{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18570/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18570","id":"gutenberg_18570","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18570","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christmas"],"text":"Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n     [Illustration: CHRISTMAS IN NAPLES. An Italian _PRESIPIO._]\n\n\n                       YULE-TIDE IN MANY LANDS\n\n\n                                  BY\n\n                           MARY P. PRINGLE\n\n      Reference Librarian, Minnesota Public Library Commission\n\n                                 and\n\n                            CLARA A. URANN\n\n\n\n                             Illustrated\n\n                                  by\n\n                            L.J. Bridgman\n\n                         and from photographs\n\n\n\n\n                                BOSTON\n\n                      LOTHROP. LEE & SHEPARD CO.\n\n                                 1916\n\n\n\n                           Copyright, 1916\n\n                    BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    \"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,\n    And God fulfills Himself in many ways,\n    Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.\"\n\n                                      --_Alfred Tennyson._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nACKNOWLEDGMENTS\n\n\nThanks are due to the following publishers for permission to reprint\npoems: Houghton Mifflin Company for \"King Olaf's Christmas\" by H. W.\nLongfellow, \"Night of Marvels\" by Violante Do Ceo; Paul Elder &\nCompany for \"The Christmas Tree\" by H. S. Russell, \"At Christmas\nTime\"; Edgar S. Werner & Company for \"The Christmas Sheaf\" by Mrs. A.\nM. Tomlinson; John Lane Company for \"A Palm Branch from Palestine\" by\nM. Y. Lermontov; _American Ecclesiastical Review_ for \"The Eve of\nChristmas\" by Pope Leo XIII; E. P. Dutton & Company for \"The Voice of\nthe Christ-child\" by Phillips Brooks.\n\nMARY P. PRINGLE\n\nCLARA A. URANN\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nCHAPTER\n\n\nI.    YULE-TIDE OF THE ANCIENTS\n\nII.   YULE-TIDE IN ENGLAND\n\nIII.  YULE-TIDE IN GERMANY\n\nIV.   YULE-TIDE IN SCANDINAVIA\n\nV.    YULE-TIDE IN RUSSIA\n\nVI.   YULE-TIDE IN FRANCE\n\nVII.  YULE-TIDE IN ITALY\n\nVIII. YULE-TIDE IN SPAIN\n\nIX.   YULE-TIDE IN AMERICA\n\n      INDEX\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nChristmas in Naples. An Italian _Presepio_\n                                            _Frontispiece_\n\nKing Olaf's Christmas\n\nSerenaded by the Waits\n\nToy-Making in Germany\n\nDecorating the Christmas Tree\n\nOn the Way to Christmas Eve Service in Norway\n\nA Christmas Bonfire in Russia\n\nA Christmas Tree in Paris\n\nA Game of Loto on Christmas Evening in Naples\n\nChristmas Festivity in Seville\n\nLighting the Yule-Log in Colonial Days\n\nChildren of Many Nationalities at Christmas Celebration in a New York\n   School\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE OF THE ANCIENTS\n\n    \"There in the Temple, carved in wood,\n    The image of great Odin stood,\n    And other gods, with Thor supreme among them.\"\n\n\nAs early as two thousand years before Christ Yule-tide was celebrated\nby the Aryans. They were sun-worshipers and believed the sun was born\neach morning, rode across the upper world, and sank into his grave at\nnight.\n\nDay after day, as the sun's power diminished, these primitive people\nfeared that he would eventually be overcome by darkness and forced to\nremain in the under world.\n\nWhen, therefore, after many months, he apparently wheeled about and\ngrew stronger and stronger, they felt that he had been born again. So\nit came about that at _Hweolor-tid_, \"the turning-time,\"[1] there was\ngreat rejoicing at the annual re-birth of the sun.\n\nIn the myths and legends of these, our Indo-European ancestors, we\nfind the origin of many of the Yule-tide customs now in vogue.\n\n[Footnote 1: Yule-tide]\n\nAccording to the Younger Edda, Wodin or Odin, the pioneer of the\nNorth, a descendant of Saturn, fled out of Asia. Going through Russia\nto Saxland (Germany), he conquered that country and left one of his\nsons as ruler. Then he visited Frankland, Jutland, Sweden, and Norway\nand established each one of his many sons on a throne.\n\nThis pioneer traveler figures under nearly two hundred different\nnames, and so it is difficult to follow him in his wanderings. As\nWodin, he established throughout the northern nations many of the\nobservances and customs common to the people of the Northland to-day.\n\nThe Edda gives an ancient account of Balder, the sun-god, who was\nslain because of the jealousy of Loki (fire). Loki knew that\neverything in nature except the mistletoe had promised not to injure\nthe great god Balder. So he searched for the mistletoe until he found\nit growing on an oak-tree \"on the eastern slope of Valhalla.\" He cut\nit off and returned to the place where the gods were amusing\nthemselves by using Balder as a target, hurling stones and darts, and\ntrying to strike him with their battle-axes. But all these weapons\nwere harmless. Then Loki, giving the twig of mistletoe to the blind\ngod, Hoeder, directed his hand and induced him to throw it. When the\nmistletoe struck Balder it pierced him through and through and he fell\nlifeless.\n\n    \"So on the floor lay Balder dead; and round[2]\n    Lay thickly strewn swords, axes, darts, and spears,\n    Which all the Gods in sport had idly thrown\n    At Balder, whom no weapon pierced or clove;\n    But in his breast stood fixt the fatal bough\n    Of mistletoe, which Lok the Accuser gave\n    To Hoeder, and unwitting Hoeder threw--\n    'Gainst that alone had Balder's life no charm.\"\n\n[Footnote 2: From Matthew Arnold's \"Balder Dead.\"]\n\nGreat excitement prevailed among the assembled gods and goddesses when\nBalder was struck dead and sank into Hel,[3] and they would have slain\nthe god of darkness had it not occurred during their _peace-stead_,\nwhich was never to be desecrated by deeds of violence. The season was\nsupposed to be one of peace on earth and good-will to man. This is\ngenerally attributed to the injunction of the angels who sang at the\nbirth of Christ, but according to a much older story the idea of peace\nand good-will at Yule-tide was taught centuries before Christ.\n\n[Footnote 3: _Hel_ or _\"his grave\"_; the terms were once synonymous.]\n\nAccording to the Edda, gifts from the gods and goddesses were laid on\nBalder's bier and he, in turn, sent gifts back from the realm of\ndarkness into which he had fallen. However, it probably is from the\nRoman Saturnalia that the free exchange of presents and the spirit of\nrevelry have been derived.\n\nThe Druids held the mistletoe in great reverence because of its\nmysterious birth. When the first new growth was discovered it was\ngathered by the white-robed priests, who cut it from the main bough\nwith a golden sickle never used for any other purpose.\n\nThe food peculiar to this season of rejoicing has retained many\nfeatures of the feasting recorded among the earlier people. The boar\nmade his appearance in mythological circles when one was offered as a\ngift to Frey, god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth. This\nboar was a remarkable animal; he could run faster than a horse,\nthrough the air and over water. Darkness could not overtake him, for\nhe was symbolical of the sun, his golden bristles typifying the sun's\nrays.\n\nAt one time the boar was believed to be emblematical of golden grain,\nas he was the first to teach mankind the art of plowing. Because of\nthis service he was most revered by our mythological ancestors.\n\nIn an account of a feast given in Valhalla to the dead heroes of many\nbattles, Saehrimnir, a sacred boar, was served. Huge pieces were\napportioned to the deceased heroes and the meat had such a revivifying\neffect that, restored to life, they called for arms and began to fight\ntheir battles over again.\n\nAn abundance of heavenly mead made from goats' milk and honey was\nprovided for the feasts and on occasions ale, too, was served.\n\nToasts were usually drunk in honor of Bragi, god of poetry, eloquence,\nand song. The gods pledged themselves to perform remarkable deeds of\ncourage and valor as they tossed off horn after horn of mead and ale.\nEach time their mighty valor grew until there was no limit set to\ntheir attainments. It is possible that their boastful pledges may have\ngiven rise to the term, _to brag._\n\nApples were the favorite fruit, as they prevented the approach of age\nand kept the gods and goddesses perpetually young and vigorous.\n\nCertainly Yule-tide was a very merry season among the ancient people\nwho feasted, drank, and danced in honor of the return of the sun, the\ngod of light and new life.\n\nWhen messengers went through the various countries bearing tidings of\na new religion and of the birth of a Son who brought light and new\nlife into the whole world, they endeavored to retain as many of the\nestablished customs as possible, but gave to the old-time festivals a\nfiner character and significance.\n\nAs the fact of Christ's birth was not recorded and there was no\ncertainty as to its date, the early Christian Fathers very wisely\nascribed it to Yule-tide, changing the occasion from the birthday of\nthe sun to that of the Son. For a while the birth of Christ was\ncelebrated on dates varying from the first to the sixth of January; on\nthe dates of certain religious festivals such as the Jewish Passover\nor the Feast of Tabernacles; but the twenty-fifth of December, the\nbirthday of the sun, was ever the favorite date.\n\nPope Julius, who reigned from 337 to 352 A. D., after a careful\ninvestigation, considered it settled beyond doubt that Christ was born\non or about the twenty-fifth of December, and by the end of the fifth\ncentury that date was very generally accepted by Christians. The\ntransition from the old to the new significance of Yule-tide was\nbrought about so quietly and naturally that it made no great\nimpression on the mind of the masses, so nothing authentic can be\nlearned of the early observance of Christmas.\n\nThe holly, laurel, mistletoe, and other greens used by the Druids\nstill served as decorations of the season, not as a shelter for\nfairies, as in former days, but as emblems of resurrection and of\nimmortal hope.\n\nThe glorious luminary of day, whether known as Balder, Baal, Sol, or\nany other of the innumerable names by which it was called by the\nprimitive peoples, still gladdens the hearts of mortals at Yule-tide\nby \"turning-back\" as of old; only to-day it yields its place to a\nSuperior Power, in whose honor Yule-tide is observed.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAll Christendom owes a debt of gratitude to its pagan forbears for the\npleasant features of many of its holidays and especially for those of\nYule-tide. The Fathers of the early church showed rare wisdom in\nretaining the customs of these ante-Christian festivals, imbuing them\nwith the spirit of the new faith and making them emblematic of a purer\nlove and hope.\n\nNew Year's Day as a feast day is one of the oldest, if not the oldest,\non record. It is mentioned by Tacitus in the First Century, but first\nreferred to as a Christian festival about the year 567.\n\nIn Rome the day was dedicated by Numa to the honor of god Janus, for\nwhom Julius Caesar named the month of January. Numa ordained that it\nshould be observed as a day of good-humor and good-fellowship. All\ngrudges and hard feelings were to be forgotten. Sacrifices of cake,\nwine, and incense were to be made to the two-faced god who looked\nforward and backward. Men of letters, mechanics, and others were\nexpected to give to the god the best they had to offer of their\nrespective arts. It was the great occasion of the entire year, as it\nis now in many countries.\n\nThe date of New Year's Day has varied among different nations. Among\nthe Egyptians, Chinese, Jews, and Romans it has been observed on dates\nvarying from March first to December twenty-fifth. It was as late as\nthe Sixteenth Century before the date of January first was universally\naccepted as the New Year by the Romans. Nations retaining the\nGregorian calendar, such as Russia and Greece, observe it thirteen\ndays later than those who reckon time by the Julian calendar.\n\nAmong northern nations the love of fire and light originated the\ncustom of kindling bonfires to burn out the old year and destroy all\nevil connected with its past. Light has long been an expression of joy\nand gladness among all branches of the Aryan race.\n\nThe Greek and Latin Churches still term Christmas the \"Feast of\nLights,\" and make it a period of brilliancy in Church and home. The\nProtestant covers the Christmas tree with lighted candles and builds a\nglowing fire on the hearth. The innate love of light and warmth--the\ninheritance from the sun-worshipers of ages past--is always dominant\nin humanity at Yule-tide festivals.\n\n    \"The King of Light, father of aged Time,\n    Hath brought about that day which is the prime,\n    To the slow-gliding months, when every eye\n    Wears symptoms of a sober jollity,\n    And every hand is ready to present\n    Some service in a real compliment.\"\n\n[Illustration: KING OLAF'S CHRISTMAS.\n\nThe King that gave Christianity to Norway.]\n\nKING OLAF'S CHRISTMAS\n\n    At Drontheim, Olaf the King\n    Heard the bells of Yule-tide ring,\n        As he sat in his banquet-hall,\n    Drinking the nut-brown ale,\n    With his bearded Berserks hale\n        And tall.\n\n    Three days his Yule-tide feasts\n    He held with Bishops and Priests,\n        And his horn filled up to the brim;\n    But the ale was never too strong,\n    Nor the Saga-man's tale too long,\n        For him.\n\n    O'er his drinking-horn, the sign\n    He made of the cross divine,\n        As he drank, and muttered his prayers;\n    But the Berserks evermore\n    Made the sign of the Hammer of Thor\n        Over theirs.\n\n    The gleams of the firelight dance\n    Upon helmet and haubert and lance,\n        And laugh in the eyes of the King;\n    And he cries to Halfred the Scald,\n    Gray-bearded, wrinkled, and bald,\n        \"Sing!\"\n\n    \"Sing me a song divine,\n    With a sword in every line,\n        And this shall be thy reward.\"\n    And he loosened the belt at his waist,\n    And in front of the singer placed\n        His sword.\n\n    \"Quern-bitter of Hakon the Good,\n    Wherewith at a stroke he hewed\n        The millstone through and through,\n    And Foot-breadth of Thoralf the Strong,\n    Were neither so broad nor so long,\n        Nor so true.\"\n\n    Then the Scald took his harp and sang,\n    And loud through the music rang\n        The sound of that shining word;\n    And the harp-strings a clangor made,\n    As if they were struck with the blade\n        Of a sword.\n\n    And the Berserks round about\n    Broke forth in a shout\n        That made the rafters ring;\n    They smote with their fists on the board,\n    And shouted, \"Long live the sword,\n        And the King.\"\n\n    But the King said, \"O my son,\n    I miss the bright word in one\n        Of thy measures and thy rhymes.\"\n    And Halfred the Scald replied,\n    \"In another 't was multiplied\n        Three times.\"\n\n    Then King Olaf raised the hilt\n    Of iron, cross-shaped and gilt,\n        And said, \"Do not refuse;\n    Count well the gain and the loss,\n    Thor's hammer or Christ's cross:\n        Choose!\"\n\n    And Halfred the Scald said, \"This\n    In the name of the Lord I kiss,\n        Who on it was crucified!\"\n    And a shout went round the board,\n    \"In the name of Christ the Lord,\n        Who died!\"\n\n    Then over the waste of snows\n    The noonday sun uprose,\n        Through the driving mists revealed,\n    Like the lifting of the Host,\n    By incense-clouds almost\n        Concealed.\n\n    On the shining wall a vast\n    And shadowy cross was cast\n        From the hilt of the lifted sword,\n    And in the foaming cups of ale\n    The Berserks drank \"Was-hael!\n        To the Lord!\"\n\n--_Henry Wadsworth Longfellow._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN ENGLAND\n\n    \"Christians in old time did rejoice\n    And feast at this blest tide.\"\n\n--_Old Carol._\n\n\nNo country has entered more heartily into Yule-tide observance than\nEngland. From the earliest known date her people have celebrated this\nfestival with great ceremony. In the time of the Celts it was\nprincipally a religious observance, but this big, broad-shouldered\nrace added mirth to it, too. They came to the festivities in robes\nmade from the skins of brindled cows, and wearing their long hair\nflowing and entwined with holly.\n\nThe Druids in the temples kept the consecrated fires burning briskly.\nAll household fires were extinguished, and any one wishing to rekindle\nthe flame at any time during the twelve days preceding Yule-tide must\nbuy the consecrated fire. The Druids also had a rather unique custom\nof sending their young men around with Yule-tide greetings and\nbranches of mistletoe (_quiviscum_). Each family receiving this gift\nwas expected in return to contribute generously to the temples.\n\nWith the coming of the Saxons, higher revelry reigned, and a Saxon\nobservance of Yule-tide must have been a jolly sight to see. In the\ncenter of the hall, upon the open hearth, blazed a huge fire with its\ncolumn of smoke pouring out through an opening in the thatched roof,\nor, if beaten by the wind, wandering among the beams above. The\nusually large family belonging to the house gathered in this big\nliving-room. The table stretched along one side of the room, and up\nand down its great length the guests were seated in couples. Between\nthem was a half-biscuit of bread to serve as a plate. Later on this\nwould be thrown into the alms-basket for distribution among the poor.\n\nSoon the servers entered carrying long iron spits on which they\nbrought pieces of the meats, fish, and fowls that had been roasted in\n_isen pannas_ (iron pans) suspended from tripods out in the yard.\nFingers were used instead of forks to handle the food, and the\nhalf-biscuit plates received the grease and juices and protected the\nhandsome _bord-cloth._\n\nThere was an abundance of food, for the Saxons were great eaters.\nBesides flesh, fish, and fowls their gardens furnished plenty of beans\nand other vegetables, and their _ort-geards_ produced raspberries,\nstrawberries, plums, sweet and sour apples, and _cod-apples_, or\nquinces. The cider and stronger drinks were quaffed from quaint\nround-bottomed tumblers which, as they could not stand up, had to be\nemptied at a draught.\n\nThe Saxons dined at about eleven o'clock and, as business was not\npressing in those days, could well afford to spend hours at the feast,\neating, drinking, and making merry.\n\nAfter every one had eaten, games were played, and these games are the\nsame as our children play to-day--handed down to us from the old Saxon\ntimes.\n\nWhen night came and the _ear-thyrls_ (eyeholes, or windows) no longer\nadmitted the light of the sun, long candlesticks dipped in wax were\nlighted and fastened into sockets along the sides of the hall. Then\nthe _makers_, or bards as they came to be called in later days, sang\nof the gods and goddesses or of marvelous deeds done by the men of\nold. Out-of-doors huge bonfires burned in honor of _Mother-Night_, and\nto her, also, peace offerings of Yule cakes were made.\n\nIt was the Saxon who gave to the _heal-all_ of the Celts the pretty\nname of mistletoe, or mistletan,--meaning a shoot or tine of a tree.\nThere was jollity beneath the mistletoe then as now, only then\neverybody believed in its magic powers. It was the sovereign remedy\nfor all diseases, but it seems to have lost its curative power, for\nthe scientific men of the present time fail to find that it possesses\nany medical qualities.\n\nLater on, when the good King Alfred was on the English throne, there\nwere greater comforts and luxuries among the Saxons. Descendants of\nthe settlers had built halls for their families near the original\nhomesteads, and the wall that formerly surrounded the home of the\nsettler was extended to accommodate the new homes until there was a\ntown within the enclosure. Yule within these homes was celebrated with\ngreat pomp. The walls of the hall were hung with rich tapestries, the\nfood was served on gold and silver plates, and the tumblers, though\nsometimes of wood or horn, were often of gold and silver, too.\n\nIn these days the family dressed more lavishly. Men wore long, flowing\nringlets and forked beards. Their tunics of woolen, leather, linen, or\nsilk, reached to the knees and were fastened at the waist by a girdle.\nUsually a short cloak was worn over the tunic. They bedecked\nthemselves with all the jewelry they could wear; bracelets, chains,\nrings, brooches, head-bands, and other ornaments of gold and precious\nstones.\n\nWomen wore their best tunics made either of woolen woven in many\ncolors or of silk embroidered in golden flowers. Their \"abundant\ntresses,\" curled by means of hot irons, were confined by the richest\n_head-rails._ The more fashionable wore cuffs and bracelets, earrings\nand necklaces, and painted their cheeks a more than hectic flush.\n\nIn the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries the magnificence of the\nYule-tide observance may be said to have reached its height. In the\nold baronial halls where:\n\n    \"The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,\n    Went roaring up the chimney wide,\"\n\nChristmas was kept with great jollity.\n\nIt was considered unlucky to have the holly brought into the house\nbefore Christmas Eve, so throughout the week merry parties of young\npeople were out in the woods gathering green boughs, and on Christmas\nEve, with jest and song, they came in laden with branches to decorate\nthe hall.\n\n    \"Lo, now is come our joyfull'st feast!\n    Let every man be jolly,\n    Eache room with yvie leaves be drest.\n    And every post with holly.\"\n\nLater on, men rolled in the huge Yule-log, emblematic of warmth and\nlight. It was of oak if possible, the oak being sacred to Thor, and\nwas rolled into place amidst song and merriment. In one of these songs\nthe first stanza is:\n\n    \"Welcome be thou, heavenly King,\n    Welcome born on this morning,\n    Welcome for whom we shall sing,\n          _Welcome Yule._\"\n\nThe third stanza is addressed to the crowd:\n\n    \"Welcome be ye that are here,\n    Welcome all, and make good cheer,\n    Welcome all, another year;\n          _Welcome Yule._\"\n\nEach member of the family, seated in turn upon the log, saluted it,\nhoping to receive good luck. It was considered unlucky to consume the\nentire log during Yule; if good luck was to attend that household\nduring the coming twelve months, a piece ought to be left over with\nwhich to start the next year's fire.\n\n[Illustration: SERENADED BY THE WAITS.]\n\n    \"Part must be kept wherewith to tende\n    The Christmas log next yeare,\n    And where 'tis safely kept, the fiend\n    Can do no mischiefe theere.\"\n\nThe boar's head held the principal place of honor at the dinner. So\nduring September and October, when the boar's flesh was at its best,\nhunters with well-trained packs of boar-hounds set out to track this\nsavage animal. They attacked the boar with spears, or surrounded him\nand drove him into nets. He was a ferocious antagonist to both dogs\nand men, and when sore pressed would wheel about, prepared to fight to\nthe death. Before the dogs could grip him by the ear, his one weak\npoint, and pin him down, his sharp teeth would often wound or even\nkill both the hunter and his dogs. The pluckier the animal the louder\nthe praise sung in his honor when his head was brought into the hall.\nThe great head, properly soused, was borne in on an immense salver by\nthe \"old blue-coated serving-man\" on Christmas day. He was preceded by\nthe trumpeters and followed by the mummers, and thus in state the\nboar's head was ushered in and assigned to its place on the table. The\nfather of the family or head of the household laid his hand on the\ndish containing the \"boar of atonement,\" as it was at one time called,\nswearing to be faithful to his family and to fulfil all his\nobligations as a man of honor. This solemn act was performed before\nthe carving by every man present. The carver had to be a man of\nundaunted courage and untarnished reputation.\n\nNext in honor at the feast was the peacock. It was sometimes served as\na pie with its head protruding from one side of the crust and its\nwide-spread tail from the other; more often the bird was skinned,\nstuffed with herbs and sweet spices, roasted, and then put into its\nskin again, when with head erect and tail outspread it was borne into\nthe hall by a lady--as was singularly appropriate--and given the\nsecond place on the table.\n\nThe feudal system gave scope for much magnificence at Yule-tide. At a\ntime when several thousand retainers[4] were fed daily at a single\ncastle or on a baron's estate, preparations for the Yule feast--the\ngreat feast of the year--were necessarily on a large scale, and the\nquantity of food reported to have been prepared on such occasions is\nperfectly appalling to Twentieth-Century feasters.\n\n[Footnote 4: The Earl of Warwick had some thirty thousand.]\n\nMassinger wrote:\n\n    \"Men may talk of Country Christmasses,\n    Their thirty-pound butter'd eggs, their pies of carp's tongue,\n    Their pheasants drench'd with ambergris, the carcasses\n    Of three fat wethers bruis'd for gravy, to\n    Make sauces for a single peacock; yet their feasts\n    Were fasts, compared with the City's.\"\n\nIn 1248 King Henry III held a feast in Westminster Hall for the poor\nwhich lasted a week. Four years later he entertained one thousand\nknights, peers, and other nobles, who came to attend the marriage of\nPrincess Margaret with Alexander, King of the Scots. He was generously\nassisted by the Archbishop of York who gave L2700, besides six hundred\nfat oxen. A truly royal Christmas present whether extorted or given of\nfree will!\n\nMore than a century later Richard II held Christmas at Litchfield and\ntwo thousand oxen and two hundred tuns of wine were consumed. This\nmonarch was accustomed to providing for a large family, as he kept two\nthousand cooks to prepare the food for the ten thousand persons who\ndined every day at his expense.\n\nHenry VIII, not to be outdone by his predecessors, kept one Yule-tide\nat which the cost of the cloth of gold that was used alone amounted to\nL600. Tents were erected within the spacious hall from which came the\nknights to joust in tournament; beautiful artificial gardens were\narranged out of which came the fantastically dressed dancers. The\nMorris (Moresque) Dance came into vogue in England during the reign of\nHenry VII, and long continued to be a favorite. The dancers were\ndecorated from crown to toe in gay ribbon streamers, and cut all\nmanner of antics for the amusement of the guests. This dance held the\nplace at Yule that the Fool's Dance formerly held during the Roman\nSaturnalia.\n\nHenry VIII's daughter, Elizabeth, kept the season in great\nmagnificence at Hampton Court where plays written for the occasion\nwere presented. The poet Herrick favored:\n\n    \"Of Christmas sports, the wassell boule,\n    That's tost up after Fox-i-th'-hole.\"\n\nThis feature of Yule observance, which is usually attributed to\nRowena, daughter of Vortigern, dates back to the grace-cup of the\nGreeks and Romans which is also the supposed source of the _bumper._\nAccording to good authority the word _bumper_ came from the grace-cup\nwhich Roman Catholics drank to the Pope, _au bon Pere._ The wassail\nbowl of spiced ale has continued in favor ever since the Princess\nRowena bade her father's guests _Wassheil._\n\nThe offering of gifts at Yule has been observed since offerings were\nfirst made to the god Frey for a fruitful year. In olden times one of\nthe favorite gifts received from tenants was an orange stuck with\ncloves which the master was to hang in his wine vessels to improve the\nflavor of the wine and prevent its moulding.\n\nAs lords received gifts from their tenants, so it was the custom for\nkings to receive gifts from their nobles. Elizabeth received a goodly\nshare of her wardrobe as gifts from her courtiers, and if the quality\nor quantity was not satisfactory, the givers were unceremoniously\ninformed of the fact. In 1561 she received at Yule a present of a pair\nof black silk stockings knit by one of her maids, and never after\nwould she wear those made of cloth. Underclothing of all kinds,\nsleeves richly embroidered and bejeweled, in fact everything she\nneeded to wear, were given to her and she was completely fitted out\nat this season.\n\nIn 1846 Sir Henry Cole is said to have originated the idea of sending\nChristmas cards to friends. They were the size of small\nvisiting-cards, often bearing a small colored design--a spray of\nholly, a flower, or a bit of mistletoe--and the compliments of the\nday. Joseph Crandall was the first publisher. Only about one thousand\nwere sold the first year, but by 1862 the custom of sending one of\nthese pretty cards in an envelope or with gifts to friends became\ngeneral and has now spread to other countries.\n\nDuring the Reformation the custom of observing Christmas was looked\nupon as sacrilegious. It savored of popery, and in the narrowness of\nthe light then dawning the festival was abolished except in the\nAnglican and Lutheran Churches. Tenants and neighbors no longer\ngathered in the hall on Christmas morning to partake freely of the\nale, blackjacks, cheese, toast, sugar, and nutmeg. If they sang at\nall, it was one of the pious hymns considered suitable-and\nsufficiently doleful--for the occasion. One wonders if the young men\never longed for the sport they used to have on Christmas morning when\nthey seized any cook who had neglected to boil the _hackin_[5] and\nrunning her round the market-place at full speed attempted to shame\nher of her laziness.\n\n[Footnote 5: Authorities differ as to whether this was a big sausage\nor a plum pudding.]\n\n_Protestants_ were _protesting_ against the observance of the day;\nPuritans were working toward its abolishment; and finally, on December\n24, 1652, Parliament ordered \"That no observance shall be had of the\nfive and twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas day;\nnor any solemnity used or exercised in churches upon that day in\nrespect thereof.\"\n\nThen Christmas became a day of work and no cheer. The love of fun\nwhich must find vent was expended at New Year, when the celebration\nwas similar to that formerly observed at Christmas. But people were\nobliged to bid farewell to the Christmas Prince who used to rule over\nChristmas festivities at Whitehall, and whose short reign was always\none of rare pleasure and splendor. He and other rulers of pastimes\nwere dethroned and banished from the kingdom. Yule cakes, which the\nfeasters used to cut in slices, toast, and soak in spicy ale, were not\nto be eaten--or certainly not on Christmas. It was not even allowable\nfor the pretty Yule candles to be lighted.\n\nChristmas has never regained its former prestige in England. Year\nafter year it has been more observed in churches and families, but not\nin the wild, boisterous, hearty style of olden times. Throughout Great\nBritain Yule-tide is now a time of family reunions and social\ngatherings. Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the Islands each retain a\nfew of their own peculiar customs, but they are not observed to any\nextent. In Ireland--or at least in some parts--they still indulge in\ndrinking what is known as _Lamb's-wool_, which is made by bruising\nroasted apples and mixing the juice with ale or milk. This drink,\ntogether with apples and nuts, is considered indispensable on\nChristmas Eve.\n\nEngland of all countries has probably known the merriest of\nYule-tides, certainly the merriest during those centuries when the\nmummers of yore bade to each and all\n\n    \"A merry Christmas and a happy New Year,\n    Your pockets full of money and your cellar full of beer.\"\n\nThere seems always to have been more or less anxiety felt regarding\nNew Year's Day in England, for \"If the morning be red and dusky it\ndenotes a year of robberies and strife.\"\n\n    \"If the grass grows in Janivear\n    It grows the worse for 't all the year.\"\n\nAnd then very much depended upon the import of the chapter to which\none opened the Bible on this morning. If the first visitor chanced to\nbe a female, ill luck was sure to follow, although why it should is\nnot explained.\n\nIt was very desirable to obtain the \"cream of the year\" from the\nnearest spring, and maidens sat up till after midnight to obtain the\nfirst pitcherful of water, supposed to possess remarkable virtues.\nModern plumbing and city water-pipes have done away with the\nobservance of the \"cream of the year,\" although the custom still\nprevails of sitting up to see the Old Year out and the New Year in.\n\nThere was also keen anxiety felt as to how the wind blew on New Year's\nEve, for\n\n    \"If New Year's Eve night wind blow South,\n    It betokeneth warmth and growth;\n    If West, much milk, and fish in the sea;\n    If North, much cold and storm there will be;\n    If East, the trees will bear much fruit;\n    If Northeast, flee it man and brute.\"\n\nAT CHRISTMAS TIME\n\n    At Christmas time the fields are white,\n      And hill and valley all bedight\n    With snowy splendor, while on high\n    The black crows sail athwart the sky,\n    Mourning for summer days gone by\n            At Christmas time.\n\n    At Christmas time the air is chill,\n      And frozen lies the babbling rill:\n    While sobbingly the trees make moan\n    For leafy greenness once their own,\n    For blossoms dead and birdlings flown\n            At Christmas time.\n\n    At Christmas time we deck the hall\n      With holly branches brave and tall,\n    With sturdy pine and hemlock bright,\n    And in the Yule-log's dancing light\n    We tell old tales of field and fight\n            At Christmas time.\n\n    At Christmas time we pile the board\n      With flesh and fruit and vintage stored,\n    And mid the laughter and the glow\n    We tred a measure soft and slow,\n    And kiss beneath the mistletoe\n            At Christmas time.\n\n    O God and Father of us all,\n      List to Thy lowliest creature's call:\n    Give of Thy joy to high and low,\n    Comforting the sorrowing in their woe;\n    Make wars to cease and love to grow\n            At Christmas time.\n\n    Let not one heart be sad to-day;\n      May every child be glad and gay:\n    Bless Thou Thy children great and small,\n    In lowly hut or castle hall,\n    And may each soul keep festival\n            At Christmas time.\n\nTHE NEW YEAR\n\n    \"A good New Year, with many blessings in it!\"\n    Once more go forth the kindly wish and word.\n    A good New Year! and may we all begin it\n    With hearts by noble thought and purpose stirred.\n\n    The Old Year's over, with its joy and sadness;\n    The path before us is untried and dim;\n    But let us take it with the step of gladness,\n    For God is there, and we can trust in Him.\n\n    What of the buried hopes that lie behind us!\n    Their graves may yet grow flowers, so let them rest.\n    To-day is ours, and it must find us\n    Prepared to hope afresh and do our best.\n\n    God _knows_ what finite wisdom only _guesses_;\n    Not here from our dim eyes the mist will roll.\n    What we call failures, He may deem successes\n    Who sees in broken parts the perfect whole.\n\n    And if we miss some dear familiar faces,\n    Passed on before us to the Home above,\n    Even while we count, through tears, their vacant places,\n    He heals our sorrows with His balm of Love.\n\n    No human lot is free from cares and crosses,\n    Each passing year will bring both shine and shower;\n    Yet, though on troubled seas life's vessel tosses,\n    The storms of earth endure but for an hour.\n\n    And should the river of our happy laughter\n    Flow 'neath a sky no cloud yet overcasts,\n    We will not fear the shadows coming after,\n    But make the most of sunshine while it lasts.\n\n    A good New Year! Oh, let us all begin it\n    With cheerful faces turning to the light!\n    A good New Year, which will have blessings in it\n    If we but persevere and do aright.\n\n--_E. Matheson._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN GERMANY\n\n    \"Feed the wood and have a joyful minute,\n    For the seeds of earthly suns are in it.\"\n\n--_Goethe._\n\n\nIt was away back in the time of Alexander the Great that Germany was\nmade known to the civilized world by an adventurous sailor named\nPytheas, a man of more than ordinary talent, who was sailing\nnorthward and discovered a land inhabited by a then unknown people. He\nreported his discovery to the Romans, but the difficulty was that\nPytheas had seen so much more than any of the Greeks or Romans of\nthose days that they utterly refused to believe his statements. Time\nhas proved that the sailor was nearer right in many of his apparently\nvisionary statements than his countrymen dreamed, although it has\ntaken centuries to prove the fact in some cases.\n\nThe people whom Pytheas then introduced to the polite world were\nTeutons, a branch of the great Aryan race and closely related to the\nearly English. The men were simple, truthful, and brave, but were\nsadly addicted to drink, it was said, and consequently were often\nquarrelsome. The women were much like those of to-day in their\ncharacteristics: virtuous, proud, and dignified; very beautiful, with\ngolden-hued hair, blue eyes, and fresh, fair complexions. Like most of\nthe early peoples, the Teutons worshiped gods and goddesses, and so\nhave many customs and traditions in common with other branches of the\nAryans.\n\nIf England has enjoyed the merriest Yule-tides of the past, certainly\nGermany enjoys the merriest of the present, for in no other country is\nthe day so fully and heartily observed. It is the great occasion of\nthe year and means much to the people.\n\nFor a week or more before the day, loads of evergreen trees of all\nsizes may be seen coming into the cities and towns to be piled up in\nsquares and open places until the entire place looks like a forest of\nsmall firs. One wonders where they all come from and for how many\nyears the supply will last, but it is not likely to fail at present.\n\nThe Lutherans gave Martin Luther the credit of introducing the\nChristmas tree into Germany. He may have helped to make it popular,\nbut certainly there is abundant evidence to prove that it was known\nlong before the Reformer's time. It is generally supposed to have its\norigin in mythological times and to be a vestige of the marvelous\ntree, Yggdrasil.\n\nPossibly Martin Luther thought of the old story of the tree and\nimagined, as he traveled alone one cold night, how pretty the\nsnow-laden fir-trees along his path would look could they be lighted\nby the twinkling stars overhead. But whether he had anything to do\nwith it or not, the tree is now one of the most important features of\nYule-tide among the Germans of all denominations.\n\nNearly ten million households require one or two trees each Christmas,\nvarying in height from two to twenty feet. Societies provide them for\npeople who are too poor to buy them, and very few are overlooked at\nthis happy holiday season.\n\nThe grand Yule-tide festival is opened on the eve of St. Nicholas Day,\nDecember sixth; in fact bazaars are held from the first of the month,\nwhich is really one prolonged season of merrymaking.\n\nIn Germany, St. Nicholas has a day set apart in his honor. He was born\nin. Palara, a city of Lycia, and but very little is known of his life\nexcept that he was made Bishop of Myra and died in the year 343. It\nwas once the custom to send a man around to personate St. Nicholas on\nSt. Nicholas Eve, and to inquire how the children had behaved through\nthe year, who were deserving of gifts, and who needed a touch of the\nbirch rods that he carried with him into every home. St. Nicholas\nstill goes about in some parts of the country, and in the bazaars and\nshops are sold little bunches of rods, real or made of candy, such as\nSt. Nicholas is supposed to deal in. In some places Knight Rupert\ntakes the place of St. Nicholas in visiting the houses. But Kriss\nKringle has nearly usurped the place St. Nicholas once held in awe and\nrespect by German children.\n\n[Illustration: TOY-MAKING IN GERMANY.\n\nHow the rough figures are chipped from the wooden ring coming from the\ncross-section of a tree.]\n\nBecause St. Nicholas Day came so near to Christmas, in some countries\nthe Saint became associated with that celebration, although in Germany\nthe eve of his birthday continues to be observed. Germans purchase\nliberally of the toys and confectionery offered at the bazaars, and\nnowhere are prettier toys and confectionery found than in Germany--the\ncountry which furnishes the most beautiful toys in the world.\n\nFrom the palace to the hut, Yule-tide is a season of peace, rest, joy,\nand devotion. For three days, that is the day before Christmas,\nChristmas, and the day after--known as Boxing-day--all business not\nabsolutely necessary to the welfare of the community is suspended.\nStores, markets, and bazaars present a festive appearance; the young\ngirl attendants are smiling and happy, and every one seems in the best\nof humor.\n\nMany of the poorer class, of Germans do not eat much meat, but at\nChristmas all indulge in that extravagance, so the markets are\nunusually crowded. They all like to purchase a plant or a flower for\nChristmas and the flower stores are marvels of beauty and sweetness.\n\nEvery one is busy preparing for the great occasion. Grown folks become\nchildren again in the simplicity of their enjoyment and enter into the\nexcitement with as much enthusiasm as do the children.\n\nNewspapers are not generally published during the three days of\nbusiness suspension, for no one would have time or interest to read\nthem at such a season.\n\nIn many places churches are open during the week before Christmas, for\nwith all the bustle and excitement incident to the preparations, the\npeople, young and old, are filled with a deep spirit of devotion, and\nnever for an instant forget the significance of the occasion they\ncommemorate.\n\nChurches are not trimmed nor are they made attractive with flowers,\nsongs, or in any special way, but the people go to listen with\ndevotion to the telling of the old, old story of Christ's birthday and\nof the first Holy Night at Bethlehem.\n\nThe day before Christmas all are busy trimming up their homes and\npreparing for the great day. Usually the mother of the household trims\nthe tree, not admitting any other member of the curious and expectant\nfamily into the room. Tables are provided for holding the gifts, as\nevery one in the family is expected to make a gift to every other\nmember, and it is surprising to note the interest taken in these\nsimple gifts--often a soap-rose, an artificial flower, knitted lace,\neven sausages, cheese, or butter--and with each and all the\never-present Christmas cake. It is spiced and hard, cut into every\nmanner of device--men, women, animals, stars, hearts, etc. The\n_Pfeffer Kuchen_ (pepper cakes) or some similar cakes are to be seen\neverywhere at Christmas time.\n\nThe gifts are often accompanied with short verses, good, bad, or\nindifferent, according to the talent of the giver, but all serve to\nmake the occasion merry. In some families these simple inexpensive\ngifts are so carefully kept that collections may be seen of gifts\nreceived by different members of the family since their infancy.\n\n[Illustration: DECORATING THE CHRISTMAS TREE.]\n\nOn Christmas Eve the guests assemble early, and by six o'clock a\nsignal is given for the door of the mysterious room to be opened to\nadmit the family to the tree:\n\n    \"O Hemlock tree! O Hemlock-tree! how faithful are thy branches!\n          Green not alone in summer time,\n          But in the winter's frost and rime!\n    O Hemlock-tree! O Hemlock-tree! how faithful are thy branches!\"\n\nIt is ablaze with tiny lighted tapers and radiant with shiny tinsel\ncut in pretty devices or in thread-like strips. Bright balls, gay\ntoys, and paper flowers help to enhance its beauty, and sometimes\nscenes from sacred history are arranged with toys at the base of the\ntree.\n\nWith the distribution of the gifts the fun begins; each person is\nexpected to kiss every other person present and help make the occasion\na merry one.\n\nHoly Night, or, as the Germans term it, _Weihnacht_--the Night of\nDedication--is the time of family reunions, fun, and frolic. Not alone\nin homes, hospitals, prisons, barracks, and elsewhere is the pretty\nbetinseled tree to be seen on Christmas, but in burying-grounds, on\nthe resting-places of the dead, stand these fresh green trees in\nevidence of keeping the loved one's memory green.\n\nWhile the custom of having a tree is universal throughout Germany, and\nfrom thence has been introduced into other countries, there are many\ncustoms peculiar to certain sections. In some of the little\nout-of-the-way places in the Tyrolese Alps the old-time Miracle Plays\nare enacted in a most primitive manner. As the peasants rarely, if\never, attend the theatre or have any opportunity to see a modern play,\nthis occasion attracts them from far and near. Where is the theatre,\nwho are the actors, do you ask? The theatre is the largest place\navailable, sometimes a large room, sometimes a barn, anything that\nwill accommodate the crowd that is sure to come. In one description of\na play given on Christmas Day it is stated that the people assembled\nin a barn belonging to the vicarage to witness the Paradise Play. The\ntop of a huge pottery stove at least five feet high served for the\nthrone of God the Father, the stove being hidden by screens painted\nto represent clouds. The play \"began at the beginning,\"--at Chaos. A\nlarge paper screen bedecked with a profusion of suns, moons, stars,\nand comets formed a background, while in front sprawled a number of\nboys in tights with board wings fastened to their shoulders to\nrepresent angels. The language was as simple and primitive as the\nscenery, yet for the credulous, devout peasants \"no distance is too\ngreat, no passes too steep or rough, no march on dusty highroads too\nfatiguing, if a Miracle or Passion Play is their goal.\"\n\nDoes it seem sacrilegious? Not to those who attend it in the spirit of\nhumility and devotion, as do these Tyrolese peasants. In some places\nplays are given in churches on Christmas as they were formerly in\nEngland, but these are not common, and are only found in remote\nplaces. Throughout this country there is always a church service in\nthe morning which is very generally attended, Protestants and\nCatholics alike making Christmas the day of all the year in which they\nattend church.\n\nThe name Christmas probably originated from the order that was given\nfor saying mass (called Christ-mass) for the sins of the people on the\nday that commemorates the Saviour's Birth.\n\nOne beautiful feature of a German Christmas is the wide-spread thought\nfor the poor and the interest taken in them. Many wealthy families\nhave charge of a certain number of poor families, and on Christmas Day\ninvite them to their own luxurious homes to receive gifts and enjoy\nthe tree prepared for them. An address, prayer, and song as they stand\naround the tree precedes the distribution of gifts, usually of\nclothing and food, with which the guests fill the bags and baskets\nthey bring with them. And for all there is an abundance of _Pfeffer\nKuchen_, or some other Christmas cake.\n\nIn the midst of all the excitement of lighted tree and pretty gifts,\nGerman children seldom forget to return thanks for what they receive.\nThey are taught that all these gifts come through the Christ-child,\nand that the occasion is not for selfish enjoyment but to give\npleasure to others, and that no one is too poor to give kindly thought\nand pleasant words to those around them.\n\nIn some parts of Germany--Lorraine is one--the people burn the\nYule-log; sometimes a huge log that will last through the three days'\nfestivity, sometimes one so small that the family sit before it until\nit is all consumed. Sometimes a part of the log is suspended from the\nceiling of the room and each person present blows at it hoping to make\na spark fall on some watching face; then again some carry a piece of\nthe log to bed with them to protect them from lightning. But the\nYule-log is not very generally known in this land of great pottery\nstoves and closed fireplaces, and that may be one reason why\npost-wagons go rumbling about at Christmas time, carrying parcels from\nplace to place and from door to door, blowing their post-horns\ncontinuously, instead of the parcels being dropped down chimneys by\nSanta Claus.\n\nIt is customary, also, in some parts of the country, for the people\nand their animals to fast the day before Christmas. At midnight the\npeople attend church and it is _said_ that the _cattle kneel_; then\nboth man and beast partake of a hearty meal. There are places in the\nGerman Alps where it is believed that the cattle are blessed with the\ngift of language for a while on Christmas Eve, but as it is a very\ngreat sin to listen, no one has yet reported any conversation among\nthem. In another part of the country it is thought that the Virgin\nMary with a company of angels passes over the land on Holy Night, and\nso tables are spread with the best the larders afford and candles are\nlighted and left burning that the angelic visitors may find abundant\nfood should they chance to stop on their way.\n\nBoxing-day, when boxes prepared for the poor are distributed, follows\nthe Holy Day and after that business is resumed, although festivities\ndo not cease.\n\nSylvester, or New Year's Eve, is the next occasion to be observed\nduring Yule-tide. The former name was given in honor of the first\npope of that name, and still retained by many. After the usual church\nservice in the early evening, the intervening hours before midnight\nare spent in the most boisterous merriment. Fun of all sorts within\nthe limit of law and decency prevails. Any one venturing forth wearing\na silk hat is in danger of having his hat, if not his head, smashed.\n\"Hat off,\" cries the one who spies one of these head-coverings, and if\nthe order is not instantly obeyed, woe betide the luckless wearer. At\nmidnight all Germany, or at least all in the cities and the larger\ntowns, may be seen out-of-doors or leaning from windows, waiting for\nthe bells to ring out the Old Year and welcome in the New. At first\nstroke of the bells there arises one universal salute of _Prosit\nNeujahr_ (Happy New Year). It is all good-natured fun, a wild,\nexuberant farewell to the Old Year--the closing scene of the joyous\nYule-tide.\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS TREE\n\n    The oak is a strong and stalwart tree,\n      And it lifts its branches up,\n    And catches the dew right gallantly\n      In many a dainty cup:\n    And the world is brighter and better made\n      Because of the woodman's stroke,\n    Descending in sun, or falling in shade,\n      On the sturdy form of the oak.\n    But stronger, I ween, in apparel green,\n      And trappings so fair to see,\n    With its precious freight for small and great,\n      Is the beautiful Christmas tree.\n\n    The elm is a kind and goodly tree,\n      With its branches bending low:\n    The heart is glad when its form we see,\n      And we list to the river's flow.\n    Ay, the heart is glad and the pulses bound,\n      And joy illumes the face,\n    Whenever a goodly elm is found\n      Because of its beauty and grace.\n    But kinder, I ween, more goodly in mien,\n    With branches more drooping and free,\n    The tint of whose leaves fidelity weaves,\n    Is the beautiful Christmas tree.\n\n--_Hattie S. Russell._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN SCANDINAVIA\n\n    The horn was blown for silence, come was the votive hour;\n    To Frey's high feast devoted they carry in the boar.\n\n--_Frithof's \"Saga,\" Trans. Bayard Taylor._\n\n\n\"To Norroway, to Norroway,\" the most northern limit of Scandinavia,\none turns for the first observance of Christmas in Scandinavia, for\nthe keeping of Yule-tide in the land of Odin, of the Vikings, Sagas,\nmidnight sun, and the gorgeous Aurora Borealis. This one of the twin\ncountries stretching far to the north with habitations within nineteen\ndegrees of the North Pole, and the several countries which formed\nancient Scandinavia, are one in spirit regarding Christmas although\nnot in many other respects.\n\nIn the far north among the vast tribe of Lapps, in their cold,\nbenighted country, as Christmas approaches each wandering tribe heads\nits reindeer toward the nearest settlement containing a church, that\nit may listen to the story of the first Christmas morn which is told\nyear after year by the pastor, and yet is ever new and interesting to\nthe people who come from great distances, drawn over the fields of\ncrisp snow by their fleet-footed reindeer.\n\nThe Lapp is apparently a joyless individual. Men, women, and children\nseem bereft of all power of amusement beyond what tends to keep them\nalive, such as fishing, hunting, and traveling about to feed their\nherds of reindeer. They have no games, no gift for music, they never\ndance nor play cards, but year after year drag out an existence,\nliving within low earth-covered huts or in tents. Even the best homes\nare low and poorly ventilated. For windows are not needed where\ndarkness reigns for months together, where the sun is not seen at all\nduring six or seven weeks of the year, and where people live\nout-of-doors during the long summer day of sunlight that follows.\n\nIn their low, stuffy homes which at Christmas are filled with guests\nfrom the wandering Lapps, there is no room for the pretty tree and\ndecorative evergreens. The joy afforded these people at Yule-tide is\nin the reunion of friends, in attending church services, in the\nuniting of couples in marriage, and, alas, in the abundance of liquor\nfreely distributed during this season. The children are made happy by\nbeing able to attend school, for at Christmas they are brought into\nthe settlements with friends for this purpose. They have only a few\nweeks' schooling during the year, from Christmas to Easter, and while\nthe schoolmasters are stationed at the little towns, the children work\nhard to gain the knowledge of books and religion which they crave.\n\nIn this terrible winter night of existence, amidst an appalling\ndarkness of Nature and Mind, the one great occasion of the year is\nChristmas. Not the merry, bright, festive occasion of their more\nfavored brothers and sisters, but what to them is the happiest in the\nyear.\n\nChristmas Eve passes unnoticed. The aurora may be even more beautiful\nthan usual, its waving draperies more fantastic, more gorgeous-hued,\nbut it is unnoticed by the Lapps who have seen it from childhood. Men,\nwomen, children, servants, guests, and animals, crowd into the small,\nlow homes, without a thought of Santa Claus coming to visit them.\nChildren have no stockings to hang up, and there are no chimneys for\nSanta to descend. In fact, he and his reindeer, with their loads of\ntreasured gifts, probably left this region with the sun, bound for\nmore congenial places.\n\nThe church bells break the terrible silence of the sunless towns on\nChristmas morning, and as the fur-encased natives wend their way to\nchurch, greeting one another as they meet, there is a faint approach\nto joyousness. Of course there must be real sorrow and joy wherever\nthere is life and love, although among the Lapps it is hard to\ndiscern.\n\nDuring Yule-tide the Lapps visit one another, attend to what\ngovernmental business there may be, give in marriage, christen the\nchildren, and bury the dead, whose bodies have lain beneath their\ncovering of snow awaiting this annual visit of the Norwegian clergyman\nfor their final interment.\n\nThink of Christmas without a tree, without wreaths and flowers,\nwithout stockings full of gifts, with a dinner of reindeer meat and no\nplum pudding! And imagine what would be his sensation could a Lapp\nchild be put into a home in England, America, Germany, or even in\nother parts of Scandinavia! What would he say could he receive such\ngifts as were given you last Christmas!\n\nBut Lapps are only a small part of the population of Norway. Norwegian\nchildren have many jolly times around the Christmas trees and enjoy\nhunting for their little gifts which are often tucked away in various\nplaces for them to find. Then there are all sorts of pretty games for\nthem to play and quantities of appetizing food prepared for their\npleasure. The young folks earn their feast, for all day long before\nChristmas they are busy tying bunches of oats and corn on the trees,\nthe fences, the tops of houses and of barns, and on high poles which\nthey erect in the yards, until\n\n    \"From gable, barn and stable\n    Protrudes the birdies' table\n    Spread with a sheaf of corn.\"\n\nThe Norwegians begin their Christmas with divine services, after which\nthey meet together for a repast which is an appetizer for the feast\nto follow. A pipe of tobacco is given to each man and boy present,\nthen they smoke while the feast, the great feature of the day, is\nbeing made ready. Fish, poultry, meats, and every variety of food\nknown to the Norwegian housewife is served in courses, between which\ntoasts are given, healths drunk, and the songs of Norway rendered.\nAmong the latter \"Old Norway\" is always included, for the people never\nforget the past history of their beloved country.\n\nOne of the pretty customs of these occasions is that each guest on\narising turns to the host and hostess, who remain seated at either end\nof the table, and, bowing to each, expresses his thanks for the meal.\n\n[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE IN NORWAY.]\n\nSometimes after the serving of tea at seven o'clock, little boys in\nwhite mantles, with star-shaped lanterns and dolls to represent the\nVirgin and the Holy Babe, enter the room and sing sweet carols. Often\nstrolling musicians arrive, such as go from place to place at\nChristmas. After a large supper the guests depart on sledges for their\nhomes, which are often miles distant.\n\nDo you suppose on Christmas Eve, as they look toward the fading light\nin the West, the children of Norway ever think of their Scandinavian\ncousins, the little Icelanders, in their peat houses, on that isolated\nisland in the sea, where the shortest day is four hours long, and\nwhere at Christmas time the sun does not rise above the horizon for a\nweek, and wonder how they are celebrating Yule-tide?\n\nChristmas is a great day with them also, for they cling to the old\nsongs and customs, and could the west wind convey the sound of glad\nvoices across the wide expanse of water separating the island from\nthe mainland, Norwegian children might hear the Icelandic children\nsinging one of their sweet old songs.\n\n    \"When I do good and think aright\n    At peace with man, resigned to God,\n    Thou look'st on me with eyes of light,\n    Tasting new joys in joy's abode.\"\n\nIn Sweden there is a general house-cleaning before Christmas;\neverything must be polished, scrubbed, beaten, and made clean, and all\nrubbish burned, for dirt, like sinful thoughts, cannot be tolerated\nduring the holy festival.\n\nAs early as the first of December each housewife starts her\npreparations for the great day. Many have worked all the year making\ngifts for the occasion, but now the carpets must come up and be\nbeaten, the paint must be cleaned, and the house set in order. The\nsilver which has been handed down from generation to generation,\ntogether with that received on holidays and birthdays, has to be\ncleaned and polished, so must the brasses--the tall fire-dogs, the\nstately andirons, and the great kettles--all must be made to reflect\nevery changing ray of light.\n\nThen the baking for a well-ordered household is a matter of great\nmoment, and requires ample time. It is usual to begin at least two\nweeks before Christmas. Bread is made of wheat and rye flour, raised\nover night, then rolled very thin and cut into discs twelve or\nfourteen inches in diameter, with a hole in the center. After having\nbeen baked, these are strung on a stick and left to dry under the\nbeams of the baking-room. As they will keep a long while, large\nquantities are made at this season in each household.\n\nThen follows the making of sweetened, soft, rye, wheat, and other\nbreads, as well as the baking of the light yellow (saffron), the\nchocolate-brown, and thin gray-colored cakes, and those that are\nfilled with custard.\n\nThe preparing of Christmas drinks always requires the close attention\nof good dames, for there must be an inexhaustible supply of Christmas\nbeer, made of malt, water, molasses, and yeast, and wine with almonds\nand spices, and various other decoctions.\n\nThen the cheese must be made ready, not only the usual sour kind, but\nthe more delicious sweet cheese that is made of sweet milk boiled\nslowly for hours and prettily moulded.\n\nThe Swedish wife is relieved of the burden of making pies, as her\npeople know nothing about that indigestible mixture so acceptable to\nAmerican palates.\n\nThe festivities begin with the dressing of the tree the day before\nChristmas. In this the older members of the family, with friends and\nrelatives, join with great gusto, preparing paper flowers with which\nto bedeck the tall evergreen tree which reaches from floor to ceiling.\n\nThey cut long ribbons of colored paper for streamers, and make yards\nof paper fringe to wind with the tinsel among the boughs, from which\nare hung bright colored boxes of sweetmeats, fruit, and fancy balls.\n\nThe children are, of course, excluded from the room and obliged to\ncontent themselves with repeating the tales of Santa Claus, as told by\ntheir elders. When a gift is offered in person, or, as is more\ngenerally the case, is thrown in the door suddenly by an unseen hand,\nthere rings a merry _Glad Frill_ (Good Yule) meaning \"Merry\nChristmas,\" for that is the wish of the preceding day or days, rather\nthan of Christmas itself.\n\nOn Christmas Eve at early nightfall, when the colored candles are\nablaze over the entire tree, and the great red ball of light shines\nfrom its topmost branches, the children are admitted to the room\namidst a babel of shouts and screams of delight, which are increased\nupon the arrival of a veritable Santa Claus bestrewn with wool-snow\nand laden with baskets of gifts. On the huge sled are one or more\nbaskets according to the number of bundles to be distributed in the\nfamily. Each bundle bears the name of the owner on its wrapper,\ntogether with funny rhymes and mottoes, which are read aloud for the\namusement of all. Santa Claus always gives an abundance of valuable\ncounsel and advice to the young folks as he bestows upon them his\npretty gifts.\n\nAfter the distribution of gifts and the disappearance of Santa Claus,\nall join in dancing and singing around the tree simple, childish\njingles such as the following:\n\n    \"Now is Christmas here again,\n    Now is Christmas here again,\n    After Christmas then comes Easter,\n    Cheese and bread and Christmas beer,\n    Fish and rice and Christmas cheer!\n        --etc.\"\n\nOne of the prettiest dances is that of \"Cutting the Oats,\" in which\ngirls and boys--there must be an extra boy--dance in a circle,\nsinging:\n\n    \"Cut the oats, cut the oats,\n    Who is going to bind them?\n    That my dearest will have to do,\n    But where will I find him?\n\n    \"I saw him last eve in the moonlight,\n    In the moonlight clear and bright,\n    So you take one and I'll take one,\n    And he will be left without one.\"\n\nThe boys represent the cutters and the girls the oats, and great\nmerriment prevails as the cutters' arms encircle the waists of the\npretty oats, leaving the unfortunate cutter, whom they all dance\naround, bowing scoffingly as they shout:\n\n    \"No one did want you,\n       Poor sprite, no one wants you,\n    You are left alone,\n       You are left alone.\"\n\nMany of their games are similar to \"Blind Man's Buff,\" \"Hunt the Key,\"\nand \"Hot and Cold,\" or \"Hunt to the Music,\" the latter being one which\nby its modulations from pianissimo to forte indicate the hunters'\nnearness to the object sought for. The game of \"Blind Feeding the\nBlind\" causes much amusement among the juveniles; two players sit\nopposite each other blindfolded and endeavor to feed one another with\nspoonfuls of milk, and their mishaps are very entertaining to the\non-lookers.\n\nBetween the hours of ten and eleven comes the grand Christmas supper,\nwhen all adjourn to the dining-room to partake of the annual feast for\nwhich the housewives have long been preparing. The table is usually\ntastefully and often elaborately trimmed with flowers and green\nleaves. The corners of the long snow-white homespun cloth are caught\nup into rosettes surrounded with long calla or other leaves; possibly\nthe entire edge of the table is bedecked with leaves and flowers. The\nbutter is moulded into a huge yellow rose resting on bright green\nleaves, and the napkins assume marvelous forms under the deft fingers\nof the artistic housewives.\n\nThe Christmas mush holds the first place in importance among the\nchoice viands of the occasion; it is rice boiled a long while in milk\nand seasoned with salt, cinnamon, and sugar, and is eaten with cream.\nSeveral blanched almonds are boiled in the mush and it is confidently\nbelieved that whoever finds the first almond will be the first to be\nmarried. While eating the mush, each one is expected to make rhymes\nabout the rice and the good luck it is to bring them, and the most\nremarkable poetical effusions are in order on these occasions.\n\nThe Christmas fish is to the Swede what the Christmas roast-beef is to\nthe Englishman, an indispensable adjunct of the festival. The fish\nused resembles a cod; it is buried for days in wood ashes or else it\nis soaked in soda water, then boiled and served with milk gravy.\nBread, cheese, and a few vegetables follow, together with a pudding\nmade of salt herrings, skinned, boned, and cut in thin slices, which\nare laid in a dish with slices of cold boiled potatoes and hard-boiled\neggs, covered with a dressing of cream, butter, and eggs-then baked\nand served hot.\n\nThe fish, rice, and a fat goose are said to be served at every table\non Christmas from that of the king to that of the commonest of his\nsubjects.\n\nChristmas morning opens with an early service in church, to which the\nolder members of the family go in sled parties of from forty to fifty\nsleds, each drawn by one, two, or even three horses, over whose backs\njingle rows of silver-toned bells. The sled parties are an especial\nfeature of Christmas time. They start out while the stars are still\ntwinkling in the sky, and the lighted trees are illuminating the homes\nthey pass.\n\nThe day itself is observed with less hilarity than other days during\nthe season; the \"Second Christmas,\" or day following, being far gayer.\nThen begin the family parties, with the looking forward to the great\nTwelfth-Night ball, after which the children and young folks end their\nevening parties by untrimming the tree of their entertainer amidst\npeals of laughter, songs, and shouts.\n\nThe tree, of course, has been supplied anew with candles, fruit, and\ncandy. The first are blown out and the last two struggled for while\nthe tree is drawn slowly toward the door out of which it is finally\npitched by the merry crowd.\n\nThe Swedes have four legal holidays at Yule, beginning the day\nprevious to Christmas, and they make merry while they last. Besides\nhaving the _Jul-gran_ or Christmas tree, each family places in the\nyard a pole with a sheaf of grain on top for the birds' Christmas\ndinner, a pretty custom common to many countries.\n\nBusiness is very generally suspended during Christmas, the day\nfollowing, Twelfth Day, and the twentieth day.\n\n\"Do as your forefathers have done, and you can't do wrong,\" is said to\nbe the motto of the Swedes. So the customs of their forefathers are\nstrictly observed at Yule-tide.\n\n_Svea_, the feminine name of Sweden, the \"Queen of the North,\"\ncontains what is popularly believed to be the burial-places of Wodin,\nThor, and Freya. The mounds are about one mile from Upsala and are\nvisited by travelers from all parts of the world. Antiquarian\nresearchers, however, have recently had a word to say in doubt whether\nthese mounds contain the remains of the renowned beings, those ancient\ntravelers. The Swedes, however, still cling to the belief that the\nbones of Wodin, the Alexander of the North, rest beneath the sod at\nUpsala. In these mounds have been found the bones of a woman and of a\ndog, a bracelet of filigree work, and a curious pin shaped like a\nbird, but no sign of Wodin's presence. Yet peasants believe that Wodin\npasses by on dark nights, and his horse's shoe, with eight nail-holes,\nis exhibited in the museum at Utwagustorp.\n\nNew Year's Day is of comparatively little importance; the Christmas\ntrees are usually relighted for the enjoyment of the poorer children\nand gifts are made to the needy. The Yule festivities are prolonged\nfor two weeks in many places, during which the people visit from home\nto home and enjoy many social pleasures. The devout attend church\nservices each day, abandon all work so far as possible, and on\nJanuary thirteenth generally finish up the joyous season with a ball.\n\nThe Swedes do not trim their churches with evergreen at Yule-tide as\nthat is an emblem of mourning with them, and is used instead of crape\non the door and often strewn before the hearse and also upon the floor\nin the saddened homes, so of course at Christmas they would not think\nof using it for decorations. But where they can afford it or can\nprocure them, they use flowers to decorate their homes.\n\nIn Denmark, Christmas is a time of unusual merriment and rejoicing. No\none who can possibly avoid it works at all from the day before\nChristmas until after New Year, but spends the time in visiting,\neating, and drinking. \"May God bless your Christmas; may it last till\nEaster,\" is the usual salutation of the season.\n\nWith the people of Denmark the favorite dish for Christmas dinner is a\ngoose; every one, even the cattle, the dog, and the birds, receive the\nbest the larder affords on this occasion. There is a peculiar kind of\ncake that is made for each member of every family, and, for some\nreason not explained, the saltcellar remains on the table throughout\nYule-tide.\n\nThose who own fruit-trees feel it incumbent upon them to go at\nmidnight on Christmas Eve and with a stick in hand strike each tree\nthree times saying as they do so, \"Rejoice, O Tree,--rejoice and be\nfruitful.\"\n\nIn Denmark it is believed by many that the cattle rise on their knees\nat midnight on Christmas Eve, but no one ever seems to have proved\nthis saying to be true.\n\nIn this country also the children delight in listening to stories of\ntrolls who have been driven to the island of Bornhern by the parsons\nalthough they once ran riot through Zealand, and the little folks sing\npretty songs of Balder, the sun god, which are a special feature of\nthe season.\n\nIt is customary to usher in the New Year with a noise of firearms of\nevery description.\n\nTHE CHRISTMAS SHEAF\n\n    Far over in Norway's distant realm,\n      That land of ice and snow,\n    Where the winter nights are long and drear,\n      And the north winds fiercely blow,\n    From many a low-thatched cottage roof,\n      On Christmas eve, 'tis said,\n    A sheaf of grain is hung on high,\n      To feed the birds o'erhead.\n\n    In years gone by, on Christmas eve,\n      When the day was nearly o'er,\n    Two desolate, starving birds flew past\n      A humble peasant's door.\n    \"Look! Look!\" cried one, with joyful voice\n      And a piping tone of glee:\n    \"In that sheaf there is plenteous food and cheer,\n      And the peasant had but three.\n    One he hath given to us for food,\n      And he hath but two for bread,\n    But he gave it with smiles and blessings,\n      'For the Christ-child's sake,' he said.\"\n\n    \"Come, come,\" cried the shivering little mate,\n      \"For the light is growing dim;\n    'Tis time, ere we rest in that cosy nest,\n      To sing our evening hymn.\"\n    And this was the anthem they sweetly sang,\n      Over and over again:\n    \"The Christ-child came on earth to bless\n      The birds as well as men.\"\n\n    Then safe in the safe, snug, warm sheaf they dwelt,\n      Till the long, cold night was gone,\n    And softly and clear the sweet church bells\n      Rang out on the Christmas dawn,\n    When down from their covert, with fluttering wings,\n      They flew to a resting-place,\n    As the humble peasant passed slowly by,\n      With a sorrowful, downcast face.\n    \"Homeless and friendless, alas! am I,\"\n      They heard him sadly say,\n    \"For the sheriff,\" (he wept and wrung his hands)\n      \"Will come on New Year's day.\"\n\n    The birdlings listened with mute surprise.\n    \"'Tis hard,\" they gently said;\n    \"He gave us a sheaf of grain for food,\n      When he had but three for bread.\n    We will pray to God, He will surely help\n      This good man in distress;\"\n    And they lifted their voices on high, to crave\n      His mercy and tenderness.\n    Then again to the Christmas sheaf they flew,\n      In the sunlight, clear and cold:\n    \"Joy! joy! each grain of wheat,\" they sang,\n      \"Is a shining coin of gold.\"\n\n    \"A thousand ducats of yellow gold,\n      A thousand, if there be one;\n    O master! the wonderful sight behold\n      In the radiant light of the sun.\"\n    The peasant lifted his tear-dimmed eyes\n      To the shining sheaf o'erhead;\n    \"'Tis a gift from the loving hand of God,\n      And a miracle wrought,\" he said.\n    \"For the Father of all, who reigneth o'er,\n      His children will ne'er forsake,\n    When they feed the birds from their scanty store,\n      For the blessed Christ-child's sake.\"\n\n    \"The fields of kindness bear golden grain,\"\n      Is a proverb true and tried;\n    Then scatter thine alms, with lavish hand,\n      To the waiting poor outside;\n    And remember the birds, and the song they sang,\n      When the year rolls round again:\n    \"The Christ-child came on earth to bless\n      The birds as well as men.\"\n\n--_Mrs. A.M. Tomlinson._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN RUSSIA\n\n    \"Light--in the heavens high,\n    And snow flashing bright;--\n    Sledge in the distance\n    In its lonely flight.\"\n\n--_Shenshin._\n\n\nIn this enormous kingdom which covers one-sixth of the land surface of\nthe globe, and where upwards of fifteen million human beings\ncelebrate in various ways the great winter festival of Yule-tide, it\nwill be found that the people retain many traditions of the\nsun-worshipers, which shows that the season was once observed in honor\nof the renewal of the sun's power. With them, however, the sun was\nsupposed to be a _female_, who, when the days began to lengthen,\nentered her sledge, adorned in her best robes and gorgeous head-dress,\nand speeded her horses summerward.\n\nRussian myths indicate a connection with the Aryans in the remote\npast; their songs of the wheel, the log, the pig or boar, all show a\ncommon origin in centuries long gone by.\n\nRussia to most minds is a country of cold, darkness, oppression, and\nsuffering, and this is true to an altogether lamentable extent. But it\nis also a country of warmth, brightness, freedom, and happiness. In\nfact, there are so many phases of life among its vast population that\ndescriptions of Russian life result about as satisfactorily as did\nthose of Saxe's \"Three blind men of Hindustan,\" who went to see the\nelephant. Each traveler describes the part he sees, just as each blind\nman described the part he felt, and each believes he knows the whole.\n\nThere are certain general features of the Yule-tide observance that\nare typical of the country. One is the singing of their ancient\n_Kolyada_ songs, composed centuries ago by writers who are unknown.\nThey may have been sacrificial songs in heathen days, but are now sung\nwith fervor and devotion at Christmas time.\n\nIn some places a maiden dressed in white and drawn on a sledge from\nhouse to house represents the goddess of the Sun, while her retinue\nof maidens sing the _Kolyada_, or carols. Here again appears the\nancient custom of gift-making, for the maidens who attend the goddess\nexpect to receive gifts in appreciation of their songs.\n\nThe word _Kolyada_ is of doubtful origin. It may refer to the sun, a\nwheel, or a sacrifice; there is no telling how, when, or where it\noriginated, but the singing of these songs has been a custom of the\npeople from time immemorial, and after the introduction of\nChristianity it became a part of the Christmas festivities.\n\nRalston in his \"Songs of the Russian People\" gives the following\ntranslation of one of these peculiar songs:\n\n      \"Kolyada! Kolyada!\n      Kolyada has arrived.\n    On the Eve of the Nativity,\n      Holy Kolyada.\n    Through all the courts, in all the alleys,\n          We found Kolyada\n          In Peter's Court.\n    Round Peter's Court there is an iron fence,\n    In the midst of the Court there are three rooms,\n    In the first room is the bright Moon,\n    In the second room the red Sun,\n    And in the third room, the many Stars.\"\n\nStrangely enough the Russians make the Moon the _master_ of the\nmansion above, and the Sun the _mistress_, a twist about in the\nconception of these luminaries worthy of the Chinese, and possibly\nderived from some of Russia's Eastern invaders. In the above song, the\nStars, like dutiful children, all wish their luminous parents good\n_health_,\n\n    \"For many years, for many years.\"\n\nIn parts of Russia, the Virgin Mary and birds take the place of the\nSun and Stars in these songs, which are sung throughout the Yule\nseason by groups of young folks at social gatherings, or from house\nto house, and form the leading feature of the Christmas festivities.\n\nIt is hard to realize that the stolid, fur-clad Russian is a child of\nsong, for such seem to belong to sunny climes, but throughout his life\nfrom the cradle to the grave he is accompanied with song. Not modern\ncompositions, for they are quite inferior as a rule, but those\nmelodies composed ages ago and sung repeatedly through generation\nafter generation, usually accompanied with dancing in circles.\n\nThe _Kolyadki_ cover a variety of themes relating to the gods,\ngoddesses, and other celestial beings, to all of whom Christian\ncharacteristics have been given until they now form the sacred songs\nof Yule-tide.\n\nOn Christmas Eve it is customary for the people to fast until after\nthe first service in church. They pray before their respective icons,\nor sacred pictures, recite psalms, and then all start for the church,\nwhere the service is, in most respects, the same as in the Roman\nCatholic Church. There are many denominations besides the established\nchurch of the country that hold services on Christmas Eve; but to\nwhichever one goes, it is wise to hasten home and to get to bed in\nseason to have a pleasant Christmas Eve dream, as such is sure to come\ntrue, according to Russian authority.\n\nOn _Welikikdenj_--Christmas--the people partake of an early meal. In\nsome parts of the country it is customary to send extremely formal\ninvitations in the name of the host to the guests who are expected to\narrive that day. These are delivered by a special messenger and read\nsomewhat as follows:\n\n\"My master and mistress beg you to consider, Father Artanon\nTriphonowitsch, and you, Mother Agaphia Nelidowna, that for thousands\nof years it has been thus; with us it has not commenced, with us it\nwill not end. Do not, therefore, disturb the festival; do not bring\nthe good people to despair. Without you there will be no pleasure at\nPhilimon Spicidonowitsch's, without you there will be no maiden\nfestival at Anna Karpowna's.\"\n\n[Illustration: A CHRISTMAS BONFIRE IN RUSSIA.]\n\nWho could absent himself after such an invitation as this? The place\nof meeting has been decided upon weeks earlier, for it must be with a\nwell-to-do family possessing a large home to accommodate the guests\nthat usually assemble at Christmas. The \"fair maidens,\" each with her\nmother and retinue, arrive first on the scene, bringing cake and\nsweetmeats and gifts for the servants. They would sooner freeze in\ntheir sledges before the gate than be guilty of alighting without\nfirst receiving the greeting of their host and hostess. Having been\nwelcomed, they next pray before the icon, and then are ready for the\npleasures arranged for them.\n\nOne peculiar phase of these house-parties is the selecting of partners\nfor the maidens, which is done by the hostess, the \"elected\" sometimes\nproving satisfactory and sometimes not. They feast, play games, go\nsnowballing, and guess riddles, always having a jolly good time.\nReciters of _builinas_ (poems) are often present to sing and recite\nthe whole night through, for of song and poetry the Russian never\ntires.\n\nA pretty custom very generally observed is the blessing of the house\nand household. The priest visits each home in his district,\naccompanied by boys bearing a vessel of holy water; the priest\nsprinkles each room with the water, each person present kissing the\ncross he carries and receiving his benediction as he proceeds from\nroom to room. Thus each home is sanctified for the ensuing year.\n\nThe familiar greeting of \"Merry Christmas\" is not heard in Russia\nunless among foreigners, the usual salutation on this day being\n\"Greetings for the Lord's birth,\" to which the one addressed replies,\n\"God be with you.\"\n\nThe observance of New Year on January first, according to the\nGregorian Calendar, was instituted by Peter the Great in 1700. The\nprevious evening is known as St. Sylvester's Eve, and is the time of\ngreat fun and enjoyment. According to the poet, Vasili Andreivich\nZhukivski:\n\n    \"St. Sylvester's evening hour,\n    Calls the maidens round;\n    Shoes to throw behind the door,\n    Delve the snowy ground.\n    Peep behind the window there,\n    Burning wax to pour;\n    And the corn for chanticleer,\n    Reckon three times o'er.\n    In the water-fountain fling\n    Solemnly the golden ring\n    Earrings, too, of gold;\n    Kerchief white must cover them\n    While we're chanting over them\n    Magic songs of old.\"\n\nOvsen, a mythological being peculiar to the season, is supposed to\nmake his entry about this time, riding a boar (another indication of\nAryan descent), and no Christmas or New Year's dinner is considered\ncomplete without pork served in some form. The name of Ovsen, being so\nlike the French word for oats, suggests the possibility of this\nancient god's supposed influence over the harvests, and the honor paid\nhim at the ingathering feasts in Roman times. He is the god of\nfruitfulness, and on New Year's Eve Russian boys go from house to\nhouse scattering oats and other grain while they sing:\n\n    \"In the forest, in the pine forest,\n    There stood a pine tree,\n    Green and shaggy.\n    O Ovsen! Ovsen!\n    The Boyars came,\n    Cut down the pine,\n    Sawed it into planks,\n    Built a bridge,\n    Covered it with cloth,\n    Fastened it with nails,\n    O Ovsen! O Ovsen!\n    Who, who will go\n    Along that bridge?\n    Ovsen will go there,\n    And the New Year,\n    O Ovsen! O Ovsen!\"\n\nWith this song the young folks endeavor to encourage the people who\nare about to cross the gulf between the known and the unknown, the\nPast and the Future Year; at the same time they scatter good seed for\nthem to reap a bountiful harvest. Often the boys sing the following\nKolyadki:\n\n    \"Afield, afield, out in the open field!\n    There a golden plough goes ploughing,\n    And behind that plough is the Lord Himself.\n    Holy Peter helps Him to drive,\n    And the Mother of God carries the seed corn,\n    Carries the seed corn, prays to the Lord God,\n    Make, O Lord, the strong wheat to grow,\n    The strong wheat and the vigorous corn!\n    The stalks there shall be like reeds!\n    The ears shall be (plentiful) as blades of grass!\n    The sheaves shall be (in number) like the stars!\n    The stacks shall be like hills,\n    The loads shall be gathered together like black clouds.\"\n\nHow singularly appropriate it seems that boys, hungry at all times,\nshould be the ones to implore the god of fruitfulness to bestow upon\ntheir people an abundant harvest during the coming year!\n\nIn Petrograd the New Year is ushered in with a cannonade of one\nhundred shots fired at midnight. The Czar formally receives the good\nwishes of his subjects, and the streets, which are prettily decorated\nwith flags and lanterns, are alive with people.\n\nOn New Year's Day the Winter Palace is opened to society, as is nearly\nevery home in the city, for at this season, at least, hospitality and\ncharity are freely dispensed from palace and cottage.\n\nOn Sotjelnik, the last of the holidays, the solemn service of Blessing\nthe Water of the Neva is observed. At two o'clock in the afternoon the\npeople who have gathered in crowds at various points along the river\nwitness the ceremony which closes the festivities of Yule-tide. At\nPetrograd a dome is erected in front of the Winter Palace, where in\nthe presence of a vast concourse of people the Czar and the high\nchurch officials in a grand and impressive manner perform the\nceremony. In other places it is customary for the district priest to\nofficiate. Clothed in vestments he leads a procession of clergy and\nvillagers, who carry icons and banners and chant as they proceed to\nthe river. They usually leave an open space in their ranks through\nwhich all the bad spirits likely to feel antagonistic to the ruler of\nWinter--the Frost King--may flee. For water sprites, fairies, gnomes,\nand other invisibilities, who delight in sunshine and warmth, are\nforced, through the power of the priest's prayers, and the showering\nof holy water, to take refuge in a hole that is cut in the ice beside\na tall cross, and disappear beneath the cold water of the blessed\nriver.\n\nA PALM BRANCH FROM PALESTINE\n\n    Branch of palm from Palestine,\n    Tell me of thy native place:\n    What fair vale, what steep incline,\n    First thy stately growth did grace?\n\n    Has the sun at dawn caressed thee,\n    That on Jordan's waters shone,\n    Have the rough night-winds distressed thee\n    As they swept o'er Lebanon?\n\n    And while Solym's sons, brought low,\n    Plaited thee for humble wages,\n    Was it prayer they chanted slow,\n    Or some song of ancient ages?\n\n    As in childhood's first awaking\n    Does thy parent-tree still stand,\n    With its full-leaved branches making\n    Shadows on the burning sand?\n\n    Or when thou from it wert riven,\n    Did it straightway droop and die,\n    Till the desert dust was driven\n    On its yellowing leaves to die?\n\n    Say, what pilgrim's pious hand\n    Cherished thee in hours of pain,\n    When he to this northern land\n    Brought thee, fed with tears like rain?\n\n    Or perchance on some good knight,\n    Pure in heart and calm of vision,\n    Men bestowed thy garland bright--\n    Fit as he for realms Elysian!\n\n    Now preserved with reverent care,\n    At the _Ikon's_ gilded shrine,\n    Faithful watch thou keepest there,\n    Holy Palm of Palestine.\n\n    Where the lamp burns faint and dim,\n    Folded in a mystic calm,\n    Near the Cross--the sign of Him--\n    Rest in safety, sacred Palm.\n\n--_Michael Yourievich Lermontov._\n\n(_Translated by Mrs. Rosa Newmarch._)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN FRANCE\n\n        \"I hear along our street\n        Pass the minstrel throngs;\n        Hark! they play so sweet,\n    On their hautboys, Christmas songs!\"\n\n--_Carol._\n\n\nOne would naturally imagine that such a pleasure-loving people as the\nFrench would make much of Christmas, but instead of this we find that\nwith them, excepting in a few provinces and places remote from\ncities, it is the least observed of all the holidays.\n\nIt was once a very gay season, but now Paris scarcely recognizes the\nday excepting in churches. The shops, as in most large cities, display\nelegant goods, pretty toys, a great variety of sweetmeats, and\ntastefully trimmed Christmas trees, for that wonderful tree is fast\nspreading over Europe, especially wherever the Anglo-Saxon and\nTeutonic races have settled.\n\nConfectioners offer a tempting supply of _naulets_--little delicate\ncakes--with a sugar figure of Christ on top, pretty boxes made of\nchocolate containing candy in the form of fruits, vegetables, musical\ninstruments, and even boots and shoes, and all manner of quaint,\nartistic sugared devices, to be used as gifts or table decorations.\n\nEarly in December, wooden booths and open-air stands are erected\nthroughout the shopping districts for the sale of Christmas goods. At\nnight they are lighted, and through the day and evening they are gay\nwith shoppers. Many of the booths contain evergreens and fresh green\nboughs for making the _arbre de Nau._ This is a hoop tied with bunches\nof green, interspersed with rosy apples, nuts, and highly colored,\ngaily ornamented eggshells that have been carefully blown for the\npurpose. The hoops are hung in sitting-rooms or kitchens, but are used\nmore in the country than in the cities.\n\nAlthough the cities are filled with Yule-tide shoppers and lovely\nwares, in order to enjoy a veritable Merry Christmas one must seek\nsome retired town and if possible gain access to a home of ancient\ndate, where the family keep the customs of their ancestors. There he\nwill find the day devoutly and solemnly observed, and legend and\nsuperstitions concerning every observance of the day. He will find\nthat great anxiety is evinced regarding the weather during the twelve\ndays preceding Christmas, as that portends the state of the weather\nfor the ensuing twelve months.\n\nHe will notice that unlike the Yule-logs of other countries, those of\nFrance are _not to be sat on_, for if by any chance a person sits on a\nYule-log he will experience such pain as will prevent his partaking of\nthe Christmas dinner. He will also find that the log has benevolent\npowers, and if his shoe is left beside it during the night it will be\nfilled with peppermints or candy. The ashes of the log are believed to\nbe a protection against lightning and bad luck, so some will be stored\naway beneath the bed of the master of the house as a means of\nprocuring good-fortune and other blessings during the coming year, and\nif he chance to fall sick, some of the ashes will probably be infused\ninto his medicine and given to him.\n\nIf the log, the _cosse de Nau_, is of oak and felled at midnight, it\nis supposed to be much more efficacious, therefore all who can do so\nprocure an oaken log, at least. In some families where the Yule-log is\nlighted, it is the custom to have it brought into the room by the\noldest and youngest members of the family. The oldest member is\nexpected to pour three libations of wine upon the log while voicing an\ninvocation in behalf of wealth, health, and general good-fortune for\nthe household, after which the youngest member, be he a few days or a\nfew months old, drinks to the newly lighted fire,--the emblem of the\nnew light of another year. Each member present follows the example\nset by the youngest, and drinks to the new light.\n\nYule-tide in France begins on St. Barbar's Day, December fourth, when\nit is customary to plant grain in little dishes of earth for this\nsaint's use as a means of informing her devotees what manner of crops\nto expect during the forthcoming year. If the grain comes up and is\nflourishing at Christmas, the crops will be abundant. Each dish of\nfresh, green grain is used for a centerpiece on the dinner-table.\n\nFor several days previous to Christmas, children go into the woods and\nfields to gather laurel, holly, bright berries, and pretty lichens\nwith which to build the _creche_, their tribute in commemoration of\nthe birth of Christ. It is a representation of the Holy Manger, which\nthe little folks build on a table in the corner of the living-room.\nWith bits of stones they form a hill, partly covering the rocky\nsurface with green and sometimes sprinkling it with flour to produce\nthe effect of snow. On and about the hill they arrange tiny figures of\nmen and beasts, and above the summit they suspend a bright star, a\nwhite dove, or a gilded figure of Jehovah.\n\n[Illustration: A CHRISTMAS TREE IN PARIS.]\n\nAfter the ceremony of lighting the Yule-log on Christmas Eve, the\nchildren light up the _creche_ with small candles, often tri-colored\nin honor of the Trinity. Throughout the work of gathering the material\nand making and lighting the _creche_, they sing carols in praise of\nthe Little Jesus. In fact young and old accompany their Yule-tide\nlabors with carols, such as their parents and grandparents sang before\nthem,--the famous Noels of the country.\n\nThe children continue to light their _creche_ each night until\nEpiphany, the family gathering around and joining in singing one or\nmore of the well-known Noels, for\n\n        \"Shepherds at the grange,\n        Where the Babe was born,\n        Sang, with many a change,\n    Christmas carols until morn.\n        Let us by the fire\n        Ever higher\n    Sing them till the night expires.\"\n\nOn the eve of Epiphany the children all march forth to meet the Magi,\nwho are yearly expected, but who yearly disappoint the waiting ones.\n\nThe custom of hanging sheaves of wheat to the eaves of the houses for\nthe birds' Christmas, so commonly observed throughout the cooler\ncountries, is also observed by the children of France, and the animals\nare given especial care and attention at this joyous season. Each\nhouse-cat is given all it can eat on Christmas Eve for if, by any\nchance, it mews, bad luck is sure to follow. Of course a great deal is\ndone for the poorer class at Christmas; food, clothing, and useful\ngifts are liberally bestowed, and so far as it is possible, the season\nis one of good will and good cheer for all.\n\nIf the French still hold to many of the Christmas customs bequeathed\nthem by their Aryan ancestors, New Year's Day shows the influence of\ntheir Roman conquerors, for a combination of Northern and Southern\ncustoms is noticeable on that occasion. Each public official takes his\nseat of office on that day, after the manner of the Romans. Family\nfeasting, exchanging of gifts among friends, and merrymaking are\nfeatures of New Year's Day rather than of Christmas in France,\nalthough children delight in placing their _sabots_, or shoes, on the\nhearth for the Christ-child to fill with gifts on Christmas Eve.\n\nIn early times New Year's Day was the occasion of the Festival of\nFools, when the wildest hilarity prevailed, and for upward of two\nhundred and forty years that custom continued in favor. Now Christmas\nis essentially the church festival; New Year's Day is the social\nfestival, and Epiphany is the oldest festival observed during\nYule-tide in France.\n\nThe latter festival is derived from the Roman Saturnalia, the main\nfeature of the celebration being lawlessness and wild fun. Many of the\nfeatures of former times are no longer in vogue, but the Twelfth-Night\nsupper still continues in favor, when songs, toasts, and a general\ngood time finishes the holiday season.\n\nDecember is really the month of song in France. From the first to the\nlast every one who can utter a sound is singing, singing, singing.\nStrolling musicians go from house to house playing and singing Noels,\nand old and young of all classes in society, at home and abroad, on\ntheir way to church or to market, at work or at play, may be heard\nsinging these fascinating carols.\n\nNoel signifies \"good news,\" and it has been the greeting of the season\nsince the earliest observance of Christmas. The word is on every\ntongue; salutations, invocations, and songs begin and end with it.\nCarols peculiarly adapted to the day or season in time came to be\nknown as Noels, and these songs are to be heard everywhere in France\nduring the holidays of Yule-tide.\n\nCHRISTMAS SONG\n\n    \"Our Psalm of joy to God ascending\n    Filleth our souls with Holy fame.\n    This day the Saviour Child was born,\n    Dark was the night that now is ending,\n    But on the dawn were angels tending.\n    Hail! Christmas, Hail! Christmas morn.\n\n    \"In faith we see thee, Virgin Mother,\n    Still clasp thy Son, and in His eyes\n    Seek Heaven's own light that in them lies.\n    Though narrow shed His might confineth,\n    Though low in manger He reclineth,\n    Bright on His brow a glory shineth.\n\n    \"Oh, Saviour King! Hear when we call Thee,\n    Oh, Lord of Angels, glorious the song,\n    The song Thy ransom'd people raise,\n    Would that our hearts from sin and sorrow\n    And earthly bondage now might sever.\n    With Thee, Lord, reign forever and\n    ever.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN ITALY\n\n    \"O'er mournful lands and bare, without a sound,\n    Gently, in broadening flakes, descends the snow\n    In velvet layers. Beneath its pallid glow,\n    Silent, immaculate, all earth is bound.\"\n\n-_Edmondo de Amicis._\n\n\nItaly! the land of Dante, Petrarch, Bocaccio, Raphael, Michelangelo,\nand a host of other shining lights in literature and art!\n\nCan we imagine any one of them as a boy watching eagerly for Christmas\nto arrive; saving up money for weeks to purchase some coveted dainty\nof the season; rushing through crowded streets on Christmas Eve to\nview the Bambino, and possibly have an opportunity to kiss its pretty\nbare toe? How strange it all seems! Yet boys to-day probably do many\nof the same things they did in the long ago during the observance of\nthis holy season in historic, artistic Italy.\n\nIn November, while flowers are yet in bloom, preparations are begun\nfor the coming festivities. City streets and shops are crowded with\nChristmas shoppers, for beside all the gifts that are purchased by the\nItalians, there are those bought by travelers and foreign residents to\nbe sent to loved ones at home, or to be used in their own observance\nof the day, which is usually after the manner of their respective\ncountries. So shopping is lively from about the first of November\nuntil after the New Year.\n\nThe principal streets are full of carriages, the shops are full of the\nchoicest wares, and it is to be hoped that the pocketbooks are full of\nmoney wherewith to purchase the beautiful articles displayed.\n\nDuring the _Novena_, or eight days preceding Christmas, in some\nprovinces shepherds go from house to house inquiring if Christmas is\nto be kept there. If it is, they leave a wooden spoon to mark the\nplace, and later bring their bagpipes or other musical instruments and\nplay before it, singing one of the sweet Nativity songs, of which the\nfollowing is a favorite.\n\n    \"For ever hallow'd be\n      The night when Christ was born,\n    For then the saints did see\n      The holy star of morn.\n    So Anastasius and St. Joseph old\n      They did that blessed sight behold.\"\n\n        _Chorus_: (in which all present join)\n\n    \"When Father, Son and Holy Ghost unite\n      That man may saved be.\"\n\nIt is expected that those who have a _presepio_ are ready by this time\nto receive guests to pray before it and strolling musicians to sing\nbefore it, for the _presepio_ is the principal feature of an Italian\nChristmas. It is made as expensive as its owner can afford, and\nsometimes much more so. It is a miniature representation of the\nbirthplace of Christ, showing the Holy Family--Joseph, Mary, and the\ninfant Jesus in the manger--or, more frequently, the manger awaiting\nthe infant. This is a doll that is brought in later, around that each\nperson in the room may pray before it, and is then solemnly deposited\nin the manger. There are angels, and other figures several inches\nhigh, carved in wood--usually sycamore,--prettily colored and\nintroduced to please the owner's taste; the whole is artistically\narranged to represent the scene at Bethlehem which the season\ncommemorates. When the festivities cease the _presepio_ is taken apart\nand carefully stored away for use another year.\n\nDuring the Novena, children go about reciting Christmas pieces,\nreceiving money from those who gather around them to listen, and later\nthey spend their earnings in buying eels or some other substantial\ndelicacy of the season.\n\nThe _Ceppo_, or Yule-log, is lighted at two o'clock the day previous\nto Christmas, on the kitchen hearth in provinces where it is\nsufficiently cold to have a hearth, and fires are lighted in other\nrooms, for here as elsewhere fire and light are necessary adjuncts of\nChristmas. During the twenty-four hours preceding Christmas Eve a\nrigid fast is observed, and there is an absence of Christmas cheer in\nthe atmosphere, for the season is strictly a religious one rather than\nof a social nature like that of Northern countries. At early twilight\ncandles are lighted around the _presepio_, and the little folks recite\nbefore it some poem suitable for the occasion. Then follows the\nbanquet, made as elaborate as possible. The menu varies in different\nparts of the country, but in every part fish forms an important item\nof food. In many places a capon stuffed with chestnuts is considered\nindispensable, and the family purse is often stretched to its utmost\nto provide this luxury, yet rich and poor deem this one article of\nfood absolutely necessary on this occasion. Macaroni is of course the\never-present dish on all occasions throughout the country, and various\nsweetmeats are abundantly provided.\n\nThen comes the drawing of presents from the _Urn of Fate_, a custom\ncommon to many countries. As the parcels are interspersed with blanks,\nthe drawing from the urn creates much excitement and no little\ndisappointment among the children, who do not always understand that\nthere will be a gift for each one notwithstanding the blanks.\n\nThere is no evergreen used in either church or home trimmings, but\nflowers, natural or artificial, are used instead. Soon after nine\no'clock the people, young and old, leave their homes for some\nchurch in which the Christmas Eve services begin by ten o'clock.\n\n[Illustration: A GAME OF LOTO ON CHRISTMAS EVENING IN NAPLES.]\n\nBright holly-berries, sweet violets, stately chrysanthemums, and\npretty olive-trees bedecked with oranges,--such as are bought by those\naccustomed to having a Christmas tree,--are displayed in shops and\nalong the streets, nearly all of which are hung with bright lanterns.\nThe people carry flaming torches to add to the general brightness of\nthe evening, and in some cities fireworks are set off. From their\nsun-worshiping Aryan ancestors Italy derives the custom of burning the\n_ceppo_, the love of light and fire, and many other customs. A few of\nthese may be traced to Roman influence. Unfortunately many, very many,\nof the old customs, once so generally observed throughout Italy, are\nnow passing out of use.\n\nDuring the past few years several benevolent societies have\ndistributed presents among the poor and needy at Christmas time, an\nevent that is known as the _Albero di Natale_--The Tree of\nNativity,--but little boys and girls of Italy do not yet know the\ndelight of having a real Christmas tree hung with lovely gifts, such\nas we have in America.\n\nAt sunset on Christmas Eve the booming of cannon from the Castle of\nSt. Angelo announces the beginning of the Holy Season. Papal banners\nare displayed from the castle, and crowds wend their way toward St.\nPeter's, the object of every one's desire who is so fortunate as to be\nin Rome at this season, for there the service is the most magnificent\nin the world. Every Roman Catholic Church is crowded on Holy Night\nwith men, women, and children, anxious to see the procession of\nchurch officials in their beautiful robes, who carry the _Bambino_\nabout the church for the worshipers to behold and kiss its robes or\nits toe. The larger the church the more beautiful the sight generally,\nalthough to a Protestant beholder the smaller churches with their\nenforced simplicity often prove more satisfactory to the spirit of\nworship.\n\nBut whether the officials are clothed in scarlet robes, ermine capes,\nand purple cassocks, and the walls covered with silken hangings of\ngold and crimson, with thousands of wax tapers lighted, and real\nflowers adorning the altar and organ pipes; whether the Madonna on the\nleft of the altar is attired in satin and gleaming with precious\njewels, and the _presepio_ on the right is a marvel of elegance, with\nthe Bambino wrapped in gold and silver tissue studded with jewels; or\nwhether all is of an humble, simple character; the devout watch\neagerly for the appearance of the Babe to be laid in the manger when\nthe midnight bells peal forth the glad tidings of its birth. In each\nchurch the organ sounds its joyous accompaniment to the sweet voices\nof the choir which sings the Magnificat. The music is in itself a rare\ntreat to listeners as it is always the best, the very best that can be\nprocured. At two o'clock on Christmas morning the Shepherds' Hymn is\nchanted, and at five o'clock the first High Mass is held. In some of\nthe larger churches solemn vespers are held Christmas afternoon, when\nthe Holy Cradle is carried around among the audience.\n\nAt St. Peter's it is required that all the men present shall wear\ndress-suits and that the women be clothed in black, which offsets the\nbrilliancy of the robes worn by the church officials, for even the\nguards on duty are in elegant red and white uniforms. About ten\no'clock in the evening a procession of monks, priests, bishops, and\ncardinals, walking two and two, enters the vast building just as the\ngreat choir of male voices with organ accompaniment sounds forth the\nMagnificat. The procession is long, glowing in color, and very\nattractive to the eye, but the object of each Romanist's desire is to\nsee the Pope, who, in magnificent robes, and seated in his crimson\nchair, is borne aloft on the shoulders of four men clothed in violet.\nOn the Pope's head gleams his richly gemmed tiara and his heavy robes\nsparkle with costly jewels. Waving in front of His Eminence are two\nhuge fans of white ostrich feathers set with eyes of peacock feathers,\nto signify the purity and watchfulness of this highest of church\nfunctionaries. Before His Holiness march the sixty Roman noblemen, his\nGuard of Honor, who form his escort at all church festivals, while\nCardinals, Bishops, and others, according to their rank, march beside\nhim, or near at hand.\n\nWith his thumb and two fingers extended in recognition of the Trinity,\nand at the same time showing the ring of St. Peter which he always\nwears, the Pope, followed by the ecclesiastic procession, passes down\nthe nave between the files of soldiers, blessing the people as he\ngoes.\n\nUpon reaching the altar the Pope is escorted to an elevated seat while\nthe choir sings the Psalm of Entrance. Later, at the elevation of the\nHost, the cannon of St. Angelo (the citadel of Rome, which was built\nin the time of the Emperor Hadrian) booms forth and every Roman\nCatholic bows his head in prayer, wheresoever he may be. At the close\nof the service the gorgeous procession is again formed and the Pope is\ncarried out of the church, blessing the multitude as he passes.\n\nNew Year is the great Social feature of Yule-tide in Italy. Visits and\nsome presents are exchanged among friends, dinner parties, receptions,\nand fetes of all kinds are in order, but all interest centers in the\nchurch observances until Epiphany, or _Bafana_, as Italians term it,\nwhen children hang up their stockings, _ceppo_ boxes are exchanged,\nand people indulge in home pleasures to some extent. The wild hilarity\nof the Saturnalian festivities of former times is fast dying out, for\nthe growth of cities and towns has not proved conducive to such\nobservances, and only in the smaller places is anything of the sort\nobserved.\n\nYule-tide in Italy at the present day is principally a church\nfestival.\n\nTHE EVE OF CHRISTMAS\n\n(1901)\n\n    Cometh the yearly Feast, the wonderous Holy Night,\n    Worthy of sacred hymn and solemn rite.\n\n    No harbingers of joy the olden message sing,\n    Nor gifts of Peace to waiting mortals bring.\n\n    Alone the thronging hosts of evil men I hear,\n    And see the anxious brow and falling tear.\n\n    The Age will bear no yoke; forgets the God above,\n    Nor duteous payment yields to parents' love.\n\n    Suspicious Discord rends the peaceful State in twain,\n    And busy Murder follows in her train.\n\n    Gone are the loyal faith, the rights revered of old--\n    Reigns but a blind and cruel lust of Gold!\n\n    O come, Thou holy Child! Pity the fallen world,\n    Lest it should perish, into darkness hurled.\n\n    Out of the laboring Night grant it a newer birth,\n    And a New Age to bloom o'er all the earth.\n\n    Circle with splendors old the brow of Faith divine;\n    Let her full glory on the nations shine.\n\n    Nerve her to battlings new; palsy her foes with dread;\n    Place the victorious laurel on her head.\n\n    Be Error's mist dissolved, and ancient feuds repressed,\n    Till Earth at last find quietude and rest.\n\n    O gentle Peace, return nor evermore depart;\n    And link us hand in hand and heart to heart!\n\n--_Pope Leo XIII._\n\n_(Translated by H. T. Henry.)_\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN SPAIN\n\n    \"With antics and with fooleries, with shouting and with laughter,\n    They fill the streets of Burgos--and the Devil he comes after.\"\n\n\nIn Spain, the land of romance and song, of frost and flowers, where at\nYule-tide the mountains wear a mantle of pure white snow while flowers\nbloom gaily in field and garden, the season's observance approaches\nmore nearly than in any other country to the old Roman Saturnalia.\n\nThe Celts who taught the Spaniards the love of ballads and song left\nsome traces of the sun-worshipers' traditions, but they are few in\ncomparison with those of other European countries. Spain is a land\napparently out of the line of Wodin's travel and influence, where one\nlooks in vain for the mysterious mistletoe, the pretty holly, and the\njoyful Christmas tree.\n\nThe season is rigidly observed in churches, but otherwise it loses its\nspirit of devotion in that of wild revelry. Music, mirth, and hilarity\nare the leading features of the occasion, and home and family\npleasures are secondary affairs.\n\nOf course the customs vary in different provinces, some of which still\ncling to primitive forms of observance while others are fast adopting\nthose of foreign residents and becoming Continental in style. But\neverywhere throughout the land Christmas is the day of days,--the\ngreat church festival observed by all.\n\nThe _Noche-buena_ or Good Night, preceding Christmas, finds the shops\ngay with sweets and fancy goods suitable for holiday wear, but not\nwith the pretty gifts such as circulate from home to home in northern\ncountries, for here gifts are not generally exchanged.\n\nDoctors, ministers, and landlords receive their yearly gifts of\nturkeys, cakes, and produce from their dependents, but the love of\npresenting dainty Christmas gifts has not reached the land of the\nthree C's--the Cid, Cervantes, and Columbus.\n\n[Illustration: CHRISTMAS FESTIVITY IN SEVILLE.]\n\nDo you know what you would probably do if you were a dark-cheeked\nSpanish lad named Miguel, or a bright-eyed, light-hearted Spanish\nmaiden named Dolores?\n\nIf you were Miguel you would don your black jacket and brown trousers,\nknot your gayest kerchief around your neck, and with your guitar in\nhand you would hasten forth to enjoy the fun that prevails in every\nstreet of every town in Spain on Christmas Eve, or, as it is known\nthere, the _Noche-buena._\n\nIf you were pretty Dolores you would surely wear your red or yellow\nskirt, or else of striped red and yellow, your best embroidered velvet\njacket,--handed down from mother to daughter, and a wonderful sample\nof the handiwork that once made the country famous,--your numerous\nnecklaces and other ornaments. You would carefully braid your heavy\ndark tresses and bedeck your shapely head with bright flowers, then\nwith your _panderetta_ or tambourine in hand, you too would join the\nmerry throng that fill the air with mirthful songs and music on\n_Noche-buena_; for remember,\n\n    \"This is the eve of Christmas,\n    No sleep from now till morn.\"\n\nThe air is full of the spirit of unrest, castanets click joyously,\ntambourines jingle their silvery strains, while guitars and other\nmusical instruments help to swell the babel of sound preceding the\nhour of the midnight mass:\n\n    \"At twelve will the child be born,\"\n\nand if you have not already done some especially good deed to some\nfellow mortal, you will hasten to clear your conscience by such an act\nbefore the bells announce the hour of its birth. As the stars appear\nin the heavens, tiny oil lamps are lighted in every house, and among\nall devout Roman Catholics the image of the Virgin is illuminated\nwith a taper.\n\nThe streets, which in many cities are brilliantly lighted with\nelectricity, are crowded with turkeys awaiting purchasers. They are\ngreat fat birds that have been brought in from the country and\ntogether with quacking ducks and cooing pigeons help to swell the\nsounds that fill the clear, balmy air. Streets and market-places are\ncrowded with live stock, while every other available spot is piled\nhigh with delicious fruit;--golden oranges, sober-hued dates, and\nindispensable olives; and scattered among these are cheeses of all\nshapes and kinds, sweetmeats of all sorts, the choice candies that are\nbrought from various provinces, and quaint pigskins of wine. No wonder\nevery one who can do so hurries forth into the street on\n_Noche-buena._\n\nIf you are not tempted to stop and gaze at these appetizing exhibits,\nyou will pass quickly on to the brightly lighted booths devoted to\ntoys. Oh, what a feast for young eyes! Here yours will surely light on\nsome coveted treasure. It may be an ordinary toy, a drum, a horn, or\nit may be a Holy Manger, Shepherds, The Wise Men, or even a Star of\nthe East.\n\nIt is hard to keep one's purse closed among such a surfeit of tempting\narticles, and everywhere money flows freely from hand to hand,\nalthough the Spanish are usually very frugal.\n\nAs the bells clang out the hour of midnight, you will hurry to join\nthe throng wending its way to the nearest church, where priests in\ntheir gorgeous robes,--some of them worn only on this occasion and\nprecious with rare embroidery and valuable jewels,--perform the\nmidnight or cock-crow mass, and where the choir and the priests chant\na sweet Christmas hymn together. What if it is late when the service\nends? Christmas Eve without dancing is not to be thought of in Spain.\nSo you go forth to find a group of Gipsy dancers who are always on\nhand to participate in this great festival; or you watch the graceful\nSpanish maiden in her fluffy skirts of lace, with her deep pointed\nbodice, a bright flower in her coal-black hair beside the tall comb,\nand her exquisitely shaped arms adorned with heavy bracelets. \"Oh,\nwhat magnificent eyes! What exquisite long lashes!\" you exclaim to\nyourself. See her poise an instant with the grace of a sylph, one\nslippered foot just touching the floor, then click, click, sound the\ncastanets, as they have sounded for upwards of two thousand years and\nare likely to do for two thousand more, for their inspiriting click\nseems necessary to move Spanish feet and give grace to the uplifted\narms. At first she may favor you with the energetic _fandango_, or the\nbutterfly-like _bolero_, but on Christmas Eve the _Jota_ is the\nuniversal favorite. It is danced and sung to music which has been\nbrought down to the present time unwritten, and which was passed from\nmouth to mouth through many generations. Translated the words read:\n\n    \"Of Jesus the Nativity is celebrated everywhere,\n    Everywhere reigns contentment, everywhere reigns pleasure,\"\n\nthe audience joining in the refrain:\n\n    \"Long live merrymaking, for this is a day of rejoicing,\n    And may the perfume of pleasure sweeten our existence.\"\n\nIt will probably be late into the morning before the singing,\ndancing, thought-less crowd turns homeward to rest, and although it is\ncertainly a crowd intoxicated with pleasure, it is never in that\ncondition from liquor.\n\nThere are three masses on Christmas Day, and all devout Catholics\nattend one of them at least, if not all. In some places Nativity plays\nare given on Christmas Eve or else on Christmas Day. They are long\nperformances, but never tedious to the audiences, because the scenes\nappeal to them with the force of absolute realism. On Christmas\nmorning the postmen, telegraph boys, and employees of various\nvocations, present to their employers and others little leaflets\ncontaining a verse appropriate to the day, or the single sentence \"A\nHappy Christmas,\" expecting to receive in return a Christmas box\nfilled with goodies of some kind.\n\nWhile Spanish children do not have the Christmas tree to gather\naround they do have the pretty _Nacimiento_, made of plaster and\nrepresenting the place of Christ's nativity, with the manger, tiny men\nand women, trees, and animals, such as are supposed to have existed at\nthe time and place of the Nativity.\n\nThe _Nacimiento_ (meaning being born) is lighted with candles, and\nlittle folks dance gayly around it to the music of tambourines and\ntheir own sweet voices, joyously singing one of the pretty Nativity\nsongs. Groups of children go about the streets singing these songs of\nwhich there are many.\n\nIn this pleasing custom of the _Nacimiento_ one sees a vestige of the\nSaturnalia, for during that festival small earthenware figures used to\nbe for sale for the pleasure of children. Although the Spanish race is\na mixed one and various peoples have been in power from time to time,\nat one period the country was, with the exception of Basque, entirely\nRomanized. It is interesting to note the lingering influence of this\nmighty Roman nation and find in this century that some of the main\nfeatures of the great Roman feast are retained in the great Christian\nfeast at Yule-tide.\n\nSouthern races were always firm believers in Fate. The Mohammedans\nreverenced the Tree of Fate, but the Romans held sacred the _urn_\ncontaining the messages of Fate. So the Spaniards cling to the urn,\nfrom which at Christmas gatherings of friends it is the custom to draw\nthe names of the men and women whom Fate ordains shall be devoted\nfriends during the year,--the men performing all the duties of lovers.\nThis drawing of one's Fate for the coming year creates great\nmerriment and often no little disappointment. But Fate is inexorable\nand what is to be must be, so the Spanish maiden accepts graciously\nthe one Fate thus assigns her.\n\nAfter the midday breakfast on Christmas morning the people usually\nseek out-of-door pleasures. Among many of the old families only blood\nrelations are expected to eat and drink together on this holy day.\n\nOrdinarily the Spaniard \"may find perfect entertainment in a crust of\nbread and a bit of garlic\" as the proverb claims, but at Yule-tide his\nstomach demands many delicacies peculiar to the season. The _Puchero\nOlla_, the national dish for dinner, must have a few extra ingredients\nadded on this occasion. The usual compound of chickens, capons, bacon,\nmutton, beef, pig's feet, lard, garlic, and everything else the\nlarder affords, is quite insufficient to be boiled together on this\noccasion. However, if one has no relatives to invite him to a feast,\nit is an easy matter to secure a Christmas dinner on the streets,\nwhere men are ready to cook for him over their _braseros_ of charcoal\nand venders are near at hand to offer preserved fruits, the famous\nalmond rock, almond soup, truffled turkey, or the most desirable of\nthe season's delicacies,--sea-bream, which is brought from Cadiz\nespecially for Christmas use, and which is eaten at Christmas in\naccordance with the old-time custom. Nuts of all kinds are abundant.\nBy the side of the streets, venders of chestnuts--the finest in the\nworld--lean against their clumsy two-wheeled carts, picturesque in\ncostumes that are ragged and soiled from long service. Rich\nlayer-cakes of preserves, having almond icing with fruits and\nliquor-filled ornaments of sugar on top, are frequently sent from\nfriend to friend for dinner.\n\nIn Seville, and possibly in other places, the people hurry to the\ncathedral early in the afternoon in order to secure good places before\nthe high altar from which to view the _Siexes_, or dances. Yes,\ndances! This ceremony takes place about five o'clock just as the\ndaylight fades and night draws near. Ten choristers and dancers,\nindiscriminately termed _Siexes_, appear before the altar clad in the\ncostume of Seventeenth-Century pages, and reverently and with great\nearnestness sing and dance an old-time minuet, with castanet\naccompaniment, of course. The opening song is in honor of the Virgin,\nbeginning:\n\n    \"Hail, O Virgin, most pure and beautiful.\"\n\nAmong the ancients dancing was a part of religious services, but it is\nnow seldom seen in churches. This Christmas dance, given in a\nbeautiful cathedral just at the close of day, is a very impressive\nceremony and forms a fitting close to the Spanish Christmas, which is\nso largely made up of customs peculiar to ancient and modern races.\n\nIn every part of Spain song and dance form an important part of the\nfestivities of Yule-tide, which lasts two weeks, although the laboring\nclass observe but two days of pleasure. At the palace the King holds a\nreception on New Year's, not for the public generally, but for the\ndiplomats and grandees.\n\nThe higher circles of society observe New Year as a time of exchanging\ncalls and visiting, feasting and merrymaking. At the banquets of the\nwealthy every possible delicacy in the way of food is temptingly\ndisplayed, and great elegance in dress indulged in by the ladies, who\nwear their finest gowns and adorn themselves in priceless jewels and\nrare laces. But there is so much etiquette to be observed among this\nclass of Spaniards that one looks for the real enjoyment of the season\namong the common classes.\n\nIn some parts of Spain bull-fights are given as late as December, but\ncold weather has a softening effect on the poor bulls and makes them\nless ferocious, so unless the season proves unusually warm that\nfavorite entertainment has to be abandoned for a time. Meanwhile in\nthe streets and homes one may often see a father on all fours enacting\nthe infuriated bull for his little sons to attack; in this way he\nteaches them the envied art of bull-fighting. The Yule-tide\nfestivities end at Twelfth Day,--Epiphany,--when crowds of young\nfolks go from gate to gate in the cities to meet the Magi, and after\nmuch merriment they come to the conclusion that the Magi will not\nappear until the following year.\n\nNIGHT OF MARVELS\n\n    In such a marvelous night; so fair\n      And full of wonder, strange and new,\n    Ye shepherds of the vale, declare--\n      Who saw the greatest wonder?\n                Who?\n\n        (_First Shepherd_)\n\n    I saw the trembling fire look wan;\n\n        (_Second Shepherd_)\n\n      I saw the sun shed tears of blood;\n\n        (_Third Shepherd_)\n\n    I saw a God become a man;\n\n\n        (_Fourth Shepherd_)\n\n      I saw a man become a God.\n\n    O, wondrous marvels! at the thought,\n      The bosom's awe and reverence move;\n    But who such prodigies hath wrought?\n      What gave such wondrous birth?\n                'Twas love!\n\n    What called from heaven the flame divine,\n      Which streams in glory far above,\n    And bid it o'er earth's bosom shine,\n      And bless us with its brightness?\n                Love!\n\n    Who bid the glorious sun arrest\n      His course, and o'er heaven's concave move\n    In tears,--the saddest, loneliest,\n      Of the celestial orbs?\n                'Twas love!\n\n    Who raised the human race so high,\n      E'en to the starry seats above,\n    That, for our mortal progeny,\n      A man became a God?\n                'Twas love!\n\n    Who humbled from the seats of light\n      Their Lord, all human woes to prove,\n    Led the great Source of day to night,\n      And made of God a man?\n                'Twas love!\n\n    Yes! love has wrought, and love alone,\n      The victories all,--beneath, above:\n    And heaven and earth shall shout as one,\n      The all-triumphant song\n                Of love.\n\n    The song through all heaven's arches ran,\n      And told the wondrous tales aloud,\n    The trembling fire that looked so wan,\n      The weeping sun behind the cloud,\n    A God, a God become a man!\n    A mortal man become a God.\n\n--_Violante Do Ceo._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYULE-TIDE IN AMERICA\n\n    \"And they who do their souls no wrong,\n    But keep, at eve, the faith of morn.\n    Shall daily hear the angel-song,\n    'To-day the Prince of Peace is born.'\"\n\n--_James Russell Lowell._\n\n\nTo people who go into a new country to live, Christmas, which is so\ngenerally a family day, must of necessity be a lonely, homesick one.\nThey carry with them the memory of happy customs, of loved ones far\naway, and of observances which can never be held again. So many of the\nearliest Christmasses in America were peculiarly sad ones to the\nvarious groups of settlers; most especially was this the case with the\nfirst Christmas ever spent by Europeans in the New World.\n\nThe intrepid mariner, Christopher Columbus, entered the port of Bohio,\nin the Island of Hayti, on St. Nicholas Day, December 6, 1492, and in\nhonor of the day named that port Saint Nicholas. The _Pinta_ with her\ncrew had parted from the others and gone her own way, so the _Santa\nMaria_ and the _Nina_ sailed on together, occasionally stopping where\nthe port seemed inviting. While in one of these, Columbus heard of\nrich mines not far distant and started for them. The Admiral and his\nmen were tired from continued watching, and as the sea was smooth and\nthe wind favorable, they went to sleep leaving the ship in care of a\nboy. Who he was no one knows, but he was evidently the first Christian\nboy to pass a Christmas Eve on this continent,--and a sad one it was\nfor him. The ship struck a sand-bank and settled, a complete wreck, in\nthe waters of the New World. Fortunately no lives were lost, and the\nwreckage furnished material for the building of a fortress which\noccupied the men's time during the remainder of the Yule-tide.\n\nThe _Nina_ was too small to accommodate two crews, therefore on\nChristmas Day many of the men were wondering who were to stay on that\nfar-away island among the strange looking natives of whom they knew\nnothing.\n\nThe Chief of Guarico (Petit Anse), whom Columbus was on his way to\nvisit at the time of the disaster, sent a fleet of canoes to the\nassistance of the strangers, and did what he could to make them happy\nduring the day. The Spaniards and the natives worked until dawn on\nChristmas morning, bringing ashore what they could secure from the\nwreck, and storing it away on the island for future use. Strange to\nrelate, they succeeded in saving all of their provisions, the spars,\nand even many of the nails of the wrecked _Santa Maria._ But what a\nChristmas morning for Columbus and his men, stranded on an island far,\nfar from home, among a strange people! There were no festivities to be\nobserved by that sad, care-worn company of three hundred men on that\nday, but the following morning Chief Guacanagari visited the _Nina_\nand took Columbus ashore, where a banquet was prepared in his honor,\nthe first public function attended by Columbus in America. It can be\npictured only in imagination. There on that beautiful island which\nseemed to them a paradise on earth, with tall trees waving their long\nfronds in the warm breeze, with myriads of birds such as they had\nnever seen filling the air with song, Columbus stood, attired in his\ngorgeous uniform and dignified, as it befitted him to be, beside his\nhost who was elegantly dressed in a _shirt_ and _a pair of gloves_\nwhich Columbus had given him, with a coronet of gold on his head. The\nvisiting chieftains with gold coronets moved about in nature's garb,\namong the \"thousand,\"--more or less,--who were present as guests. The\nfeast consisted of shrimps, cassavi,--the same as the native bread of\nto-day,--and some of their nutritive roots.\n\nIt was not a sumptuous repast although it may have been a bountiful\none, yet they probably enjoyed it.\n\nThe work of building a fortress began at once. Within ten days the\nFortress of Navidad was completed. It stood on a hill and was\nsurrounded with a broad, deep ditch for protection against natives and\nanimals, and was to be the home of those of the company who remained\nin the New World, for the _Nina_ was too small to convey all hands\nacross the ocean to Spain, and nothing had been heard of the _Pinta._\nLeaving biscuits sufficient for a year's supply, wine, and such\nprovisions as could be spared, Columbus bade farewell to the forty men\nwhom he was never to see again, and sailed for the Old World on\nJanuary 4, 1493.\n\nSo far as recorded, Columbus was the only one among the Spaniards who\nreceived gifts during this first Yule-tide in America. But what seemed\na cruel fate to him was the means of bestowing a valuable gift upon\nthe world. Had the _Santa Maria_ continued her course in safety that\nChristmas Eve there might never have been a fortress or any European\nsettlement founded. So, although it was a sad, troubled Yule-tide to\nthe Spanish adventurers, it proved a memorable one in the annals of\nAmerica.\n\nFour hundred years later the anchor of the _Santa Maria_ was\ndiscovered and brought to the United States to be one of its treasured\nexhibits at the great Columbian Exposition, where a descendant of\nColumbus was the honored guest of the Government.\n\nOne hundred and fifty years after the building of the Fortress of\nNavidad, after many ineffectual attempts, a settlement was effected in\nthe New World by a colony from England. They sailed from Blackwell, on\nthe Thames, on December 19, 1606, and for six weeks were \"knocking\nabout in sight of England.\" Their first Christmas was spent within\nsight of their old homes. According to Captain John Smith's account,\n\"It was, indeed, but a sorry Christmas that we spent on board,\" as\nmany of them were very sick, yet Smith adds, \"We made the best cheer\nwe could.\" The colonists landed and solemnly founded Jamestown on May\n13, 1607. That year Yule-tide was spent by Captain Smith among the\nPowhatan Indians, by whom he was taken captive. This colony consisted\nof men only; no genuine Christmas observance could take place without\nwomen and children, and no women arrived until 1609, and then only\ntwenty came. But after the ninety young women arrived in 1619,\nsupplied to planters for one hundred pounds of tobacco each, and a\ncargo of twenty negroes had landed to help with the work, there may\nhave been an attempt at keeping Christmas although there is no record\nof the fact.\n\nAt this season there was usually a raid made upon the Indians. Smith's\nlast expedition against them was at Christmastime, when, as he records\nin his journal, \"The extreme winde, rayne, frost, and snow caused us\nto keep Christmas among the salvages where we weere never more merry,\nnor fed on more plenty of good Oysters, Fish, Flesh, Wild Fowl and\ngood bread, nor never had better fires in England.\"\n\nIn after years prosperity smiled on the land of the Jamestown\nsettlers. Amidst the peace and plenty that followed the earlier years\nof strife and poverty, the Virginians became noted for their\nhospitality and lavish observance of Yule-tide. It was the happy\nhome-coming for daughters, sons, uncles, aunts, and cousins of the\nfirst, second, and even the third degree. For whosoever was of the\nname and lineage, whether rich or poor, was welcomed at this annual\ningathering of the family. Every house was filled to overflowing;\ngreat hickory fires were lighted on the open hearths; the rooms were\nbrilliantly lighted with candles, and profusely trimmed with greens.\nFrom doors and ceilings were hung sprigs of the mysterious mistletoe,\nfor\n\n                  \"O'er the lover\n    I'll shake the berry'd mistletoe; that he\n    May long remember Christmas,\"\n\nwas the thought of merry maidens as they decorated their homes.\n\nChristmas brought carriage-loads of guests to these old-time homes, to\npartake of the good cheer and enjoy weeks of fun and frolic, indoors\nand out. For many days before Christmas arrived, colored cooks, the\nregular, and extra ones, were busy cooking from morning till evening,\npreparing for the occasion. The storerooms were replete with every\nvariety of tempting food the ingenious minds of the cooks could\ndevise, for Christmas dinner was the one great test of their ability\nand woe to Auntie whose fire was too hot, or whose judgment was at\nfault on this occasion.\n\n[Illustration: LIGHTING THE YULE-LOG IN COLONIAL DAYS.]\n\nTo the whites and blacks Christmas was a season of peace, plenty, and\nmerriment. In the \"Great House\" and in the cabin there were music,\ndancing, and games until New Year. This was \"Hiring Day,\" and among\nthe blacks joy was turned to sadness as husbands, fathers, brothers,\nand lovers were taken away to work on distant plantations, for those\nwho hired extra help through the year were often extremely cruel in\ntheir treatment of the slaves.\n\nThe gladsome Virginia Christmas in time became the typical one of the\nSouth, where it was the red-letter day of the year, the most joyous of\nall holidays. The churches were lovingly and tastefully decorated with\nboughs of green and flowers by the ladies themselves and\nconscientiously attended by both old and young. In the South there was\nnever any of the somberness that attended church services in the North\namong descendants of the Plymouth Colony who came to America later.\n\nThe Puritans of England early discountenanced the observance of\nChristmas. But among the Pilgrims who reached the American coast in\nDecember, 1620, were mothers who had lived so long in Holland they\nloved the old-time custom of making merry on that day. To these dear\nwomen, and to the kind-hearted, child-loving Elder Brewster, we are\nindebted for the first observance of the day held by the Plymouth\nColony.\n\nAccording to the Journal of William Bradford, kept for so many years,\nthe Pilgrims went ashore, \"and ye 25 day (Dec.) begane to erecte ye\nfirst house for comone use to receive them and their goods.\" Bradford\nconscientiously refrains from alluding to the day as Christmas, but\ndescendants of these godly Puritans are glad to learn that home-making\nin New England was begun on Christmas Day.\n\nMany very interesting stories have been written about this first\nChristmas. One writer even pictures the more lenient Elder Brewster as\ngoing ashore that morning and inviting the Indian Chief Massasoit to\ngo aboard the _Mayflower_ with him. According to the story, the good\nman endeavored to impress the chief with the solemnity and\nsignificance of the occasion, and then with Massasoit, two squaws, and\nsix boys and girls, becomingly attired in paint and feathers, he\nreturned to the ship.\n\nThe women and children from over the sea met their new neighbors and\nguests, received from them little baskets of nuts and wintergreen\nberries, and in exchange gave their guests beads, toys, raisins, and\nsuch simple gifts, to which Elder Brewster added a blessing bestowed\nupon each child.\n\nThe story reads well. But the truth, according to history, makes the\nfirst visit of Massasoit occur some three months later, on March\ntwenty-second. The Puritans had a happy Christmas dinner together on\nboard the ship which was the only home they possessed as yet, and it\nis to be presumed that the exceedingly conscientious non-observers of\nthe day partook quite as freely of the salt fish, bacon, Brussels\nsprouts, gooseberry tarts, and English plum pudding, as did those\nhomesick, tear-choked women who prepared the dinner.\n\nIt is certainly to be regretted that vessels are no longer built with\nthe wonderful storage capacity of the _Mayflower_! Beside bringing\nover the innumerable _family relics_ that are treasured throughout\nthis country, it is stated that this ship brought a barrel full of\nivy, holly, laurel, and immortelles, with which the table was\ndecorated, and wreaths woven for the children to wear. Bless those\ndear, brave women who dared to bring \"green stuff\" for \"heathenish\ndecorations\" way across the ocean! Let us add a few extra sprays of\ngreen each Christmas in memory of them. The greens, plum puddings, and\nother good things had such a happy effect that, according to Bradford,\n\"at night the master caused us to have some Beere.\" This was an event\nworthy of a capital B, as the men had worked all day in the biting\ncold at house-building, with only a scanty supply of water to drink.\n\nAlas! That Christmas on the _Mayflower_ was the last the Pilgrims were\nto enjoy for many a long year. Other ship-loads of people arrived\nduring the year and in 1621, \"One ye day called Christmas Day, ye Gov.\ncalled them out to worke (as was used), but ye most of this new\ncompany excused themselves and said it wente against their consciences\nto work on yt day. So ye Gov. tould them that if they made it mater of\nconscience, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he\nled away ye rest and left them, but when they came home at noone from\ntheir worke, he found them in ye streete at play, openly, some\npitching ye bair, and some at stoole-ball, and shuch-like sports. So\nhe went to them and tooke away their implements, and tould them that\nwas against his conscience, that they should play and others worke. If\nthey made ye keeping of it mater of devotion, let them kepe their\nhouses, but ther should be no gameing or revelling in ye streets.\nSince which time nothing had been attempted that way, at least\nopenly.\" And thus ended the last attempt at Christmas observance\nduring Governor Bradford's many terms of office.\n\nThe Massachusetts Colony that arrived in 1630, and settled in and\naround Boston, believed that Christ's mission on earth as the Saviour\nof man was too serious a one to be celebrated by the fallen race. He\ncame to save; they considered it absolutely wicked for any one to be\nlively and joyous when he could not know whether or no he was doomed\nto everlasting punishment. Beside that, jollity often led to serious\nresults. Were not the jails of Old England full to repletion the day\nafter Christmas? It was wisest, they thought, to let the day pass\nunnoticed. And so only occasionally did any one venture to remember\nthe fact of its occurrence. Among the men and women who came across\nthe ocean during succeeding years there must have been many who\ndiffered from the first colony in regard to Christmas, for in May,\n1659, the General Court of Massachusetts deemed it necessary to enact\na law: \"That whosoever shall be found observing any such day as\nChristmas or the like, either by forbearing of labour, feasting, or\nany other way, upon any such accounts as aforesaid, shall be subjected\nto a fine of five shillings.\"\n\nFor upward of twenty-two years it remained unlawful in Massachusetts\nto have a merry Christmas. There were no pretty gifts on that day to\nmake happy little God-be-thanked, Search-the-scriptures, Seek-wisdom,\nPrudence, Hope, or Charity. However, Santa Claus had emissaries abroad\nin the land. In December, 1686, Governor Andros, an Episcopalian, and\na representative of the King, brought about the first concession in\nfavor of the day. He believed in celebrating Christmas and intended\nto hold appropriate services. The law enacted by Parliament in June,\n1647, abolishing the observance of the day, had been repealed in 1659,\nand Gov. Andros knew he had the law in his favor. But every\nmeeting-house was conscientiously (or stubbornly) closed to him. So he\nwas forced to hold service in the Town House, going with an armed\nsoldier on each side to protect him from the \"good will\" exhibited by\nhis fellow townsmen. He held services that day, and it is believed to\nbe the first observance of Christmas held under legal sanction in\nBoston.\n\nThe great concession was made by the Old South Congregation in 1753\nwhen it offered its sanctuary to the worshipers in King's Chapel,\nafter that edifice was burned, for them to hold their Christmas\nservices. It was with the implicit understanding that there was to be\nno spruce, holly, or other greens used on that occasion to desecrate\ntheir meeting-house.\n\nLittle by little the day was brought into favor as a holiday, but it\nwas as late as the year 1856, while Nathaniel P. Banks was Governor,\nthat the day was made a legal holiday in Massachusetts.\n\nThe good Dutch Fathers, true to the teachings of their forefathers,\nsailed for the New World with the image of St. Nicholas for a\nfigurehead on their vessel. They named the first church they built for\nthe much-loved St. Nicholas and made him patron saint of the new city\non Manhattan Island. Thanks, many many thanks, to these sturdy old\nDutchmen with unpronounceable names who preserved to posterity so many\ndelightful customs of Christmas observance. What should we have done\nwithout them? They were quite a worthy people notwithstanding they\nbelieved in enjoying life and meeting together for gossip and\nmerrymaking. Christmas was a joyful season with them. The churches and\nquaint gabled houses were trimmed with evergreens, great preparations\nwere made for the family feasts, and business was generally suspended.\nThe jolly old City Fathers took a prolonged rest from cares of office,\neven ordering on December 14, 1654, that, \"As the winter and the\nholidays are at hand, there shall be no more ordinary meetings of this\nboard (the City Corporation) between this date and three weeks after\nChristmas. The Court messenger is ordered not to summon any one in the\nmeantime.\"\n\nSensible old souls! They were not going to allow business to usurp\ntheir time and thought during this joyful season! The children must\nhave their trees, hung with gifts; the needy must be especially cared\nfor, and visits must be exchanged; so the City was left to take care\nof itself, while each household was busy making ready for the day of\ndays, the season of seasons.\n\nWhat a time those _hausfraus_ had polishing up their silver, pewter,\nbrass, and copper treasures, in opening up best rooms, and newly\nsanding the floors in devious intricate designs! What a pile of wood\nwas burned to bake the huge turkeys, pies, and puddings! What pains\nthe fathers took to select the rosiest apples and the choicest nuts to\nput in each child's stocking on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, children\nobeyed the injunction of Scripture in those days, and despised not the\nday of small things.\n\nHow fortunate it was that there were no trains or other rapid modes\nof conveyance to bring visitors from the Puritan Colonies at this\nseason. There was no possibility of any of their strict neighbors\ndropping in unexpectedly to furnish a free lecture, while the Dutch\nfamilies were merrily dancing. The Puritans were located less than two\nhundred and eighty-five miles distant, yet they were more distantly\nseparated by ideas than by space. But a little leaven was eventually\nto penetrate the entire country, and the customs that are now observed\neach Christmas throughout the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, are\nmainly such as were brought to this country by the Dutch. Americans\nhave none of their own. In fact, they possess but little that is\ndistinctively their own because they are a conglomerate nation,\nspeaking a conglomerate language.\n\nAccording to the late Lawrence Hutton, \"Our Christmas carols appear to\nhave come from the Holy Land itself; our Christmas trees from the East\nby way of Germany; our Santa Claus from Holland; our stockings hung in\nthe chimney, from France or Belgium; and our Christmas cards and\nverbal Christmas greetings, our Yule-logs, our boars' heads, our plum\npuddings and our mince pies from England. Our turkey is, seemingly,\nour only contribution.\" Let us add the squash-pie!\n\n[Illustration: CHILDREN OF MANY NATIONALITIES AT CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION\nIN A NEW YORK SCHOOL.\n\nChinese, Italians, Swedes, Irish, English, German, French, Russian,\nAustrian.]\n\nThese customs which have become general throughout the United States,\nvarying of course in different localities, are being rapidly\nintroduced into the new possessions where they are engrafted on some\nof the prettiest customs observed by the people in former years. In\nPorto Rico on Christmas Day they have a church procession of\nchildren in beautiful costumes, which is a very attractive feature.\nThe people feast, dance, attend midnight mass on Christmas Eve, then\ndance and feast until Christmas morning. In fact they dance and feast\nmost of the time from December twenty-fourth until January seventh,\nwhen not at church services. On Twelfth Night gifts are exchanged, for\nas yet Santa Claus has not ventured to visit such a warm climate, so\nthe children continue to receive their gifts from the Holy Kings.\nHowever, under the shelter of the American Flag, the Christmas tree is\ngrowing in favor. In Hawaii, so far as possible, the so-called New\nEngland customs prevail.\n\nIn the Philippines even beggars in the streets expect a \"Christmas\npresent,\" which they solicit in good English.\n\nSo from Alaska to the Island of Tutuila, the smallest of America's\npossessions, Yule-tide is observed in a similar manner.\n\nYule-tide has been singularly connected with important events in the\nhistory of the United States.\n\nIn the year 1776 Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night to\ncapture nearly one thousand Hessians after their Christmas revelries.\nA few days later, December 30th, Congress resolved to send\nCommissioners to the courts of Vienna, Spain, France, and Tuscany; and\nas victory followed the American leader, the achievements of this\nYule-tide were declared by Frederick the Great of Prussia to be \"the\nmost brilliant of any recorded in the annals of military action.\" The\nyear following, 1777, was probably one of the gloomiest Yule-tides in\nthe experience of the American forces. They lay encamped at Valley\nForge, sick and discouraged, destitute of food, clothing, and most of\nthe necessities of life.\n\nIt was on Christmas Eve, 1783, that Washington laid aside forever his\nmilitary clothes and assumed those of a civilian, feeling, as he\nexpressed it, \"relieved of a load of public care.\" After Congress\nremoved to Philadelphia, Martha Washington held her first public\nreception in the Executive Mansion on Christmas Eve, when, it is\nstated, there was gathered \"the most brilliant assemblage ever seen in\nAmerica.\"\n\nAt Yule-tide a few years later, 1799, the country was mourning the\ndeath of the beloved Father of his Country.\n\nIn later years, the season continued prominent in the history of great\nevents. The most notable of these were the two Proclamations of\nPresident Lincoln, the one freeing the slaves, January 1, 1863, and\nthe other proclaiming the \"unconditional pardon and amnesty to all\nconcerned in the late insurrection,\" on December 25, 1868. And may the\npeace then declared remain with this people forevermore!\n\nTHE VOICE OF THE CHRIST-CHILD\n\n    The earth has grown cold with its burden of care,\n      But at Christmas it always is young,\n    The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair,\n    And its soul full of music breaks forth on the air,\n      When the song of the Angels is sung.\n\n    It is coming, old earth, it is coming to-night!\n      On snowflakes which covered thy sod,\n    The feet of the Christ-child fall gently and white,\n    And the voice of the Christ-child tells out with delight\n      That mankind are the children of God.\n\n    On the sad and the lonely, the wretched and poor,\n      The voice of the Christ-child shall fall;\n    And to every blind wanderer opens the door\n    Of a hope which he dared not to dream of before,\n      With a sunshine of welcome for all.\n\n    The feet of the humblest may walk in the field\n      Where the feet of the holiest have trod,\n    This, this is the marvel to mortals revealed,\n    When the silvery trumpets of Christmas have pealed,\n      That mankind are the children of God.\n\n--_Phillips Brooks._\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\nAlaska, 193\n\nAlexander the Great, 55\n\nAlexander, King of the Scots, 42\n\nAlfred, King, 35\n\nAmerican Flag, The, 193\n\nAndros, Governor, 187\n\nArchbishop of York, 42\n\nAryans, 13, 57, 104\n\nAsia, 15\n\n\nBaal, 22\n\nBambino, The, 133, 141\n\nBalder, 15, 16, 17, 22, 99\n\nBanks, N. P., 188\n\nBerserks, The, 26, 27, 29\n\nBethlehem, 63\n\nBoar's Head, The, 39, 40\n\nBocaccio, 132\n\n_Bolero_, The, 156\n\nBornhern, Island of, 99\n\nBoston, 185\n\nBoxing-day, 61\n\nBradford, William, 180,183,185\n\nBragi, 19\n\nBrewster, Elder, 180, 181\n\nBrooks, Phillips, 197\n\nBull-fights, 164\n\n\nCadiz, 161\n\nCaesar, Julius, 23\n\n_Ceppo_, 136, 139\n\nCervantes, 150\n\nChrist, 13, 17, 21, 28, 63, 135, 185\n\nChrist-child, 100, 101, 102, 129, 196\n\nChristian Fathers, The, 21\n\nCid, The, 150\n\nCole, Sir Henry, 46\n\nColumbus, 150, 169, 171, 172\n\nCongress, 194, 195\n\n\"Cream of the Year,\" The, 50, 51\n\nCzar, The, 116\n\n\nDante, 132\n\nDruids, 17, 22, 31\n\n\nEaster, 89, 97\n\nEdda, The Younger, 14, 15, 17\n\nElizabeth (Daughter of Henri VII), 44\n\nEpiphany, 127, 129, 145, 165\n\nExecutive Mansion, The, 195\n\n\n_Fandango_, 156\n\nFather of His Country, 195\n\nFeast of Tabernacles, The, 21\n\nFestival of Fools, 129\n\nFool's Dance, The, 44\n\nFrankland, 15\n\nFrederick the Great, 194\n\nFrey (Freya), 18, 45, 75, 95\n\nFrost King, The, 117\n\n\nGregorian calendar, The, 24, 112\n\n\n_Hackin_, The, 47\n\nHadrian, Emperor, 145\n\nHakon the Good, 27\n\nHampton Court, 44\n\nHawaii, 193\n\nHayti, 169\n\nHel, 17\n\nHenry III, 42\n\nHenry VII, 43, 44\n\nHenry VIII, 43\n\n\"Hiring Day,\" 179\n\nHoeder, 16\n\nHoly Family, The, 135\n\nHoly Kings, The, 193\n\nHoly Land, The, 192\n\nHoly Manger, The, 125, 154\n\nHoly Night, 63, 65, 71, 140\n\nHoly Season, The, 140\n\n_Hweolor-tid_, 14\n\n\nIcons, 109\n\nIndo-European ancestors, 14\n\n\nJamestown, 175, 177\n\nJanus, 23\n\nJehovah, 126\n\nJesus, The Little, 126\n\n_Jota_, 156\n\nJulian calendar, The, 25\n\nJutland, 15\n\n\nKing's Chapel, 187\n\nKnight Rupert, 60\n\n_Kolyada_, 105, 106, 107\n\n_Kolyadki_, 108, 115\n\nKriss Kringle, 60\n\n\n_Lamb's-wool_, 49\n\nLapps, The, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81\n\nLincoln, President, 195\n\nLitchfield, 42\n\nLoki, 15, 16\n\nLorraine, 69\n\nLuther, Martin, 58\n\nLycia, 59\n\n\nMagi, The, 127, 165\n\nMagnificat, The, 142\n\nMargaret, Princess, 42\n\nMassachusetts Colony, 185\n\nMassasoit, 181, 182\n\n_Mayflower_, The, 181, 182, 183\n\n\"Merry Christmas,\" 112\n\nMichelangelo, 132\n\nMiracle Plays, 66, 67\n\nMistletoe, 31, 177\n\nMohammedans, The, 159\n\nMorris Dance, The, 43\n\nMyra, Bishop of, 59\n\n\nNativity, The, 156, 157, 158\n\n_Naulets_, 121\n\nNavidad, Fortress of, 173, 175\n\n_Nina_, The, 169, 170, 171, 173\n\n_Noche-buena_, 151, 152, 153\n\nNoel, 130\n\nNorth Pole, The, 76\n\nNorway, 15\n\n_Novena_, The, 134, 136\n\nNuma, 23, 24\n\n\nOdin, 13, 14, 76\n\nOlaf, King, 26, 28\n\nOvsen, 113, 114\n\n\nPalara, 59\n\nParadise Play, 66\n\nParliament, 47, 187\n\nPassover, The Jewish, 21\n\nPetit Anse, 171\n\nPetrarch, 132\n\nPetrograd, 115, 116\n\n_Pfeffer Kuchen_, 63, 69\n\nPhiladelphia, 195\n\nPhilippines, The, 193\n\nPilgrims, The, 180\n\n_Pinta_, The, 169, 173\n\nPlymouth Colony, 179, 180\n\nPope, 143, 144, 145\n\nPope Julius, 21\n\nPope Leo XIII, 146\n\nPorto Rico, 192\n\n_Presepio_, The, 136, 137\n\nPrince of Peace, The, 168\n\n_Puchero Olla_, The, 160\n\nPuritans, The, 47, 180, 191\n\nPytheas, 55, 56\n\n\n\"Queen of the North\" (Sweden), 95\n\n\nRaphael, 132\n\nReformation, The, 46\n\nRichard II, 42\n\nRing of St. Peter, The, 144\n\nRome, 23\n\nRowena, 44\n\n\nSaehrimnir, 19\n\nSagas, 76\n\nSt. Angelo, Castle of, 140, 144\n\nSt. Barbar's Day, 125\n\nSt. Nicholas, 59, 60, 188\n\nSt. Peter's, 140, 142\n\nSt. Sylvester's Eve, 112\n\nSanta Claus, 70, 79, 87, 88, 89, 192, 193\n\n_Santa Maria_, The, 169, 171, 174\n\nSaturn, 15\n\nSaturnalia, Roman, 17, 129, 149, 158\n\nSaul, 22\n\nSaxons, The, 31, 33, 34, 35\n\nSeville, 162\n\nShepherds' Hymn, The, 142\n\nSmith, Captain John, 175, 176\n\nSotjelnik, 116\n\nStar of the East, The, 154\n\n_Svea_, 95\n\nSweden, 15\n\nSylvester, 71\n\n\nTacitus, 23\n\nThames, The, 175\n\nThor, 13, 26, 28, 38, 95\n\nTree of Fate, The, 159\n\nTree of Nativity, The, 140\n\nTrinity, The, 126, 144\n\nTwelfth Night, 193\n\nTwelfth-Night Ball, The, 94\n\nTwelfth-Night Supper, The, 129\n\nTyrolese Alps, 66\n\nTyrolese peasants, 67\n\n\nUpsala, 95, 96\n\n_Urn of Fate_, The, 138, 159\n\nUtwagustorp, 96\n\n\nValhalla, 16, 19\n\nValley Forge, 195\n\nVienna, 194\n\nVikings, 76\n\nVirgin Mary, The, 71, 83, 107, 162\n\nVortigern, 44\n\n\nWarwick, Earl of, 41\n\nWashington, 194, 195\n\nWashington, Martha, 195\n\nWassail bowl, The, 44\n\nWestminster Hall, 42\n\nWhitehall, 48\n\nWinter Palace, The, 116\n\nWise Men, The, 154\n\nWodin, 13, 14, 95, 96, 149\n\n\nYggdrasil, 58\n\nYule-log, The, 37, 123, 124, 136, 192\n\n\nZealand, 99","title":"Yule-Tide in Many Lands","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":25542}