Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 36

[102] At Wormesley in Herefordshire there is a Holy Thorn which is still believed to blossom exactly at twelve o'clock on Twelfth Night.

"The blossoms are thought to open at midnight, and drop off about an hour afterwards. A piece of thorn gathered at this hour brings luck, if kept for the rest of the year." As recently as 1908 about forty people went to see the thorn blossom at this time (see E. M.

Leather, "The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire" [London, 1912], 17).

[103] Compare the struggle for the "Haxey hood," described in Chapter XVI., p. 347.

[104] This may be compared with the ancient Greek _Eiresione_, "a portable May-pole, a branch hung about with wool, acorns, figs, cakes, fruits of all sorts and sometimes wine-jars."{35}

[105] It by no means necessarily follows, of course, that they were exclusively Roman in origin.

[106] In Welsh it has also the name of "the tree of pure gold," a rather surprising t.i.tle for a plant with green leaves and white berries.

Dr. Frazer has sought to explain this name by the theory that in a roundabout way the sun's golden fire was believed to be an emanation from the mistletoe, in which the life of the oak, whence fire was kindled, was held to reside.{47}

[107] In the neighbourhood of Reichenberg children hang up their stockings at the windows on St. Andrew's Eve, and in the morning find them filled with apples and nuts{64}--a parallel to Martinmas and St. Nicholas customs, at a date intermediate between the two festivals.

[108] "He has more to do than the ovens in England at Christmas."

[109] The following quotation from an ancient account book is tersely suggestive of the English Christmas:--

s. d.

"Item payd to the preacher vi ii Item payd to the minstrell xii o Item payd to the c.o.ke xv o"

[110] In County Louth, Ireland, boys used to carry about a thorn-bush decked with streamers of coloured paper and with a wren tied to one of the branches.{47}

[111] Dancing is, as everyone knows, a common and indeed a central feature of primitive festivals; and such dancing is wont to take a dramatic form, to be mimetic, whether re-enacting some past event or _pre_-doing something with magical intent to produce it.{10} The Greek tragedy itself probably sprang from a primitive dance of a dramatic and magical character, centred in a death and re-birth.{11}

[112] In Thessaly and Macedonia at Carnival time folk-plays of a somewhat similar character are performed, including a quarrel, a death, and a miraculous restoration to life--evidently originating in magical ritual intended to promote the fertility of vegetation.{12} Parallels can be found in the Carnival customs of other countries.

[113] A remarkably clear instance of the transference of customs from Hollantide Eve (Hallowe'en) to the modern New Year is given by Sir John Rhys. Certain methods of prognostication described by him are practised by some people in the Isle of Man on the one day and by some on the other, and the Roman date is gaining ground.{1}

[114] See p. 252.

[115] "Ope thy purse, and shut it then."

[116] It is probable that some customs practised at the Epiphany belong in reality to Christmas Day, Old Style.

[117] _Pasqua_ is there used for great festivals in general, not only for Easter.

[118] The custom of "burning the bush," still surviving here and there in Herefordshire, shows a certain resemblance to this. The "bush," a globe made of hawthorn, hangs throughout the year in the farmhouse kitchen, with the mistletoe. Early on New Year's Day it "is carried to the earliest sown wheat field, where a large fire is lighted, of straw and bushes, in which it is burnt. While it is burning, a new one is made; in making it, the ends of the branches are scorched in the fire." Burning straw is carried over twelve ridges of the field, and then follow cider-drinking and cheering. (See Leather, "Folk-Lore of Herefordshire," 91 f.)