 Section 31 of Christmas and Christmas Lore. This is a LibreVox recording. All LibreVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibreVox.org. Recording by Betty B. Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen. The Yule Log. A Seasonable Christmas in England is a cold one, and our ancestors were much of the opinion of Charles Lamb that of all the enjoyments of the season, the most indispensable is a large, heaped-up, all-attractive fire. Our familiar grates for economizing coal are quite a modern invention. The old English Christmas fire blazed upon a wide, open hearth, as it still does where wood or peat is the fuel most invoke. In preparation for the festival, a huge log was selected beforehand, as large as the fire dogs would conveniently sustain. In some places it was the whole trunk of a tree, which had been selected at Candlemas. In Scotland it was commonly a piece of a birch tree, stripped of its bark and dried beforehand, whence the proverb used for one who was extremely poor. He's as bare as a birch on Yule Eve. The Yule Log was sometimes brought home with considerable ceremony, drawn with ropes by many willing hands, it being thought, or at least said, that all who helped were thereby ensured against witchcraft for the coming year. Herrick sings, Come, bring with a noise my merry, merry boys, the Christmas log to the firing, while my good dame she bid you all be free and drink to your heart's desiring. With the last year's brand, light the new block, and for good success in his spending, on your sultry's play, that sweet luck may come while the log is attaining. In Provence the whole family go out on Christmas Eve to bring in the log, which should be cut from a fruit tree. The bears walk in line, the eldest foremost, and the rest in order of seniority. A carol is sung, praying for fertility in field and fold, house and vineyard. The youngest child pours wine on the log in the name of the trinity, then thrown on the fire. In France it was sometimes four feet long, it was always kindled at one end and replaced on the hearth every evening until consumed, or till twelfth night. If any of it still remained, it was carefully preserved as a charm against lightning and against chill-blanes during the winter. In Normandy, before the Revolution, it was usual to extinguish the household fire and kindle the log with the flame procured from a lamp in the nearest church. Sometimes when the log was duly placed and before it was kindled, the prettiest girl in the company was seated on it and her health drunk by all present. In other places the children were warned not to sit on the log, lest they should catch the itch. Another strange custom was to chalk a rude figure of a man on the log before it was ceremoniously lighted. One would think this must have been a dim reminiscence of human sacrifice in heathen times. In many places the presents for the children were arranged on the yule log. Almost everywhere the custom was that a remnant of the log should be reserved to kindle the new log next Christmas. Sometimes the remnant was kindled afresh on candle, Miss Eve, and after blazing a while was quenched and preserved as a charm against fire and other misfortunes. Akin to this was a custom in the Netherlands of kindling a splinter of firwood, quenching it when half burned and placing it under the bed as a charm against lightning. In Brittany it is still usual to light the log, always with the brand rescued from last year, at the moment when midnight sounds from the church tower. The very widespread practice of kindling the new log with the remnant of the old seems like the survival of an ancient Celtic notion of a perpetual sacred fire, of which we have more definite illustrations in Ireland. A very common superstition is that unless the maids wash their hands before touching the log, the fire will burn dull. In some parts of Yorkshire it was sought that a squinting or barefooted person would bring ill luck if he came in while the log was burning. Many northern and western customs appear to favor the view that the yule log is a survival from the Norsemen, among whom it is said the yule fire burned in honor of Thor and was maintained with logs of his tree, the oak. The yule log is an important matter in Dalmatia, Croatia, and Serbia. Not Christmas Eve, but Christmas morning is the time of its cremation. The tree, or several young trees, are felled before sunrise with some ceremony, and being thrown on them with the words Good Morning Christmas. As they are carried in, lighted candles are held on each side of the door, and as the housefather enters with the first log, corn or wine is thrown on him by one of the family. Sometimes the girls adorn the log with leaves and flowers or with red silk and gilt wire. Sometimes corn and wine are poured on it, and a plow share and an orange set upon it, and it may grow well and the beasts be healthy. It is arranged beforehand who, not of the family, shall first enter the house. He comes early in the morning and shakes corn out of his glove on the threshold, saying Christ is born. One of the family sprinkles corn upon him, saying he is born indeed. These phrases, it scarcely needs to be said, are the regular Christmas salutation and response. The visitor then beats the log to make the sparks fly and utters a wish for good luck to the household and their farm. Possibly in its origin, this ceremonial may have been a solemn rekindling of the sacred hearthfire, the center of the family life and dwelling place of the ancestors. It certainly seems somewhat heathenish. It must always be remembered that the Yule log, with all its archaic and sentimental associations, belongs exclusively to the open hearth. The modern apology, a billet the size of a quarter-in-loaf set on the top of a coal fire in a modern grate, is about as much like the genuine Yule log as a horse chestnut is like a chestnut horse. Still, at Ripon and probably elsewhere, coopers were want to dispose of useless, naughty blocks by giving them to customers to serve as Yule logs. If anything of these was left, it was consumed on Old Christmas Eve. Rand, writing in 1777, tells us that in the north of England, a very large block of coal was often set apart as a substitute for the Yule log. In Devonshire and Somerset Cottages, an ashen faggot takes the place of the Yule log. The origin of this was accounted for by a pretty legend. When the shepherds came through the snow to Bethlehem, the Yule family suffering from the cold. So the youngest of the shepherds went out and gathered a bundle of ash sticks, wherewith to kindle a fire. Ash being, it is said, the only wood that will burn freely while green. Another explanation of the custom relates it to a vague story of King Alfred during his sojourn at Athelnae. But considering that the ash was held sacred by the Danes and Norsemen, when the Saxons of Somerset were at least nominally Christian, we are disposed to associate the ash and faggot with the mythic ash idrassil of the Eddis, by which the world was sustained, the roots of which went down to hell while its branches soared to heaven. To burn the sacred ash on Christmas Eve might well be a symbolic repudiation of heathenism. As with the Yule log, so with the ash and faggot, a remnant should always be reserved to kindle the fire in the following year. In some places the ash and faggot was associated with the custom, which is now, we may hope, generally obsolete. The faggot of huge size and having nine bands was kindled on the wide hearth of a farmhouse or public house kitchen. The men sat around and as each band of the faggot gave way, a fresh quart of cider was brought in. If anyone retired being overcome by the heat, he was expected to pay for another quart of cider by way of penalty. In short, like many other old drinking customs, it was a competition who could imbibe the greatest quantity of liquor without being helplessly intoxicated. A less objectionable custom was to associate each of the nine bands with the names of a pair of lovers. The jest was that they, whose band was first burnt through, would first be married. If by any chance the Christmas fire should go out, that would be very unlucky, especially when Lucifer matches were unknown and Tinder boxes rather a rarity. For in many places, particularly in the north of England, nobody would oblige another with a kindling at Yule. It was deemed unlucky that any light should leave the house from Christmas Eve till New Year's Day. The fire, therefore, was kept constantly burning, and on this account, at Cleobury Mortimer, Salop of the Curfew Bell, was not rung during the Christmas season. In some places, a bonfire was made in some open space and kept burning from Christmas Eve till the New Year, so as to be available in case of emergency. In other places, on the contrary, the custom was not to light a fire on Christmas Day, except with fire borrowed from a neighbor's house. This seems related to the notion of a perpetual, sacred fire. The ashes of the Christmas log were supposed to give fertility to the ground, to rid cattle of vermin, to cure toothache, and to protect the house from fire and ill luck. But to throw them out on Christmas Day would be nothing short of criminal. It would be throwing ashes in the Savior's face. End of section 31. Section 32 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 32 Christmas Candles In a carol of the earlier half of the 19th century, we read, then be glad, good people, this night of all the year, and light ye up your candles. His star is shining near. Christmas Candles can claim a high antiquity. The Jews, at their yearly Feast of Lights, in addition to the lamps or candles necessary for illumination, set up many others in honour of the feast. And when our Christian ancestors transfer the name from the Feast of Dedication to that of the Nativity, they took over this custom also. It seems to be alluded to by Tertullian, in a passage already quoted in which he denounces the festival use of lamps as pertaining to heathenism. It was usual, all through the Middle Ages, to set up on Christmas Eve, both in church and hall, one very large candle in remembrance of the star of Bethlehem or perhaps in remembrance of the words of Simeon, who spoke of the Holy Child as a light to lighten the Gentiles. In the buttery of St John's College, Oxford, there is, or was, a large stone candlestick ornamented with the Holy Lamb, and specially reserved for this purpose. In Scotland, before the confirmation, if the great Christmas candle went out before midnight it was thought to portend some great calamity to the family. If it continued to burn, then some time after midnight it was extinguished and the remnant carefully preserved to be used at the like-wake, that is, death-watch of the head of the family. In Ireland the yule log is little regarded but the Christmas candle is of great importance. It is of large size sufficient to serve for New Year's Eve and 12th Night. If there is not a candlestick big enough to receive it, some homely substitute has contrived perhaps fashioned out of a large turnip. Before lighting it is decked with holly or with coloured paper cut in fantastic patterns. A similar custom is said to exist in Ireland and in some parts of Germany. Early in the last century it was customary in Lancashire villages for the children on the day before the holidays each to bring a candle to the schoolmaster and within living memory, grocers and chandlers used regularly to give large Christmas candles to their customers or their children a fashion which only died out as dips and moulds gave place to improved methods of illumination. In a colliery village near Oswestry, Salop, early in the last century it was customary in the evenings of Christmas week to carry about the street, boards covered with clay in which were stuck lighted candles. This custom was confined to the colliers. Its origin and meaning seemed to be quite forgotten. In Norway it was usual on Christmas Eve to arrange all the silver and polished pewter in the house so that the light of the Christmas candle should shine on it as if in benediction. In West Jutland two large candles were lighted to represent the householder and his wife. Whichever of them burnt the longer it was supposed that its representative would outlive the other. Usually in all the Scandinavian countries the yule candle had to burn all through the night until the sun arose. It should then be extinguished by the father or the oldest member of the household. The remainder of the candle was smeared on the plough or used to make the sign of the cross on the cattle or given to the poultry or in some other way used as a charm against ill luck. End of section 32 Section 33 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 The Christmas Feast Let us now suppose that we have hung up the holly and ivy not forgetting the mistletoe. We have listened to the weights and the carol singers laughed at the mummers and paid the usual toll to the wassel bowl. We have lent a hand toward bringing home the yule log, eaten our carp or herring salad, laid up all needful provision in our own modest larder, and duly responded to the call of the Christmas bells. And now it may be we are accepting an invitation to dine at the great house of the village. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said that he thought the creator had rather a liking for the common people he made so many of them. But the creators of Christmas literature seem in general to be otherwise minded. For in almost every literary or poetic description of a Christmas feast from an earlier pen than that of Dickens it is the feast of the palace, the castle, or at least the manor house, where the squire and his worthy dame keep open house throughout the festive season. No doubt here, as elsewhere, distance lends enchantment to the view. Indisputably the good old times as pictured to us by Herrick and Wither, Walter Scott and Washington Irving have a sort of glamour which makes us wish they could be recalled. But if we were able to do so it is likely we should find the price more than we were willing to pay. Sir and Lady Bountiful were excellent people in their way. Take them for all and all, we shall not look upon their like again. But they believed with all the assurance of religious conviction in the divine right of the landlord, quote, to determine who should be associated with him in the cultivation of the soil, end quote. And if, in those good old days, tenant or labourer had so much as money or voting against the squire or saying his prayers otherwise than according to the act of uniformity, the very least he could have looked for would have been to be set down for a Puritan who could have no possible interest in Christmas or any of its festivities. The ideal English Christmas, to which the fancy of later generations looked longingly backward, was that of Queen Bess or James before Puritanism had grown strong enough to be troublesome. To such a Christmas feast let us transport ourselves in imagination. The hall is decked with holly, picturesquely stuck among the antlers and old armour that are its usual adornments. The remains of the yule log are still discernible on the hearth. The guests are seated at the long tables with strict regard to social rank. A sound of music is heard outside, the jester gambles in with some extravagant antique, and all the company rise in honour of the boar's head, carried by the chief cook on a silver dish, raised with bay, having in its mouth a lemon or a roasted pippin, and in its ears sprigs of rosemary. It is closely followed by the minstrels, and as many of the upper servants as can be mustered, carrying the boars, and the procession moves slowly up to the high table, singing the never-to-be-forgotten carol, the boar's head in hand bear I be decked with bays and rosemary, and I pray you, my masters be merry, quote Estes in convivio. The boar's head, as I understand, is the chief service in this land, which thus be decked with a gay garland, servite com cantico. Our steward hath ordained this in honour of the king of bliss, who this day to be served is, in Reginenzi atrio. Caput apri defero redens laude's domino. Footnote. This is the form in which the carol has been regularly sung at Oxford for the last two hundred years. The older recension, printed by Winkenday Word in 1521, gives the third verse as follows. Be glad, lords, both more or less, for this hath ordained our steward to cheer you all this Christmas, the boar's head with mustard. There are several other boar's head songs, ranging from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, but they are of little interest. The older ones are mere doggerel, and the latter ones, with allusions meleaguer, the caledonian boar, etc., have nothing in common with genuine folk song. They are simply academical jokes. And footnote. The ceremonial bringing in of the boar's head with music is a custom of great antiquity. It is distinctly recorded, as having been performed, according to the manor, at a royal banquet in eleven seventy. Of its meaning something will be better. As to the subordinate dishes, here is a rhyming list from a manuscript of the fifteenth century. If of no other interest, it tells us what in those days was accounted good eating. Then comes the second course with great pride, the cranes, the herons, the bitterns by their side, the partridge, the plover, the woodcock and the snipe, larks in hot scow, footnote, and footnote. For the ladies to pike, firmity for partridge and venison fine, umbels of the dough and all that ever comes in, capons well baked and knuckles of the row, raisins and currants and other spices mow, good drink also, luscious and fine, blood of alamane, romney and wine. Swan was a standard dish in great houses at Christmas according to the Duke of Northumberland's household book, 1512, five swans were dished for Christmas Day, three for New Year's Day and four for Twelfth Day. A peacock was a favorite Christmas dish of old time, skinned before roasting, reclothed with his own feathers and the beak either gilded or holding a sponge saturated with blazing spirit. The custom was that the peacock should be fed by a servant, but by the most distinguished lady of the company. He was, confessedly, dry meat and was served with abundance of gravy, though we venture to doubt the story of three fat weathers being needed to make gravy for one peacock. Turkey first appears as Christmas fair in 1524. Bustard continued to figure in Christmas menus till the end of the 18th century, but the bird has since become practically extinct in England. Profusion, rather than refinement, was characteristic of those old Christmas feasts. In 1248, when King Henry III was keeping his Christmas at Winchester, he ordered his treasurer to fill Westminster Hall with poor people and feast them for a whole week. Richard II was even more prodigal in his Christmas feasting. When Westminster Hall was enlarged and embellished, he provided 28 oxen, 300 sheep, and game and fowls without number, feeding 10,000 guests during several days. One old writer, John of Salisbury, tells of a Christmas feast that began at three o'clock in the afternoon and ended at midnight, when delicacies were brought from such remote places as Constantinople, Syria, Egypt, and Babylon. Here is a bill of fare about the year 1560 or 1570, including 16 principal dishes. One, a shield of brawn with mustard. Two, a boiled capen. Three, a boiled piece of beef. Four, a chine of beef roasted. Five, a neat's tongue roasted. Six, a pig roasted. Seven, chew-its baked. Footnote, probably a kind of savory mince pie. Eight, a goose roasted. Nine, a swan roasted. Ten, a turkey roasted. Eleven, a haunch of venison roasted. Twelve, a pasty of venison. Thirteen, a kid with a pudding in the belly. Fourteen, an olive pie. Fifteen, a couple of capens. One, a custard or dow set. Sixteen other dishes were made up of salads, fricassees, devised paste, and sundries. The roast beef of Old England has been for ages the great Christmas fare. The legend of Sir Loin, knighted by Charles II, is no doubt apocryphal, though the table on which the ceremony is said to have been performed still exists in several places for it. But a barren of beef, that is, two Sir Loin's not cut asunder, but joined by the end of the backbone is still roasted for the king's table every Christmas day. As to what may be called the accessories of the old time Christmas feast, bread, of course, goes without saying, and there must have been some provision of roots and pot herbs as beet, carrots, coal warts, parsnips, skirats, and turnips. Potatoes were only introduced in fifteen eighty-six, and were a rarity until after the restoration. The firmity, or frumenty, of the old rhyming bill affair according to the oldest formula now extant, was wheat boiled till the grains burst and, when cool, strained and boiled again with broth or milk and yolks of eggs. This was the legitimate achievement of fat venison or fresh mutton. In more recent times, frumenty was a mockish concoction of stewed wheat, boiled up with milk, raisins, sugar, and spices. It was lately, and perhaps still is, the regulation Christmas Eve supper in many rural parts of Yorkshire. Elsewhere, it was the first thing taken on Christmas morning, ale poset being the last thing drunk on Christmas Eve. In Shropshire, the custom was that every farmer should set aside a sack of wheat for the poor, from which, on St. Thomas' Day, his wife or daughter doled out a pint or a quart to each comer, according to their poverty and the size of their family. This was to make frumenty for the Christmas feast. The custom survived here and there till about eighteen seventy, but generally before that time the farmers gave money to the person instead, to provide clothing for the poor. The aforesaid frumenty was probably an early stage in the evolution of what afterwards became plum porridge, and this in turn about sixteen seventy or a little earlier, stiffened into plum pudding. That plum porridge was indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. One of its simpler forms was beef or mutton broth thickened with brown bread. Half-boiled raisins, currants, prunes, mace, and gingerbread were added. And when thoroughly done, the mixture was served in a semi-liquid state. Another recipe is to boil beef and veal with sack, old hawk, and sherry, lemon, and orange juice, double-refined sugar, raisins, currants, and prunes. Add coccanil, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves, the whole to be thickened with brown bread and served in a terrine. This delectable mess was served at St. James's Palace as late as 1806, possibly later. Sir Roger de Coverley is made to say, spectator number 269, that he had hopes of a rigid dissenter when he saw him enjoying his plum porridge. In these various recipes, prunes, i.e. plums, form an essential part. Gradually they seem to have been supplanted by raisins, etc., so that a plum pudding may be defined as a pudding without plums. Lucas unknown Lucendo. A more serious misnomer is current in rural parts of Somerset, where raisins are commonly called figs. A real fig is a dot fig. And our customary Christmas treat is figgy pudding. But what of the Christmas pie? That was also a marvelous concoction in the true etymological sense of the word. Here is a recipe, wording modernized from a manuscript written in 1394. Take a pheasant, a hair, a capon, two partridges, two pigeons, and two conies. Chop them up, take out as many bones as you can, and add the livers and hearts, two kidneys of sheep, force meat made into balls with eggs, pickled mushrooms, salt, pepper, spice, and vinegar. Boil the bones in a pot to make good broth. Put the meat into the crust of good paste, made craftily into the likeness of a bird's body. Pour in the liquor, close it up, and bake it well. And so serve it forth with a head of one of the birds at one end and a great tail at the other, with his long feathers set cunningly all about him. The Christmas pie of Herrick's time was filled with neat's tongues, chicken, eggs, raisins, orange and lemon peel, sugar, and various spices. It is not difficult to imagine the stages of evolution or devolution by which this eventuated into our modern mince pie. And in like manner we may well believe that the same pastry, with somewhat different environment, gave birth to the renowned squab pie of Cornwall. But we must pause here, else we shall be led on to treat of mackerel pie, maggoty pie, and so many others, that they say the devil dares not show himself in Cornwall, lest he should be baked in a pie. In Hone's table-book, Volume 2, page 506, the following is quoted from the chronicle of 6th January 1770. Quote, Monday last was brought from Hoek to Berwick to be shipped for London for Sir Henry Gray baronet. A pie the contents were of were as follows. That is, two bushels of flour, twenty pounds of butter, four geese, two turkeys, two rabbits, four wild ducks, two woodcocks, six snipes, and four cartridges, two neats tongues, two curlews, seven blackbirds, and six pigeons. It was made by Mrs. Dorothy Patterson, housekeeper at Hoek. It was near nine feet in circumference at bottom, weighs about twelve stones, will take two men to present it to table. It is neatly fitted with a case and four small wheels. End quote. This may serve for the Christmas feast of what people will persist in calling the good old times, the times of semi-starvation for the many and of riotous luxury for the few. We appreciate them most highly as we look backward through the mist of ages and fancy ourselves at the festive board, of course above the salt, while the minstrels played and sang and the jesters cracked their smartest jokes and perhaps the celebrated events of fools was performed. The reckless profusion had one redeeming feature. There would be an enormous over- plus of broken meat, which on the following day would be distributed among the poor. In this sense it was quite a pardonable exaggeration to say a Christmas gamble oft could cheer the poor man's heart for half the year. It may be remarked that sometimes these old Christmas feasts borrowed the one commendable element of the older Roman Saturnalia, and set forth for once in the year the brotherhood of humanity. It was not merely that the air with roses in his shoes that night might village partner choose. It was not unusual for country squires of the better class to keep open house for all comers during Christmas time, when minstrels and dancers flocked crowds enjoyed right good fair. We read of one John Carmono in Cornwall who used to do this during the whole twelve days of the feast providing for his guests twelve fat bullocks, thirty-six sheep, twenty cornish bushels of wheat, with hogs, lambs and fowls of all sorts. Still better at Pencehurst, the home of the Sydney's, in Queen Elizabeth's time, the distinctions of rank and fortune were provisionally set aside. Rich and poor equally shared the squires bounty. No great saltseller divided the noble from the ignoble guests, and the dishes did not grow coarser as they receded from the high table. No wonder that in such cases the Christmas feast became a bond of union between all classes and beget friendly relations between Lord and peasant which were not easily disturbed. It was well, surely, that not only from the pulpit but also from the festival board this gospel should be annually proclaimed, that he whose birthday was kept with joy and hallowed mirth was born to be not only king of kings and lord of lords, but as Saint Francis had taught long before, to be little brother of all mankind. During the latter half of the eighteenth century the increasing prosperity of the nation and improved means of conveyance led to a great increase of travelling, especially among the wealthier classes. A natural result was a great increase and general improvement of inns, which at festive seasons like Christmas made ample provision for expected guests. Hone, Table Book, Vol. 2, p. 43, gives the Christmas Bill of Fair of Bush in at Bristol for the year 1800. It numbered one hundred fifty items including besides beef, mutton, lamb, veal, pork and venison in every conceivable variety, hares, rabbits, thirty-nine sorts of birds, sixteen sorts of fish, three of shellfish, ten kinds of soup including turtle, boar's head, pies of various kinds, pies, jellies, etc. But, strange to say, there is no mention of plum porridge or plum pudding. What has here been said about feasting has, no doubt, a distinct reference to the old English Christmas. But wherever, throughout the world, the festival of the nativity is observed, feasting has a conspicuous place in the program and often, as is surely fitting, the feasting gives an occasion for generous hospitality. In Serbia, for example, it has long been the custom for every well-to-do family to keep open house for three days and all comers, friend or enemy, stranger or beggar, are welcome to a place at the table. End of section 33 For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by John Brandon Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen Section 34 The Boar's Head We must revert for a moment to this song of the boar's head already quoted. We have called it a carol and such it is in the strictest sense of the word. It is moreover the oldest printed carol in existence having been printed by Winken Deward in 1521. Various are the explanations that have been given of the prominence of the boar's head at the Christmas Feast and all except those who are manifestly mere jokes are more or less of a religious character. According to the law of Moses, the swine was an unclean beast and from the time of the Maccabees or earlier the eating of swines flashed by a Jew was deemed a formal act of apostasy. It has therefore been suggested that its introduction of the Christmas Board was a trophy of emancipation from the old law. Christ having made all meats clean so that on his birthday Christians might freely eat that which was forbidden to the fathers. Others say that we have here a survival from the old Norse folklore. The boar say Rimmer furnished the daily meal of the heroes of Valhalla and on earth his kindred furnished the staple of a feast in honour of Odin. His counterpart may be found in the everlasting pig of the pagan Irish paradise who furnished the immortal food of the gods. Not only among the Jews, but also among the Egyptians and all the Semitic peoples except the Babylonians swine were held in abhorrence. The same is true of the Cretans Galatians and several other of the Celtic tribes as also of the worshippers of Tamuz or Adonis everywhere who according to the legend was killed by the tusk of a wild boar. By the Irish and Welch on the other hand swine were highly esteemed pork being generally preferred to beef and mutton. Irish legends tell of monstrous swine being eaten at solemn feasts and the strange wild story of the Church Trith in the Mabinogen represents the ancestor or patriarch of all the pigs coming to Wales from the country of the gods. Yet there seems to have been some tradition of evil associated with them. For until quite recent times in several parts of Wales a familiar name for the devil was the crop-tailed black sow, ear-hitch de Gita. There are numerous pig customs in various parts of Europe to which no religious significance can be attached but which are still associated with the season of Christmas. In Germany a pig killed shortly before Christmas is partaken of on Christmas Day. Pig's head is one of the chief items at the Christmas Eve supper in Sweden and Denmark. Pig is the principal dish in Romania and Serbia and in Russia pigs trotters were eaten at the New Year. These practices seem to be survivals from the eul-tide feasting of prehistoric times when the continental Celts were the pig-breeders and pork cures of ancient Europe and supplied Rome and the rest of Italy with bacon. There may be some connection between them and the fact that in heathen times a hog was the usual sacrifice to fray. In Sweden a favourite Christmas frolic was to represent this sacrifice in pantomime. The actors being disguised in their faces blackened and the victim being dressed in a skin and holding a wisp of straw to represent the pig's bristles. The performers was accompanied with music and feats of agility but none of these customs throws any light on the prominence given to the boar's head in the English Christmas feast. In the story of Sintrem the berserkers are presented as making vows on the boar's head and although the whole story is pure romance laid in an age when Christianity was still contending with the remains of northern paganism it is difficult to think that Fouquet had not some tradition or legend on which to base the incident and if so it might well be that the bringing of the head to table on Christmas day was a symbolic renunciation of heathenism men ate that by which their ancestors had sworn. But perhaps the best explanation is furnished by the medieval interpretation of the 80th Psalm where Satan is the wild boar out of the wood who has long wasted the vineyard of the lord now his head is carried in triumph as a testimony of his final defeat by the newborn king and the bearer's chant in a solemnly festive strain. That is, I bear the boar's head rendering praises to the lord. The old solemnity of the boar's head is still regularly observed at Queen's College Oxford and it was several times presented at the royal table during the reign of Queen Victoria. The Oxford ceremony is thus described in husks songs of the nativity the head the finest and largest that could be procured is decorated with garlands bays and rosemary it is born into the hall on the shoulders of two of the chief servants of the college and followed by members of the college and the college choir the carol is sung by a member usually a fellow of the college and the chorus by the choir as the procession advances to the high table on reaching which the boar's head is placed before the provost who sends slices of it to those who are with him at the high table and the head is then sent round to the other tables in the hall and partaken of by the occupants at horn church in Essex which is ecclesiastically related to new college Oxford the lessee of the tithes was accustomed yearly on Christmas day to provide a boar's head dressed and garnished in the afternoon it was carried to a field adjoining the churchyard where it became the prize of a wrestling match the winner carried it off to a public house where he and his friends feasted on it with all seasonable merriment Hohn writing in 1827 says this custom had lasted from time immemorial end of section 34 recording by John Brandon section 35 of Christmas and Christmas Lore this is a LibraVox recording a LibraVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibraVox.org recorded by Betty B Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen Christmas sports after the feast comes the sports the horn church wrestling has already been mentioned as a rule we do not find much attention paid at Christmas to those manly exercises which were strenuously cultivated in other seasons such as shooting leaping and the like or even to those which might be thought specially seasonable as curling or skating the one exception is football in many parts of Wales great football matches were played on Christmas day after morning service the whole population male and female of two adjacent parishes would turn out for a game the goals lying well within each and the game was played with such vigor that it sometimes degenerated into a fight it seems possible that these matches were originally contests between two clans or between parties with different racial conditions in Shetland the men were accustomed to spend the greatest part of the short winners day in football not only on the actual feast day but throughout the whole 12 days of the Ewells while the evenings were devoted to dancing there is one kind of Christmas sport which has been customary in many places which can only be excused on the ground that it is the outcome of some old time superstition probably a survival of some forgotten rite of heathen religion this is the hunting of certain small creatures in supple squirrels and owls and in many places wrens why squirrels and owls should be persecuted it is hard to say but there are indications in folklore that a sacred character was once ascribed to the wren moreover in several heathen religions we meet with the killing and apparently sacramental eating of sacred animals in which some mysterious energy was supposed to be incarnated we can well understand that a creature treated as sacred in heathen times would when heathenism was discredited be regarded with disfavor now it is said that the druids took augurys from the varying note of the wren wherefore in derbyshire it was called the devil's bird and yet it was deemed unlikely to kill it the one time sacred character of the little bird seems to explain the nursery jingle tommy tit and jenny wren are god all monies cock and hen it appears that in many places the rustics did not distinguish between the two whether imagine that the tit was the male and the wren the female this blunder may seem less astonishing if it be remembered that so educated a man as Oliver goldsmith included the mole among animals of the rat kind called tortoises and turtles crustaceous fishes and made the porcupine a kind of superior hedgehog the original significance of the practice being forgotten hunting the wren was usually accounted for by some ridiculous story in the isle of man the story was that a malignant fairy or siren assuming the shape of a beautiful woman had lured many men to destruction but at length she was so closely pursued by an avenging knight that she only escaped by taking the form of a wren in which disguise she is hunted year after year the dead wren was sometimes kept as a charm against shipwreck at other times it was the subject of a mock funeral after midnight mass but some of the diddies associated with the custom imply that the bird was formerly eaten in Ireland the hunting was on saint stevens day the day after Christmas the story was that saint steven hiding in a furs bush was betrayed to his enemies by a wren so a customary diddy began the wren the king of all the birds was caught on saint stevens day in the furs another story was that during a rebellion in the north of Ireland a party of English were asleep and which surely had been slaughtered by Irish papists but were awakened by the noise of wrens dancing and pecking on a drum for which they were denounced as the devil's birds whatever the origin of the custom the little bird was hunted and when killed was hung in a bush and carried about by wren boys or drolans who called it each house to levy contributions of money or drink if these were refused the wren boys indicated their displeasure by rough music a similar custom of hunting wrens formerly obtained in some parts of France usually however Christmas was the season for good honest play it was the feast of the holy child and grave reverend seniors made themselves children for the time there would be dancing of course never was there a genuine English merry making without dancing till pragmatical print discovered that the lads and lasses who footed it to cellingers round were art and part with the daughter of Herodias when she danced off John the Baptist's head then we read of blind man's buff, hot cockles hunt the slipper, bob apple forfeits, shooing the wild mare and fox in the hole shuffleboard and games with cards and dice were popular a statute of Henry the 7th forbade apprentices to play at cards except during the Christmas holidays and many who would not participate in games of chance at any other time made an exception in favor of Christmas William Lovell, Lord Morley died in July 1475 9 years later Marjorie Paston, sent to inquire how his household kept the Christmas immediately following his death his widow replied that there were none disguisings nor harping nor looting nor singing nor none loud disports but playing at the tables and chess and cards such disports she gave her folk leave to play and none other See Paston Letters One favorite sport of considerable antiquity was specially associated with Christmas Eve is Snapdragon a quantity of raisins or other dried fruit is placed on a broad shallow dish brandy is poured over it and set on fire the company in turn snatched the fruit out of the blaze to do which without being scorched needs some dexterity it is usual to extinguish all the lights in the room while it is in progress End of section 35 Chapter 36 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 Chris Bloom Christmas and Christmas Lore by T.G. Grippen Chapter 36 Masking Among the upper classes it was not unusual at Christmas time to present a mask in which persons of the highest distinction did not disdain to take a part This appears to have been a new fashion introduced in the time of Henry VIII and to have reached its highest development under James I A large number of court masks were written by Ben Johnson who on the mechanical and scenic side was ably assisted by the royal architect Inigo Jones The most notable of these was the Mask of Christmas in which there were twelve principal and thirteen or fourteen subordinate characters First came Father Christmas with two or three of his guard and a drum beaten before him He wore a close doublet round hose, long stockings cross guarded, white shoes a high crowned hat with a brooch and a little rough He had a long thin beard and carried a truncheon Then came his ten children led in a string by Cupid and each with a suitable attendant Miss Rule wore a red velvet cap with a sprig a short cloak and a great yellow rough His torchbearer carried a basket with a cheese and a rope Carol had a red cap and a long tonny coat with the flute hanging at his girdle His torchbearer carried a song book open Minced pie was neatly dressed with the torchbearer's wife Her man carried a pie on a dish and a spoon Gamble appeared as a tumbler with a hoop and bells His torchbearer was armed with a coal staff and a blinding cloth Post and Pear had a pear royal of aces in his hat His garment was done over with pears and purrs His squire carried a box with cards and counters New Year's gift was like a serving man with an orange and a sprig of rosemary gild on his head His hat is stuck full of brooches and his collar is made of gingerbread His torchbearer carries a march pain and a bottle of wine on each arm Mumming wears a pie suit with a visor His torchbearer carries a box and rings it Wasale is a neatly dressed maiden Her page bears a brown bowl dressed with ribbons and rosemary before her Offering a short gown and carries a porter's staff His torchbearer goes before him with a basin and a width Finally Babycock is dressed like a little boy in a fine long coat and a cap with earpieces with bibb, mackender, and a little dagger His usher carries a great cake with a bean and a peas With all due respect to the undoubted genius of Royal Ben it must be owned that the speeches assigned to these characters are worthy of his reputation and the action, apart from the dancing is mere buffoonery It has been thought that Mumming was a mere degraded survival of masking but it would rather seem from this description that masking is a later development and glorification of Mumming End of Chapter 36 Section 37 of Christmas and Christmas War 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 The Lord of Misrule Stow the Antiquarian died 1605 tells us that anciently there was in the king's house wherever he lodged at the Feast of Christmas a Lord of Misrule or Master of married Disport Like also there was in the house of every nobleman of honour or good worship whether temporal or spiritual Among them the Lord Mayor and Sheriff of London had there are several lords of Misrule ever contending without quarrel or offence who should make the most past time to divert the beholder These lords began the rule or rather Misrule on all Hallows Eve and continued the same until Camelmas Day in which space fine and subtle disguisings mass and mummaries with plenty of cards for counters nails and points in every house more for a past time than for gain The date named seems to give countenance to a conjecture that the Lord of Misrule was in some way an impersonation of the malignant power that was supposed to rule or Misrule the inverted year the season of storms and frozen streams and leafless trees not of course the actual devil but the spirit of winter the blind God Hoder the touch of whose spear had slain Balder the beautiful God of the summer sun this it may be said is somewhat far fetched but it is certain that in those districts where the population contains a large Scandinavian element the Yuletide Marymakings had a good deal of heathenism in them in the north of Yorkshore it was usual in the early part of the 17th century to dance in church after prayers on Christmas Day and throughout the holiday a little earlier in Queen Elizabeth's time the Lord of Misrule and his crew are said sometimes to have invaded the church and thrown the service into confusion in 1576 Archbishop Grindel issued certain articles of inquiry applicable to the whole province one of them was whether the minister and church wardens have suffered any Lords of Misrule or any disguised persons or others in Christmas or at May games or any Morris dancers to come unreverently into the church or churchyard and there to dance or play any unseemly parts with scoffs jests, wanton gestures or ribald talk namely in the time of common prayer nine years later the Puritan John Stubbs wrote in the Anatomy of Abusis as follows the wild heads of the parish walking together chose them a grand captain of mischief whom they ennoble with the title of my Lord of Misrule then march through heathen campaign towards the church and churchyard their pipers piping, drummers, thundering their stumps dancing their bellies jingling their handkerchiefs swinging about their heads like madmen their hobby horses and other monsters skirmishing among the throng and in this sort they go to the church though the minister be at prayer or preaching dancing and swinging their handkerchiefs over their heads in the church like devils incarnate with such a confused noise that no man can hear his own voice then the foolish people they look, they stare, they laugh they flir and mount upon the forms impused to see these goodly solemnized in this sort it seems convenient to mention in connection with these disorders a Yorkshire custom of shouting yule at the end of the Christmas morning service this may explain the origin of a nonsense rhyme which can be traced back for several centuries but to which no rational meaning has ever been assigned yule, yule, yule three puddings in a pool crack nuts and cry yule in some towns and villages a master of the revel appears to have been publicly appointed to organize the parish festivities in great houses where a professional jester was kept the business was usually assigned to him and the colleges at Oxford perhaps also at Cambridge the fellows appointed a member of the college usually a master of arts to regulate the proceedings of the twelve days in the ins of court as function seems to have been rather to than to regulate he was called by various names at Merton College, Oxford he was king of Christmas at Trinity he was emperor and many places he was the Christmas Prince but more commonly the lord of misrule and in Scotland Abbot of unreason he was somewhat analogous to the mock king of the Roman Saturnalia his function being to organize the sports and keep up a continuous round of at least from Christmas Eve to 12th night he maintained a mock court and assigned to each one an active share in the business of merry-making in a great house or at court he was well paid for his pains on one occasion Henry VIII paid fifteen pounds six shillings and eight pence to his ward of misrule equal to at least two hundred pounds of our present currency and other times wealthy men seem to have assumed the function at their own cost for the entertainment of the guild society or town in which they were especially interested in the sixteenth that early part of the seventeenth century the ends of court appear to have arranged their Christmas festivities with a total disregard of expense in fifteen thirty five a Mr. Francis Vivian who was Christmas Prince of the Middle Temple is said to have spent the equivalent of two thousand pounds in this manner during the twelve days of Christmas he maintained all the state of an actual sovereign dined daily in the hall under a cloth of a state being saluted by his chaplains in church with three low vows receiving petitions which were handed to his master of requests and finally conferring several mock knighthoods the following are the titles assumed by one who played lord of misrule before Queen Elizabeth in fifteen ninety-four the high and mighty Prince Henry Prince of Purple Archduke of Stapula and Bernardine Duke of High and Nether Hallburn Marquis of St. Giles and Tottingham Count Palatine of Bloomsbury and Clarkinwell, great lord of the cantons of Islington, Kentish Town Paddington and Knightsbridge Knight of the most heroical order of the helmet and sovereign of the same courts of the Elizabethan age were characterized by much splendor, boundless extravagance, a considerable amount of humor and occasional cruelty. This is scarcely to be wondered at in a time when cockfighting and bull-baiting were quite usual past times and bear-baiting was deemed worthy of royal countenance and patronage. We have a detailed account of the daily feasting and merrymaking by the members of the temple during the twelve days of Christmas of one Elizabethan Christmas. On St. Stephen's Day immediately before dinner there was a pageant in the hall in which various great officers of state were personated. These were attended by sixteen trumpeters in four drums and fives with other subordinates. When these great officers were seated at table there came in the master of the game and green velvet and the ranger of the forest and satin. Each berry in hand a green bow and diver's arrows with each of them a hunting horn about his neck, blowing together three blasts of viennury. These having marched thrice around the fire, which was evidently in the middle of the hall, took their seats. Then came a huntsman with a fox and a cat in the net and with them nine or ten couple of hounds and forthwith the fox and cat were worried to death by the hounds and hunting horns. After this merry discord the company proceeded to dinner. More respectable, probably less costly and certainly more conducive to honest mirth was a pageant exhibit to the townfolk of Norwich in 1640 by one John Gladman or by another account Hickman. Being crowned as king of Christmas he rode in state through the city, dressed forth in silk and tinsel, by twelve persons habitant as the twelve months of the year, and followed by lent, clothed in white garments trimmed with herring skins, on a horse with trappings of oyster shells, in token that sadness should follow and a holy time. In this way they rode through the streets, accompanied by many in grotesque dresses, some in armor, carrying staves and occasionally engaging in mock combat, such as devils chasing and frightening the women, and some in skin dresses counterfeiting bears, wolves, lions etc., and endeavouring to imitate their voices. This is the latest Christmas pageant of which we have any detailed account prior to the temporary ascendancy of puritanism. It is easy to understand that in an age when refinement was only to be found in a very limited section of the upper class when the manners of the common people however merry and picturesque were on the whole extremely coarse, such organized revels would be apt to degenerate into rude practical joking and horseplay, and would generally tend to relax the bonds of official morality. It is not therefore wholly surprising to find a statute of the Scottish Parliament, passed in the year 1555, wherein it is statute and ordained that in all times coming no manner a person should be chosen, Robert Hoode nor Little John, Abed of Unreason, Queens of May or otherwise, neither in Berg nor in Landwort in any time to come. Provost, Baileys etc., electing such personages were to lose their municipal freedom for five years, electors not in Berg's to be fined ten pounds and be imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure, and the acceptor of being banished forth of the realm. After the restoration the Lord of Misrule seems to have a temporary resuscitation at the ends of court. Evelyn tells it being invited to the solemn foolery at Lincoln's Inn on the 1st of January 1662, and Peeps mentions the presence of the King there on the following day, but the revival seems only to have been transient. Many defunct fashion Christmas we may view with sentimental regret. Some we may hopefully endeavour to revive as we have already welcomed back the Queen of the May. But we would shed no tear over the Lord of Misrule or Abed of Unreason. Let him rest in peace. If there were ought for us to wail, it would be his resurrection. End of Section 37 Section 38 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 Eulferth on Thrifty Folk Before the Reformation there was in Scotland and the north of England a custom of great but uncertain day called Eulferth that is Christmas truce where this prevailed no criminal prosecution could be initiated in the week immediately preceding Christmas and during the week next following all legal proceedings were temporarily suspended in honour of the feast. Of the extent to which Eulferth was observed we have no information but something may be said in this connection of a strange custom at York of which the earliest definite mention is found about the time of Henry VIII. On St. Thomas's Day the sheriff made proclamation at the pillory that, during the twelve days of Christmas all manner of thieves, gamblers loose women and all other unthrifty folk be welcome to the town whether they come late or early in reverence of the high feast of Eul. On condition, however, that kept the king's peace and submitted to certain police regulations how long this custom survived is uncertain but a writer in the middle of the 18th century refers to it as not long discontinued. It would be pleasant if we could accept as historic the very beautiful symbolism which a lady has lately read into the strange custom adopting the neo-druidic idea that the parasitical mistletoe represents man in his dependence on God she associates the York invitation to all in sundry with the ceremonial placing of mistletoe on the altar in the cathedral and sees in it an object lesson that only when man lays himself on the altar as ready for sacrifice can pardon, freedom and true life be fully enjoyed. But it is more likely we think that the authorities at York were of opinion that by giving these unthrifty folk temporary security against arrest they might the better be kept under observation and their depredations guarded against. Municipal regulation of vice, however, always has tended and always will tend to deterioration of public morals. And we can very well believe that the York proclamation, like the unseemly pranks of the lord of rule, did much to prepare the way towards the austerity of Puritan reaction. End of section 38 Section 39 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 Betty B Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen Christmas gifts Santa Claus, etc. It seems only reasonable that the festival which commemorates the supreme gift of divine love should be a time for the interchange of gifts between kinsfolk and friends, as well as of bountiful alms to the poor. The customs and traditions relating to Christmas gifts are many and various, some superstitious, some merely droll and some instinct with poetic beauty. It may be as well to begin with those associated with Saint Nicholas. Nicholas lived about the beginning of the fourth century. He was Bishop of Myra, a co-stown of Lycia, almost equal distance from the nearest points of Rhodes and Cyprus. Being rich there was nothing he liked better than helping people who were in distress. In being modest there was nothing he hated so much as being thanked for it. So it happened again and again that a poor family who were in desperate need would find a gold piece or a well filled purse that came from nobody knew where. At length the secret benefactor was discovered and from that day to this when people have received welcome gifts from unknown sources Saint Nicholas has had the credit of it. Moreover, Saint Nicholas was regarded as the special patron of boys. The boy Bishop was elected on his feast day and with good reason if we may believe his legend. A wicked innkeeper had murdered two boys and being as greedy as he was cruel had salted them down for pork. Saint Nicholas coming that way inquired for the youngsters and was told that they had gone out. He suggested that if such were the fact their mother was not aware of it and promptly put the matter to the test. Being a saint of course he possessed the power of working miracles. So he made the sign of the cross over the pickle tub and out came the two boys as lively as ever and none the worse for their adventure. We may imagine the confusion of the naughty and may hope that he was converted by the miracle and continued a good Catholic to the end of his days. In Holland in Germany the benevolent saint is familiarly known as Santa Claus. He was introduced into England as the secret dispenser of Christmas gifts in the latter part of the 18th century. It is said that his familiar title was really imported from America where it had already been naturalized by Dutch settlers. The suspending of a stocking as a receptacle for the expected gifts was accounted for by an absurd story that Saint Nicholas on one of his midnight expeditions fell on a roof and dropped a purse down the chimney which instead of falling on the hearth fell in a stocking that was hung up to dry. In the black forest in Germany the annual visit of Santa Claus is preceded by that of Nekt Rupert who goes around the village in a frightful disguise visiting every house and terrifying the naughty children by his preternatural acquaintance with their various misdemeanors. That finally concludes with an intimation that Santa Claus will be merciful this time but if they do not grow better by next year the consequences may be unpleasant. In Norway Santa Claus has so many presents to deliver that he needs the assistance of his servant Chris Kringel who conveys the delightful load over the roofs of the houses in a reindeer sleigh which runs so lightly because Santa Claus was the special patron of boys. St. Lucie was the special guardian of girls. Her feast day was on 13th December the shortest day of the unreformed calendar on which day torchlight processions were held schools were illuminated and it was usual to shoot and fish by torchlight. St. Lucie was a Sicilian maiden martyred about the year 304. Her legend is that a rejected suitor to the authorities as a Christian whereupon she was tortured had her eyes put out and was put to death. Later an absurd stories arose from the custom of painting her as carrying her eyes in a dish. In Switzerland Father Christmas with jovial red face and white beard and clad in a long fur robe marches round the village with his wife Lucie. She wears a round cap over her long flats of hair a smart lace bodice and a silk apron. She distributes gifts to the girls while her husband looks after the boys. In Sweden St. Lucie was personated by the prettiest girl in the house dressed in white with a red sash having on her head a wire crown covered with billberry twigs in which were fixed nine candles. She went through the house at the first cop crowing and wakened all the sleepers offering to each a cup of coffee sweet drink. When all were dressed breakfast was taken in a room brilliantly lighted. In the Bömerwald St. Lucie is a bogey who appears in the form of a nanny goat with horns, gives fruit to good children and threatens to rip up the naughty ones. In Russia the gifts are credited to the babushka i.e. the grandmother an old woman who when the wise men from the east inquired the way willfully visit them. According to another version each of them in succession urged her to go with him to visit the newborn king but she would not go until she had finished her spinning. When at length her task was done she would have followed them but could not for the snow had covered their tracks. By yet another account when the holy family were going down into Egypt she refused them hospitality whatever her fault was intended of her unkindness and ever since has been trying to make amends by going round the world on Christmas Eve distributing gifts to all good children. In Germany in the 16th century Christmas gifts for children were tied up in bundles which contained something pleasant something useful and something pertaining to discipline. For example cake, sugar plums, money, a garment, a book, pen or and always a twig suggestive of the rod. They were supposed to be brought by der Haas Christ. In modern Germany the old tradition of dus Christ kind is often sadly perverted. He is actually personated in a fashion wholly unlike the child of Bethlehem something between the divine infant and an angel but more like a good fairy than either. He is often a tall child probably a girl with long fair hair and dressed in white. In Alsace it is usually a girl with a crown of gilt paper and lighted candles having in one hand a silver bell and in the other a basket of sweets. She is attended by Haan's trap in a bare skin with a long beard and a rod. He threatens the naughty children who are saved by the intercession of dus Christ kind. Sometimes the attendant is der Schimmelreider when entering jumps over a chair and dances with one of the girls. Meanwhile, dus Christ kind makes the children recite a hymn or some verses of Scripture. If they do it well Christ kind rewards them with gingerbread. If badly he beats them with a bag filled with ashes then he and Schimmelreider dance and pass on. In France and Germany the usual receptacle for Christmas gifts is a wooden shoe. If in the shoe a small faggot should be found the recipient would understand that Santa Claus's verdict was not deserving but he would probably find some mitigation in the shape of a concealed packet of bonbons. In Sweden as also in Pomerania and some other parts of Germany a small and valuable Christmas gift such as a jewel or a ring is made up into a large bundle. The yule clap which takes both time and labor to unpack. Stories are told moreover of ladies receiving a huge bundle from which when opened the donor himself emerged like Cleopatra from the carpet probably well assured beforehand that he would not be rejected. In many parts of France, Noël the festival of good news is personified and the gifts are brought by Father Christmas himself. In other parts especially in Brittany they are directly ascribed to Le Bon Jesus the good Jesus as in light manner in Germany the giver is Das Christkind the Christ child and surely this is better than the fictitious Babuska and Kris Kringle and Nekt Rupert and Santa Claus better because truer who is not the holy child the real giver of whatever is given in honor of his blessed nativity children are naturally imaginative and apt to fear whatever is not understood so it has happened that parents have kept up the old fables until the children though eagerly expecting the presents that were to be brought by the mysterious nocturnal visitor were afraid to sleep through dread of something ghostly there was but one way to banish that fear namely to annihilate the little romance and convince them that Santa Claus was really one whom they knew well by the name of mother section 39 section 40 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 the Christmas chief in Norway, Sweden, Denmark there is a regular custom of setting a small sheaf of corn on a pole in the gable of the house or barn and he would be thought a very curmudgeon who would refuse the birds the Christmas feast the boys in Denmark say it is for Santa Claus's white horse and this is suggestive of what probably originated the custom there can be little doubt that it is a pre-christian survival in that the sheaf was at first intended for Odin's horse Slepnor but in the northern countries generally there is a prevailing notion that the lower animals ought to have a share in the Christmas bounty Saint Francis wished the oxen and asses to have extra hay and corn at Christmas for reverence of the son of God whom on such a night the blessed Virgin Mary did lay down in the stall between the ox and the ass he thought that all creation should rejoice at Christmas and the dumb creatures had no other means of doing so accordingly in Silesia the beasts on Christmas Eve to make them thrive it was said that if wheat be kept in one's pocket during Christmas service and then given to the fowls they will grow fat and lay many eggs this seems to belong to the large class of magical superstitions according to which a blessing or a curse is conveyed by means of enchanted food or drink in Norway there is usually a great brewing beforehand of yule ale of which a good portion is given to the cattle this seems quite in the spirit of Francis even more so is a custom which is not yet quite extinct in the west of England on Christmas day a double ration of provender is given to horses and other cattle for luck and it is said that if this were neglected misfortune would certainly follow akin to this is a custom in some parts of Italy and Spain of scattering grain on Christmas Eve as a feast for the birds End of section 40 section 41 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 The Christmas Tree nothing in connection with Christmas gifts is more popular than the Christmas Tree with which however it is by no means certain that they were at first related its origin is very obscure lost in the mazes of antiquity some folklorists think it had to do with the worship or invocation of the spirit of vegetation and related to other ceremonial trees such as the Maple or the St. John's Tree of the Erzgeberge around which the people danced at the summer solstice some associate it with the story of St. Boniface otherwise Winfred of Credition an English missionary in Germany in the 8th century who was said to have cut down on a Christmas Eve a sacred oak beneath which human sacrifices had been offered as it fell a young fir tree seemed to appear miraculously beyond it and this, unsaned with blood the saint proposed as a sign or emblem of the new faith others connect the Christmas Tree with an old legend about a marvelous transformation of nature at the birth of our lord when the rivers flowed with wine and the trees blossomed in the midst of ice and snow with this legend may be associated a custom in Austria, Carinthia and Tyrol where boughs of cherry pear or hawthorn are gathered early in December and put in water or wet sand indoors that they may blossom at Christmas a king to this may be what we read of in London in the 15th century when home Holly, Ivy and Bay were made into a standard tree on Corn Hill half a century later a tree of gold appeared in the Christmas pageant presented before King Henry VIII although there is neither record nor probable tradition as to the origin of the Christmas Tree there is a pretty German folk tale on the subject that is worth the telling on a stormy Christmas Eve a forester and his household had made fast the door and gathered around a cheerful fire by and by knocking was heard outside and the house father opening the door saw a little child cold, hungry and all but exhausted he was kindly welcomed warmed and fed and little Hans insisted on giving up his bed to the stranger in the morning the family were aroused by the singing of a choir of angels and looking at their unbidden guest they saw him transfigured for he was none other than the Christ child he broke off a branch from a fir tree and set it in the earth see said he I have gladly received your gifts my gift to you this tree shall always bear its fruit at Christmas and you shall always have abundance there could be no need to elaborate the meaning of the story if we remember who it was that said and as much as he have done it to one of the least of these he did it unto me the Christmas tree as we know it is first met with in Germany about the time of Luther popular tradition which though not corroborated by evidence is not therefore necessarily incredible ascribes its introduction to the great reformer himself but the earliest definite mention of it as an established custom is in an anonymous MS dated 1605 it does not seem to have been generally common until far into the 18th century it was sooner popular and protestant than in Roman Catholic communities and until quite lately it scarcely existed in some rural parts of Bavaria originally a purely domestic institution it gradually found its way first into protestant and then into Catholic churches and at Munich it has even invaded the cemetery where on Christmas Eve the graves were decked with holly and mistletoe and sometimes a little Christmas tree with its gleaming lights leisurely as was the progress of this pleasant custom by the middle of last century the Christmas tree had become almost universal throughout Germany it was set up in almost every house rich and poor even where there were only elderly people from thence it spread throughout the greater part of Christendom it is said to have been adopted in Finland about 1800 and was known in Denmark and Norway in 1830 the very first Christmas tree in England is said to have been set up in Penchengar in 1829 by a German lady, Princess Levin this was altogether an exotic and the tree was only naturalized in England after it had been set up at Windsor Castle by Prince Albert in 1841 in the same year it is said to have been introduced into Paris and 50 years later between 30,000 and 35,000 trees were sold in that city in one season it seems doubtful if it was common in Bohemia or in Sweden much before 1860 previously in the last named country it was customary to set up a bear pole outside the house not very unlike the Asherah forbidden in the law of Moses since then the Christmas tree has found a welcome in Holland Switzerland, Italy, Spain Austria, Russia and America largely through German influence direct or indirect it is not difficult to conceive that the Christmas tree may have been originally an embodiment of the spirit of vegetation and may have been Christianized by association with the beautiful old legend of the tree of life when Adam was dying says the story he sent Seth to the Garden of Eden to beg for the oil of mercy this he could not obtain but the guardian sheriff gave him instead or a seed from the tree of life which he was commanded to plant upon his father's grave he did so and there from grew a tree in which after ages afforded the wonder working rod of Moses later it was cut down and cast away but just because it had been thus rejected it was taken up and fashioned into the very cross on which our lord was crucified and so became the tree of life indeed that the Christmas tree was adorned with lights in or soon after Luther's time was certain how soon it became the vehicle of gifts is more doubtful to this day in Germany gifts of utilitarian character are never hung on the tree but placed on a table beside it in Denmark where the tree has become as popular as in Germany there is a pleasant custom that on returning from church on Christmas Eve the whole family including servants and visitors join hands and march around the tree singing carols the favorite carol on this occasion the old macaroni the child is born in Bethlehem in some parts of Germany the tree is made to typify the stem of Jesse the human genealogy of our lord Adam and Eve stand at the foot the serpent is twined around the stem but at the top is a light brighter than all the rest the light of the world the seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head in recent years an interesting development of the old custom has appeared in America in several cities a municipal Christmas tree has been set up in some open square or other public place where it affords a gratuitous entertainment for the poor another modern American adaptation makes the tree a central feature in a distinctly religious service the church is darkened except for the dim light of two candles on opposite sides the psalm out of the depths 130th is sung and then various messianic prophecies are recited each by a separate voice each recitation a taper is lighted on the tree till the hole is illuminated then the gospel narrative is recited in like manner each section being followed by a hymn or carol treated as a solo trio or quartet the service ends with a hymn sung by the entire congregation and the recital of the words of our lord I am the light of the world this tree lighting service is said to have been introduced by a minister who had been something of a similar character in Spain it seems very like a festival inversion of the tenebrae sung in roman catholic churches in the holy week like many other foreign importations the christmas tree has often been sadly bungled by english commercialism and so completely robbed of its beautiful significance the tree of bazaars and fancy fares with its load of toys to be sold off or allotted to purchasers of number tickets is about as unlike the real thing as it well could be the very essence of the symbolism is that the glittering fruit is a gift not a purchase and which is not less important that it rises over the crib wherein lay the babe of Bethlehem for the christmas tree is the tree of life let it arise in its evergreen veredure bright with tapers and bending down with treasures to be not sold but given as freely as the grace of god let the christmas angel appear at the summit and at its foot the manger out of which grows the unfading tree and so let the children learn from this beautiful object lesson that all things bright and sweet and precious are the gifts of the holy child jesus end of section 41 section 42 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 john brandon christmas and christmas lore by thomas g krippen section 42 the christmas ship closely allied to the christmas tree is another old german custom scarcely yet naturalized among us the christmas ship of its origin we have no account neither record nor tradition in greece in heathen times the ship was carried in procession in honor of the wine god dianesis and still at athens the weights carry about models of warships at the new year it is said in honor of saint basil whose feast is kept on first january and who is said to have set out on a voyage on that day but it is hard to say what greek influence could have operated in germany in the early middle ages the association of a ship with christmas as the bearer of precious things from afar is indicated in the old doggerel i saw three ships come sailing by on christmas day in the morning this seems to have some genealogical relation to a 16th century carol of which a fragment runs there came a ship far sailing and then saint michael was the steersman saint john sat in the horn our lord harped our lady sang and all the bells of heaven rang on christmas in the morning but these are faint and broken echoes of a noble original that sweet carol which we owe to the great medieval mystic john taller of strawsburg died 1361 and of which the christmas ship laden with toys is a visible embodiment there comes a galley sailing with ampless cargo stored it bears god's son most loving the lord's eternal word that galley calmly floating bears freight of priceless cost love is the sail that wafts it it's mast the holy ghost the earth now holds the anchor the ship to land hath won god's word our flesh hath taken to mankind comes the son in bethlehem an infant born in a manger stall he gives himself to save us then praise him one and all and whoso seeks that infant with loving clasp to hold must first with him bear anguish and sorrows manifold and then with Jesus dying again with jesus rise an air of life eternal where jesus gives the prize and of section 42 recording by john brandon section 43 of christmas and christmas lore this is a libre vox recording so libre vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librevox.org recording by betty b christmas and christmas lore by thomas g krippen christmas boxes in taking leave of christmas gifts we naturally think of the gifts to children at the roman sigillaria and of the strane offered to the emperor or exchanged between private citizens on the colens of january man gave sweet things that the year might be full of sweetness lamps that it might be full of light coin that wealth might flow in a main evidently a sort of sympathetic magic to ensure a lucky new year it is easy to see how a new year's custom might be transferred to christmas but not so easy to understand why the seasonable gift should be expected on the day following the feast or why that day should be called boxin day indeed there is no man living who certainly knows though many have guessed the origin and primary meaning of boxin day and christmas box most folk lorists associate the words with the earthen savings box which had to be broken to release its hoard it is well known that servants and apprentices especially london apprentices used such boxes to collect those christmas gifts which they deemed their legitimate perquisites naturally the box would be broken only when fully charged i.e. when christmas day was passed an essayist writing in 1621 says of a covetous man as an apprentice's box of earth apt he is to take all but to restore none till he be broken another under date 1642 makes the same comparison phrasing it thus like the christmas earthen boxes of apprentices wither alludes to the earthen box in that merry song of his which has furnished so many seasonable proverbs but he seems rather to be thinking of savings accumulated in the past and now made available to prepare for the feast our kitchen boy has broke his box and to the dealing of the ox our honest neighbors come by flocks as they will be merry a hundred years later henry carry introduced the same idea in his delightfully humorous ballad of sally in our alley he makes his london apprentice say oh christmas time is drawing near and then i shall have money i'll save it up and box and all i'll give it to my honey the earthen box for savings is still to be found in holland where it is commonly made of a pig and is called the feast pig to break it unseasonably is unlucky almost to crime according to the ethics of the nursery another explanation of the familiar phrase makes it refer to the church alms box the contents of which were not dispensed until the day after christmas which was therefore called boxing day others say that the words have nothing to do with the box of any kind that they came hither with the readers and are nothing else but the arabic back sheesh i.e. a gratuity there's not much of history to support this view of the matter but one might almost be tempted to adopt it in view of the fact that of old and indeed not so very long since every person who had or was supposed to have rendered any service to another during the year looked for back sheesh at christmas indeed regarded it as a right access every householder was duly waited upon by the postman the lamp lighter the weights the turn cock the parish beetle the dustman the parish watchman and others in london the parish beetles who usually exercised the function of town criers were accustomed about christmas time to distribute a list of the parish officers for the year and other information with an appeal to public generosity indageral rhyme more or less seasonable specimens of such bellman's verses are known of date 1735 and one firm reynell's of piccadilly afterwards of little poltney street continued to produce them for at least 130 years husk tells us that a heavy blow in great discouragement to the custom of christmas boxing among tradesmen has been given by the growing practice of keeping the shops closed on boxing day no one unless it were mr. scrooge before his conversion would grudge a christmas box to the postman the lamp lighter or the dustman but it is a different matter when servants claim back sheesh from tradesmen who supply their masters or clerks and managers of retail traders expect presence from the wholesale dealers be that as it may most in accord with the genius of the season is one recommended as long ago as the days of nea maya go your way eat of the fat and drink of the sweet and send portions to those for whom nothing is provided before finally dismissing the topic of christmas gifts it may be well to mention the publication of seasonable gift books which for a century and a half have been growing year by year more and more curious they were originally designed for children and were of a very simple character the earliest examples known are those issued by john newberry the famous bookseller of st paul's church art in 1765 one of which is the history of goodie two shoes ascribed on what seems to be satisfactory evidence to oliver goldsmith end of section 43 section 44 of christmas and christmas lore this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org christmas and christmas lore by thomas g krippen 44 christmas cards etc it might seem like an oversight if nothing were said of the pretty social custom of christmas cards albeit they are of quite modern origin there must be many aged persons who can remember their first appearance and some perhaps have preserved specimens of the earliest issues there is some uncertainty as to the date when the first christmas card was actually sent some ascribe the invention to mr w c t dobson r a who it is said in december 1844 sent to a friend a sketch of the christmas and in the following year designed another card of which he sent lithographed copies to numerous friends and acquaintances others say that the initiative belongs to mr g c who in 1846 dispatched a card which is described as an elaborate affair showing two allegorical designs of clothing the naked and feeding the hungry together with a family group having wine it was some time before the cards were put on the market unless our memory is much at fault they were first sold about 1858 or 1859 and were not common until 1862 the earlier types were very simple a cock robin or a sprig of holly or mistletoe with a conventional greeting year by year they grew more and more artistic from 1883 or 1884 they reached their acme of pictorial beauty and seasonable fitness nothing since has ever surpassed a triptych in the style of early florentine art which was published about that time in the center was the holly family with patriarchs and prophets behind the shepherds and magikings adoring in front singing angels overhead and in the wings the apostles and other saints typical of the holy catholic church in all the ages since then there has been artistic decline art becoming more and more subservient to the demands of trade and the perpetual craving for novelty the individual greeting cards have tended in the same direction year by year the color printers give us cards which from a merely decorative point of view are as beautiful as ever most of them would be just as well suited to mayday or michael miss space must be found for mention of an obsolete custom which arose in schools early in the 18th century this was the production of Christmas pieces specimens of handwriting laboriously produced under the superintendence of the writing master to show what progress had been made by the pupil in the last 12 months husk had a collection of these pieces forming an almost unbroken series from 1720 to 1840 they are on large sheets of superior writing paper with engraved borders a blank being left in the middle for the specimen penmanship husk says that the early engravings were often of considerable merit but they became by degrees poorer and poorer they were supposed to represent some important event of the year for example a coronation an earthquake etc or scenes illustrating rural sports, military exercises bartholomew fair and the like scripture subjects were sometimes adopted but rarely at first about 1805 color was introduced and about 1820 it became general scripture subjects too supplanted other designs from this time the engraving deteriorated respectable copper plate gave place to mere outlines as a guide to the colorist and these to common woodcuts and finally to ornate flourishes from the pen of the writing master but long before they ceased to be sold the use of these Christmas pieces was discontinued in all schools of the better class the custom was dying out in the boyhood of the present writer who still remembers that its unpleasant variations made the near prospect of the holidays more delightful end of section 44 section 45 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 John Brandon Christmas and Christmas Lore by Thomas G. Crippen section 45 family reunions the children's day many of our social and domestic customs are a natural recognition of the new order which the babe of Bethlehem introduced into the world there can surely be nothing worthy the name of a Christian celebration of the feast if it not be associated with the clearing off of all scores the payment as far as possible of our just debts the forgiving of debtors who through honest poverty are unable to pay and the laying aside of old grudges and quarrels yet it is to be feared that some of us have not quite outgrown the need of that lesson which Dickens taught in the immortal Christmas Carol of 1843 then our family reunions tell very eloquently of the revelation of human brotherhood by him who showed us the father and contracted a fraternal fellowship with the whole human race and we feel too that Christmas is peculiarly the children's day one of our most genial humorous has touched a true chord when personifying the day as usual he says Christmas comes he comes he comes ushered in with a rain of plums and the windows greet him schools come driving post to meet him gifts proceed him bells proclaim him every voice delights to name him curtains those snug room and folders hang upon his million shoulders and he has a million eyes of fire and eats a million pies and is very merry and wise very wise and very and loves a kiss beneath the berry and he would have us one and all awake at his benignant call and all be wise and all lay down strife and jealousy and frown and like the sons of one great mother share and be blessed with one another in Norway there's a pleasant way of impressing on the children that it is their own day the birthday of their own brother by a custom which is evidently a Christianized survival of one that has been already mentioned in connection with Christmas ghosts the ghost in Norwegian farm houses have long been laid but still the children do not go to bed on Christmas Eve after supper straw is laid down in the house place and there the children that night they are thus reminded of the tender sympathy of the all father with the little children even with the lowly and the poor it is well for us to think of this of the holy child not merely as lying in the manger or carried into Egypt to escape from the cruelty of Herod but as playing with the boys in the street of Nazareth or among the chips and shavings of the tender shop it is well to sing once a year backward turn backward oh years in your flight make me a child again just for tonight end of section 45 recording by John Brandon