 Section 46 of Christmas and Christmas Lore. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen. Miscellaneous Christmas superstitions, etc. Before passing on to the traditions and customs of the twelve days following Christmas, it will be convenient to bring together a number of superstitions that cannot easily be classified. One of them is the widespread belief that as midnight ushers in the holy birth tide, the cattle fall on their knees in honor of him who lay in the manger. It is said that the Christianized Indians in America believe that at the same time the deer kneel in worship of the Great Spirit. And it is an undeniable fact that cattle often have been seen on their knees on Christmas Eve. In Somerset, this was referred to Old Christmas Eve, 5th to 6th January, when the master ox load softly three times and then kneel towards the manger. It seems a pity to spoil a poetic legend with a prosaic comment, but the simple truth is that all ruminant animals, oxen, sheep, deer, camels, and the rest, when arising from a recumbent posture, almost always get first on their knees, or in other words, get up hind legs first. Somewhat akin to the belief in the kneeling oxen is a tradition current in the Greek Orthodox Church that on Christmas Eve all trees and plants, especially those on the banks of the Jordan, bow in reverence to the Saviour. A man rode into Lidda shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve and tethered his ass to a prostrate palm tree, which he supposed had been blown down by the wind. In the morning the tree stood erect and the poor ass was effectually hanged, plain proof that the Greek calendar was right and the reformed calendar of the West entirely wrong. A less pleasing superstition once prevailed in some parts of England, France, and Germany. It was believed that on this one night of all the year oxen were able to speak. Many tales were said to have been overheard when the oxen were talking, but the listeners never heard any good of themselves. The bovine utterances usually had something to do with sudden death. In Scotland, before the Reformation, it was customary to visit the beer and stable on Christmas Eve, and there say an Ave Maria and a pattern nostre to safeguard the cattle and horses from the evil eye. There was also a pretty fancy that bees might be heard singing in the hive on Christmas Eve. Another old superstition was related to the gambling which too frequently mingled with the Christmas sport. Kirchmeyer, describing the customs of his day in the Roman Catholic parts of Germany, tells us that at the midnight and early morning masses the people's offerings were severally laid on the altar and some, quote, the money still do watch that first to altar comes which then they privily do snatch. The priest, lest others should it have, takes off to the same away, whereby they think throughout the year to have good luck in play, end quote. Other superstitions have to do with divination, great importance used to attach to the day of the week on which Christmas fell. From this was prognosticated the prevalent weather and the fruitfulness or unfruitfulness of the ensuing season. The fortunes of those born on that day, the recovery or death of those who on that day fell sick, etc. An elaborate rhyming guide on the subject is contained in one of the Harleyan manuscripts in the British Museum, from which the appropriate stanza is often quoted as a curiosity in the Christmas papers. Another form of divination was distinctly funny. A girl knocked loudly at the sty door on Christmas Eve. If a great hug first grunted in reply, her predestined husband would be an old man. If it were a little pig, that gave promise of a young one. A characteristic Yorkshire superstition about first footings is probably not yet quite extinct. It relates to the person who first enters the house on Christmas morning. A woman or a girl is thought to bring ill fortune. A man or a boy usually brings good luck, but he must always bring something into the house if it be only a sprig of holly before anything is taken out. It is also held that a dark-haired lad ensures better luck than one who is fair. This may be a trace of race antagonism inherited from a time when the dark-haired Britain was a more welcome guest than the fair-haired Saxon. This explanation is favored by another superstition, that a flat-footed person brings ill luck, and it is said that, on an average, Welshmen are higher in the instep than Englishmen. In Scotland nothing was to be taken out of the house on Christmas day unless as a present. Somewhat akin to this was the belief that the luckiest person in the house during the next year would be he or she who first opened the door to let Christmas in. The proper way to do it is to open the door wide and say, Welcome, Father Christmas! The chirping of a cricket at Christmas was widely believed to portend good luck, but to bring into the house anything made of leather was very unlucky. The Glastonbury legend is well known. The story is that Joseph of Arimathea and his comrades, fatigued with their journey, sat down to rest on Wirial Hill, where Joseph set his staff in the ground. It took root, and became a hawthorn tree, which always blossomed at Christmas, mindful of its Lord, until it was cut down by a Puritan in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Several trees grown from the haws of the sacred thorn still flourish in the neighbourhood and have the like virtue, only they bloom at twelfth tide, which proves that the reformed calendar is not yet accepted in wonderland. The local form of the legend is that the trees, being already in bud, unfold their blooms at midnight on the fifth to sixth January, but after a short time close them again. Within living memory many persons made a nocturnal pilgrimage to one or other of these holy trees in hope to see the miracle. The simple fact is that about Glastonbury, as elsewhere, there is a number of pink hawthorns the original stock of which was imported from the east, and which usually bloom in the winter. A Yorkshire saying, probably not so much a superstition as a kindly jest, is that, in as many houses as you eat a mince pie in the twelve days of Christmas, so many happy months will you have in the year. One thing is certain, the more of the true Christmas spirit we cultivate, the more happiness we shall enjoy all the year round. There is an Irish superstition that the gates of paradise are always open at midnight on Christmas Eve, so that anyone dying at that moment enters at once without going to purgatory. Grimm's stories are told of persons who were obviously dying and were kindly helped out of this world just at the critical moment. In some places there was a notion that it was unlucky to be born on Christmas Eve. There was danger that the unfortunate white would become a werewolf. As a counterpart to this we may mention a Scottish belief that those born on Christmas Eve or Good Friday have the power of seeing spirits and even of commanding them. Another quaint belief in some mining districts was that on Christmas Eve high mass was sung by invisible choristers in the mine which contains the richest load of ore and which was preternaturally lighted up for the occasion. A strange survival of heathenism long persisted in some parts of Bohemia and perhaps is not yet quite extinct. A portion of the Christmas fair is thrown into the wells as an offering to the springs or more probably to the guardian spirit of the springs as a safeguard against drought. The last superstition we need mentioned here is that of the Christmas angel. It used to be believed that every Christmas Eve a number of angels were sent from heaven commissioned each to awaken an infant from its first sleep and carry it to paradise there to sing a carol in honor of the Christ child. Christianity having had its cradle in the northern hemisphere it was inevitable that Christmas should gather around it the associations and customs of a winter festival. The more distinctly religious observances were easily transported to a southern latitude but in the case of many social and festive traditions this was impossible. Nevertheless Christmas is as merry under the southern cross as under Charles's wane but it is there essentially a summer holiday associated with flowers and picnics. A couple of snatches of antipody and verse may illustrate this aspect of the festive season. A poet of English birth but Australian domicile writes thus of Christmas Eve. Where the fern king holds his revels in his hidden courts of green and the wire grass weaves a curtain to enshrine the mystic scene there I lingered in the gloaming of a sunny Christmas tide there I lingered midst the shadows while the daylight waned and died there I mused and dreamed and pondered of the happy days of yore ere my errant feet had wandered to the strange Australian shore. His meditations are interrupted by a band of children singing a carol which runs thus morning star or Bethlehem shining guide us to his lowly bed evening lights at days declining soft reveal his weary head flowers that bloom mid-thorn and briar shadow forth his footsteps fair birds sweet song in tuneful choir sing his love and guardian care. End of section 46 section 47 of Christmas and Christmas Lore This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen Yuletide in Thule Before treating of the subsidiary festivals which go to complete the Christmas cycle it seems convenient to say something of the customs that prevailed a century ago in the northern islands where Scottish Puritanism was strangely blended with survivals of Scandinavian heathenism. This topic is somewhat elaborately treated in The Home of a Naturalist by B. Edmundson and J. M. E. Saxby from which the following account is condensed. The Yuletide observances of Shetland seem to have had but little relation to the nativity, being largely a survival from the old Norse festival of the returning sun. The few who observed Christmas as a Christian anniversary did so according to the reformed calendar. But the popular Yul was 25th December, old style, equivalent to 5th January, new style. The Yul feast needed serious preparation. Seven days earlier was Thuleyazin where the Troes or grey folk were thought to leave their underground abodes. These were elves or gnomes resembling, if not identical, with the trolls of Norse mythology sportively malignant and certain to do mischief at Yuletide unless due precautions were taken by saining the house and its occupants. Two straws were placed across at the style or other entrance to the stackyard. A hare was plucked from the tail of every cow and beast of burden, and these, plated together, were placed over the door of the beer. And a blazing peat was carried through the barn and other outhouses. That night, called Helya's Night, after supper the grandmother or oldest woman in the house would spread her hands over the bed of each child, reciting an incantation to this effect. Mary, mother, hold thy hand ever above our sleeping band. Hold the lass and hold the wife. Hold the bairn all its life. Mary, mother, hold thy hand round the infants in our land. During this ceremony the grand sire should rake the burning peats on the hearth, reciting another charm, which is now unfortunately forgotten. Famous mass, five days before Yul, was deemed peculiarly holy. No work and no amusement was allowed after sunset. If this rule were broken ill luck would surely follow. The Sunday before Yul was Biana's Sunday. Half a cow's head was boiled and eaten for supper, the skull was cleaned, and a candle being stuck in the eye socket it was put aside for later use. On Yul Eve a round oak cake was baked for each child, larger or smaller according to age. These cakes had a hole in the middle and were pinched into points around the edges, probably a reminiscence of the sun wheel. After this everyone made a complete ablution from head to foot, three live coals being dropped into the water as a charm against the troughs. A clean, and if possible a new garment was put on in which to sleep. But before sleeping the house was made tidy, all soiled water thrown away, all unseemly things put out of sight, all locks opened, an iron or steel blade, much feared by the troughs, was laid on the table, and a lamp left burning all night. Before daylight the good man lit the before-provided candle and carried it around as he fed the beasts, giving them better food than usual. Breakfast was eaten by candle-light, as many candles as possible being provided. The meal was as sumptuous as means would permit, and concluded, at least in the better-class houses, with a draft of whip-coal. This consisted of the yolks of a dozen eggs beaten up with a pound of sugar, half a pint of rum and a quart of cream. There was a jest that it was the tipple of the gods and heroes at their yule-feast in Valhalla. The short daylight was spent by the men and boys in a game of football, yule being the opening day of the season for that favourite sport. No work of any kind must be done, else muckled duel will be thy share this year in mare. The dinner was eaten at sunset, as ponderously substantial as the breakfast, with as many dainties of all kinds as could be procured. The evening was devoted to dancing, but it was necessary first to sane the children against the malice of the trolls. There was a gruesome story of two bairns whom their mother left in bed forgetting to say the charm when she went to dance in a neighbour's barn. Remembering her omission, she went back to repair it, but the children had vanished and the next day were found dead in a snowdrift. The trolls were fond of dancing and would, if possible, intrude into the company of mortals during the yule-tide festivities. But they always vanished if pious words were spoken. It was, however, dangerous to talk lightly of them. From yule to New Year's Day old style, no work must be done, else ill luck will follow through the year. Football by day and dancing in the evening furnished the principal occupations. But on New Year's Day, work of every kind must begin if only for a few minutes. Everything pertaining to thrift was got underway to begin the year well. Work and play went hand in hand until the old style 12th day, 12th January new style, when there were social and merry makings on an enlarged scale. At the close of the day all doors were opened, a great pretense was made of driving out invisible intruders, passages from the Bible were read or recited, and iron was ostentatiously displayed to drive the trolls away. And when the next day dawned, the trolls had vanished and the yules were ended. End of Section 47. We now come to deal with the subordinate festivals of the Christmas cycle, each of which has its own special folklore. It was thought that as the season of advent leading up to Christmas represents the coming of God to men, the twelve days following Christmas and culminating in epiphany represented the coming of man to God. In England during the Saxon monarchy it was ordained by law that these twelve days should be kept holy, an ordinance which, like almost every other good thing of that age, was popularly ascribed to Alfred the Great. Boxing day has been already referred to in connection with Christmas boxes, but from the latter part of the fourth century it has been observed as the Feast of St. Stephen. This distinction was no doubt conferred on him as the first Christian margar. Of Stephen we know absolutely nothing except what is recorded in two chapters of the New Testament, but there is a carol for St. Stephen's day, assigned to about the year 1400, which describes him as Herod's clerk of the kitchen. Stephen out of kitchen came with Bohr's head in hand. He saw a star was fair and bright over Bethlehem's stand. He cast down the Bohr's head and went into the hall. I forsake thee, King Herod, and thy work is all. There is a child in Bethlehem born is better than we all. This announcement is confirmed, as in the story of the carnal and the crane, by the crowning of a roasted fowl, whereupon Herod commands the tormentors to lead Stephen out of town and stone him without delay. Apart from the native absurdity of the story, the anachronism would be hard to beat. The feast of St. Stephen was not very pleasant to horses in days when Dr. Sangrado was a typical medical practitioner. Kirkmeyer tells us that every man drove his horses, quote, as swiftly as he can, until they do extremely sweat, and then they let them blood, which being done upon that day, they say it does them good and keeps them from all maladies and sickness through the winter, as if that Stephen any time took charge of horses here, close quote. The custom is said to survive in Austria and Tyrol. In many parts of Germany, too, and still more in Sweden, customs relating to horses are in vogue, races, cavalcades, feeding the horses with consecrated bread or corn, giving them hallowed salt, and sprinkling them with holy water. It would seem, however, that all this is in honor not of the biblical Stephen, but of one Stephen, a missionary and martyr in Sweden, who was a great lover of horses and was slain by the heathen in the ninth century. The pleasant modern ballad of Good King Wenceslas and his page on the feast of Stephen is said to be founded on traditions of an actual occurrence in Bohemia. In the north of Yorkshire till about a hundred years ago, the farmer's wives were accustomed to make large goose pies, which were cut up on St Stephen's Day and distributed to the poor. One of the pies was usually kept to be eaten at Candlemas. At present, however, outside ecclesiastical circles, St Stephen's Day is scarcely known in England except by its alternative name of Boxing Day. But in theatrical circles, it has been for several generations the great day of the year, the pantomime season. In the 18th century, the theaters were accustomed to present what were regarded as moral plays of the type of George Barnwell for the edification of the London Prentices. But toward the end of the century, it occurred to the managers that it might be better business to cater for the boys and girls home from school with a fairy tale or a popular story leading up to a laughable harlequinade. The experiment proved a complete success, aided as it was by the extraordinary popularity of the celebrated clown Joseph Grimaldi. A generation later, managers were accustomed to announce that the new pantomime had been in preparation all the summer. Gradually, the proverbial inconstancy of fashion discounted the traditional harlequin, Columbine, clown, and pantaloon and demanded sparkling jests, outrageous puns, topical songs, and the like ending with a gorgeous transformation scene. The usual groundwork of these entertainments is still, as of old, a fairy tale like Cinderella or the Sleeping Beauty, a story from the Arabian knights like Aladdin or the 40 Thieves, or a popular folk tale like Whittington and his cat or Robinson Crusoe. Of late years, attempts not wholly unsuccessful have been made to enforce moral lessons by dramatizing such stories as Dickens' Christmas Carol or Kingsley's Water Babies but on the whole, the public, especially the children, seemed to prefer the non-moral. St. John's Day, 27th December, is a festival of no great antiquity having only been established by ecclesiastical authority in the 13th century. The only special custom of the day was the drinking, sometimes to excess, of consecrated wine. This was said to be in memory of St. John having drunk a cup of poison from which he received no harm. Some folklorists say it was a survival of an old heathen wine sacrifice. All sorts of magical virtues were ascribed to this hallowed wine. Men drank it to make them strong and maids to make them fair. In Tyrol it was supposed to protect the drinker from being struck by lightning. In Rhineland, it guarded the other wine which a man might possess from injury. In Styria, it kept the body sound and healthy. In Bavaria, it was kept as a medicine against sickness. In Corinthia, Nassau, and other places, some of it was poured into the wine casks to protect the stock from harm. In the 17th century, these drinking customs were so rife that scholars maintained with every appearance of seriousness that the German word for Christmas, Weinacht, i.e. Holy Night was merely a misspelling of Weinacht, i.e. Wine Night. Probably the truest explanation of the whole was given by a Tito Taylor who sagely said, they drank because they liked it. The day of the Holy Innocence, 28 December, commonly called Childrenes, Northamptonshire, Dysimus, was generally accounted unlucky. It was unlucky to pair one's nails to put on a new suit or to begin any kind of work. If any work was begun on that day, it would either never be finished or would have an unfortunate ending. Not only so, it was held that the corresponding day of the week throughout the next 12 months was likewise unlucky. From the Past and Letters, 168 21st June, 1461, we learned that the coronation of Edward IV, originally fixed for Sunday, 28th June, was on this account deferred to the next day. In many places, it was customary on Innocence Day to whip the children all round, to make them remember Herod's cruelty. In France, children who allowed themselves to be caught in bed on that morning in for a whipping. In Normandy, the early risers among the young people themselves gave the sluggards a beating. In the Saxon Erzgeberg, the young men whipped the women and girls on St. Stephen's Day, if possible, while they are still in bed and the girls retaliate on St. John's Day. In other parts of Germany, the girls on St. Stephen's Day and the boys on St. John's Day beat their parents with fur branches, and the servants beat their masters with rosemary twigs. This is accompanied with a diddy imploring good luck or long life for the person who was beaten. That these whipping customs were not restricted to Innocence Day makes it very unlikely that they were originally commemorative of Herod's massacre. They were more probably indeed almost certainly of heathen origin designed either to expel evil spirits or to confer the magical benefit. They seem related to the Roman Lupercalia when young men ran about the streets with thongs striking every woman they met, the action being regarded as distinctly beneficent. The association of the custom with the Innocence Day is a mere adaptation. We have already recorded the custom at Godstow in the thirteenth century when on Innocence Day the public prayers were said by children. At a later period there were processions of children on that day which were suppressed by Henry VIII in 1540. It may be that a notion of literalizing the scripture precept to be as little children suggested a ludicrous practice at Lincoln's Inn in the early part of the sixteenth century when a king of cockneys was elected who held a mock court on Innocence Day. More commendable is a pleasant custom which of late has been observed in Westminster Abbey where on the afternoon of Innocence Day a musical service is held specifically adapted for children and old English carols are sung in procession. This surely deserves to be imitated wherever there are facilities for doing it effectively. In several parishes of West Somerset and Hevershire it was long customary to ring a muffled peel on Innocence Day. This practice survived until within living memory. 29th December before the Reformation was the ecclesiastical commemoration of St. Thomas of Canterbury, otherwise Archbishop Becket who was murdered in the cathedral on that day in 1170. References to him are found in several old carols this for example. The fifth day hallowed St. Thomas right as a strong pillar of brass held up the church and slain he was and crowned was for his prowess. But we have not met with any traditional custom on that day which seems at all related to him or to the honour in which he was deservedly held as a champion of the church against the usurpations of the civil power. 30th December in the ecclesiastical calendar is assigned for the commemoration of two or three all but forgotten saints of ancient date and purely local celebrity. The final day of the year is dedicated to St. Sylvester, Bishop of Rome in the days of Constantine the Great who figures largely in the monstrous 8th century fiction of the donation of Constantine. No popular custom or tradition is associated with these black letter saints. As to the midnight services which originated in the early days of the Methodist revival and which are now common far beyond the bounds of Methodism they were designed simply as a solemn consecration of the New Year and can only be regarded as an interlude in the Christmas festivities. In Scotland before the Reformation yuletide festivities were conducted with so much extravagance and disorder that the days from Christmas Eve to the New Year were popularly spoken of as the Daft Days. The violent and revolutionary character of the Scottish Reformation issued in the abandonment of all ecclesiastical anniversaries passed in yule among the rest being condemned as relics of papistry or heathenism. But the proverb holds good though you thrust out nature with a pitchfork she will return and the Daft Days were merely transferred to the New Year. Still the puritanic endeavor of the Scottish Reformers to make all things new did not find favour in the Relic-speaking districts of the Northern Highlands where customs of pre-Reformation and even pre-Christian antiquity survived till quite recent times. The term noleg coming from Welsh Nadelig and Latin Nitalis was applied to the whole seven days from Christmas Eve to the New Year. During that time tradition forbade any serious work. The house was decked with holly to keep away the fairies and certainly were not regarded as welcome guests. Christmas Eve was Oryochshnam Banigan, night of cakes from a custom of giving a cake to every person who entered the house. A slice cut from the Christmas cheese at the feast was supposed to have magical virtues. Familiar sayings were no Christmas without flesh and whom Christmas does not make cheerful Easter will leave sad and tearful. Customs relating to the Eve of the New Year seem to be mere survivals of hedonism and need not be further enlarged on. End of Section 48 Section 49 of Christmas and Christmas Law. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Christmas and Christmas Law by Thomas G. Crippen. Section 49 New Year's Eve Hogman A. Neither in the Roman or in the Anglican Church calendar is there any authoritative recognition of New Year's Day or of its Eve. This is owing to the fact that throughout Western Christendom the ecclesiastical year was supposed to begin with Advent, but in very early times every great ecclesiastical festival had its octave. A kind of diminished celebration on the eighth day. The intermediate day is being devoted to meditation on the topic of the season. Now the octave of Christmas being New Year's Day came into violent collision with the heathen festivity of the Callands of January which was often an occasion of much licentiousness. For a time therefore the church in many places kept the day as a fast by way of protest. But about the seventh century if not earlier it was remembered that as a son of Abraham Jesus was circumcised the eighth day and received the name that is above every name. A festival of the circumcision therefore supplanted the octave of Christmas. And perhaps by way of compensation the observances due to the latter were extended to twelve days. The first of January however was not honoured with a vigil such as had been accorded to most of the greater feasts. The midnight services with which the New Year is introduced in some Anglican churches are not therefore a survival of ancient custom but are frankly borrowed from Methodism. In the early days of the Methodist revival about 1741 some colliers at Kingswood who before their spiritual awakening had been accustomed to spend their Saturday nights in reveling and drunkenness began to spend those nights in prayer and thanksgiving. Wesley approved of their practice and commended it with modifications to the Methodist Society in London. The devotional meeting was to be held monthly on the Friday night nearest to the full moon. The first such meeting was held on 19th April 1742. In course of time the watch night came to be specialised on New Year's Eve and in 1750 Charles Wesley gave to the church that inspired and inspiring lyric let us a new our journey pursue etc. Where within Methodist circles the New Year is welcomed throughout the world. A custom which long survived in the lake district and which perhaps is not yet quite extinct may be regarded as semi ecclesiastical. This was to ring out the old year with muffled bells and to follow with a merry peel immediately on the stroke of midnight. But for the most part the observance of New Year's Eve is ostentatiously secular. There's no need to enlarge on its character as displayed around the Tron Kirk in Edinburgh in St Paul's Churchyard London and elsewhere when Scotchman do congregate. Drinking was and is a great feature of the Scottish New Year's Eve. Monfights were lighted in some places to burn out the old year. In others a tar barrel was set on fire and carried about the village its embers being kept as a charm against witchcraft. Formerly in the Highlands it was usual on New Year's Day to fumigate the house stables buyers etc with Juniper to preserve both man and beast from harm through the coming year. A similar custom persists in southern Germany, Austria and Tyrell. The peasant goes with all his household through every room and outhouse, his wife carrying vessel of holy water and a sensor. Every human being, every beast and even the provisions must be purified with sacred smoke and the holy sprinkling. In some places according to Cochmire this fumigation was performed on 12th night and some he says repeated it on three nights in succession. New Year's Eve is a favourite season for divinations. In Germany lead is melted in a spoon over a candle and thrown into water, omens being drawn from the shapes it assumes. In Lithuania various symbolic objects usually nine of them are formed of dough baked and laid under nine platters. Each person takes up three and whatever he gets will be symbolic of his future for the year. In Greece two olive leaves to represent a pair of lovers are laid on the cinders. As these curl approach, recoil or flame up, so will be the issue of the courtship. One cannot fail to observe the close resemblance of these practices to those described by Burns as customary in Scotland on Halloween which as has been said above was the Celtic New Year's Eve. An enormous amount of ingenuity has been spent in endeavours to trace the parentage of the capitalistic word hagmana or hogmene which with its innumerable variants is found in begging-ditties sung on New Year's Eve throughout western Europe. The classical derivation from the Greek hagiamene i.e. holy month is probably the least likely of all. Not much likelier is a guess that goes back to the heathen yuletide affirming that the night before the solstice was called chagannot the slaughter night with reference either to sacrifice or to the slaughter of cattle for the feast or for winter provision. This with many said to be the cup of remembrance always drained at the yule feast furnishes a hybrid and very improbable etymology of hogmene. Les farfetched is the guess that derives hogmene troll array from a forgotten French epiphany carol said to have commenced l'or mene, toi voir là, etc. But it seems much more likely that an old French chantier or guimene, tiriliri, mentubon et pointe bi may have been developed partly by translation and partly by corruption into the Scottish hogmene troll array guige a white bread and nae nabie a gray. Guille is the French name for mistletoe so that oguimene would be lead to the mistletoe Myles says this derivation is generally discredited as well as another from oguile en nu, i.e. to the mistletoe the new year but he does not suggest anything more probable a guille en nu if you choose in France both for the last day of the year and for the gift that is then expected oguilando and oguinaldo are Spanish forms for a Christmas box oguinane was Norman French other forms were oguilat nano and oguinane for gifts in Brittany the cry was oguiane and the boys called themselves the oguilinu in the Isle of Man a ditty of a similar character was sung by mummas on the eve of all saints day which as we have seen was the Celtic New Year's Eve the commencement of winter it began tonight is New Year's night oguinane a very similar form occurs at Roxburgh and elsewhere in the south of Scotland is oguinane quite a different it may be an independent derivation is suggested by the ditty sung at Richmond in Yorkshire tonight it is the New Year's night tomorrow is the day and we are come for our rights for our ray as we were used to do in old King Harry's day sing fellow sing hug man hey a hug is an old Yorkshire word for a wood or coppers and a hageman was a woodcutter it seems not unlikely that this last version originating at a time when old King Harry was still in living memory wood was commonly used for fuel may have been the woodcutter's appeal to his customers for a seasonable remembrance another chant he runs thus rise up good wife and shake your feathers and do not think that we are beggars we are bands come out to play so come and get a hug man hey an old Guiza time recorded in the gentleman's magazine in 1790 carries a grim suggestion rise up good wife and be now swear to deal your bread as long as you're here the time will come when you'll be dead and neither want for meal nor bread the same superstitions now chiefly remembered by way of jest respecting first footings on Christmas mornings the new year many country folks still observe the old custom of opening all the doors in the house a minute or two before midnight on 31st December and leaving them open until the clocks have struck the hour this is called letting the old year out and the new year in or as others affirm the expulsion of the old Adam and welcoming the new in the west of England it was customary before breakfast on New Year's morning to open the Bible at random to read the verse on which the finger happened to rest and from it to deduce omens or prognostications for the opening year in several places both in England Wales and Scotland the first to at midnight on New Year's Eve can draw from the well a picture of new water will have the best luck one thinks before said the well of Sinterpeen the water drunk on New Year's morning is a charm against witchcraft and the evil eye in some parts of Italy the well is decorated on New Year's Eve in the morning the girls go as usual for water but the lads are on guard and only sell the water for nuts fruit or kisses the first Monday in the new year is in various places called Hansel Monday the word meaning first sale or use it is deemed lucky to receive money early in the day and very unlucky to let anything go out of the house before breakfast end of section 49 recording by Jane Bennett section 50 of Christmas and Christmas law this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Christmas and Christmas law by Thomas G. Crippen section 50 old Christmas Eve were sailing trees at the wassail bowl and the ceremonial visit paid to the cattle by the wassailers in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire remarking that wassailing in Somerset Divin and some other places isn't altogether different though no doubt related practice it is in fact the survival of pleasant rustic custom which Herrick thus describes wassail the trees that they may bear you many a plum and many a pear for more or less of fruit they bring as you do give them wassail it the ceremony is deemed proper to old Christmas Eve i.e. the eve of Epiphany which corresponds to Christmas old style first a verse of the traditional wassail song wassail wassail all over the town or one of its many variants it sung then the company proceed to the orchard bearing a large jar or bowl of cider they surround the largest or most fruitful tree toast it in cider and dip a branch of the tree in the liquor or pour or sprinkle cider upon it sometimes gardens loaded with powder only are fired and kettles beaten to make a great noise sometimes three shouts were given each followed by a blast of a horn and before each shout all stooped and rose as if lifting heavy sacks another custom was to place a crumb of bread or cake and a little salt in the fork of the tree this appears like sympathetic magic doctor Rendell Harris thinks that a survival from some forgotten cult of an apple god the apple being perhaps the first fruit in England to be improved by cultivation the songs or nonsense verses that are sung very in different places this from some a set seems about the least idiotic wassail wassail all round the town the zyder cups whitened the zyders brown are zyder is made from good apple trees and now my vine fellows will drink if you please we'll drink your health with all our heart we'll drink to you all before we part he is one and he is two and he is three before we go we are three jolly boys all in a row here is another some a set chanting apple tree apple tree I was sale the to blow and to bear hat fulls cap fulls tree bushel bag fulls and my pockets full too hip hip hurrah indefinite corn while the tree spirit was incarnate in a small bird presumably a robin or tom tit he or it was represented by a little boy who climbed the tree and cried out tit tit more to eat on which a piece of bread and cheese or some cake and cider was given him the usual did he was he is to the old apple tree whence to butt and whence to blow and whence to bear as apples he know barn fulls bag fulls sack fulls lap fulls hat fulls cap fulls hurrah hurrah hurrah and whence there were several variants either roasted apples or toast was put in the cider jug and what was not drunk was sprinkled on the trees the ritual varied in different places indefinite a pale full of cider into which roasted apples had been broken was set in the middle of the orchard from this pale each person filled an earthen cup going to a tree drank part of the contents and threw the remainder with fragments of apple at the foot of the tree a piece of cake dipped in cider was placed in a fork of the tree for the robins this custom survived in two or three orchards near minehead with summer said till the early years of the present century the proper time for was sailing trees was called twelfth night corresponding to 17th January new style in Hampshire in the neighbourhood of the new forest the ditty was apples and pears and right good corn come in plenty to everyone eat and drink good cakes and ale give earth to drink and she will not fail in Kent and Sussex a kind of half-belief in the value of these incantations appears to have survived almost until within living memory the kentish chanty was stand fast root bear well top God send us a yowling crop every twig apple big every bow applesy now hats full caps full bushel bushel sacks full and my pockets full too hooray if no gratuity were forthcoming this benediction might be neutralised by a curse on trees intent the right was sometimes performed in Rogation week and in Sussex on New Year's Eve end of section 50 recording by Jane Bennett section 51 of Christmas and Christmas law this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Christmas and Christmas law section 51 epiphany from very early times the religious observances of Christmas were extended to 12 days Collier, ecclesiastical history, accounts for this by a supposed law of King Alfred to whom tradition has ascribed with equal probability almost every old English custom, civil or ecclesiastical however the season's festivities usually ended with 12th night or the feast of the epiphany which since 1800 coincided with the Christmas of the old style unreformed calendar and was therefore observed for two or three generations as old Christmas day indeed in West Somerset there are traces of old Christmas down to quite recent times it was especially the horses holiday for they were released from all labour and according to the kindly precept of St Francis received an extra supply of Provender all work on the farm was forbidden to violate that rule was sure to bring ill luck but it is uncertain whether this is in honour of Christmas day old style or of the feast of the epiphany the ceremonies proper to this day were in commemoration of the wise men from the east who were led by the star to Bethlehem patristic and medieval legend uniformly represents these as kings and finds in their pilgrimage and offerings a literal fulfilment of predictions in Psalm 72 10 and Isaiah 66 their royalty was firmly established in popular belief by the early part of the 4th century they were alleged to have been baptised by St Thomas the Apostle and what was supposed to be their embalmed bodies were brought to Constantinople by the Empress Helena they were removed thence to Milan and subsequently about 1170 to Cologne where their bones still remain in a costly shrine the skulls being dawned with jewelled crowns of great value the belief that these visitors were kings is responsible for the curious ceremony all still practised in the chapel royal St. James where in the king now by proxy but formally in person makes a formal presentation of gold frankincense and myrrh down to the middle of the 18th century the king went in state preceded by heralds, persuivants and the knights of the garter thistle and bath in the collars of their respective orders but on the insanity of George III this was discontinued and in these days two gentlemen from the Lord Chamberlain's office take gold frankincense and myrrh from a box adorned at the top with a spangled star and place them on an arms dish held by the officiating clergyman the ceremony is very ancient but we have not been able to trace its origin a similar custom existed in Spain since the day is called the Jeux des Rois the day of the kings and it was so offensive to the revolutionary powers in 1792 that its observance was strictly forbidden indeed any priest found celebrating it would have been an imminent danger of death in France and Italy during the Middle Ages there were semi dramatic representations of the epiphany not unlike the early ecclesiastical nativity plays one of them is described in Fosbrook's antiquities three priests clothed as kings with their servants carrying offerings met from different directions before the altar the middle one who came from the east pointed with his staff towards a star after mutual reference and a short dialogue a procession was formed and as soon as it entered the nave a star resembling a cross was lighted up and pointed out to the kings with behold the star in the east two priests standing on each side of the altar said we are they whom ye seek and drawing a curtain showed a child whom praying down they worship then the servants presented the offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh the mage kings continued praying till they fell asleep when a boy clothed in an alb to represent an angel addressed them with all things which the prophet said are fulfilled at Soiton the star was represented by an iron circle bearing seven tapers led down by a rope from the roof of the church a more elaborate mummery was exhibited by the preaching friars at Milan in 1336 the three kings appeared crowned each on a great horse richly comparison and attended by pages bodyguards and a great retinue a golden star was exhibited as going before them at the pillars of St. Lawrence they met King Herod with his scribes and wise men they asked him where Christ should be born and the scribes having consulted their books answered at Bethlehem there upon the three kings having in their hands golden cups filled with frankincense myrrh and gold marched with all their attendance to the church of St. Eustorgias the golden star went before them and they were preceded by trumpets and horns also by asses apes and other animals in the church on one side of the altar was a manger with ox and ass and the Christ child in the arms of his mother to whom the mage kings offered their gifts in Italy which English, French and German children expect at Christmas are often delayed till epiphany when they are supposed to commemorate the gifts of the wise men to the Holy Child the festival is often personified like our Father Christmas and the children ascribe the gifts to Baphana but Baphana is somewhat of a bogey but Baphana will eat them in Spain the gifts that epiphany are brought by the three holy kings who go every year to Bethlehem to visit the Holy Child and leave sweets and toys for good children who put their shoes outside the window to receive them in Spain and also in Provence the children formally went out on epiphany to see the kings pass by of course they did not see them the kings had passed behind the mountain but the children were not long disappointed after supper they went to church and there were the kings kneeling in adoration before the Christmas crib in many parts of France, Germany and Switzerland on the eve of epiphany boys and sometimes also girls went about in masks and strange disguises shouting, knocking at every door and making a great noise to scare away ghosts and devils in other places a mummery was performed in which the leader carried on a pole a lantern in the form of a star or perhaps a large guilt star while the rest sang a carol in its praise our Anglo-Saxon forefathers identified the star of Bethlehem with a certain bright star which they called Earendel in an Anglo-Saxon poem of the 9th or 10th century we find this line Hail Earendel Brightest of Angels in some eastern communities it is said that at epiphany dough rises without being leavened but leaven made from this dough must on no account be lent to anyone at epiphany the trees on the banks of Jordan bow and adore the saviour of or sailing trees on the eve of epiphany we have treated already in section 29 or sailing recording by Jane Bennett section 52 of Christmas and Christmas law this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Christmas and Christmas law by Thomas G. Krippen section 52 12th night according to ecclesiastical order the evening sunset on 5th of January is the first Vespers of Epiphany but in spite of church calendars most people will persist in beginning the day with the morning and so 12th night commences at sunset on 6th of January in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire it was usual at that time to light 12 small fires and one large one in a field with wheat this was vulgarly recorded as a charm to protect the wheat from smut but in Ireland there was a variant of the custom a sieve full of oats was set up as high as was conveniently practicable 12 lighted candles were set in the grain with a larger one in the middle the original meaning of these customs is quite forgotten although fires or lights were intended to symbolise Christ and his 12 apostles as the lights of the world while others regard them as a survival from the yule fires of heathen sun worship at Brough in Westmoreland there was a custom which though observed on 12th night seems reminiscent of some antiquated form of the Christmas tree was prepared by fastening a torch to every branch these were lighted the tree was carried round the village accompanied with music and torches and was saluted at certain stations when the torches had burnt out the tree was scrambled for by the respective partisans of the two village inns and the victorious party carried it to their favourite hostel where the night was spent in merry making in many village inns in the west of England the host kept open house on 12th night the ashen faggot blazed upon the hearth and the mirth and fun grew fast and furious and it is to be feared the virtue of sobriety was not always duly cultivated but the 12th night supper was the culmination of all in the middle of the table there was again a huge cake in which was hidden a coin or a bean and a pea the cake being divided he who had the coin or the bean was saluted as king and the holder of the pea as queen presumably if a lady drew the bean she would nominate the king and vice versa a mock court was constituted the officers and titles being and the fun consisted in the characters being maintained throughout the evening these characters were written or printed on slips of paper and drawn from a hat at least that was the English custom in the time of Charles II later pictorial characters with verses were introduced which was supplied by pastry cooks and confectioners these are said to have been devised by one John Britton, topographer and antiquary 1771 to 1857 they were at first courtly historical or legendary or taken from the popular comedies of the day the custom continued till far into the 19th century but was at length killed by the introduction of course and offensive characters like Sir Gregory Goose or Sir Tun Belly clumsy it is not unlikely that the grotesque headdressers of modern Christmas crackers have some relation to the extinct twelfth night characters as to the cake an early recipe informs us that it was made of flour, honey, ginger and pepper but in Herrick's time it was an ordinary plum cake by the end of the 18th century the cake was elaborately adorned with more or less artistic figures in sugar or plaster often gaudily coloured we read of one cake in the form of a fortress with sentinels and flags some of the devices were grotesque or humorous the writer remembers seeing in his childhood about 1851 or 1852 a cake crowned with a realistic presentation of the mill where they grind old women young the cakes were often of great size the price sometimes amounting to several guineas Hone tells us that in his day these cakes made a glorious show in every confectioner's shop window and it was a favourite prank of the London street boys to pin together the coats and the gowns of the people who clustered around or dexterously to nail a coat to the bottom of a window frame of course this was before the advent of the new police one badly an actor who had formally been a cook bequeathed in 1795 a sum of money to provide cake and wine for the performers in the green room of Drury Lane theatre on twelfth night and to the present time after the lapse of more than a century the ceremonial cutting of badly's cake is regularly continued in France the king or queen was the only distinguished character used usually the cake was cut up and a child covered with a cloth named the recipient of each piece the first piece was for Le Bantieu and the second for the Blessed Virgin these were given to some poor persons and if either of them contained the bean the king was chosen by lot or drank the king's health and whenever he had occasion for liquid refreshment the whole company shouted the king drinks the customary twelfth night was the lambswool already described the king's life or his translator adds that the twelfth night king was with shouts and cries exalted to the heavens up who taking chalk in hand does make a cross on every beam and rafter as they stand great force and power have these against all injuries and harms of goblins and charms so much this king can do so much the crosses bring to pass made by some servant made or child or by some foolish us in the west of England where the reformed calendar was slowly and reluctantly accepted the ceremonies of epiphany were for several generations deferred till the twelfth day after Christmas old style so that the old twelfth night was 17th of January which was deemed the proper time for was sailing both the cattle and the orchards Christmas was supposed to end with twelfth night which in Normandy was marked by bonfires in Sweden the date is the octave of epiphany 13th of January called Sint Nutt's day Kink Nutt who died in 1036 forbade all fasting from Christmas to that date on that day the young people dance around the table from which all provisions are then removed and the household in a kind of mimic fight pretend to drive away any guests who may remain end of section 52 recording section 53 of Christmas and Christmas Lore this is a Libra Vox recording all Libra Vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Libra Vox.org recording by Linda Marie Nielsen Vancouver BC Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen feast of fools or of the ass there was one strange custom the date of which varied in various places but which wherever it was observed was regarded as the final close of the Christmas festivities this was the feast of fools otherwise called the feast of the ass cathedrals and religious houses where the inferior clergy were numerous it was customary in the 12th century for the deacons to have a merrymaking on St. Stephen's Day the priests on St. John's and the choir boys on innocence then on the 1st January circumcision 6th January epiphany or 13th January the octave of epiphany the sub-deacons and inferior clergy held a regular Saturnilla at Vespers at the words deposuit ponte de said in the Magnificat the presenters staff was handed to the clerk who had been chosen as Lord of the feast forward the whole service was turned into burlesque everything was topsy-turvy dice were cast and black puddings were eaten on the altar ludicrous songs were sung some danced in the choir in grotesque dresses old leather was burned as mock incense and in some places an ass was led into the church in whose honor a ridiculous Latin hymn was sung with he-ha for the refrain at Beauvais on 14th January a girl with a child in her arms rode on an ass into the church to represent the journey of the holy child and his mother into Egypt the mass was said in which the entroit Kyrie Gloria and Credo each ended with a bray and at close instead of the usual eat Misa asked the priest braid three times the people responding in like manner it is strange that such upper lask of sacred rights should have been tolerated and apparently encouraged by ecclesiastical dignitaries who would certainly have commuted anyone who dared seriously to criticize either the rights or the opinions on which they were grounded there are traces of this irreverent folly in Germany and bohemia and when at length its impropriety was recognized by those in authority it had become too popular to be easily suppressed it was prohibited by the Council of Basil in 1435 yet the last trace of it lingered in the Cathedral of the Amines till 1721 here is a fairly close translation of the mock hymn of which mention has just been made the tune is found in several modern hymn books under the name of Corton partibus from the regions of the east came the strong and handsome beast none with donkey may compare for the loads that he will bear hail sir donkey hail slow indeed his paces are if the cudgel be not there to inflict a hastening thump or the goat to vex his rump hail sir donkey hail by the measure of his ears lord health asses he appears son of sire who bore the yoke truly an illustrious milk hail sir donkey hail he on hills of she am born reared beneath a bush of thorn crossed old Jordan's hurrying stream trotted on to Bethlehem hail sir donkey hail then for quiteish antics queer capering kid and bounding deer middens dromedary is tall bold jackass would beat them all hail sir donkey hail incense from Sabia's tree myrrh and gold of Arabic at the church arrive at length by the noble asses strength hail sir donkey hail while he draws the loaded wane with a deal of toil and pain hard the pro vendor he knows crunching with his mighty jaws hail sir donkey hail barley with its bristly beard wheat from and refuse cleared prickly thistles all complete make for him a dainty treat hail sir donkey hail amen donkey say amen with your char drawn full of grain amen amen yet once more sliding all that was before hail sir donkey hail end of section 53 section 54 of Christmas and Christmas Lore this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Linda Marie Nielsen Vancouver BC Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Krippen plow Monday etc nothing so bad as the Feast of Fools was ever tolerated in the Church of England but rural England seems to have been loath to resume the ordinary round of labour for although Christmas ended with 12th night it was accounted ill manners to do a full day's work on the following day it would be called St. Distaff's Day if the men coming in from work found the maids spinning they would set fire to the flax and the maids would retaliate by drenching the men with water the Monday next after 12th night was called Plow Monday the common explanation of the name is that it was usual to commence the day but in view of the fact that but little plowing is done in January some other origin seems to be demanded it appears that in Catholic times the plowmen were accustomed to keep lights burning before certain images in the Church to obtain a blessing on their work these were called plow lights and it is said to go about in procession on this day to collect money for their maintenance the plow lights ceased at the reformation but in many places the procession continued with humorous developments such as Morris dancing and the like the money being expended in social festivity in the north of England it was customary for parties of young men ludicrously bedizoned and harnessed together with ropes to drag a plow called the full plow probably a corruption of your plow round the village with much crackling of whips and blowing of horns sometimes this was accompanied by music Morris dancers and generally by a fool and his feminine counterpart called the Bessie the fool was often dressed in skins with a dependent tail and the Bessie was commonly a boy dressed to represent an old woman plow Monday is now chiefly remembered in connection with some customary services in menorial courts still rendered on that day End of Section 54 Section 55 of Christmas and Christmas Lore this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Linda Marie Nielsen Vancouver B.C. Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen According to the law of Moses as understood 1900 years ago every first born son was to be presented before the Lord and redeemed by an offering this was usually done on the 40th day from the birth of the child until which time the mother was accounted ceremoniously unclaimed our Lord as became him who was all things obedient to the law was duly presented after the custom of the law and old Simon who in all likelihood had heard the strange story which the shepherds made known abroad concerning this child recognized in him the long awaited consolation of Israel the promised light to lighten the Gentiles it was quite in accord with the P.S. sentiment of early Christian ages that this recognition should be commemorated by an anniversary which should terminate the Christmas cycle as Holy Thursday does that of Easter we may accept the authority of Barneus this anniversary was observed at Jerusalem as early as A.D. 385 and at Rome during the pontificate of Jalasius 492 to 496 in the Danubian province it was observed about 500 at Constantinople about 452 in Gal in 650 and in England it was mentioned by Bada early in the 8th century by the Greeks it was called Hypa Pani i.e. the feast of meeting in the west it was the feast of the presentation or of SS Simon and Anna or among the more richly proposed the purification of the blessed virgin but the prophetic words of Simon suggested another title the feast of lights of which adaptions and variants are found in many languages in German it is Leichenmess in Danish Kendallmess in English Candlemass here in modern French Le Chandelier and in Italian Candelora Candelera or Santa Maria Candeliria these names and the associated customs remind us that from of all the use of lamps and candles was customary though not needed for lighting yet symbolically or as a token of rejoicing it was disproved by Territulian in the third century and by Lactanius in the fourth but in the 5th century it seems to have been specially appropriated to the feast of the presentation several authorities represent it as Christianize adaption of the Roman Lupercalia churches and candles were carried in honor of series and prospering however this may have been in the earlier half of the 8th century there was at Rome on Candlemass day a procession with candles in which the pope and his deacons wore black vestments and on that day Gloria in Excelsis black sung on this custom we have found no explanation as to the practice of the Middle Ages it is related that on this day the church blessed her candles for the whole year and made a procession with blessed candles in the hands of the faithful the blessing invoked on the candles was that in whatsoever place they shall be lighted or put the devil may depart and tremble and fly away with all his ministers from that habitation and not presume any more to disturb it etc the candles thus blessed when used in procession were commonly lighted from one very large one which in Spain was kindled with new fire newly struck from Flint the candle ends were frequently preserved as charms the practice at Rome about the year 1820 is thus described the benediction was given by the pope in person he being attended by the cardinals in robes of crimson and gold after the blessing his holiness distributed candles down to all present cardinals bishops abbots priors cannons etc down to the humblest officials of the church going up singly and kneeling to receive them the candles were then lighted and the pope seated in his chair was carried round the anti chapel in procession with chanting after this the pope and cardinals retired resumed their ordinary dresses and proceeded with the usual mass candle bearing on candle must a was discontinued in the church of England by the order of council in 1548 but the more conservative of the clergy long persisted in marking the day by use of an exceptionally large number of tapers appeared and preacher in 1548 declared that on candle must a last past Mr. Cousins in renewing that poppish custom of burning candles to the owner of our lady busyed himself from two of the clock in the afternoon till four in climbing long ladders to stick up wax candles in the cathedral church of Durham the number of all the candles burnt burning was 220 besides 16 torches 60 of those burning tapers and torches standing upon and near the high altar as he calls it where no man came the Mr. Cousins referred to is John Cousins afterwards Bishop of Durham a contributor to the gentlemen's magazine 1990 narrates that if you years before being at Rippon on the Sunday before candle must he observed that the collegiate church was one continued blaze of light all the afternoon from an immense number of candles candle mass is one of the Scottish quarter days and was marked by some traditional observances now obsolete to the origin or significance of which a clue may perhaps be found in the fact the candle must coincides with the festival of Saint Bride or Bridget the friend of Saint Patrick and founder of the first nunnery in Ireland the connection of the Celtic church in Ireland with that in Scotland especially the Western Isles was very intimate and many Scottish churches were dedicated in the names of Irish saints in some of the Western Isles the women of each household dressed a sheaf of oats in a woman's apparel laid it in a large basket with a club beside it and just before going to bed cried three times brood is come brood is welcome if in the morning should appear among the ashes what might be thought the impression of brood's club this would be the omen of a prosperous year and vice versa brood can scarcely be other than Saint Bride the usual dwelling of Saint Bridget was killed there and there for several hundred years a perpetual flyer was certainly in her honour but really there can be little doubt as a survival of pre-christian practice the notion of a perpetual fire seems related to the custom of rekindling the remains of the Ewell log on Candemus Eve i.e. on Saint Bride's day quenching it at midnight and reserving it to kindle the log next year moreover in most schools in the south of Scotland it was customary to kindle a candle-less blaze i.e. a bonfire not infrequently a growing furs bush if found conveniently near would be set on fire and the boys and girls presented to the schoolmaster donations of six pence or a shilling more or less according to the ability of the parents or the popularity of the Dominique as a contribution towards the candle-less blaze the boy and girl who brought the most blaze were acclaimed as king and queen of candle mess they were crowned enthroned and royally saluted the whole school was regaled with biscuits and whiskey punch the remainder of the day being spent in games and merry making one need not be fanatical tea toddler to be of opinion that the best thing about this custom was its discontinuance football matches parish against parish or married against single were customary in Scotland and were keenly contested several local and domestic customs have also been reported as relating to the day mostly connected with candles the weather too was deemed to be indicative of that of the ensuing season mostly by the rule of contraries one of several Scottish weather proverbs runs thus if candle-less day be fair and clear they'll be twelve winters in the year in England outside of purely ecclesiastical circles candle-less is now scarcely recognized except as marking the definite end of the festive season when as before directed the last remains of the Christmas decorations should be removed then as Herrick bids us and now the white loaf and the pie and let all sports with Christmas die end of section 55 section 56 of Christmas and Christmas lore this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Linda Nielsen Vancouver BC Christmas and Christmas lore by Thomas G. Crippen epilogue in these later years we have been crowding into great cities and our villages have largely gone to decay how far this has been the inevitable result of causes beyond human control or how far it has been brought about by social abuses which are capable of being readdressed are questions for statesmen which need to be considered in the spirit not of the exchange but of the precipio the most poetical of our Christmas customs pertain rather to the village than to the city and this is natural it was at Bethlehem not at Jerusalem or Babylon or Rome that the first Christmas Carol was sung the first Christmas gift presented and surely we may hope that as a result of increasing wisdom and especially of a more Christian spirit in our social legislation a new era of prosperity will air long dawn in the villages wherein we may read the good council of old Thomas Tusser without a suspicion of mockery what good to get riches by breaking a sleep but having the same a good household to keep not only to bring a good fame to thy door but also the prayer to win of the poor neighbor is little to get which wanting the poorest in danger are set what season so fitting in all the whole year thy needy poor neighbors to comfort and cheer at Christmas be merry and thankful with all and feast thy poor neighbors the great with the small get Holly and Ivy to trim up the house one for to see and to south provide us good cheer for the old guys old customs that good be let no man despise yes all the year round to the poor let us give God's blessing to follow by which we do live there we have the genuine spirit of Christmas the spirit that dickens so delightfully embodies in his immutable story of a Christmas Carol that some cynics would have us believe him to have being the inventor of Christmas we are not sufficiently up to date to accept this view of the matter but indisputably the magician who conjured up Marley's ghost has given to the spirit of Christmas a literary setting such as none of the old minstrels ever excelled and just in proportion as this is realized we shall see the shriveled heart of Scrooge expanding with his genial warmth the ghost of Marley effectually laid and Bob Cratchit beginning to feel that he is not left behind the brotherhood of humanity and so we conclude with Tani Tim's benediction God bless us everyone End of section 56 Recording by Linda Marie Nielsen Vancouver BC End of Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen