Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 10

_Photo_] [_Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co., Munich_.]

109 The choir and people took their part in the singing; and dancing, to the old Germans a natural accompaniment of festive song, became common around the cradle, which in time the people were allowed to rock with their own hands.{47} "In dulci jubilo" has the character of a dance, and the same is true of another delightful old carol, "La.s.st uns das Kindlein wiegen," still used, in a form modified by later editors, in the churches of the Rhineland. The present writer has heard it sung, very slowly, in unison, by vast congregations, and very beautiful is its mingling of solemnity, festive joy, and tender sentiment:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Music]

"La.s.st uns das Kindlein wiegen, Das Herz zum Krippelein biegen!

La.s.st uns den Geist erfreuen, Das Kindlein benedeien: O Jesulein suss! O Jesulein suss!

La.s.st uns sein Handel und Fusse, Sein feuriges Herzlein grussen!

Und ihn demutiglich eren Als unsern Gott und Herren!

O Jesulein suss! O Jesulein suss!"[38]{48}

Two Latin hymns, "Resonet in laudibus" and "Quem pastores laudavere,"{49} were also sung at the _Kindelwiegen_, and 110 a charming and quite untranslatable German lullaby has come down to us:--

"Sausa ninne, gottes minne, Nu sweig und ru!

Wen du wilt, so wellen wir deinen willen tun, Hochgelobter edler furst, nu schweig und wein auch nicht, Tuste das, so wiss wir, da.s.s uns wol geschicht."{50}

It was by appeals like this _Kindelwiegen_ to the natural, homely instincts of the folk that the Church gained a real hold over the ma.s.ses, making Christianity during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries a genuinely popular religion in Germany. Dr. Alexander Tille, the best historian of the German Christmas, has an interesting pa.s.sage on the subject: "In the dancing and jubilation around the cradle," he writes, "the religion of the Cross, however much it might in its inmost character be opposed to the nature of the German people and their essential healthiness, was felt no longer as something alien. It had become naturalized, but had lost in the process its very core. The preparation for a life after death, which was its Alpha and Omega, had pa.s.sed into the background. It was not joy at the promised 'Redemption'

that expressed itself in the dance around the cradle; for the German has never learnt to feel himself utterly vile and sinful: it was joy at the simple fact that a human being, a particular human being in peculiar circ.u.mstances, was born into the world.... The Middle Ages showed in the cradle-rocking 'a true German and most lovable childlikeness.' The Christ Child was the 'universal little brother of all children of earth,' and they acted accordingly, they lulled Him to sleep, they fondled and rocked Him, they danced before Him and leapt around Him _in dulci jubilo_."{51} There is much here that is true of the cult of the Christ Child in other countries than Germany, though perhaps Dr. Tille underestimates the religious feeling that is often joined to the human sentiment.

The fifteenth century was the great period for the _Kindelwiegen_, the time when it appears to have been practised in all the churches of Germany; in the sixteenth it began to seem 111 irreverent to the stricter members of the clergy, and the figure of the infant Jesus was in many places no longer rocked in the cradle but enthroned on the altar.{52} This usage is described by Naogeorgus (1553):--

"A woodden childe in clowtes is on the aultar set, About the which both boyes and gyrles do daunce and trymly jet, And Carrols sing in prayse of Christ, and, for to helpe them heare, The organs aunswere every verse with sweete and solemne cheare.

The priestes do rore aloude; and round about the parentes stande To see the sport, and with their voyce do helpe them and their hande."{53}

The placing of a "Holy Child" above the altar at Christmas is still customary in many Roman Catholic churches.

Protestantism opposed the _Kindelwiegen_, on the grounds both of superst.i.tion and of the disorderly proceedings that accompanied it, but it was long before it was utterly extinguished even in the Lutheran churches. In Catholic churches the custom did not altogether die out, though the unseemly behaviour which often attended it--and the growth of a pseudo-cla.s.sical taste--caused its abolition in most places.{54}

At Tubingen as late as 1830 at midnight on Christmas Eve an image of the Christ Child was rocked on the tower of the chief church in a small cradle surrounded with lights, while the spectators below sang a cradle-song.{55} According to a recent writer the "rocking" is still continued in the Upper Innthal.{56} In the Tyrolese cathedral city of Brixen it was once performed every day between Christmas and Candlemas by the sacristan or boy-acolytes. That the proceedings had a tendency to be disorderly is shown by an eighteenth-century instruction to the sacristan: "Be sure to take a stick or a thong of ox-hide, for the boys are often very ill-behaved."{57}

There are records of other curious ceremonies in German or Austrian churches. At St. Peter am Windberge in Muhlkreis in Upper Austria, during the service on Christmas night a life-sized wooden figure of the Holy Child was offered in 112 a basket to the congregation; each person reverently kissed it and pa.s.sed it on to his neighbour. This was done as late as 1883.{58} At Crimmitschau in Saxony a boy, dressed as an angel, used to be let down from the roof singing Luther's "Vom Himmel hoch," and the custom was only given up when the breaking of the rope which supported the singer had caused a serious accident.{59}

It is in Italy, probably, that the cult of the Christ Child is most ardently practised to-day. No people have a greater love of children than the Italians, none more of that dramatic instinct which such a form of worship demands. "Easter," says Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, "is the great popular feast in the eastern Church, Christmas in the Latin--especially in Italy. One is the feast of the next world, and the other of this. Italians are fond of this world."{60} Christmas is for the poorer Italians a summing up of human birthdays, an occasion for pouring out on the _Bambino_ parental and fraternal affection as well as religious worship.

In Rome, Christmas used to be heralded by the arrival, ten days before the end of Advent, of the Calabrian minstrels or _pifferari_ with their sylvan pipes (_zampogne_), resembling the Scottish bagpipe, but less harsh in sound. These minstrels were to be seen in every street in Rome, playing their wild plaintive music before the shrines of the Madonna, under the traditional notion of charming away her labour-pains. Often they would stop at a carpenter's shop "per politezza al messer San Giuseppe."{61} Since 1870 the _pifferari_ have become rare in Rome, but some were seen there by an English lady quite recently. At Naples, too, there are _zampognari_ before Christmas, though far fewer than there used to be; for one _lira_ they will pipe their rustic melodies before any householder's street Madonna through a whole _novena_.{62}

[Ill.u.s.tration:

CALABRIAN SHEPHERDS PLAYING IN ROME AT CHRISTMAS.

_After an Etching by D. Allan._

From Hone's "Every-day Book" (London, 1826).]

In Sicily, too, men come down from the mountains nine days before Christmas to sing a _novena_ to a plaintive melody accompanied by 'cello and violin. "All day long," writes Signora Caico about Montedoro in Caltanissetta, "the melancholy dirge 113 was sung round the village, house after house, always the same minor tune, the words being different every day, so that in nine days the whole song was sung out.... I often looked out of the window to see them at a short distance, grouped before a house, singing their stanzas, well m.u.f.fled in shawls, for the air is cold in spite of the bright sunshine.... The flat, white houses all round, the pure sky overhead, gave an Oriental setting to the scene."

Another Christmas custom in the same place was the singing of a _novena_ not outside but within some of the village houses before a kind of altar gaily decorated and bearing at the top a waxen image of the Child Jesus.

"Close to it the orchestra was grouped--a 'cello, two violins, a guitar, and a tambourine. The kneeling women huddled in front of the altar. All had on their heads their black _mantelline_. They began at once singing the _novena_ stanzas appointed for that day; the tune was primitive and very odd: the first half of the stanza was quick and merry, the second half became a wailing dirge." A full translation of a long and very interesting and pathetic _novena_ is given by Signora Caico.[39]{63}

The _presepio_ both in Rome and at Naples is the special Christmas symbol in the home, just as the lighted tree is in Germany. In Rome the Piazza Navona is the great place for the sale of little clay figures of the holy persons. (Is there perchance a survival here of the _sigillaria_, the little clay dolls sold in Rome at the _Saturnalia_?) These are bought in the market for two _soldi_ each, and the _presepi_ or "Bethlehems" are made at home with cardboard and moss.{64} The home-made _presepi_ at Naples are well described by Matilde Serao; they are pasteboard models of the landscape of Bethlehem--a hill with the sacred cave beneath it and two or three paths leading down to the grotto, a little tavern, a shepherd's hut, a few trees, sometimes a stream in glittering gla.s.s. The ground is made verdant with moss, and there is 114 straw within the cave for the repose of the infant Jesus; singing angels are suspended by thin wires, and the star of the Wise Men hangs by an invisible thread.

There is little attempt to realize the scenery of the East; the Child is born and the Magi adore Him in a Campanian or Calabrian setting.{66}

Italian churches, as well as Italian homes, have their _presepi_.

"Thither come the people, bearing humble gifts of chestnuts, apples, tomatoes, and the like, which they place as offerings in the hands of the figures. These are very often life-size. Mary is usually robed in blue satin, with crimson scarf and white head-dress. Joseph stands near her dressed in the ordinary working-garb. The onlookers are got up like Italian contadini. The Magi are always very prominent in their grand clothes, with satin trains borne by black slaves, jewelled turbans, and satin tunics all over jewels."{67}

[Ill.u.s.tration:

ST. FRANCIS INSt.i.tUTES THE "PRESEPIO" AT GRECCIO.

_By Giotto._

(Upper Church of St Francis, a.s.sissi)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "BAMBINO" OF ARA COELI.]

In Rome the two great centres of Christmas devotion are the churches of Santa Maria Maggiore, where are preserved the relics of the cradle of Christ, and Ara Coeli, the home of the most famous _Bambino_ in the world. A vivid picture of the scene at Santa Maria Maggiore in the early nineteenth century is given by Lady Morgan. She entered the church at midnight on Christmas Eve to wait for the procession of the _culla_, or cradle. "Its three ample naves, separated by rows of Ionic columns of white marble, produced a splendid vista. Thousands of wax tapers marked their form, and contrasted their shadows; some blazed from golden candlesticks on the superb altars of the lateral chapels.... Draperies of gold and crimson decked the columns, and spread their shadows from the inter-columniations over the marble pavement. In the midst of this imposing display of church magnificence, sauntered or reposed a population which displayed the most squalid misery. The haggard natives of the mountains ... were mixed with the whole mendicity of Rome.... Some of these terrific groups lay stretched in heaps on the ground, congregating for warmth; and as their dark eyes scowled from beneath the mantle which half hid a sheepskin dress, they had the air of banditti awaiting their prey; others with their wives and children knelt, half asleep, 115 round the chapel of the _Santa Croce_.... In the centre of the nave, mult.i.tudes of gay, gaudy, noisy persons, the petty shopkeepers, laquais, and _popolaccio_ of the city, strolled and laughed, and talked loud." About three o'clock the service began, with a choral swell, blazing torches, and a crowded procession of priests of every rank and order. It lasted for two hours; then began the procession to the cell where the cradle lay, enshrined in a blaze of tapers and guarded by groups of devotees. Thence it was borne with solemn chants to the chapel of _Santa Croce_. A musical Ma.s.s followed, and the _culla_ being at last deposited on the High Altar, the wearied spectators issued forth just as the dome of St. Peter's caught the first light of the morning.{68}

Still to-day the scene in the church at the five o'clock High Ma.s.s on Christmas morning is extraordinarily impressive, with the crowds of poor people, the countless lights at which the children gaze in open-eyed wonder, the many low Ma.s.ses said in the side chapels, the imposing procession and the setting of the silver casket on the High Altar. The history of the relics of the _culla_--five long narrow pieces of wood--is obscure, but it is admitted even by some orthodox Roman Catholics that there is no sufficient evidence to connect them with Bethlehem.{69}

The famous _Bambino_ at the Franciscan church of Ara Coeli on the citadel of Rome is "a flesh-coloured doll, tightly swathed in gold and silver tissue, crowned, and sparkling with jewels," no thing of beauty, but believed to have miraculous powers. An inscription in the sacristy of the church states that it was made by a devout Minorite of wood from the Mount of Olives, and given flesh-colour by the interposition of G.o.d Himself. It has its own servants and its own carriage in which it drives out to visit the sick. There is a strange story of a theft of the wonder-working image by a woman who feigned sickness, obtained permission to have the _Bambino_ left with her, and then sent back to the friars another image dressed in its clothes. That night the Franciscans heard great ringing of bells and knockings at the church door, and found outside the true _Bambino_, naked in the wind and rain. Since then it has never been allowed out alone.{70}

116 All through the Christmas and Epiphany season Ara Coeli is crowded with visitors to the _Bambino_. Before the _presepio_, where it lies, is erected a wooden platform on which small boys and girls of all ranks follow one another with little speeches--"preaching" it is called--in praise of the infant Lord. "They say their pieces," writes Countess Martinengo, "with an infinite charm that raises half a smile and half a tear." They have the vivid dramatic gift, the extraordinary absence of self-consciousness, typical of Italian children, and their "preaching" is anything but a wooden repet.i.tion of a lesson learned by heart. Nor is there any irksome constraint; indeed to northerners the scene in the church might seem irreverent, for the children blow toy trumpets and their parents talk freely on all manner of subjects. The church is approached by one hundred and twenty-four steps, making an extraordinarily picturesque spectacle at this season, when they are thronged by people ascending and descending, and by vendors of all sorts of Christmas prints and images. On the Octave of the Epiphany there is a great procession, ending with the blessing of Rome by the Holy Child. The _Bambino_ is carried out to the s.p.a.ce at the top of the giddy flight of marble steps, and a priest raises it on high and solemnly blesses the Eternal City.{71}

A glimpse of the southern Christmas may be had in London in the Italian colony in and around Eyre Street Hill, off the Clerkenwell Road, a little town of poor Italians set down in the midst of the metropolis. The steep, narrow Eyre Street Hill, with its shops full of southern wares, is dingy enough by day, but after dark on Christmas Eve it looks like a bit of Naples. The windows are gay with lights and coloured festoons, there are lantern-decked sweetmeat stalls, one old man has a _presepio_ in his room, other people have little altars or shrines with candles burning, and bright pictures of saints adorn the walls. It is a strangely pathetic sight, this _festa_ of the children of the South, this attempt to keep an Italian Christmas amid the cold damp dreariness of a London slum. The colony has its own church, San Pietro, copied from some Renaissance basilica at Rome, a building half tawdry, half magnificent, which transports him who enters it far away to the South. Like every Italian church, it is 117 at once the Palace of the Great King and the refuge of the humblest--no other church in London is quite so intimately the home of the poor. Towards twelve o'clock on Christmas Eve the deep-toned bell of San Pietro booms out over the colony, and the people crowd to the Midnight Ma.s.s, and pay their devotions at a great _presepio_ set up for the veneration of the faithful. When on the Octave of the Epiphany[40]

the time comes to close the crib, an impressive and touching ceremony takes place. The afternoon Benediction over, the priest, with the acolytes, goes to the _presepio_ and returns to the chancel with the _Bambino_. Holding it on his arm, he preaches in Italian on the story of the Christ Child. The sermon ended, the notes of "Adeste, fideles" are heard, and while the Latin words are sung the faithful kneel at the altar rails and reverently kiss the Holy Babe. It is their farewell to the _Bambino_ till next Christmas.

A few details may here be given about the religious customs at Christmas in Spain. The Midnight Ma.s.s is there the great event of the festival.

Something has already been said as to its celebration in Madrid. The scene at the midnight service in a small Andalusian country town is thus described by an English traveller:--"The church was full; the service orderly; the people of all cla.s.ses. There were muleteers, wrapped in their blue and white checked rugs; here, Spanish gentlemen, enveloped in their graceful capas, or capes ... here, again, were crowds of the commonest people,--miners, fruitsellers, servants, and the like,--the women kneeling on the rush matting of the dimly-lit church, the men standing in dark ma.s.ses behind, or cl.u.s.tering in groups round every pillar.... At last, from under the altar, the senior priest ... took out the image of the Babe New-born, reverently and slowly, and held it up in his hands for adoration. Instantly every one crossed himself, and fell on his knees in silent worship."{72} The crib is very popular in Spanish homes and is the delight of children, as may be learnt from Fernan Caballero's interesting sketch of Christmas Eve in Spain, "La Noche de Navidad."{73}

118 In England the Christmas crib is to be found nowadays in most Roman, and a few Anglican, churches. In the latter it is of course an imitation, not a survival. It is, however, possible that the custom of carrying dolls about in a box at Advent or Christmas time, common in some parts of England in the nineteenth century, is a survival, from the Middle Ages, of something like the crib. The so-called "vessel-cup" was "a box containing two dolls, dressed up to represent the Virgin and the infant Christ, decorated with ribbons and surrounded by flowers and apples." The box had usually a gla.s.s lid, was covered by a white napkin, and was carried from door to door by a woman.{74} It was esteemed very unlucky for any household not to be visited by the "Advent images" before Christmas Eve, and the bearers sang the well-known carol of the "Joys of Mary."{75} In Yorkshire only one image was carried about.{76} At Gilmorton, Leicestershire, a friend of the present writer remembers that the children used to carry round what they called a "Christmas Vase," an open box without lid in which lay three dolls side by side, with oranges and sprigs of evergreen. Some people regarded these as images of the Virgin, the Christ Child, and Joseph.[41]

In this study of the feast of the Nativity as represented in liturgy and ceremonial we have already come close to what may strictly be called drama; in the next chapter we shall cross the border line and consider the religious plays of the Middle Ages and the relics of or parallels to them found in later times.

119 120 121

CHAPTER V