Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 35

[61] n.o.ble being.

[62] Cursed.

[63] Warlock.

[64] Sorrow.

[65] Grows merry.

[66] Promise.

[67] n.o.ble.

[68] Child.

[69] Baby.

[70] Head.

[71] Face.

[72] Hand.

[73] Besides the Nativity plays in the four great cycles there exists a "Shearmen and Tailors' Play" which undoubtedly belongs to Coventry, unlike the "Ludus Coventriae," whose connection with that town is, to say the least, highly doubtful. It opens with a prologue by the prophet Isaiah, and in a small s.p.a.ce presents the events connected with the Incarnation from the Annunciation to the Murder of the Innocents. The Nativity and shepherd scenes have less character and interest than those in the great cycles, and need not be dealt with here.{18}

[74]

"_Riepl._ What a noise there is. Everything seems so strange to me!

_Jorgl._ Have the heavens fallen to-day; are the angels flying over our field?

_R._ They are leaping _J._ Down from above.

_R._ I couldn't do the thing; 'twould break my neck and legs."

[75]

"_J._ My child, canst find no lodging? Must Thou bear such frost and cold?

_R._ Thou liest in cold swaddling-clothes! Come, put a garment about Him!

_J._ Cover His feet up; wrap Him up delicately!"

[76] "Three eggs and some b.u.t.ter we bring, too; deign to accept it! A fowl to make some broth if Thy mother can cook it--put some dripping in, and 'twill be good. Because we've nothing else--we are but poor shepherds--accept our goodwill."

[77]

"_J._ The best of health to thee ever, my little dear; when thou wantest anything, come to me.

_J._ G.o.d keep thee ever!

_R._ Grow up fine and tall soon!

_J._ I'll take thee into service when thou'rt big enough."

[78] Jacopone da Todi, whose Christmas songs we have already considered, was probably connected with the movement.

[79] An interesting and pathetic Christmas example is given by Signor D'Ancona in his "Origini del Teatro in Italia."{35}

[80] Though the ox and a.s.s are not mentioned by St. Luke, it is an easy transition to them from the idea of the manger. Early Christian writers found a Scriptural sanction for them in two pa.s.sages in the prophets: Isaiah i. 3, "The ox knoweth his owner and the a.s.s his master's crib," and Habakkuk iii. 2 (a mistranslation), "In the midst of two beasts shall Thou be known."

[81] With this may be compared the fair still held in Rome in the Piazza Navona just before Christmas, at which booths are hung with little clay figures for use in _presepi_ (see p. 113). One cannot help being reminded too, though probably there is no direct connection, of the biscuits in human shapes to be seen in German markets and shops at Christmas, and of the paste images which English bakers used to make at this season.{10}

[82] Among the Scandinavians, who were late in their conversion, a pre-Christian Yule feast seems to have been held in the ninth century, but it appears to have taken place not in December but about the middle of January, and to have been transferred to December 25 by the Christian king Hakon the Good of Norway (940-63).{28}

[83] It is only right to mention here Professor G. Bilfinger's monograph "Das germanische Julfest" (Stuttgart, 1901), where it is maintained that the only festivals from which the Christmas customs of the Teutonic peoples have sprung are the January Kalends of the Roman Empire and the Christian feast of the Nativity. Bilfinger holds that there is no evidence either of a November beginning-of-winter festival or of an ancient Teutonic midwinter feast. Bilfinger's is the most systematic of existing treatises on Christmas origins, but the considerations brought forward in Tille's "Yule and Christmas"

in favour of the November festival are not lightly to be set aside, and while recognizing that its celebration must be regarded rather as a probable hypothesis than an established fact, I shall here follow in general the suggestions of Tille and try to show the contributions of this northern New Year feast to Christmas customs.

[84] Accounts of such maskings are to be found in innumerable books of travel. In _Folk-Lore_, June 30, 1911, Professor Edward Westermarck gives a particularly full and interesting description of Moroccan customs of this sort. He describes at length various masquerades in the skins and heads of beasts, accompanied often by the dressing-up of men as women and by gross obscenities.

[85] Another suggested explanation connects the change of clothes with rites of initiation at the pa.s.sage from boyhood to manhood.

"Manhood, among primitive peoples, seems to be envisaged as ceasing to be a woman.... Man is born of woman, reared of woman. When he pa.s.ses to manhood, he ceases to be a woman-thing, and begins to exercise functions other and alien. That moment is one naturally of extreme peril; he at once emphasizes it and disguises it. He wears woman's clothes." From initiation rites, according to this theory, the custom spread to other occasions when it was desirable to "change the luck."

[86] According to Sir John Rhys, in the Isle of Man _Hollantide_ (November 1, Old Style, therefore November 12) is still to-day the beginning of a new year. But the ordinary calendar is gaining ground, and some of the a.s.sociations of the old New Year's Day are being transferred to January 1, the Roman date. "In Wales this must have been decidedly helped by the influence of Roman rule and Roman ideas; but even there the adjuncts of the Winter Calends have never been wholly transferred to the Calends of January."{4}

[87] In Burne and Jackson's "Shropshire Folk-Lore" (p. 305 f.) there are details about cakes and other doles given to the poor at funerals.

These probably had the same origin as the November "soul-cakes."

[88] Cf. pp. 191-2 and 235-6 of this volume.

[89] The prominence of "Eves" in festival customs is a point specially to be noticed; it is often to them rather than to the actual feast days that old practices cling. This is perhaps connected with the ancient Celtic and Teutonic habit of reckoning by nights instead of days--a trace of this is left in our word "fortnight"--but it must be remembered that the Church encouraged the same tendency by her solemn services on the Eves of festivals, and that the Jewish Sabbath begins on Friday evening.

[90] Attempts are being made to suppress the November carnival at Hampstead, and perhaps the 1911 celebration may prove to have been the last.

[91] "Raise the gla.s.s at Martinmas, drink wine all through the year."

[92] It is interesting to note that in the Italian province of Venetia, as well as in more northerly regions, Martinmas is especially a children's feast. In the sweetshops are sold little sugar images of the saint on horseback with a long sword, and in Venice itself children go about singing, playing on tambourines, and begging for money.{93}

[93] "At St. Andrew's Ma.s.s winter is certain."

[94] This custom may be compared with the Scotch eating of sowans in bed on Christmas morning (see Chapter XII.).

[95] In a legend of the saint she is said to have plucked out her own eyes when their beauty caused a prince to seek to ravish her away from her convent.{54}

[96] The bath-house in the old-fashioned Swedish farm is a separate building to which everyone repairs on Christmas Eve, but which is, or was, seldom used except on this one night of the year.{23}

[97] Sometimes Christmas is reckoned as one of the Twelve Days, sometimes not. In the former case, of course, the Epiphany is the thirteenth day. In England we call the Epiphany Twelfth Day, in Germany it is generally called Thirteenth; in Belgium and Holland it is Thirteenth; in Sweden it varies, but is usually Thirteenth.

Sometimes then the Twelve Days are spoken of, sometimes the Thirteen. "The Twelve Nights," in accordance with the old Teutonic mode of reckoning by nights, is a natural and correct term.{39}

[98] Those who wish to pursue further the study of the _Kallikantzaroi_ should read the elaborate and fascinating, if not altogether convincing, theories of Mr. J. C. Lawson in his "Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion." He distinguishes two cla.s.ses of _Kallikantzaroi_, one of which he identifies with ordinary werewolves, while the other is the type of hairy, clawed demons above described. He sets forth a most ingenious hypothesis connecting them with the Centaurs.

[99] It is to be borne in mind that the oak was a sacred tree among the heathen Slavs; it was connected with the thunder-G.o.d Perun, the counterpart of Jupiter, and a fire of oak burned night and day in his honour. The neighbours of the Slavs, the Lithuanians, had the same G.o.d, whom they called Perkunas; they too kept up a perpetual oak-fire in his honour, and in time of drought they used to pour beer on the flames, praying to Perkunas to send showers.{10} The libations of wine on the Yule log may conceivably have had a similar purpose.

[100] Kindling.

[101] The custom referred to in the last sentence may be compared with the Danish St. Thomas's Day practice (see Chapter VIII.).