little ruffled, and put beside his oratory) in as few, and yet as
obliging words as possible, assured them of entire welcome; and, with
a graceful turn, singling out poor Twenty-Ninth of February, that had
sate all this while mumchance at the side-board, begged to couple
his health with that of the good company before him--which he drank
accordingly; observing, that he had not seen his honest face any time
these four years, with a number of endearing expressions besides. At
the same time removing the solitary Day from the forlorn seat which had
been assigned him, he stationed him at his own board, somewhere between
the Greek Calends and Latter Lammas.
Ash Wednesday, being now called upon for a song, with his eyes fast
stuck in his head, and as well as the Canary he had swallowed would
give him leave, struck up a Carol, which Christmas Day had taught him
for the nounce; and was followed by the latter, who gave "Miserere" in
fine style, hitting off the mumping notes and lengthened drawl of Old
Mortification with infinite humour. April Fool swore they had exchanged
conditions; but Good Friday was observed to look extremely grave; and
Sunday held her fan before her face that she might not be seen to smile.
Shrove-tide, Lord Mayor's Day, and April Fool next joined in a glee--
Which is the properest day to drink?
in which all the Days chiming in, made a merry burden.
They next fell to quibbles and conundrums. The question being proposed,
who had the greatest number of followers--the Quarter Days said, there
could be no question as to that; for they had all the creditors in the
world dogging their heels. But April Fool gave it in favour of the
Forty Days before Easter; because the debtors in all cases outnumbered
the creditors, and they kept Lent all the year.
All this while Valentine's Day kept courting pretty May, who sate next
him, slipping amorous billets-doux under the table, till the Dog Days
(who are naturally of a warm constitution) began to be jealous, and
to bark and rage exceedingly. April Fool, who likes a bit of sport
above measure, and had some pretensions to the lady besides, as being
but a cousin once removed,--clapped and halloo'd them on; and as fast
as their indignation cooled, those mad wags, the Ember Days, were
at it with their bellows, to blow it into a flame; and all was in a
ferment, till old Madam Septuagesima (who boasts herself the Mother of
the Days) wisely diverted the conversation with a tedious tale of the
lovers which she could reckon when she was young, and of one Master
Rogation Day in particular, who was for ever putting the question to
her; but she kept him at a distance, as the chronicle would tell--by
which I apprehend she meant the Almanack. Then she rambled on to the
Days that were gone, the good old Days, and so to the Days before the
Flood--which plainly showed her old head to be little better than
crazed and doited.
Day being ended, the Days called for their cloaks and greatcoats, and
took their leaves. Lord Mayor's Day went off in a Mist, as usual;
Shortest Day in a deep black Fog, that wrapt the little gentleman
all round like a hedgehog. Two Vigils--so watchmen are called in
heaven--saw Christmas Day safe home--they had been used to the business
before. Another Vigil--a stout, sturdy patrole, called the Eve of St.
Christopher--seeing Ash Wednesday in a condition little better than he
should be--e'en whipt him over his shoulders, pick-a-back fashion, and
Old Mortification went floating home singing--
On the bat's back do I fly,
and a number of old snatches besides, between drunk and sober, but
very few Aves or Penitentiaries (you may believe me) were among them.
Longest Days set off westward in beautiful crimson and gold--the rest,
some in one fashion, some in another; but Valentine and pretty May took
their departure together in one of the prettiest silvery twilights a
Lover's Day could wish to set in.
CHARLES LAMB
New Year's Rites in the Highlands
New Year's Day was not in pre-Reformation times associated with any
special rites. Hence Scottish Reformers, while subjecting to discipline
those who observed Christmas, were willing that New Year's Day should
be appropriated to social pleasures. Towards the closing hour of the
31st December each family prepared a hot pint of wassail bowl of which
all the members might drink to each other's prosperity as the new year
began. Hot pint usually consisted of a mixture of spiced and sweetened
ale with an infusion of whiskey. Along with the drinking of the hot
pint was associated the practice of _first foot_, or a neighborly
greeting. After the year had commenced, each one hastened to his
neighbor's house bearing a small gift; it was deemed "unlucky" to enter
"empty handed."
With New Year's Day were in some portions of the Highlands associated
peculiar rites. At Strathdown the junior anointed in bed the elder
members of the household with water, which the evening before had been
silently drawn from "the dead and living food." Thereafter they kindled
in each room, after closing the chimneys, bunches of juniper. These
rites, the latter attended with much discomfort, were held to ward off
pestilence and sorcery.
The direction of the wind on New Year's Eve was supposed to rule the
weather during the approaching year. Hence the rhyme:
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.
CHARLES ROGERS in _Social Life in Scotland_
The Chinese New Year
The anniversary of the New Year in China follows the variations of a
lunar year, falling in early February or toward the end of January; the
rejoicings are continued with great spirit for a week or more.
On the last day of the old year, accounts are settled, debts cancelled,
and books carefully balanced in every mercantile establishment from
the largest merchants or bankers, down to the itinerant venders of
cooked food and vegetable-mongers. In every house the swanpaun, or
calculating machine, is in use. This nation does not write down
figures, but reckons with surprising rapidity and accuracy by the aid
of a small frame of wood crossed with wires like columns and small
balls strung on them for counters.
It is considered disgraceful, and almost equivalent to an act of
bankruptcy, if all accounts are not settled the last day of the old
year; consequently it frequently happens that articles of ornament or
curiosity can be purchased at low rates in the last week of the year
from the desire of merchants to sacrifice their stock rather than go
without ready money. In all courts the official seals are locked in
strong-boxes, till the holiday is at an end.
On the last day of the old year is observed the ancient custom of
surrounding the furnace. A feast is spread in great form before males
in one room, females in another; underneath the table exactly in the
centre is placed a brazier filled with lighted wood or charcoal;
fireworks are discharged, gilt paper burned, and the feast eaten, the
younger sons serving the head of the house. After the repast there is
more burning of gilt paper, and the ashes are divided, while still
smouldering, into twelve heaps, which are anxiously watched. The twelve
heaps are each allotted to a month, and it is believed that from
the length of time it takes each heap to die completely out, can be
predicted the changes of rain or drought which will be of benefit to
the crops or the reverse.
The first celebration of the New Year is the offering _to heaven and
earth_. A table in the principal entrance is spread with a bucket of
rice, five or ten bowls of different vegetables (no meats) ten cups
of tea, ten cups of wine, two large red candles, and three sticks of
common incense or one large stick of a more fragrant kind. In the
wooden bucket holding the rice are stuck flowers or bits of fragrant
cedar, and ten pairs of chopsticks. On the sticks are laid mock money
only used at this season; to one of the sticks is suspended by a red
string an almanac of the coming year; and near the centre of the
table is always displayed a bowl of oranges. Then after a display of
fireworks each member of the family approaches and performs homage
by a ceremony of triple bowings. This is succeeded by ceremonies of
veneration to ancestors and tokens of respect and reverence to living
ancestors or relatives--but to the living neither incense, nor candle
nor mock money is offered,--not even food except the omnipresent loose
skinned orange whose colloquial name is the same as the term for
"fortunate."
On New Year's Day, the houses are decorated with inscriptions which are
hung at either side of the door, on the pillars or frames, and in the
interior of the houses; some are suspended from long poles attached
to the outside of the house. The color of the paper indicates whether
during the preceding year the inmates of the house have lost a relative
and if so the degree of the relation of the dead person to those
within. Those who are not in mourning use a brilliant crimson paper;
in many cases the word _happiness_ is repeated innumerable times; on
some are more ambitious mottoes:--"May I be so learned as to bear in
my memory the substance of three millions of volumes," "May I know the
affairs of the whole universe for six thousand years," "I will cheat no
man." The monasteries declare "Our lives are pure" and the nunneries
"We are grandmothers in heart."
In some parts of China there prevails a curious custom among mendicants
of electing a chief who goes to each shopkeeper and asks a donation.
If that received be liberal, a piece of red paper affixed to the
merchant's doorway exempts him from applications from the begging
fraternity for one year. During this term of immunity there will be no
annoyance from the clatter on his doorpost of the beggars' bamboo.
For the time being, business is suspended, tribunals are closed, houses
are decorated, gifts interchanged, large sums expended on fireworks,
and the celebration reaches full swing on the night of the Feast of
Lanterns, when every dwelling in the Kingdom from the mud-walled bamboo
hut, to the Emperor's palace with marble halls, are all illuminated
with lanterns of every size and shape. At the end of the feast a great
pyrotechnic display takes place, in the courtyard of the better class
of residences, in the streets before the abodes of the middle and lower
classes, each one trying to outdo the year before in the magnificence
of the display, the strangeness of the devices, and the brilliancy of
the fireworks. The air is illumined with millions of sparks, and the
eye rests upon thousands of grotesque monsters outlined in the many
colored flames.
H. C. SIRR in _China and the Chinese_
New Year's Gifts in Thessaly
No good Thessalian would think of being absent from the liturgy on New
Year's morning, and no good peasant would think of leaving behind him
the pomegranate which has been exposed to the stars all night, and
which they take to the church for the priest to bless. On his return
home the master of each house dashes this pomegranate on the floor
as he crosses his threshold, and says as he does so, "May as many
good-lucks come to my household as there are pips in this pomegranate;"
and apostrophizing, so to speak, the demons of the house, he adds,
"Away with you, fleas, and bugs, and evil words; and within this house
may health, happiness, and the good things of this world reign supreme!"
In like manner, no good housewife would neglect to distribute sweets
to her children on New Year's morning, considering that by eating them
they will secure for themselves a sweet career for the rest of the year.
And many other little superstitions of a kindred nature are considered
essential to the well-being of the family. In one house we entered
on New Year's Day we were presented with pieces of a curious and
exceedingly nasty leavened loaf, and were told that this is the New
Year's cake which every family makes; into it is dropped a coin, and he
who gets the coin in his slice will be the luckiest during the coming
year. Every member of the family has a slice given to him--even the
tiny baby, who has not the remotest chance of consuming all his; and
then besides the family slices, two large ones are always cut off the
cake and set on one side; one of these is said to be "for the house,"
which nobody eats, but when it is quite dry it is put on a shelf near
the sacred pictures, which occupy a corner in every home, however
humble, and is dedicated to the saints--the household gods of the old
days. The other slice is for the poor, who go around with baskets
on their arms on New Year's Day and collect from each household the
portion which they know has been put aside for them.
Every Thessalian, however poor, gives a New Year's gift "for good
luck," they say; and these gifts curiously enough are called
ἐπινομίδες--a word which we find Athenænus using as a translation of
the Roman term _strena_ for the same gift, which still exists in the
French _étrennes_ and Italian _strenne_. Even as in ancient Rome gifts
were given on this day _bona ominis causa_ so did we find ourselves
constantly presented with something on New Year's Day--nuts, apples,
dried figs, and things of a like nature, which caused our pockets to
become inconveniently crowded. I fancy it was much the same in Roman
days and probably earlier as it is now in out of the way corners of
Greece. We know how on New Year's Day clients sent presents to their
patrons--slaves to the lords, friends to friends, and the people to the
Emperor--and that Caligula, who was never a rich man, took advantage of
this custom and made known that on New Year's Day he wanted a dower for
his daughter, which resulted in such piles of gold being brought that
he walked barefoot upon them at his palace door.
The custom of giving New Year's gifts in Rome grew as great a nuisance
as wedding presents bid fair to become with us, and sumptuary laws
had to be passed to restrict the lavish expenditure in them, and
the earlier Christian divines took occasion to abuse them hotly,
St. Augustine calling New Year's gifts "diabolical" and Chrysostom
preaching that the first of the year was a "Satanic extravagance."
Wishing to Christianize a pagan custom as they always tried to do,
these earlier divines invented Christmas gifts as a substitute.
Wherefore we unfortunate dwellers in the West have the survival of both
Christmas and New Year's gifts; in Greece Christmas gifts are unknown;
but there exists not in Greece a man, however poor, who does not make
an effort to give his friends a gift on the day of the Kalends.
J. THEODORE BENT
"Smashing" in the New Year
The Old Year went out with much such a racket as we make nowadays,
but of quite a different kind. We did not blow the New Year in, we
"smashed" it in. When it was dark on New Year's Eve, we stole out with
all the cracked and damaged crockery of the year that had been hoarded
for the purpose and, hieing ourselves to some favorite neighbor's door,
broke our pots against it. Then we ran, but not very far or very fast,
for it was part of the game that if one was caught at it, he was to
be taken in and treated to hot doughnuts. The smashing was a mark of
favor, and the citizen who had most pots broken against his door was
the most popular man in town. When I was in the Latin School a cranky
burgomaster, whose door had been freshly painted, gave orders to the
watchmen to stop it, and gave them an unhappy night, for they were hard
put to it to find a way it was safe to look, with the streets full of
the best citizens in town, and their wives and daughters, sneaking
singly by with bulging coats on their way to salute a friend. That was
when our mothers, those who were not out smashing in the New Year, came
out strong after the fashion of mothers. They baked more doughnuts
than ever that night, and beckoned the watchman in to the treat; and
there he sat, blissfully deaf while the street rang with the thunderous
salvos of our raids; until it was discovered that the burgomaster
himself was on post, when there was a sudden rush from kitchen doors
and a great scurrying through the streets that grew strangely silent.
The town had its revenge, however. The burgomaster, returning home in
the midnight hour, stumbled in his gate over a discarded Christmas-tree
hung full of old boots and many black and sooty pots that went down
round him with a great smash as he upset it, so that his family came
running out in alarm to find him sprawling in the midst of the biggest
celebration of all. His dignity suffered a shock which he never quite
got over. But it killed the New Year's fun, too. For he was really a
good fellow, and then he was the burgomaster and chief of police to
boot. I suspect the fact was that the pot-smashing had run its course.
Perhaps the supply of pots was giving out; we began to use tinware more
about that time. That was the end of it, anyhow.
JACOB RIIS in _The Old Town_
New Year Calls in Old New York
From old Dutch times to the middle of the nineteenth century New Year's
Day in New York was devoted to an universal interchange of visits. Old
friendships were renewed, family differences settled, a hearty welcome
extended even to strangers of presentable appearance.
The following is an entry in Tyrone Powers the actor's diary for
January 1, 1834: "On this day from an early hour every door in New
York is open and all the good things possessed by the inmates paraded
in lavish profusion. Every sort of vehicle is put in requisition. At
an early hour a gentleman of whom I had a slight knowledge entered my
room, accompanied by an elderly person I had never before seen, and
who, on being named, excused himself for adopting such a frank mode of
making my acquaintance, which he was pleased to add he much desired,
and at once requested me to fall in with the custom of the day, whose
privilege he had thus availed himself of, and accompany him on a visit
to his family.
"I was the last man on earth likely to decline an offer made in such a
spirit; so entering his carriage, which was waiting, we drove to his
house on Broadway, where, after being presented to a very amiable lady,
his wife, and a pretty gentle-looking girl, his daughter, I partook of
a sumptuous luncheon, drank a glass of champagne, and on the arrival of
other visitors, made my bow, well pleased with my visit.
"My host now begged me to make a few calls with him, explaining, as we
drove along, the strict observances paid to this day throughout the
State, and tracing the excellent custom to the early Dutch colonists.
I paid several calls in company with my new friend, and at each place
met a hearty welcome, when my companion suggested that I might have
some compliments to make on my own account, and so leaving me, begged
me to consider his carriage perfectly at my disposal. I left a card
or two and made a couple of hurried visits, then returned to my hotel
to think over the many beneficial effects likely to grow out of such
a charitable custom which makes even the stranger sensible of the
benevolent influence of this kindly day, and to wish for its continued
observance."
At the period of which Power speaks there were great feasts spread in
many houses, and the traditions of tremendous Dutch eating and drinking
were faithfully observed. Special houses were noted for particular
forms of entertainment. At one it was eggnog, at another rum punch;
at this one, pickled oysters, at that, boned turkey, or marvellous
chocolate, or perfect Mocha coffee; or for the select _cognoscenti_ a
drop of old Madeira as delicate in flavor as the texture of the glass
from which it was sipped. At all houses there were the New Year's
cakes, in the form of an Egyptian _cartouche_, and in later and more
degenerate days relays of champagne-bottles appeared,--the coming in of
the lower empire.
Then followed the gradual breaking down of all the lines of
conventionality into a wild and unseemly riot of visits. New Year's
Day took on the character of a rabid and untamed race against time. A
procession, each of whose component parts was made up of two or three
young men in an open barouche, with a pair of steaming horses and a
driver more or less under the influences of the hilarity of the day,
would rattle from one house to another all day long. The visitors
would jump out of the carriage, rush into the house, and reappear in
a miraculously short space of time. The ceremony of calling was a
burlesque. There was a noisy, hilarious greeting, a glass of wine was
swallowed hurriedly, everybody shook hands all around, and the callers
dashed out, rushed into the carriage, and were driven hurriedly to the
next house.
A reaction naturally set in which ended in the almost complete disuse
of the custom of New Year's Calls.
W. S. WALSH in _Curiosities of Popular Customs_
Sylvester Abend in Davos
It is ten o'clock upon Sylvester Abend, or New Year's Eve. Herr Buol
sits with his wife at the head of his long table. His family and
serving-folk are around him. There is his mother, with little Ursula,
his child, upon her knee. The old lady is the mother of four comely
daughters and nine stalwart sons, the eldest of whom is now a grizzled
man. Besides our host, four of the brothers are here to-night; the
handsome melancholy Georg, who is so gentle in his speech; Simeon,
with his diplomatic face; Florian, the student of medicine; and my
friend, colossal-breasted Christian. Palmy came a little later, worried
with many cares, but happy to his heart's core. No optimist was ever
more convinced of his philosophy than Palmy. After them, below the
salt, were ranged the knechts and porters, the marmiton from the
kitchen, and innumerable maids. The board was tessellated with plates
of birnen-brod and eier-brod, kuchli and cheese and butter; and Georg
stirred grampampuli in a mighty metal bowl. For the uninitiated, it may
be needful to explain these Davos delicacies. Birnen-brod is what the
Scotch would call a "bun," or massive cake, composed of sliced pears,
almonds, spices, and a little flour. Eier-brod is a saffron-coloured
sweet bread, made with eggs; and kuchli is a kind of pastry, crisp and
flimsy, fashioned into various devices of cross, star, and scroll.
Grampampuli is simply brandy burnt with sugar, the most unsophisticated
punch I ever drank from tumblers. The frugal people of Davos, who live
on bread and cheese and dried meat all the year, indulge themselves but
once with these unwonted dainties in the winter.
The occasion was cheerful, and yet a little solemn. The scene was
feudal. For these Buols are the scions of a warrior race:--
"A race illustrious for heroic deeds;
Humbled, but degraded."
During the six centuries through which they have lived nobles in
Davos, they have sent forth scores of fighting men to foreign lands,
ambassadors to France and Venice and the Milanese, governors to
Chiavenna and Bregaglia and the much-contested Valtelline. Members of
their house are Counts of Buol-Schauenstein in Austria, Freiherrs of
Muhlingen and Berenberg in the now German Empire. They keep the patent
of nobility conferred on them by Henri IV. Their ancient coat--parted
per pale azure and argent, with a dame of the fourteenth century
bearing in her hand a rose, all counterchanged--is carved in wood and
monumental marble on the churches and old houses hereabouts. And from
immemorial antiquity the Buol of Davos has sat thus on Sylvester Abend
with family and folk around him, summoned from alp and snowy field to
drink grampampuli and break the birnen-brod.
These rites performed, the men and maids began to sing--brown arms
lounging on the table, and red hands folded in white aprons--serious at
first in hymn-like cadences, then breaking into wilder measures with a
jodel at the close. There is a measured solemnity in the performance,
which strikes the stranger as somewhat comic. But the singing was good;
the voices strong and clear in tone, no hesitation and no shirking of
the melody. It was clear that the singers enjoyed the music for its
own sake, with half-shut eyes, as they take dancing, solidly, with
deep-drawn breath, sustained and indefatigable. But eleven struck; and
the two Christians, my old friend and Palmy, said we should be late
for church. They had promised to take me with them to see bell-ringing
in the tower. All the young men of the village meet, and draw lots in
the Stube of the Rathhaus. One party tolls the old year out, the other
rings the new year in. He who comes last is sconced three litres of
Veltliner for the company. This jovial fine was ours to pay to-night.