Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 8

"Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!

Whereon the eternal Lord of all things made, For us, poor mortals, and our endless bliss, Came down from heaven; and, in a manger laid, The first, rich, offerings of our ransom paid: Consider, O my soul, what morn is this!"{46}

Not a few contemporary poets have given us Christmas carols or poems.

Among the freshest and most natural are those of Katharine Tynan, while Mr. Gilbert Chesterton has written some Christmas lyrics full of colour and vitality, and with a true mystical quality. Singing of Christmas, Mr.

Chesterton is at his best; he has instinctive sympathy with the spirit of the festival, its human kindliness, its democracy, its sacramentalism, its exaltation of the child:--

"The thatch of the roof was as golden Though dusty the straw was and old; The wind had a peal as of trumpets, Though blowing and barren and cold. 86

The mother's hair was a glory, Though loosened and torn; For under the eaves in the gloaming A child was born."{47}

Thus opens a fine poem on the Nativity as symbolizing miracle of birth, of childhood with its infinite possibilities, eternal renewal of faith and hope.

87 88 89

CHAPTER IV

CHRISTMAS IN LITURGY AND POPULAR DEVOTION

Advent and Christmas Offices of the Roman Church--The Three Ma.s.ses of Christmas, their Origin and their Celebration in Rome--The Midnight Ma.s.s in Many Lands--Protestant Survivals of the Night Services--Christmas in the Greek Church--The Eastern Epiphany and the Blessing of the Waters--The _Presepio_ or Crib, its Supposed Inst.i.tution by St. Francis--Early Traces of the Crib--The Crib in Germany, Tyrol, &c.--Cradle-rocking in Mediaeval Germany--Christmas Minstrels in Italy and Sicily--The _Presepio_ in Italy--Ceremonies with the _Culla_ and the _Bambino_ in Rome--Christmas in Italian London--The Spanish Christmas--Possible Survivals of the Crib in England.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

THE NATIVITY.

From Add. MS. 32454 in the British Museum

(French, 15th century).]

From a study of Christmas as reflected in lyric poetry, we now pa.s.s to other forms of devotion in which the Church has welcomed the Redeemer at His birth. These are of two kinds--liturgical and popular; and they correspond in a large degree to the successive ways of apprehending the meaning of Christmas which we traced in the foregoing chapters. Strictly liturgical devotions are little understanded of the people: only the clergy can fully join in them; for the ma.s.s of the lay folk they are mysterious rites in an unknown tongue, to be followed with reverence, as far as may be, but remote and little penetrated with humanity. Side by side with these, however, are popular devotions, full of vivid colour, highly anthropomorphic, bringing the mysteries of religion within the reach of the simplest minds, and warm with human feeling. The austere Latin hymns of the earlier centuries belong to liturgy; the vernacular Christmas poetry of later ages is largely a.s.sociated with popular devotion.

90 Liturgiology is a vast and complicated, and except to the few, an unattractive, subject. To attempt here a survey of the liturgies in their relation to Christmas is obviously impossible; we must be content to dwell mainly upon the present-day Roman offices, which, in spite of various revisions, give some idea of the mediaeval services of Latin Christianity, and to cast a few glances at other western rites, and at those of the Greek Church.

Whatever may be his att.i.tude towards Catholicism, or, indeed, Christianity, no one sensitive to the music of words, or the suggestions of poetic imagery, can read the Roman Breviary and Missal without profound admiration for the amazing skill with which the n.o.blest pa.s.sages of Hebrew poetry are chosen and fitted to the expression of Christian devotion, and the gold of psalmists, prophets, and apostles is welded into coronals for the Lord and His saints. The office-books of the Roman Church are, in one aspect, the greatest of anthologies.

Few parts of the Roman Breviary have more beauty than the Advent[35]

offices, where the Church has brought together the majestic imagery of the Hebrew prophets, the fervent exhortation of the apostles, to prepare the minds of the faithful for the coming of the Christ, for the celebration of the Nativity.

Advent begins with a stirring call. If we turn to the opening service of the Christian Year, the First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent, we shall find as the first words in the "Proper of the Season" the trumpet-notes of St. Paul: "Brethren, it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." This, the Little Chapter for the office, is followed by the ancient hymn, "Creator alme siderum,"{1} chanting in awful tones the two comings of 91 Christ, for redemption and for judgment; and then are sung the words that strike the keynote of the Advent services, and are heard again and again.

"_Rorate, coeli, desuper, et nubes pluant Justum_ (Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down the Righteous One).

_Aperiatur terra et germinet Salvatorem_ (Let the earth open, and let her bring forth the Saviour)."

_Rorate, coeli, desuper_--Advent is a time of longing expectancy. It is a season of waiting patiently for the Lord, whose coming in great humility is to be commemorated at Christmas, to whose coming again in His glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead the Christian looks forward with mingled hope and awe. There are four weeks in Advent, and an ancient symbolical explanation interprets these as typifying four comings of the Son of G.o.d: the first in the flesh, the second in the hearts of the faithful through the Holy Spirit, the third at the death of every man, and the fourth at the Judgment Day. The fourth week is never completed (Christmas Eve is regarded as not part of Advent), because the glory bestowed on the saints at the Last Coming will never end.

The great Eucharistic hymn, "Gloria in excelsis," is omitted in Advent, in order, say the symbolists, that on Christmas night, when it was first sung by the angels, it may be chanted with the greater eagerness and devotion. The "Te Deum" at Matins too is left unsaid, because Christ is regarded as not yet come. But "Alleluia" is not omitted, because Advent is only half a time of penitence: there is awe at the thought of the Coming for Judgment, but joy also in the hope of the Incarnation to be celebrated at Christmas, and the glory in store for the faithful.{3}

Looking forward is above all things the note of Advent; the Church seeks to share the mood of the Old Testament saints, and she draws more now than at any other season, perhaps, on the treasures of Hebrew prophecy for her lessons, antiphons, versicles, and responds. Looking for the glory that shall be revealed, she awaits, at this darkest time of the year, the rising 92 of the Sun of Righteousness. _Rorate, coeli, desuper_--the mood comes at times to all idealists, and even those moderns who hope not for a supernatural Redeemer, but for the triumph of social justice on this earth, must be stirred by the poetry of the Advent offices.

It is at Vespers on the seven days before Christmas Eve that the Church's longing finds its n.o.blest expression--in the antiphons known as the "Great O's," sung before and after the "Magnificat," one on each day. "O Sapientia," runs the first, "O Wisdom, which camest out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: come and teach us the way of prudence." "O Adonai,"

"O Root of Jesse," "O Key of David," "O Day-spring, Brightness of Light Everlasting," "O King of the Nations," thus the Church calls to her Lord, "O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations, and their Salvation: come and save us, O Lord our G.o.d."{4}

At last Christmas Eve is here, and at Vespers we feel the nearness of the great Coming. "Lift up your heads: behold your redemption draweth nigh,"

is the antiphon for the last psalm. "To-morrow shall be done away the iniquity of the earth," is the versicle after the Office Hymn. And before and after the "Magnificat" the Church sings: "When the sun shall have risen, ye shall see the King of kings coming forth from the Father, as a bridegroom out of his chamber."

Yet only with the night office of Matins does the glory of the festival begin. There is a special fitness at Christmas in the Church's keeping watch by night, like the shepherds of Bethlehem, and the office is full of the poetry of the season, full of exultant joy. To the "Venite, exultemus Domino" a Christmas note is added by the oft-repeated Invitatory, "Unto us the Christ is born: O come, let us adore Him."

Psalms follow--among them the three retained by the Anglican Church in her Christmas Matins--and lessons from the Old and New Testaments and the homilies of the Fathers, interspersed with Responsories bringing home to the faithful the wonders of the Holy Night. Some are almost dramatic; this, for instance:-- 93

"Whom saw ye, O shepherds? speak; tell us who hath appeared on the earth.

We saw the new-born Child, and angels singing praise unto the Lord.

Speak, what saw ye? and tell us of the birth of Christ.

We saw the new-born Child, and angels singing praise unto the Lord."

It is the wonder of the Incarnation, the marvel of the spotless Birth, the song of the Angels, the coming down from heaven of true peace, the daybreak of redemption and everlasting joy, the glory of the Only-begotten, now beheld by men--the supernatural side, in fact, of the festival, that the Church sets forth in her radiant words; there is little thought of the purely human side, the pathos of Bethlehem.

It was customary at certain places, in mediaeval times, to lay on the altar three veils, and remove one at each nocturn of Christmas Matins.

The first was black, and symbolised the time of darkness before the Mosaic Law; the second white, typifying, it would seem, the faith of those who lived under that Law of partial revelation; the third red, showing the love of Christ's bride, the Church, in the time of grace flowing from the Incarnation.{5}

A stately ceremony took place in England in the Middle Ages at the end of Christmas Matins--the chanting of St. Matthew's genealogy of Christ. The deacon, in his dalmatic, with acolytes carrying tapers, with thurifer and cross-bearer, all in albs and unicles, went in procession to the pulpit or the rood-loft, to sing this portion of the Gospel. If the bishop were present, he it was who chanted it, and a rich candlestick was held to light him.[36] Then followed the chanting of the "Te Deum."{6} The ceremony does not appear in the ordinary Roman books, but it is still performed by the Benedictines, as one may read in the striking account of the monastic Christmas given by Huysmans in "L'Oblat."{7}

94 Where, as in religious communities, the offices of the Church are performed in their full order, there follows on Matins that custom peculiar to Christmas, the celebration of Midnight Ma.s.s. On Christmas morning every priest is permitted to say three Ma.s.ses, which should in strictness be celebrated at midnight, at dawn, and in full daylight. Each has its own Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, each its own Introit, Gradual, and other anthems. In many countries the Midnight Ma.s.s is the distinctive Christmas service, a great and unique event in the year, something which by its strangeness gives to the feast of the Nativity a place by itself.

Few Catholic rites are more impressive than this Midnight Ma.s.s, especially in country places; through the darkness and cold of the winter's night, often for long distances, the faithful journey to worship the Infant Saviour in the splendour of the lighted church. It is a re-enactment of the visit of the shepherds to the cave at Bethlehem, aglow with supernatural light.

Various symbolical explanations of the three Ma.s.ses were given by mediaeval writers. The midnight celebration was supposed to represent mankind's condition before the Law of Moses, when thick darkness covered the earth; the second, at dawn, the time of the Law and the Prophets with its growing light; the third, in full daylight, the Christian era of light and grace. Another interpretation, adopted by St. Thomas Aquinas, is more mystical; the three Ma.s.ses stand for the threefold birth of Christ, the first typifying the dark mystery of the eternal generation of the Son, the second the birth of Christ the morning-star within the hearts of men, the third the bodily birth of the Son of Mary.{8}

At the Christmas Ma.s.ses the "Gloria in excelsis" resounds again. This song of the angels was at first chanted only at Christmas; it was introduced into Rome during the fifth century at Midnight Ma.s.s in imitation of the custom of the Church of Jerusalem.{9}

It is, indeed, from imitation of the services at Jerusalem and Bethlehem that the three Roman Ma.s.ses of Christmas seem to have sprung. From a late fourth-century doc.u.ment known as 95 the "Peregrinatio Silviae," the narrative of a pilgrimage to the holy places of the east by a great lady from southern Gaul, it appears that at the feast of the Epiphany--when the Birth of Christ was commemorated in the Palestinian Church--two successive "stations" were held, one at Bethlehem, the other at Jerusalem. At Bethlehem the station was held at night on the eve of the feast, then a procession was made to the church of the Anastasis or Resurrection--where was the Holy Sepulchre--arriving "about the hour when one man begins to recognise another, _i.e._, near daylight, but before the day has fully broken." There a psalm was sung, prayers were said, and the catechumens and faithful were blessed by the bishop. Later, Ma.s.s was celebrated at the Great Church at Golgotha, and the procession returned to the Anastasis, where another Ma.s.s was said.{10}

At Bethlehem at the present time impressive services are held on the Latin Christmas Day. The Patriarch comes from Jerusalem, with a troop of cavalry and Kava.s.ses in gorgeous array. The office lasts from 10 o'clock on Christmas Eve until long after midnight. "At the reading of the Gospel the clergy and as many of the congregation as can follow leave the church, and proceed by a flight of steps and a tortuous rock-hewn pa.s.sage to the Grotto of the Nativity, an irregular subterranean chamber, long and narrow. They carry with them a waxen image of an infant--the _bambino_--wrap it in swaddling bands and lay it on the site which is said to be that of the manger."{11}

The Midnight Ma.s.s appears to have been introduced into Rome in the first half of the fifth century. It was celebrated by the Pope in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, while the second Ma.s.s was sung by him at Sant'

Anastasia--perhaps because of the resemblance of the name to the Anastasis at Jerusalem--and the third at St. Peter's.{12} On Christmas Eve the Pope held a solemn "station" at Santa Maria Maggiore, and two Vespers were sung, the first very simple, the second, at which the Pope pontificated, with elaborate ceremonial. Before the second Vespers, in the twelfth century, a good meal had to 96 be prepared for the papal household by the Cardinal-Bishop of Albano. After Matins and Midnight Ma.s.s at Santa Maria Maggiore, the Pope went in procession to Sant'

Anastasia for Lauds and the Ma.s.s of the Dawn. The third Ma.s.s, at St.

Peter's, was an event of great solemnity, and at it took place in the year 800 that profoundly significant event, the coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III.--a turning-point in European history.{13}

Later it became the custom for the Pope, instead of proceeding to St.

Peter's, to return to Santa Maria Maggiore for the third Ma.s.s. On his arrival he was given a cane with a lighted candle affixed to it; with this he had to set fire to some tow placed on the capitals of the columns.{14} The ecclesiastical explanation of this strange ceremony was that it symbolised the end of the world by fire, but one may conjecture that some pagan custom lay at its root. Since 1870 the Pope, as "the prisoner of the Vatican," has of course ceased to celebrate at Santa Maria Maggiore or Sant' Anastasia. The Missal, however, still shows a trace of the papal visit to Sant' Anastasia in a commemoration of this saint which comes as a curious parenthesis in the Ma.s.s of the Dawn.

On Christmas Day in the Vatican the Pope blesses a hat and a sword, and these are sent as gifts to some prince. The practice is said to have arisen from the mediaeval custom for the Holy Roman Emperor or some other sovereign to read one of the lessons at Christmas Matins, in the papal chapel, with his sword drawn.{15}

Celebrated in countries as distant from one another, both geographically and in character, as Ireland and Sicily, Poland and South America, the Midnight Ma.s.s naturally varies greatly in its tone and setting. Sometimes it is little more than a fashionable function, sometimes the devotion of those who attend is shown by a tramp over miles of snow through the darkness and the bitter wind.

In some charming memories of the Christmas of her childhood, Madame Th.

Bentzon thus describes the walk to the Midnight Ma.s.s in a French country place about sixty years ago:-- 97