In the volume of “ELIA,” an excellent paper begins with “Every man hath
two birthdays: two days, at least, in every year, which set him upon
revolving the lapse of time, as it affects his mortal duration. The one
is that which in an especial manner he termeth _his_. In the gradual
desuetude of old observances, this custom of solemnizing our proper
birthday hath nearly passed away, or is left to children, who reflect
nothing at all about the matter, nor understand any thing beyond the
cake and orange. But the birth of a new year is of an interest too wide
to be pretermitted by king or cobbler. No one ever regarded the First of
January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time,
and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.
“Of all sound of all bells--(bells, the music nighest bordering upon
heaven)--most solemn and touching is the peal which rings out the old
year. I never hear it without a gathering-up of my mind to a
concentration of all the images that have been diffused over the past
twelvemonth; all I have done or suffered, performed, or neglected--in
that regretted time. I begin to know its worth as when a person dies. It
takes a personal colour; nor was it a poetical flight in a contemporary,
when he exclaimed,
‘I saw the skirts of the departing year.’
“The elders with whom I was brought up, were of a character not likely
to let slip the sacred observance of any old institution; and the
ringing out of the old year was kept by them with circumstances of
peculiar ceremony. In those days the sound of those midnight chimes,
though it seemed to raise hilarity in all around me, never failed to
bring a train of pensive imagery into my fancy. Yet I then scarce
conceived what it meant, or thought of it as a reckoning that concerned
me. Not childhood alone, but the young man till thirty, never feels
practically that he is mortal.”
Ringing out the old and ringing in the new year, with “a merry new year!
a happy new year to you!” on new year’s day, were greetings that moved
sceptred pride, and humble labour, to smiles and kind feelings in
former times; and why should they be unfashionable in our own?
Dr. Drake observes, in “Shakspeare and his Times,” that the ushering in
of the new year, or new year’s tide, with rejoicings, presents, and good
wishes, was a custom observed, during the 16th century, with great
regularity and parade, and was as cordially celebrated in the court of
the prince as in the cottage of the peasant.
The Rev. T. D. Fosbroke, in his valuable “Encyclopedia of Antiquities,”
adduces various authorities to show that congratulations, presents, and
visits were made by the Romans on this day. The origin, he says, is
ascribed to Romulus and Tatius, and that the usual presents were figs
and dates, covered with leaf-gold, and sent by clients to patrons,
accompanied with a piece of money, which was expended to purchase the
statues of deities. He mentions an amphora (a jar) which still exists,
with an inscription denoting that it was a new year’s present from the
potters to their patroness. He also instances from Count Caylus a piece
of Roman pottery, with an inscription wishing “a happy new year to you;”
another, where a person wishes it to himself and his son; and three
medallions, with the laurel leaf, fig, and date; one, of Commodus;
another, of Victory; and a third, Janus, standing in a temple, with an
inscription, wishing a happy new year to the emperor. New year’s gifts
were continued under the Roman emperors until they were prohibited by
Claudius. Yet in the early ages of the church the Christian emperors
received them; nor did they wholly cease, although condemned by
ecclesiastical councils on account of the pagan ceremonies at their
presentation.
The Druids were accustomed on certain days to cut the sacred misletoe
with a golden knife, in a forest dedicated to the gods, and to
distribute its branches with much ceremony as new year’s gifts among the
people.
The late Rev. John Brand, in his “Popular Antiquities” edited by Mr.
Ellis observes from Bishop Stillingfleet, that among the Saxons of the
North, the festival of the new year was observed with more than ordinary
jollity and feasting, and by sending new year’s gifts to one another.
Mr. Fosbroke notices the continuation of the Roman practice during the
middle ages; and that our kings, and the nobility especially,
interchanged presents. Mr. Ellis quotes Matthew Paris, who appears to
show that Henry III _extorted_ new year’s gifts; and he cites from a
MS. of the public revenue, anno 5, Edward VI. an entry of “rewards given
on new year’s day to the king’s officers and servants in ordinary
155_l._ 5_s._, and to their servants that present the king’s majestie
with new year’s gifts.” An orange stuck with cloves seems, by reference
to Mr. Fosbroke and our early authors, to have been a popular new year’s
gift. Mr. Ellis suggests, that the use of this present may be
ascertained from a remark by old Lupton, that the flavour of wine is
improved, and the wine itself preserved from mouldiness, by an orange or
lemon stuck with cloves being hung within the vessel so as not to touch
the liquor.
Thomas Naogeorgus, in “The Popish Kingdome,” a Latin poem written in
1553, and Englished by Barnabe Googe, after remarking on days of the old
year, urges this recollection:
The next to this is Newe yeares day whereon to every frende,
They costly presents in do bring, and Newe yeares giftes do sende,
These giftes the husband gives his wife, and father eke the childe,
And maister on his men bestowes the like, with favour milde.
Honest old Latimer, instead of presenting Henry VIII. with a purse of
gold, as was customary, for a new year’s gift, put into the king’s hand
a New Testament, with a leaf conspicuously doubled down at Hebrews xiii.
4, which, on reference, will be found to have been worthy of all
acceptation, though not perhaps well accepted. Dr. Drake is of opinion
that the wardrobe and jewellery of queen Elizabeth were principally
supported by these annual contributions on new year’s day. He cites
lists of the new year’s gifts presented to her, from the original rolls
published in her Progresses by Mr. Nichols; and from these it appears
that the greatest part, if not all the peers and peeresses of the realm,
all the bishops, the chief officers of state, and several of the queen’s
household servants, even down to her apothecaries, master cook, serjeant
of the pastry, &c. gave new year’s gifts to her majesty; consisting, in
general, either of a sum of money, or jewels, trinkets, wearing apparel,
&c. The largest sum given by any of the temporal lords was 20_l._; but
the archbishop of Canterbury gave 40_l._, the archbishop of York 30_l._,
and the other spiritual lords 20_l._ and 10_l._; many of the temporal
lords and great officers, and most of the peeresses, gave rich gowns,
petticoats, shifts, silk stockings, garters, sweet-bags, doublets,
mantles embroidered with precious stones, looking-glasses, fans,
bracelets, caskets studded with jewels, and other costly trinkets. Sir
Gilbert Dethick, garter king at arms, gave a book of the States in
William the Conqueror’s time; Absolon, the master of the Savoy, gave a
Bible covered with cloth of gold, garnished with silver gilt, and plates
of the royal arms; the queen’s physician presented her with a box of
foreign sweetmeats; another physician presented a pot of green ginger,
and a pot of orange flowers; her apothecaries gave her a box of
lozenges, a box of ginger candy, a box of green ginger, and pots of
other conserves. Mrs. Blanch a Parry gave her majesty a little gold
comfit-box and spoon; Mrs. Morgan gave a box of cherries, and one of
apricots. The queen’s master cook and her serjeant of the pastry,
presented her with various confectionary and preserves. Putrino, an
Italian, gave her two pictures; Ambrose Lupo gave her a box of lute
strings, and a glass of sweet water, each of three other Italians
presented her with a pair of sweet gloves; a cutler gave her a meat
knife having a fan haft of bone, with a conceit in it; Jeromy Bassano
gave two drinking glasses; and Smyth, the dustman, presented her majesty
with two bolts of cambrick. Some of these gifts to Elizabeth call to
recollection the tempting articles which Autolycus, in the “Winter’s
Tale,” invites the country girls to buy: he enters singing,
Lawn, as white as driven snow;
Cypress, black as e’er was crow;
Gloves, as sweet as damask roses
Masks for faces, and for noses;
Bugle bracelet, necklace-amber,
Perfume for a lady’s chamber;
Golden quoifs, and stomachers,
For my lads to give their dears;
Pins, and poking-sticks of steel,
What maids lack from head to heel:
Come, buy of me, come: come buy, come buy;
Buy, lads, or else your lasses cry,
Come, buy, &c.
Dr. Drake says, that though Elizabeth made returns to the new year’s
gifts, in plate and other articles, yet she took sufficient care that
the balance should be in her own favour.
No. 4982, in the Catalogue for 1824, of Mr. Rodd, of Great
Newport-street, is a roll of vellum, ten feet long, containing the new
year’s gifts from king James I. to the persons whose names are therein
mentioned on the 1st of January 1605, with the new year’s gifts that his
majesty received the same day; the roll is signed by James himself and
certain officers of his household.
In a “Banquet of Jests, 1634,” 12mo. there is a pleasant story of
Archee, the king’s jester, who, having fooled many, was fooled himself.
Coming to a nobleman, upon new year’s day, to bid him good-morrow,
Archee received twenty pieces of gold; but, covetously desiring more, he
shook them in his hand, and said they were too light. The donor
answered: “I prithee, Archee, let me see them again, for there is one
amongst them I would be loth to part with:” Archee, expecting the sum to
be increased, returned the pieces to his lordship; who put them in his
pocket with this remark, “I once gave money into a fool’s hand, who had
not the wit to keep it.”
Pins were acceptable new year’s gifts to the ladies, instead of the
wooden skewers which they used till the end of the fifteenth century.
Sometimes they received a composition in money: and hence allowances for
their separate use is still denominated “pin-money.”
Gloves were customary new year’s gifts. They were more expensive than in
our times, and occasionally a money present was tendered instead: this
was called “glove-money.” Sir Thomas More, as lord chancellor, decreed
in favour of a Mrs. Croaker against the lord Arundel. On the following
new year’s day, in token of her gratitude, she presented sir Thomas with
a pair of gloves, containing forty angels. “It would be against good
manners,” said the chancellor, “to forsake a gentlewoman’s new year’s
gift, and I accept the gloves; their _lining_ you will be pleased
otherwise to bestow.”
Mr. Brand relates from a curious MS. in the British Museum, of the date
of 1560, that the boys of Eton school used on this day to play for
little new year’s gifts before and after supper; and also to make
verses, which they presented to the provost and masters, and to each
other: new year’s gifts of verses, however, were not peculiar to
schoolboys. A poet, the beauties of whose poetry are justly remarked to
be “of a kind which time has a tendency rather to hallow than to
injure,” Robert Herrick, presents us, in his Hesperides, with “a New
Year’s Gift sent to Sir Simon Steward.” He commences it merrily, and
goes on to call it
------------------------------- a jolly
Verse, crown’d with ivy and with holly;
That tells of winter’s tales and mirth,
That milk-maids make about the hearth;
Of Christmas’ sports, the wassail bowl,
That tost-up after fox-i’ th’ hole;
Of blind-man-buff, and of the care
That young men have to shoe the mare;
Of twelfth-tide cakes, of pease and beans,
Wherewith ye make those merry scenes:
Of crackling laurel, which fore-sounds
A plenteous harvest to your grounds
Of those, and such like things, for shift,
We send, _instead of New Year’s Gift_.
Read then, and when your faces shine
With buxom meat and cap’ring wine
Remember us in cups full crown’d
And let our city-health go round.
Then, as ye sit about your embers,
Call not to mind the fled Decembers
But think on these, that are t’appear
As daughters to the instant year;
And to the bagpipes all address
Till sleep take place of weariness.
And thus throughout, with Christmas plays,
Frolick the full twelve holidays.
Mr. Ellis, in a note on Brand, introduces a poetical new year’s gift in
Latin, from the stern Buchanan to the unhappy Mary of Scotland.
“New year’s gifts,” says Dr. Drake, “were given and received, with the
mutual expression of good wishes, and particularly that of a happy new
year. The compliment was sometimes paid at each other’s doors in the
form of a song; but more generally, especially in the north of England
and in Scotland, the house was entered very early in the morning, by
some young men and maidens selected for the purpose, who presented the
spiced bowl, and hailed you with the gratulations of the season.” To
this may be added, that it was formerly the custom in Scotland to _send_
new year’s gifts on new year’s eve; and on new year’s day to wish each
other a happy new year, and _ask_ for a new year’s gift. There is a
citation in Brand, from the “Statistical Account of Scotland,”
concerning new year’s gifts to servant maids by their masters; and it
mentions that “there is a large stone, about nine or ten feet high, and
four broad, placed upright in a plain, in the (Orkney) isle of North
Ronaldshay; but no tradition is preserved concerning it, whether erected
in memory of any signal event, or for the purpose of administering
justice, or for religious worship. The writer of this (the parish
priest) has seen fifty of the inhabitants assembled there, on the first
day of the year, dancing by moonlight, with no other music than their
own singing.”
In Mr. Stewart’s “Popular Superstitions of the Highlands,” there is some
account of the Candlemas bull, on new year’s eve, as introductory to the
new year. The term Candlemas, applied to this season, is supposed to
have originated in some old religious ceremonies performed by
candlelight. The Bull is a passing cloud, which Highland imagination
perverts into the form of that animal; as it rises or falls or takes
peculiar directions, of great significancy to the seers, so does it
prognosticate good or bad weather. The more northern nations anciently
assigned portentous qualities to the winds of new year’s eve. One of
their old legends in Brand may be thus versified--the last line eking
out the verse:
If New Year’s eve night-wind blow _south_,
It betokeneth warmth and growth;
If _west_, much milk, and fish in the sea;
If _north_, much cold, and storms there will be;
If _east_, the trees will bear much fruit
If _north-east_, flee it man and brute.
Mr. Stewart says, that as soon as night sets in it is the signal with
the Strathdown highlander for the suspension of his usual employment,
and he directs his attention to more agreeable callings. The men form
into bands with tethers and axes, and, shaping their course to the
juniper bushes, they return home laden with mighty loads, which are
arranged round the fire to-day till morning. A certain discreet person
is despatched to the _dead and living ford_ to draw a pitcher of water
in profound silence, without the vessel touching the ground, lest its
virtue should be destroyed, and on his return all retire to rest. Early
on new year’s morning the _Usque-Cashrichd_, or water from _the dead and
living ford_, is drank, as a potent charm, until next new year’s day,
against the spells of witchcraft, the malignity of evil eyes, and the
activity of all infernal agency. The qualified highlander then takes a
large brush, with which he profusely asperses the occupants of all beds;
from whom it is not unusual for him to receive ungrateful remonstrances
against ablution. This ended, and the doors and windows being thoroughly
closed, and all crevices stopped, he kindles piles of the collected
juniper, in the different apartments, till the vapour from the burning
branches condenses into opaque clouds, and coughing, sneezing, wheezing,
gasping, and other demonstrations of suffocation ensue. The operator,
aware that the more intense the “smuchdan,” the more propitious the
solemnity, disregards these indications, and continues, with streaming
eyes and averted head, to increase the fumigation, until in his own
defence he admits the air to recover the exhausted household and
himself. He then treats the horses, cattle, and other bestial stock in
the town with the same smothering, to keep them from harm throughout the
year. When the gude-wife gets up, and having ceased from coughing, has
gained sufficient strength to reach the bottle _dhu_, she administers
its comfort to the relief of the sufferers: laughter takes place of
complaint, all the family get up, wash their faces, and receive the
visits of their neighbours, who arrive full of gratulations peculiar to
the day. _Mu nase choil orst_, “My Candlemas bond upon you” is the
customary salutation, and means, in plain words, “You owe me a new
year’s gift.” A point of great emulation is, who shall salute the other
first; because the one who does so is entitled to a gift from the person
saluted. Breakfast, consisting of all procurable luxuries, is then
served, the neighbours not engaged are invited to partake, and the day
ends in festivity.
_Riding stang_, a custom that will be observed on hereafter, prevails in
some parts of England on new year’s day to the present hour. The “stang”
is a cowl-staff; the cowl is a water-vessel, borne by two persons on the
cowl-staff, which is a stout pole whereon the vessel hangs. “Where’s the
cowl-staff?” cries Ford’s wife, when she purposes to get Falstaff into a
large buck-basket, with two handles; the cowl-staff, or “stang,” is
produced, and, being passed through the handles, the fat knight is borne
off by two of Ford’s men. A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine, 1791,
says, that in Westmoreland and Cumberland, on the 1st of January,
multitudes assemble early in the morning with baskets and “stangs,” and
whoever does not join them, whether inhabitant or stranger, is
immediately mounted across the “stang,” and carried, shoulder height, to
the next public-house, where sixpence liberates the prisoner. Women are
seized in this way, and carried in baskets--the sex being privileged
from riding “stang,” in compliment, perhaps, to the use of side-saddles.
In the same part of the country, no one is allowed to work on new year’s
day, however industrious. Mr. Ellis shows that it was a new year’s day
custom in ancient Rome for tradesmen to work a little only, for luck’s
sake, that they might have constant business all the year after.
A communication in an English journal of January 1824 relates, that in
Paris on new year’s day, which is called _le jour d’étrennes_, parents
bestow portions on their children, brothers on their sisters, and
husbands make presents to their wives. Carriages may be seen rolling
through the streets with cargoes of _bon-bons_, _souvenirs_, and the
variety of _et cæteras_ with which little children and grown-up children
are bribed into good humour; and here and there pastrycooks are to be
met with, carrying upon boards enormous temples, pagodas, churches, and
playhouses, made of fine flour and sugar, and the embellishments which
render French pastry so inviting. But there is one street in Paris to
which a new year’s day is a whole year’s fortune--this is the _Rue des
Lombards_, where the wholesale confectioners reside; for in Paris every
trade and profession has its peculiar quarter. For several days
preceding the 1st of January, this street is completely blocked up by
carts and waggons laden with cases of sweetmeats for the provinces.
These are of every form and description which the most singular fancy
could imagine; bunches of carrots, green peas, boots and shoes, lobsters
and crabs, hats, books, musical instruments, gridirons, frying-pans, and
saucepans; all made of sugar, and coloured to imitate reality, and all
made with a hollow within to hold the _bon-bons_. The most prevailing
device is what is called a _cornet_, that is, a little cone ornamented
in different ways with a bag to draw over the large end, and close it
up. In these things, the prices of which vary from one franc (tenpence)
to fifty, the _bon-bons_ are presented by those who choose to be at the
expense of them, and by those who do not, they are only wrapped in a
piece of paper; but _bon-bons_ in some way or other must be presented.
It would not, perhaps, be an exaggeration to state that the amount
expended for presents on new year’s day in Paris, for sweetmeats alone,
exceeds 500,000 francs, or 20,000_l._ sterling. Jewellery is also sold
to a very large amount, and the fancy articles exported in the first
week in the year to England and other countries, is computed at
one-fourth of the sale during the twelve months. In Paris it is by no
means uncommon for a man of 8,000 or 10,000 francs a year to make
presents on new year’s day which cost him a fifteenth part of his
income. No person able to give must on this day pay a visit
empty-handed. Every body accepts, and every man gives according to the
means which he possesses. Females alone are excepted from the charge of
giving. A pretty woman, respectably connected, may reckon her new year’s
presents at something considerable. Gowns, jewellery, gloves, stockings,
and artificial flowers, fill her drawing-room; for in Paris it is a
custom to display all the gifts, in order to excite emulation, and to
obtain as much as possible. At the palace the new year’s day is a
complete _jour de fête_. Every branch of the royal family is then
expected to make handsome presents to the king. For the six months
preceding January 1824, the female branches were busily occupied in
preparing presents of their own manufacture, which would fill at least
two common-sized waggons. The duchess de Berri painted an entire room of
japanned pannels, to be set up in the palace; and the duchess of Orleans
prepared an elegant screen. An English gentleman who was admitted
suddenly into the presence of the duchess de Berri two months before,
found her, and three of her maids of honour, lying on the carpet,
painting the legs of a set of chairs, which were intended for the king.
The day commences with the Parisians, at an early hour, by the
interchange of their visits and _bon-bons_. The nearest relations are
visited first, until the furthest in blood have had their calls; then
friends and acquaintances. The conflict to anticipate each other’s
calls, occasions the most agreeable and whimsical scenes among these
proficients in polite attentions. In these visits, and in gossiping at
the confectioners’ shops, which are the great lounge for the occasion,
the morning of new year’s day is passed; a dinner is given by some
member of the family to all the rest, and the evening concludes, like
Christmas day, with cards, dancing, or any other amusement that may be
preferred. One of the chief attractions to a foreigner in Paris is the
exhibition, which opens there on new year’s day, of the finest specimens
of the Sevres china manufactured at the royal establishment in the
neighbourhood of Versailles during the preceding year.
Undoubtedly, new year’s gifts originated in heathen observances, and
were grossly abused in after ages; yet latterly they became a rational
and pleasant mode of conveying our gentle dispositions towards those we
esteem. Mr. Audley, in his compendious and useful “Companion to the
Almanack,” says, with truth, that they are innocent, if not
praiseworthy; and he quotes this amiable sentiment from Bourne: “If I
send a new year’s gift to my friend, it shall be a token of my
friendship; if to my benefactor, a token of my gratitude; if to the
poor, which at this season must never be forgot, it shall be to make
their hearts sing for joy, and give praise and adoration to the Giver of
all good gifts.” The Jews on the first day of their new year give
sumptuous entertainments, and joyfully wish each other “a happy new
year.” This salutation is not yet obsolete even with us; but the new
year’s gift seldom arrives, except to honest rustics from their equals;
it is scarcely remembered with a view to its use but by young persons,
who, “unvexed with all the cares of gain,” have read or heard tell of
such things, and who, with innocent hearts, feeling the kindness of the
sentiment, keep up the good old custom among one another, till mixture
with the world, and “long experience, makes them sage,” and sordid.
New year’s day in London is not observed by any public festivity; but
little social dining parties are frequently formed amongst friends; and
convivial persons may be found at taverns, and in publicans’ parlours,
regaling on the occasion. Dr Forster relates, in his “Perennial
Calendar,” that many people make a point to wear some new clothes on
this day, and esteem the omission as unlucky: the practice, however,
from such motives, must obviously be confined to the uninformed. The
only open demonstration of joy in the metropolis, is the ringing of
merry peals from the belfries of the numerous steeples, late on the eve
of the new year, and until after the chimes of the clock have sounded
its last hour.
On new year’s day the man of business opens new account-books. “A good
beginning makes a good ending.” Let every man open an account to
himself; and to begin the new year that he may expect to say at its
termination--it has been a _good_ year. In the hilarity of the season
let him not forget that to the needy it is a season of discomfort.
There is a satisfaction
In doing a good action:
and he who devises liberal things will find his liberality return to him
in a full tide of happiness. An economist can afford to be generous.
“Give me neither poverty nor riches,” prayed the wise man. To him who is
neither encumbered by wealth, nor dispirited by indigence, the stores of
enjoyment are unlocked.
He who holds fast the _Golden Mean_,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man’s door,
Embitt’ring all his state.
The tallest pines feel most the pow’r
Of wintry blasts; the loftiest tow’r
Comes heaviest to the ground;
The bolts that spare the mountain’s side
His cloud-capt eminence divide,
And spread the ruin round.
The well-inform’d philosopher
Rejoices with a wholesome fear,
And hopes, in spite of pain;
If Winter bellow from the North,
Soon the sweet Spring comes dancing
And Nature laughs again.
If hindrances obstruct thy way,
Thy magnanimity display,
And let thy strength be seen;
But oh! if fortune fill thy sail
With more than a propitious gale,
Take half thy canvass in.
_Cowper._