The April baby had an exhausted-looking Japanese doll with her, which
she said she was taking to bed, not because she liked him, but because
she was so sorry for him, he seemed so very tired. They kissed me
absently, and went away, only the April baby glancing at the trees as
she passed and making them a curtesy.
"Good-bye, trees," I heard her say; and then she made the Japanese doll
bow to them, which he did, in a very languid and blasé fashion. "You'll
never see such trees again," she told him, giving him a vindictive
shake, "for you'll be brokened long before next time."
She went out, but came back as though she had forgotten something.
"Thank the Christkind so much, Mummy, won't you, for all the lovely
things He brought us. I suppose you're writing to Him now, isn't you?"
From _Elizabeth and her German Garden_
[Illustration: THE ARRIVAL OF THE SHEPHERDS. _Lerolle._]
Good King Wenceslas
Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep, and crisp, and even:
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gath'ring winter fuel.
"Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou know'st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain;
Right against the forest fence,
By St. Agnes' fountain."
"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine,
Bring me pine logs hither;
Thou and I will see him dine,
When we bear them thither."
Page and monarch forth they went,
Forth they went together;
Through the rude wind's wild lament,
And the bitter weather.
"Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, good my page!
Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."
In his master's steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod
Which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
Shall yourselves find blessing.
Version by JOHN MASON NEALE
Jean Valjean plays the Christmas Saint
As for the traveller, he had deposited his cudgel and his bundle in a
corner. The landlord once gone, he threw himself into an arm-chair and
remained for some time buried in thought. Then he removed his shoes,
took one of the two candles, blew out the other, opened the door, and
quitted the room, gazing about him like a person who is in search of
something. He traversed a corridor and came upon a staircase. There
he heard a very faint and gentle sound like the breathing of a child.
He followed this sound, and came to a sort of triangular recess built
under the staircase, or rather formed by the staircase itself. This
recess was nothing else than the space under the steps. There, in the
midst of all sorts of old papers and potsherds, among dust and spiders'
webs, was a bed--if one can call by the name of bed a straw pallet so
full of holes as to display the straw, and a coverlet so tattered as to
show the pallet. No sheets. This was placed on the floor.
In this bed Cosette was sleeping.
The man approached and gazed down upon her.
Cosette was in a profound sleep; she was fully dressed. In the winter
she did not undress, in order that she might not be so cold.
Against her breast was pressed the doll, whose large eyes, wide open,
glittered in the dark. From time to time she gave vent to a deep sigh
as though she were on the point of waking, and she strained the doll
almost convulsively in her arms. Beside her bed there was only one of
her wooden shoes.
A door which stood open near Cosette's pallet permitted a view of a
rather large, dark room. The stranger stepped into it. At the further
extremity, through a glass door, he saw two small, very white beds.
They belonged to Éponine and Azelma. Behind these beds, and half
hidden, stood an uncurtained wicker cradle, in which the little boy who
had cried all the evening lay asleep.
The stranger conjectured that this chamber connected with that of the
Thénardier pair. He was on the point of retreating when his eye fell
upon the fireplace--one of those vast tavern chimneys where there is
always so little fire when there is any fire at all, and which are
so cold to look at. There was no fire in this one, there was not even
ashes; but there was something which attracted the stranger's gaze,
nevertheless. It was two tiny children's shoes, coquettish in shape and
unequal in size. The traveller recalled the graceful and immemorial
custom in accordance with which children place their shoes in the
chimney on Christmas eve, there to await in the darkness some sparkling
gift from their good fairy. Éponine and Azelma had taken care not to
omit this, and each of them had set one of her shoes on the hearth.
The traveller bent over them.
The fairy, that is to say, their mother, had already paid her visit,
and in each he saw a brand-new and shining ten-sou piece.
The man straightened himself up, and was on the point of withdrawing,
when far in, in the darkest corner of the hearth, he caught sight
of another object. He looked at it, and recognized a wooden shoe, a
frightful shoe of the coarsest description, half dilapidated and all
covered with ashes and dried mud. It was Cosette's sabot. Cosette, with
that touching trust of childhood, which can always be deceived yet
never discouraged, had placed her shoe on the hearth-stone also.
Hope in a child who has never known anything but despair is a sweet and
touching thing.
There was nothing in this wooden shoe.
The stranger fumbled in his waistcoat, bent over and placed a louis
d'or in Cosette's shoe.
Then he regained his own chamber with the stealthy tread of a wolf.
VICTOR HUGO in _Les Miserables_
Saint Brandan
Saint Brandan sails the northern main;
The brotherhoods of saints are glad.
He greets them once, he sails again;
So late! such storms! The saint is mad!
He heard, across the howling seas,
Chime convent-bells on wintry nights;
He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides,
Twinkle the monastery-lights;
But north, still north, Saint Brandan steered;
And now no bells, no convents more!
The hurtling Polar lights are neared,
The sea without a human shore.
At last (it was the Christmas-night;
Stars shone after a day of storm)
He sees float past an iceberg white,
And on it--Christ!--a living form.
That furtive mien, that scowling eye,
Of hair that red and tufted fell,
It is--oh, where shall Brandan fly?--
The traitor Judas, out of hell!
Palsied with terror, Brandan sate;
The moon was bright, the iceberg near.
He hears a voice sigh humbly, "Wait!
By high permission I am here.
"One moment wait, thou holy man!
On earth my crime, my death, they knew;
My name is under all men's ban:
Ah! tell them of my respite too.
"Tell them, one blessed Christmas-night
(It was the first after I came,
Breathing self-murder, frenzy, spite,
To rue my guilt in endless flame),--
"I felt, as I in torment lay
'Mid the souls plagued by heavenly power,
An angel touch mine arm, and say,--
'Go hence, and cool thyself an hour!'
"'Ah! whence this mercy, Lord?' I said.
'The leper recollect,' said he,
'Who asked the passers-by for aid,
In Joppa, and thy charity.'
"Then I remembered how I went,
In Joppa, through the public street,
One morn when the sirocco spent
Its storms of dust with burning heat;
"And in the street a leper sate,
Shivering with fever, naked, old;
Sand raked his sores from heel to pate,
The hot wind fevered him fivefold.
"He gazed upon me as I passed,
And murmured, 'Help me, or I die!'
To the poor wretch my cloak I cast,
Saw him look eased, and hurried by.
* * * * *
"Once every year, when carols wake,
On earth, the Christmas-night's repose,
Arising from the sinner's lake,
I journey to these healing snows.
"I stanch with ice my burning breast,
With silence balm my whirling brain.
O Brandan! to this hour of rest,
That Joppan leper's ease was pain."
Tears started to Saint Brandan's eyes;
He bowed his head, he breathed a prayer,
Then looked--and lo, the frosty skies!
The iceberg, and no Judas there!
MATTHEW ARNOLD
St. Stephen's, or Boxing Day
In old England St. Stephen's Day is chiefly celebrated under the
name of Boxing Day,--not for pugilistic reasons, but because on that
day it was the custom for persons in the humbler walks of life to go
the rounds with a Christmas-box and solicit money from patrons and
employers. Hence the phrase Christmas-box came to signify gifts made at
this season to children or inferiors, even after the boxes themselves
had gone out of use. This custom was of heathen origin and carries us
back to the Roman Paganalia when earthen boxes in which money was
slipped through a hole were hung up to receive contributions at these
rural festivals.
Aubrey in his "Wiltshire Collections" describes a _trouvaille_ of Roman
relics: "Among the rest was an earthen pot of the color of a crucible,
and of the shape of a Prentice's Christmas-box with a slit in it,
containing about a quart which was near full of money. This pot I gave
to the Repository of the Royal Society at Gresham College."
Of the Prentice's Christmas-box, a recognized institution of the
seventeenth century, several specimens are preserved,--small and wide
bottles of thin clay from three to four inches in height, surrounded by
imitation stoppers covered with a green baize. On one side is a slit
for the introduction of money; the box must be broken before the money
can be extracted.
W. P. R.
St. Basil in Trikkola
Trikkola is very Turkish, having only been in Greek hands for eight
years; but though you see mosques and latticed windows at every turn,
there is not a Greek left; when his rule is over the Mussulman packs
his luggage; he will not live subject to the infidel. It is very
squalid indeed, and down the bazaar ran an open drain; but nevertheless
the walk by the river is pretty and towards evening women came down
to the stream to wash and fetch home water in quaint round bottles. I
think one of the most marked distinctions between Turk and Greek is
whitewash. Greeks love whitewash; houses, churches, public buildings
are excessively clean outside, and promise what the interior fails to
fulfill. This is especially remarkable at Trikkola, where the brown mud
houses of Turkish days are being rapidly converted into white Greek
ones.
St. Basil's Eve--that is to say the Greek New Year's Eve--is a very
marked day in the period of the twelve days, and one on which all make
merry. The squalid streets of Trikkola even looked bright as bands
of gaily dressed children, nay, even grown-up young men, went round
singing the Kalends songs--Greek Kalends that is to say, which though
it is twelve days later than ours came at last. And on this the eve
of the Kalends these bands paraded the streets, each carrying a long
pole to the top of which was tied a piece of brushwood, within which
was concealed a bell, and to which were tied many scraps of colored
ribbon. At each house the singers stopped. The inhabitants came out to
greet them and offer them refreshments,--figs, nuts, eggs and other
food,--which were stowed away by one of the band who carried a basket.
Their songs to our ears were exceedingly ugly, long chanted stories. I
asked a priest whose acquaintance I had made to copy down one of them,
of which the following is a rough translation:--
From Cæsarea came the holy Basil;
Ink and paper in his hands he held.
Cried the crowd who saw him coming,
"Teach us letters, dear St. Basil."
His rod he left them for instruction--
His rod which buds with verdant leaves,
On which the partridges sit singing
And the swallows make their nests.
Jangle went the bell in the brushwood--"the thicket" as they call
it--and out came the housewife when the singing was over, her hands
full of homely gifts, in return for which she was presented with
one of the silk ribbons from the trophy. This she will keep for the
whole of the ensuing year, for it will bring her good luck. And after
many good wishes for the coming year the troupe moved on to another
house.... It seems that this is the most favorite Greek method of
celebrating a festive season. The people in no way resent these
constant visitors and claims on their hospitality; nay, rather they
would be deeply hurt if the bands of children passed them by.
J. THEODORE BENT
III
CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS
[Illustration: CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS AND BELIEFS]
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
Folk-lore of Christmas Tide
Hunting the Wren
The Presepio
Hodening in Kent
Origin of the Christmas Tree
Origin of the Christmas Card
The Yule Clog
Come bring with a Noise
Shoe or Stocking
Jule-Nissen
"Lame Needles" in Eubœa
"Who Rides behind the Bells?"
Guests at Yule
[Illustration]
Some sayes, that ever 'gainst that Season comes
Wherein our Saviours Birth is celebrated,
The Bird of Dawning singeth all night long:
And then (they say) no Spirit can walke abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no Planets strike,
No Faiery talkes, nor Witch hath power to Charme:
So hallowed, and so gracious is the time.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
When the world had endured five thousand and nine hundred years, after
Eusebius the holy saint, Octavian the Emperor commanded that all the
world should be described, so that he might know how many cities, how
many towns, and how many persons he had in all the universal world.
Then was so great peace in the earth that all the world was obedient to
him. And therefore our Lord would be born in that time, that it should
be known that he brought peace from heaven. And this Emperor commanded
that every man should go into the towns, cities or villages from whence
they were of, and should bring with him a penny in acknowledgment that
he was subject to the Empire of Rome. And by so many pence as should
be found received, should be known the number of the persons. Joseph,
which was then of the lineage of David, and dwelleth in Nazareth, went
into the city of Bethlehem, and led with him the Virgin Mary his wife.
And when they were come thither, because the hostelries were all taken
up, they were constrained to be without in a common place where all
people went. And there was a stable for an ass that he brought with
him, and for an ox. In that night our Blessed Lady and Mother of God
was delivered of our Blessed Saviour upon the hay that lay in the rack.
At which nativity our Lord shewed many marvels. For because that the
world was in so great peace, the Romans had done made a temple which
was named the Temple of Peace, in which they counselled with Apollo to
know how long it should stand and endure. Apollo answered to them,
that it should stand as long till a maid had brought forth and borne a
child. And therefore they did do write on the portal of the Temple: Lo!
this is the temple of peace that ever shall endure. For they supposed
well that a maid might never bear ne bring forth a child. This temple
that same time that our Lady was delivered and our Lord born, overthrew
and fell all down. Of which christian men afterward made in the same
place a church of our Lady which is called Sancta Maria Rotunda, that
is to say, the Church of Saint Mary the Round. Also the same night,
as recordeth Innocent the third, which was Pope, there sprang and
sourded in Rome a well or a fountain, and ran largely all that night
and all that day unto the river of Rome called Tiber. Also after that,
recordeth S. John Chrysostom, the three kings were in this night in
their orisons and prayers upon a mountain, when a star appeared by
them which had the form of a right fair child, which had a cross in
his forehead, which said to these three kings that they should go to
Jerusalem, and there they should find the son of the Virgin, God and
Man, which then was born. Also there appeared in the orient three suns,
which little and little assembled together, and were all on one. As it
is signified to us that these three things are the Godhead, the soul,
and the body, which been in three natures assembled in one person. Also
Octavian the Emperor, like as Innocent recordeth, that he was much
desired of his council and of his people, that he should do men worship
him as God. For never had there been before him so great a master and
lord of the world as he was. Then the Emperor sent for a prophetess
named Sibyl, for to demand of her if there were any so great and like
him in the earth, or if any should come after him. Thus at the hour of
mid-day she beheld the heaven, and saw a circle of gold about the sun,
and in the middle of the circle a maid holding a child in her arms.
Then she called the Emperor and shewed it him. When Octavian saw that
he marvelled over much, whereof Sibyl said to him: Hic puer major te
est, ipsum adora. This child is greater lord than thou art, worship
him. Then when the Emperor understood that this child was greater lord
than he was, he would not be worshipped as God, but worshipped this
child that should be born. Wherefore the christian men made a church
of the same chamber of the Emperor, and named it Ara cœli. After this
it happed on a night as a great master which is of great authority in
Scripture, which is named Bartholemew, recordeth that the Rod of Engadi
which is by Jerusalem, which beareth balm, flowered this night and bare
fruit, and gave liquor of balm. After this came the angel and appeared
to the shepherds that kept their sheep, and said to them: I announce
and shew to you a great joy, for the Saviour of the world is in this
night born, in the city of Bethlehem, there may ye find him wrapt in
clouts. And anon, as the angel had said this, a great multitude of
angels appeared with him, and began to sing: Honour, glory and health
be to God on high, and in the earth peace to men of goodwill. Then said
the shepherds, let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing. And when they
came they found like as the angel had said. In this time Octavian made
to cut and enlarge the ways and quitted the Romans of all the debts
that they owed to him. This feast of Nativity of our Lord is one of
the greatest feasts of all the year, and for to tell all the miracles
that our Lord hath shewed, it should contain a whole book; but at this
time I shall leave and pass over save one thing that I have heard once
preached of a worshipful doctor, that what person being in clean life
desire on this day a boon of God, as far as it is rightful and good
for him, our Lord at the reverence of this blessed high feast of his
Nativity will grant it to him.
From _The Golden Legend_
Folk-Lore of Christmas Tide
Scottish folk-lore has it that Christ was born "at the hour of midnight
on Christmas Eve," and that the miracle of turning water into wine
was performed by Him at the same hour. There is a belief current in
some parts of Germany that "between eleven and twelve the night before
Christmas water turns to wine"; in other districts, as at Bielefeld, it
is on Christmas night that this change is thought to take place.
This hour is also auspicious for many actions, and in some sections of
Germany it was thought that if one would go to the cross-roads between
eleven and twelve on Christmas Day, and listen, he "would hear what
most concerns him in the coming year." Another belief is that "if one
walks into the winter-corn on Holy Christmas Eve, he will hear all that
will happen in the village that year."
Christmas Eve or Christmas is the time when the oracles of the folk
are in the best working-order, especially the many processes by which
maidens are wont to discover the colour of their lover's hair, the
beauty of his face and form, his trade and occupation, whether they
shall marry or not, and the like.
The same season is most auspicious for certain ceremonies and practices
(transferred to it from the heathen antiquity) of the peasantry of
Europe in relation to agriculture and allied industries. Among those
noted by Grimm are the following:--
On Christmas Eve thrash the garden with a flail, with only your shirt
on, and the grass will grow well next year.
Tie wet strawbands around the orchard trees on Christmas Eve and it
will make them fruitful.
On Christmas Eve put a stone on every tree, and they will bear the more.
Beat the trees on Christmas night, and they will bear more fruit.
In Herefordshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall, in England, the farmers and
peasantry "salute the apple-trees on Christmas Eve," and in Sussex they
used to "worsle," _i.e._ "wassail," the apple-trees and chant verses to
them in somewhat of the primitive fashion.
Some other curious items of Christmas folk-lore are the following,
current chiefly in Germany.
If after a Christmas dinner you shake out the tablecloth over the bare
ground under the open sky, crumbwort will grow on the spot.
If on Christmas Day, or Christmas Eve, you hang a wash-clout on a
hedge, and then groom the horses with it, they will grow fat.
As often as the cock crows on Christmas Eve, the quarter of corn will
be as dear.
If a dog howls the night before Christmas, it will go mad within the
year.
If the light is let go out on Christmas Eve, some one in the house will
die.
When lights are brought in on Christmas Eve, if any one's shadow has
no head, he will die within a year; if half a head, in the second
half-year.
If a hoop comes off a cask on Christmas Eve, some one in the house will
die that year.
If on Christmas Eve you make a little heap of salt on the table, and it
melts over night, you will die the next year; if, in the morning, it
remain undiminished, you will live.
If you wear something sewed with thread spun on Christmas Eve, no
vermin will stick to you.
If a shirt be spun, woven, and sewed by a pure, chaste maiden on
Christmas Day, it will be proof against lead or steel.
If you are born at sermon-time on Christmas morning, you can see
spirits.
If you burn elder on Christmas Eve, you will have revealed to you all
the witches and sorcerers of the neighbourhood.
If you steal hay the night before Christmas, and give the cattle some,
they thrive, and you are not caught in any future thefts.
If you steal anything at Christmas without being caught, you can steal
safely for a year.
If you eat no beans on Christmas Eve, you will become an ass.
If you eat a raw egg, fasting, on Christmas morning, you can carry
heavy weights.
The crumbs saved up on three Christmas Eves are good to give as physic
to one who is disappointed.
It is unlucky to carry anything forth from the house on Christmas
morning until something has been brought in.
It is unlucky to give a neighbour a live coal to kindle a fire with on
Christmas morning.
If the fire burns brightly on Christmas morning, it betokens prosperity
during the year; if it smoulders, adversity.
These, and many other practices, ceremonies, beliefs, and
superstitions, which may be read in Grimm, Gregor, Henderson, De
Gubernatis, Ortwein, Tilte, and others who have written of Christmas,
show the importance attached in the folk-mind to the time of the
birth of Christ, and how around it as a centre have fixed themselves
hundreds of the rites and solemnities of passing heathendom, with its
recognition of the kinship of all nature, out of which grew astrology,
magic, and other pseudo-sciences.
Collected by A. F. CHAMBERLAIN
Christmas succeeds the Saturnalia, the same time, the same number of
Holy-days; then the Master waited upon the Servant like the Lord of
Misrule.
Our Meats and our Sports, much of them, have Relation to Church-works.
The Coffin of our Christmas-Pies, in shape long, is in Imitation of the
Cratch; our choosing Kings and Queens on Twelfth-Night, hath reference
to the three Kings. So likewise our eating of Fritters, whipping of
Tops, roasting of Herrings, Jack of Lents, etc., they were all in
imitation of Church-works, Emblems of Martyrdom.
_The Table-Talk of John Selden_
Hunting the Wren