preserver les Bleds de la rouille en jettant de sa cendre dans les Champs." Traité des Superstitions, par M. Jean Baptiste Thiers, 1679. BRAND'S ANTIQUITIES. John Herolt, a Dominican friar, in a ser "All you who to feasting and mirth are inclined PRINCESS LIEVEN'S CHRISTMAS TREE. (See Vol. VIII, p. 54.) "On Christmas day (1829) the Princess got up a little fête such as is customary all over Germany. Three trees in great pots were put upon a long table covered with pink linen; each tree was illuminated with three circular tiers of colored wax candles-blue, green, red and white. Before each tree was displayed a quantity of toys, gloves, pockethandkerchiefs, work boxes, books and various articles presents made to the owner of the tree. It was very pretty.' (Greville's "Memoirs." Reigns of George IV, and William IV. Vol. I, p. 259.) Prince Lieven was Russian ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1812 to 1834. The "fête" occurred in the last year of the reign of King George IV. ΜΕΝΟΝΑ. This instance of the survival of a custom common in the early Christian Church belongs probably to the middle of the seventeenth century, as Aubrey was born in 1627. Lady Louisa Tenison saw dancing before the altar in the Cathedral of Seville, Spain, as late as the middle of our own nineteenth century as she records in her "Castile and Andalusia." (London, 1853.) See Dr. Herder's De Saltationibus Ecclesia, C. H. Brömel's Die Fest-Tanzen der Ersten Christen. Jena, 1701. ΜΕΝΟΝΑ. WHAT THE ANIMALS OF ICELAND SAY ON CHRISTMAS MORN. In Iceland people believe that the cock crows out "Christus natus est" (Christ' is born); the ox bellows "Ubi" (where)? and falls on his knees, the lamb bleats "Bethlem;" the ass brays "Eamus" (let us go), and the bees hum the hundreth psalm. (The Phila. Record.) HOLLY AND IVY AT CHRISTMAS. A curious gypsy legend assigns a strange. reason for the use of the bay, laurel, ivy and holly in Christmas decorations. It says, "The ivy and holly never told where the Saviour was hiding, and so they live and look green all the year round; but the ash, like the oak, betrayed him, and have therefore to remain dead through the winter.” (Harrisburg (Pa.) Call.) CHRISTMAS AND HUNTING IN THE OLD TIMES. Christmas day, in the olden times ended the "time of grace" for at least three important heads of game. The fox and the wolf might be hunted "from the Nativity to the annunciation of our lady" and the boar "from the nativity to the purification of our Lady.' NEMROD. |