When _Rosemary_ and _Bays_, the poet’s crown,
Are bawl’d in frequent cries through all the town;
Then judge the festival of Christmass near,
Christmass, the joyous period of the year!
Now with bright _Holly_ all the temples strow,
With _Lawrel_ green, and sacred _Misletoe_.
* * * * *
From ev’ry hedge is pluck’d by eager hands
The _Holly branch_ with prickly leaves replete,
And fraught with berries of a crimson hue;
Which, torn asunder from its parent trunk,
Is straightway taken to the neighb’ring towns,
Where windows, mantels, candlesticks, and shelves,
Quarts, pints, decanters, pipkins, basins, jugs,
And other articles of household ware,
The verdant garb confess.
_R. J. Thorn._
The old and pleasant custom of decking our houses and churches at
Christmas with evergreens is derived from ancient heathen practices.
Councils of the church forbad christians to deck their houses with bay
leaves and green boughs at the same time with the pagans; but this was
after the church had permitted such doings in order to accommodate its
ceremonies to those of the old mythology. Where druidism had existed,
“the houses were decked with evergreens in December, that the sylvan
spirits might repair to them, and remain unnipped with frost and cold
winds, until a milder season had renewed the foliage of their darling
abodes.”[427]
Polydore Vergil says that, “Trimmyng of the Temples, with hangynges,
floures, boughes, and garlondes, was taken of the heathen people, whiche
decked their idols and houses with suche array.” In old church calendars
Christmas-eve is marked “Templa exornantur.” _Churches are decked._
* * * * *
The holly and the ivy still maintain some mastery at this season. At the
two universities, the windows of the college chapels are decked with
laurel. The old Christmas carol in MS. at the British Museum, quoted at
p. 1598, continues in the following words:--
Ivy hath a lybe; she laghtit with the cold,
So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy hold.
Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c.
Holy hat berys as red as any Rose,
The foster the hunters, kepe hem from the doo.
Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c.
Ivy hath berys as black as any slo;
Ther com the oule and ete hym as she goo.
Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c.
Holy hath byrdys, aful fayre flok,
The Nyghtyngale, the Poppyngy, the gayntyl Lavyrok.
Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c.
Good Ivy! what byrdys ast thou!
Non but the howlet that kreye ‘How! How!’
Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt shall not, &c.
Mr. Brand infers from this, “that _holly_ was used only to deck the
inside of houses at Christmas: while ivy was used not only as a
vintner’s sign, but also among the evergreens at funerals.” He also
cites from the old tract, “Round about our Coal-fire, or Christmas
Entertainments,” that formerly “the rooms were embowered with holly,
ivy, _cyprus_, bays, laurel, and misletoe, and a burning Christmas log
in the chimney;” but he remarks, that “in this account the _cyprus_ is
quite a new article. Indeed I should as soon have expected to have seen
the _yew_ as the cypress used on this joyful occasion.”
Mr. Brand is of opinion that “although Gay mentions the _misletoe_ among
those evergreens that were put up in _churches_, it never entered those
sacred edifices but by mistake, or ignorance of the sextons; for it was
the heathenish and profane plant, as having been of such distinction in
the pagan rites of druidism, and it therefore had its place assigned it
in kitchens, where it was hung up in great state with its white berries,
and whatever female chanced to stand under it, the young man present
either had a right or claimed one of saluting her, and of plucking off a
berry at each kiss.” He adds “I have made many diligent inquiries after
the truth of this. I learnt at Bath that it never came into _churches_
there. An old sexton at Teddington, in Middlesex, informed me that some
misletoe was once put up in the church there, but was by the clergyman
immediately ordered to be taken away.” He quotes from the “Medallic
History of Carausius,” by Stukeley, who speaking of the winter solstice,
our Christmas, says: “This was the most respectable festival of our
druids called yule-tide; when _misletoe_, which they called _all-heal_,
was carried in their hands and laid on their altars, as an emblem of the
salutiferous advent of Messiah. The misletoe they cut off the trees with
their upright hatchets of brass, called celts, put upon the ends of
their staffs, which they carried in their hands. Innumerable are these
instruments found all over the British Isles. The custom is still
preserved in the north, and was lately at _York_. On the eve of
Christmas-day _they carry misletoe to the high altar of the cathedral
and proclaim a public and universal liberty, pardon, and freedom to all
sorts of inferior and even wicked people at the gates of the city
towards the four quarters of heaven_.” This is only a century ago.
In an “Inquiry into the ancient Greek Game, supposed to have been
invented by Palamedes,” Mr. Christie speaks of the respect the northern
nations entertained for the _mistletoe_, and of the _Celts_ and _Goths_
being distinct in the instance of their equally venerating the misletoe
about the time of the year when the sun approached the winter solstice.
He adds, “we find by the allusion of Virgil, who compared _the golden
bough in infernis_, to the _misletoe_, that the _use of this plant was
not unknown in the religious ceremonies of the ancients, particularly
the Greeks_, of whose poets he was the acknowledged imitator.”
The cutting of the _misletoe_ was a ceremony of great solemnity with our
ancient ancestors. The people went in procession. The bards walked
first singing canticles and hymns, a herald preceded three druids with
implements for the purpose. Then followed the prince of the druids
accompanied by all the people. He mounted the oak, and cutting the
misletoe with a golden sickle, presented it to the other druids, who
received it with great respect, and on the first day of the year
distributed it among the people as a sacred and holy plant, crying, “The
misletoe for the new year.” Mr. Archdeacon Nares mentions, “the custom
longest preserved was the hanging up of a bush of misletoe in the
kitchen or servant’s hall, with the _charm_ attached to it, that the
maid, who was not kissed under it at Christmas, would not be married in
that year.” This _natural_ superstition still prevails.
_Christmas Doughs, Pies, and Porridge._