Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 25

It is interesting to find that the name "all-healer" is still given to the mistletoe in Celtic speech,[106]{45} and that in various European countries it is believed to possess marvellous powers of healing sickness or averting misfortune.{46}

274 It is hard to say exactly what is the origin of the English "kissing under the mistletoe," but the practice would appear to be due to an imagined relation between the love of the s.e.xes and the spirit of fertility embodied in the sacred bough, and it may be a vestige of the licence often permitted at folk-festivals. According to one form of the English custom the young men plucked, each time they kissed a girl, a berry from the bough. When the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased.{48}

Sometimes a curious form, reminding one both of the German Christmas-tree and of the _Krippe_, is taken by the "kissing bunch." Here is an account from Derbyshire:--

"The 'kissing bunch' is always an elaborate affair. The size depends upon the couple of hoops--one thrust through the other--which form its skeleton. Each of the ribs is garlanded with holly, ivy, and sprigs of other greens, with bits of coloured ribbons and paper roses, rosy-cheeked apples, specially reserved for this occasion, and oranges. Three small dolls are also prepared, often with much taste, and these represent our Saviour, the mother of Jesus, and Joseph.

These dolls generally hang within the kissing bunch by strings from the top, and are surrounded by apples, oranges tied to strings, and various brightly coloured ornaments. Occasionally, however, the dolls are arranged in the kissing bunch to represent a manger-scene....

Mistletoe is not very plentiful in Derbyshire; but, generally, a bit is obtainable, and this is carefully tied to the bottom of the kissing bunch, which is then hung in the middle of the house-place, the centre of attention during Christmastide."{49}

Kissing under the mistletoe seems to be distinctively English. There is, however, a New Year's Eve custom in Lower Austria and the Rhaetian Alps that somewhat resembles our mistletoe bough practices. People linger late in the inns, the walls and windows of which are decorated with green pine-twigs. In the centre of the inn-parlour hangs from a roof-beam a wreath of the same greenery, and in a dark corner hides a masked figure known as "Sylvester," old and ugly, with a flaxen beard and _a wreath of mistletoe_. If a youth or maiden happens to pa.s.s under the pine wreath Sylvester springs out and imprints a rough kiss. When midnight comes he is driven out as the representative of the old year.{50}

275 There are traces in Britain of the sacredness of holly as well as mistletoe. In Northumberland it is used for divination: nine leaves are taken and tied with nine knots into a handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who desires prophetic dreams.{51} For this purpose smooth leaves (without p.r.i.c.kles) must be employed, and it is to be noted that at Burford in Shropshire smooth holly only was used for the Christmas decorations.{52} Holly is hated by witches,{53} but perhaps this may be due not to any pre-Christian sanct.i.ty attached to it but to the a.s.sociation of its thorns and blood-red berries with the Pa.s.sion--an a.s.sociation to which it owes its Danish name, _Kristdorn_.

In some old English Christmas carols holly and ivy are put into a curious antagonism, apparently connected with a contest of the s.e.xes. Holly is the men's plant, ivy the women's, and the carols are debates as to the respective merits of each. Possibly some sort of rude drama may once have been performed.{54} Here is a fifteenth-century example of these carols:--

"Holly and Ivy made a great party, Who should have the mastery, In landes where they go.

Then spoke Holly, 'I am free and jolly, I will have the mastery, In landes where we go.'

Then spake Ivy, 'I am lov'd and prov'd, And I will have the mastery, In landes where we go.'

Then spake Holly, and set him down on his knee, 'I pray thee, gentle Ivy, Say me no villainy, In landes where we go.'"{55}

The sanct.i.ty of Christmas house-decorations in England is shown by the care taken in disposing of them when removed from the walls. In Shropshire old-fashioned people never threw them away, for fear of misfortune, but either burnt them or gave them to the cows; it was very unlucky to let a piece 276 fall to the ground. The Shropshire custom was to leave the holly and ivy up until Candlemas, while the mistletoe-bough was carefully preserved until the time came for a new one next year. West Shropshire tradition, by the way, connects the mistletoe with the New Year rather than with Christmas; the bough ought not to be put up until New Year's Eve.{56}

In Sweden green boughs, apparently, are not used for decoration, but the floor of the parlour is strewn with sprigs of fragrant juniper or spruce-pine, or with rye-straw.{57} The straw was probably intended originally to bring to the house, by means of sacramental contact, the wholesome influences of the corn-spirit, though the common people connect it with the stable at Bethlehem. The practice of laying straw and the same Christian explanation are found also in Poland{58} and in Crivoscia.{59} In Poland before the cloth is laid on Christmas Eve, the table is covered with a layer of hay or straw, and a sheaf stands in the corner. Years ago straw was also spread on the floor. Sometimes it is given to the cattle as a charm and sometimes it is used to tie up fruit-trees.{60}

Dr. Frazer conjectures that the Swedish Yule straw comes in part at least from the last sheaf at harvest, to which, as embodying the corn-spirit, a peculiar significance is attached. The Swedish, like the Polish, Yule straw has sundry virtues; scattered on the ground it will make a barren field productive; and it is used to bind trees and make them fruitful.{61} Again the peasant at Christmas will sit on a log and throw up Yule straws one by one to the roof; as many as lodge in the rafters, so many will be the sheaves of rye at harvest.{62}

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR GIFTS.

We have come across presents of various kinds at the pre-Christmas festivals; now that we have reached Christmastide itself we may dwell a little upon the festival as the great present-giving season of the year, and try to get at the origins of the custom.

The Roman _strenae_ offered to the Emperor or exchanged between private citizens at the January Kalends have already 277 been noted.

According to tradition they were originally merely branches plucked from the grove of the G.o.ddess Strenia, and the purpose of these may well have been akin to that of the greenery used for decorations, viz., to secure contact with a vegetation-spirit. In the time of the Empire, however, the _strenae_ were of a more attractive character, "men gave honeyed things, that the year of the recipient might be full of sweetness, lamps that it might be full of light, copper and silver and gold that wealth might flow in amain."{63} Such presents were obviously a kind of charm for the New Year, based on the principle that as the beginning was, so would the rest of the year be.

With the adoption of the Roman New Year's Day its present-giving customs appear to have spread far and wide. In France, where the Latin spirit is still strong, January 1 is even now the great day for presents, and they are actually called _etrennes_, a name obviously derived from _strenae_.

In Paris boxes of sweets are then given by bachelors to friends who have entertained them at their houses during the year--a survival perhaps of the "honeyed things" given in Roman times.

In many countries, however, present-giving is attached to the ecclesiastical festival of Christmas. This is doubtless largely due to attraction from the Roman New Year's Day to the feast hallowed by the Church, but readers of the foregoing pages will have seen that Christmas has also drawn to itself many practices of a November festival, and it is probable that German Christmas presents, at least, are connected as much with the apples and nuts of St. Martin and St. Nicholas[107] as with the Roman _strenae_. It has already been pointed out that the German St.

Nicholas as present-giver appears to be a duplicate of St. Martin, and that St. Nicholas himself has often wandered from his own day to Christmas, or has been replaced by the Christ Child. We have also noted the rod a.s.sociated with the two saints, and seen reason for thinking that its original purpose was not disciplinary but health-giving.

278 It is interesting to find that while, if we may trust tradition, the Roman _strenae_ were originally twigs, Christmas gifts in sixteenth-century Germany showed a connection with the twigs or rods of St. Martin and St. Nicholas. The presents were tied together in a bundle, and a twig was added to them.{65} This was regarded by the pedagogic mind of the period not as a lucky twig but as a rod in the sinister sense. In some Protestant sermons of the latter half of the century there are curious detailed references to Christmas presents. These are supposed to be brought to children by the Saviour Himself, strangely called the _Haus-Christ_. Among the gifts mentioned as contained in the "Christ-bundles" are pleasant things like money, sugar-plums, cakes, apples, nuts, dolls; useful things like clothes; and also things "that belong to teaching, obedience, chastis.e.m.e.nt, and discipline, as A.B.C.

tablets, Bibles and handsome books, writing materials, paper, &c., _and the_ '_Christ-rod_.'"{66}

A common gift to German children at Christmas or the New Year was an apple with a coin in it; the coin may conceivably be a Roman survival,{67} while the apple may be connected with those brought by St.

Nicholas.

The Christ Child is still supposed to bring presents in Germany; in France, too, it is sometimes _le pet.i.t Jesus_ who bears the welcome gifts.{68} In Italy we shall find that the great time for children's presents is Epiphany Eve, when the Befana comes, though in the northern provinces Santa Lucia is sometimes a gift-bringer.{69} In Sicily the days for gifts and the supposed bringers vary; sometimes, as we have already seen, it is the dead who bring them, on All Souls' Eve; sometimes it is _la Vecchia di Natali_--the Christmas old woman--who comes with them on Christmas Eve; sometimes they are brought by the old woman Strina--note the derivation from _strenae_--at the New Year; sometimes by the Befana at the Epiphany.{70}

A curious mode of giving presents on Christmas Eve belongs particularly to Sweden, though it is also found--perhaps borrowed--in Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and other parts of Germany. The so-called _Julklapp_ is a gift wrapped up in innumerable coverings. The person who brings it raps noisily at 279 the door, and throws or pushes the _Julklapp_ into the room. It is essential that he should arrive quite unexpectedly, and come and go like lightning without revealing his ident.i.ty. Great efforts are made to conceal the gift so that the recipient after much trouble in undoing the covering may have to search and search again to find it.

Sometimes in Sweden a thin gold ring is hidden away in a great heavy box, or a little gold heart is put in a Christmas cake. Occasionally a man contrives to hide in the _Julklapp_ and thus offer himself as a Christmas present to the lady whom he loves. The gift is often accompanied by some satirical rhyme, or takes a form intended to tease the recipient.{71}

Another custom, sometimes found in "better-cla.s.s" Swedish households, is for the Christmas presents to be given by two masked figures, an old man and an old woman. The old man holds a bell in his hand and rings it, the old woman carries a basket full of sealed packets, which she delivers to the addressees.{72}

There is nothing specially interesting in modern English modes of present-giving. We may, however, perhaps see in the custom of Christmas boxes, inexorably demanded and not always willingly bestowed, a degeneration of what was once friendly entertainment given in return for the good wishes and the luck brought by wa.s.sailers. Instances of gifts to calling neighbours have already come before our notice at several pre-Christmas festivals, notably All Souls', St. Clement's, and St.

Thomas's. As for the name "Christmas box," it would seem to have come from the receptacles used for the gifts. According to one account apprentices, journeymen, and servants used to carry about earthen boxes with a slit in them, and when the time for collecting was over, broke them to obtain the contents.{73}

The Christmas card, a sort of attenuated present, seems to be of quite modern origin. It is apparently a descendant of the "school pieces" or "Christmas pieces" popular in England in the first half of the nineteenth century--sheets of writing-paper with designs in pen and ink or copper-plate headings. The first Christmas card proper appears to have been issued in 1846, but it was not till about 1862 that the custom of card-sending obtained any foothold.{74}

280

[Ill.u.s.tration:

CHRISTMAS MORNING IN LOWER AUSTRIA.

_By Ferdinand Waldmuller (b. 1793)._]

281 282 283

CHAPTER XII

CHRISTMAS FEASTING AND SACRIFICIAL SURVIVALS

Prominence of Eating in the English Christmas--The Boar's Head, the Goose, and other Christmas Fare--Frumenty, Sowens, Yule Cakes, and the Wa.s.sail Bowl--Continental Christmas Dishes, their Possible Origins--French and German Cakes--The Animals' Christmas Feast--Cakes in Eastern Europe--Relics of Animal Sacrifice--Hunting the Wren--Various Games of Sacrificial Origin.

FEASTING CUSTOMS.

In the mind of the average sensual Englishman perhaps the most vivid images called up by the word Christmas are those connected with eating and drinking. "Ha piu da fare che i forni di Natale in Inghilterra,"[108]

an Italian proverb used of a very busy person, sufficiently suggests the character of our Christmas.[109] It may be that the Christmas dinner looms larger among the English than among most other peoples, but in every country a distinctive meal of some kind is a.s.sociated with the season. We have already seen how this ill.u.s.trates the immemorial connection between material feasting and religious rejoicing.

Let us note some forms of "Christmas fare" and try to get an idea of their origin. First we may look at English feasting customs, though, as they have been pretty fully described by 284 previous writers, no very elaborate account of them need be given.

The gross eating and drinking in former days at Christmas, of which our present mild gluttony is but a pale reflection, would seem to be connected with the old November feast, though transferred to the season hallowed by Christ's birth. The show of slaughtered beasts, adorned with green garlands, in an English town just before Christmas, reminds one strongly of the old November killing. In displays of this kind the pig's head is specially conspicuous, and points to the time when the swine was a favourite sacrificial animal.{1} We may recall here the traditional carol sung at Queen's College, Oxford, as the boar's head is solemnly brought in at Christmas, and found elsewhere in other forms:--

"The boar's head in hand bear I, Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary; And I pray you, my masters, be merry, _Quot estis in convivio._ _Caput apri defero,_ _Reddens laudes Domino._"{2}

The Christmas bird provided by the familiar "goose club" may be compared with the German Martinmas goose. The more luxurious turkey must be relatively an innovation, for that bird seems not to have been introduced into England until the sixteenth century.{3}

Cakes and pies, partly or wholly of vegetable origin, are, of course, as conspicuous at the English Christmas as animal food. The peculiar "luckiness" attached to some of them (as when mince-pies, eaten in different houses during the Twelve Days, bring a happy month each) makes one suspect some more serious original purpose than mere gratification of the appet.i.te. A sacrificial or sacramental origin is probable, at least in certain cases; a cake made of flour, for instance, may well have been regarded as embodying the spirit immanent in the corn.{4} Whether any mystic significance ever belonged to the plum-pudding it is hard to say, though the sprig of holly stuck into its 285 top recalls the lucky green boughs we have so often come across, and a resemblance to the libations upon the Christmas log might be seen in the burning brandy.

A dish once prominent at Christmas was "frumenty" or "furmety" (variously spelt, and derived from the Latin _frumentum_, corn). It was made of hulled wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with cinnamon, sugar, &c.{5} This too may have been a cereal sacrament. In Yorkshire it was the first thing eaten on Christmas morning, just as ale posset was the last thing drunk on Christmas Eve. Ale posset was a mixture of beer and milk, and each member of the family in turn had to take a "sup," as also a piece of a large apple-pie.{6}