Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 9

"I can see myself as a little girl, bundled up to the tip of my nose in furs and knitted shawls, tiny wooden shoes on my feet, a lantern in my hand, setting out with my parents for the Midnight Ma.s.s of Christmas Eve.... We started off, a number of us, together in a stream of light.... Our lanterns cast great shadows on the white road, crisp with frost. As our little group advanced it saw others on their way, people from the farm and from the mill, who joined us, and once on the Place de l'eglise we found ourselves with all the parishioners in a body. No one spoke--the icy north wind cut short our breath; but the voice of the chimes filled the silence.... We entered, accompanied by a gust of wind that swept into the porch at the same time we did; and the splendours of the altar, studded with lights, green with pine and laurel branches, dazzled us from the threshold."{16}

In devout Tyrol, the scenes on Christmas Eve before the Midnight Ma.s.s are often extremely impressive, particularly in narrow valleys where the houses lie scattered on the mountain slopes. Long before midnight the torches lighting the faithful on their way to Ma.s.s begin to twinkle; downward they move, now hidden in pine-woods and ravines, now reappearing on the open hill-side. More and more lights show themselves and throw ruddy flashes on the snow, until at last, the floor of the valley reached, they vanish, and only the church windows glow through the darkness, while the solemn strains of the organ and chanting break the silence of the night.{17}

Not everywhere has the great Ma.s.s been celebrated amid scenes so still and devotional. In Madrid, says a writer of the early nineteenth century, "the evening of the vigil is scarcely dark when numbers of men, women, and boys are seen traversing the streets with torches, and many of them supplied with tambourines, which they strike loudly as they move along in a kind of Baccha.n.a.l procession. There is a tradition here that the shepherds who visited Bethlehem on the day of the Nativity had instruments of this sort upon which they expressed the sentiment of joy that animated them when they received the intelligence that a Saviour was born." At the Midnight Ma.s.s crowds of people who, perhaps, had been traversing the streets the whole night, came into the church 98 with their tambourines and guitars, and accompanied the organ. The Ma.s.s over, they began to dance in the very body of the church.{18} A later writer speaks of the Midnight Ma.s.s in Madrid as a fashionable function to which many gay young people went in order to meet one another.{19} Such is the character of the service in the Spanish-American cities. In Lima the streets on Christmas Eve are crowded with gaily dressed and noisy folks, many of them masked, and everybody goes to the Ma.s.s.{20} In Paris the elaborate music attracts enormous and often not very serious crowds. In Sicily there is sometimes extraordinary irreverence at the midnight services: people take provisions with them to eat in church, and from time to time go out to an inn for a drink, and between the offices they imitate the singing of birds.{21} We may see in such things the licence of pagan festivals creeping within the very walls of the sanctuary.

In the Rhineland Midnight Ma.s.s has been abolished, because the conviviality of Christmas Eve led to unseemly behaviour at the solemn service, but Ma.s.s is still celebrated very early--at four or five--and great crowds of worshippers attend. It is a stirring thing, this first Ma.s.s of Christmas, in some ancient town, when from the piercing cold, the intense stillness of the early morning, one enters a great church thronged with people, bright with candles, warm with human fellowship, and hears the vast congregation break out into a slow solemn chorale, full of devout joy that

"In Bethlehem geboren Ist uns ein Kindelein."

It is interesting to trace survivals of the nocturnal Christmas offices in Protestant countries. In German "Evangelical" churches, midnight or early morning services were common in the eighteenth century; but they were forbidden in some places because of the riot and drunkenness which accompanied them. The people seem to have regarded them as a part of their Christmas revellings rather than as sacred functions; one writer compares the congregation to a crowd of wild drunken sailors in a 99 tavern, another gives disgusting particulars of disorders in a church where the only sober man was the preacher.{22}

In Sweden the Christmas service is performed very early in the morning, the chancel is lighted up with many candles, and the celebrant is vested in a white chasuble with golden orphreys.{23}

A Midnight Ma.s.s is now celebrated in many Anglican churches, but this is purely a modern revival. The most distinct British _survival_ is to be found in Wales in the early service known as _Plygain_ (dawn), sometimes a celebration of the Communion. At Tenby at four o'clock on Christmas morning it was customary for the young men of the town to escort the rector with lighted torches from his house to the church. Extinguishing their torches in the porch, they went in to the early service, and when it was ended the torches were relighted and the procession returned to the rectory. At St. Peter's Church, Carmarthen, an early service was held, to the light of coloured candles brought by the congregation. At St. Asaph, Caerwys, at 4 or 5 a.m., _Plygain_, consisting of carols sung round the church in procession, was held.{24} The _Plygain_ continued in Welsh churches until about the eighteen-fifties, and, curiously enough, when the Established Church abandoned it, it was celebrated in Nonconformist chapels.{25}

In the Isle of Man on Christmas Eve, or _Oiel Verry_ (Mary's Eve), "a number of persons used to a.s.semble in each parish church and proceed to shout carols or 'Carvals.' There was no unison or concert about the chanting, but a single person would stand up with a lighted candle in his or her hand, and chant in a dismal monotone verse after verse of some old Manx 'Carval,' until the candle was burnt out. Then another person would start up and go through a similar performance. No fresh candles might be lighted after the clock had chimed midnight."{26}

One may conjecture that the common English practice of ringing bells until midnight on Christmas Eve has also some connection with the old-time Midnight Ma.s.s.

For the Greek Church Christmas is a comparatively unimportant festival by the side of the Epiphany, the celebration of 100 Christ's Baptism; the Christmas offices are, however, full of fine poetry. There is far less restraint, far less adherence to the words of Scripture, far greater richness of original composition, in the Greek than in the Roman service-books, and while there is less poignancy there is more amplitude and splendour. Christmas Day, with the Greeks, is a commemoration of the coming of the Magi as well as of the Nativity and the adoration of the shepherds, and the Wise Men are very prominent in the services. The following hymn of St. Anatolius (fifth century), from the First Vespers of the feast, is fairly typical of the character of the Christmas offices:--

"When Jesus Our Lord was born of Her, The Holy Virgin, all the universe Became enlightened.

For as the shepherds watched their flocks, And as the Magi came to pray, And as the Angels sang their hymn Herod was troubled; for G.o.d in flesh appeared, The Saviour of our souls.

Thy kingdom, Christ our G.o.d, the kingdom is Of all the worlds, and Thy dominion O'er every generation bears the sway, Incarnate of the Holy Ghost, Man of the Ever-Virgin Mary, By Thy presence, Christ our G.o.d, Thou hast shined a Light on us.

Light of Light, the Brightness of the Father, Thou hast beamed on every creature.

All that hath breath doth praise Thee, Image of the Father's glory.

Thou who art, and wast before, G.o.d who shinedst from the Maid, Have mercy upon us.

What gift shall we bring to Thee, O Christ, since Thou as Man on earth For us hast shewn Thyself? 101 Since every creature made by Thee Brings to Thee its thanksgiving.

The Angels bring their song, The Heavens bring their star, The Magi bring their gifts, The Shepherds bring their awe, Earth gives a cave, the wilderness a manger, And we the Virgin-Mother bring.

G.o.d before all worlds, have mercy upon us!"{27}

A beautiful rite called the "Peace of G.o.d" is performed in Slavonic churches at the end of the "Liturgy" or Ma.s.s on Christmas morning--the people kiss one another on both cheeks, saying, "Christ is born!" To this the answer is made, "Of a truth He is born!" and the kisses are returned.

This is repeated till everyone has kissed and been kissed by all present.{28}

We must pa.s.s rapidly over the feasts of saints within the Octave of the western Christmas, St. Stephen (December 26), St. John the Evangelist (December 27), the Holy Innocents (December 28), and St. Sylvester (December 31). None of these, except the feast of the Holy Innocents, have any special connection with the Nativity or the Infancy, and the popular customs connected with them will come up for consideration in our Second Part.

The commemoration of the Circ.u.mcision ("when eight days were accomplished for the circ.u.mcising of the child") falls naturally on January 1, the Octave of Christmas. It is not of Roman origin, and was not observed in Rome until it had long been established in the Byzantine and Gallican Churches.{29} In Gaul, as is shown by a decree of the Council of Tours in 567, a solemn fast was held on the Circ.u.mcision and the two days following it, in order to turn away the faithful from the pagan festivities of the Kalends.{30}

The feast of the Epiphany on January 6, as we have seen, is in the eastern Church a commemoration of the Baptism of Christ. In the West it has become primarily the festival of the adoration 102 of the Magi, the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. Still in the Roman offices many traces of the baptismal commemoration remain, and the memory of yet another manifestation of Christ's glory appears in the antiphon at "Magnificat" at the Second Vespers of the feast:--

"We keep holy a day adorned by three wonders: to-day a star led the Magi to the manger; to-day at the marriage water was made wine; to-day for our salvation Christ was pleased to be baptized of John in Jordan. Alleluia."

On the Octave of the Epiphany at Matins the Baptism is the central idea, and the Gospel at Ma.s.s bears on the same subject. In Rome itself even the Blessing of the Waters, the distinctive ceremony of the eastern Epiphany rite, is performed in certain churches according to a Latin ritual.{31} At Sant' Andrea della Valle, Rome, during the Octave of the Epiphany a Solemn Ma.s.s is celebrated every morning in Latin, and afterwards, on each of the days from January 7-13, there follows a Ma.s.s according to one of the eastern rites: Greco-Slav, Armenian, Chaldean, Coptic, Greco-Ruthenian, Greco-Melchite, and Greek.{32} It is a week of great opportunities for the liturgiologist and the lover of strange ceremonial.

The Blessing of the Waters is an important event in all countries where the Greek Church prevails. In Greece the "Great Blessing," as it is called, is performed in various ways according to the locality; sometimes the sea is blessed, sometimes a river or reservoir, sometimes merely water in a church. In seaport towns, where the people depend on the water for their living, the celebration has much pomp and elaborateness. At the Piraeus enormous and enthusiastic crowds gather, and there is a solemn procession of the bishop and clergy to the harbour, where the bishop throws a little wooden cross, held by a long blue ribbon, into the water, withdraws it dripping wet, and sprinkles the bystanders. This is done three times. At Nauplia and other places a curious custom prevails: the archbishop throws a wooden cross into the waters of the harbour, and the fishermen 103 of the place dive in after it and struggle for its possession; he who wins it has the right of visiting all the houses of the town and levying a collection, which often brings in a large sum. In Samos all the women send to the church a vessel full of water to be blessed by the priest; with this water the fields and the trees are sprinkled.{33}

The sense attached to the ceremony by the Church is shown in this prayer:--

"Thou didst sanctify the streams of Jordan by sending from Heaven Thy Holy Spirit, and by breaking the heads of the dragons lurking there.

Therefore, O King, Lover of men, be Thou Thyself present also now by the visitation of Thy Holy Spirit, and sanctify this water. Give also to it the grace of ransom, the blessing of Jordan: make it a fountain of incorruption; a gift of sanctification; a washing away of sins; a warding off of diseases; destruction to demons; repulsion to the hostile powers; filled with angelic strength; that all who take and receive of it may have it for purification of souls and bodies, for healing of sicknesses, for sanctification of houses, and meet for every need."{34}

Though for the Church the immersion of the cross represents the Baptism of Christ, and the blessings springing from that event are supposed to be carried to the people by the sprinkling with the water, it is held by some students that the whole practice is a Christianization of a primitive rain-charm--a piece of sympathetic magic intended to produce rain by imitating the drenching which it gives. An Epiphany song from Imbros connects the blessing of rain with the Baptism of Christ, and another tells how at the river Jordan "a dove came down, white and feathery, and with its wings opened; it sent rain down on the Lord, and again it rained and rained on our Lady, and again it rained and rained on its wings."{35}

The Blessing of the Waters is performed in the Greek church of St.

Sophia, Bayswater, London, on the morning of the Epiphany, which, through the difference between the old and new "styles," falls on our 19th of January. All is done within the church; the water to be blessed is placed on a table under 104 the dome, and is sanctified by the immersion of a small cross; afterwards it is sprinkled on everyone present, and some is taken home by the faithful in little vessels.{36}

In Moscow and St. Petersburg the Blessing is a function of great magnificence, but it is perhaps even more interesting as performed in Russian country places. Whatever may be the orthodox significance of the rite, to the country people it is the chasing away of "forest demons, sprites, and fairies, once the G.o.ds the peasants worshipped, but now dethroned from their high estate," who in the long dark winter nights bewitch and vex the sons of men. A vivid and imaginative account of the ceremony and its meaning to the peasants is given by Mr. F. H. E. Palmer in his "Russian Life in Town and Country." The district in which he witnessed it was one of forests and of lakes frozen in winter. On one of these lakes had been erected "a huge cross, constructed of blocks of ice, that glittered like diamonds in the brilliant winter sunlight.... At length, far away could be heard the sound of human voices, singing a strange, wild melody. Presently there was a movement in the snow among the trees, and waving banners appeared as a procession approached, headed by the pope in his vestments, and surrounded by the village dignitaries, venerable, grey-bearded patriarchs." A wide s.p.a.ce in the procession was left for "a strange and motley band of gnomes and sprites, fairies and wood-nymphs," who, as the peasants believed, had been caught by the holy singing and the sacred sign on the waving banner. The chanting still went on as the crowd formed a circle around the glittering cross, and all looked on with awe while half a dozen peasants with their axes cut a large hole in the ice. "And now the priest's voice is heard, deep and sonorous, as he p.r.o.nounces the words of doom. Alas for the poor sprites!

Into that yawning chasm they must leap, and sink deep, deep below the surface of that ice-cold water."{37}

Following these eastern Epiphany rites we have wandered far from the cycle of ideas generally a.s.sociated with Christmas. We 105 must now pa.s.s to those popular devotions to the Christ Child which, though they form no part of the Church's liturgy, she has permitted and encouraged.

It is in the West that we shall find them; the Latin Church, as we have seen, makes far more of Christmas than the Greek.

Rome is often condemned for using in her liturgy the dead language of Latin, but it must not be forgotten that in every country she offers to the faithful a rich store of devotional literature in their own tongue, and that, supplementary to the liturgical offices, there is much public prayer and praise in the vernacular. Nor, in that which appeals to the eye, does she limit herself to the mysterious symbolism of the sacraments and the ritual which surrounds them; she gives to the people concrete, pictorial images to quicken their faith. How ritual grew in mediaeval times into full-fledged drama we shall see in the next chapter; here let us consider that cult of the Christ Child in which the scene of Bethlehem is represented not by living actors but in plastic art, often most simple and homely.

The use of the "crib" (French _creche_, Italian _presepio_, German _krippe_) at Christmas is now universally diffused in the Roman Church.

Most readers of this book must have seen one of these structures representing the stable at Bethlehem, with the Child in the manger, His mother and St. Joseph, the ox and the a.s.s, and perhaps the shepherds, the three kings, or worshipping angels. They are the delight of children, who through the season of Christmas and Epiphany wander into the open churches at all times of day to gaze wide-eyed on the life-like scene and offer a prayer to their Little Brother. No one with anything of the child-spirit can fail to be touched by the charm of the Christmas crib.

Faults of artistic taste there may often be, but these are wont to be softened down by the flicker of tapers, the glow of ruby lights, amidst the shades of some dim aisle or chapel, and the scene of tender humanity, gently, mysteriously radiant, as though with "bright shoots of everlastingness," is full of religious and poetic suggestions.

The inst.i.tution of the _presepio_ is often ascribed to St. Francis of a.s.sisi, who in the year 1224 celebrated Christmas at Greccio 106 with a Bethlehem scene with a real ox and a.s.s. About fifteen days before the Nativity, according to Thomas of Celano, the blessed Francis sent for a certain n.o.bleman, John by name, and said to him: "If thou wilt that we celebrate the present festival of the Lord at Greccio, make haste to go before and diligently prepare what I tell thee. For I would fain make memorial of that Child who was born in Bethlehem, and in some sort behold with bodily eyes His infant hardships; how He lay in a manger on the hay, with the ox and the a.s.s standing by." The good man prepared all that the Saint had commanded, and at last the day of gladness drew nigh. The brethren were called from many convents; the men and women of the town prepared tapers and torches to illuminate the night. Finding all things ready, Francis beheld and rejoiced: the manger had been prepared, the hay was brought, and the ox and a.s.s were led in. "Thus Simplicity was honoured, Poverty exalted, Humility commended, and of Greccio there was made as it were a new Bethlehem. The night was lit up as the day, and was delightsome to men and beasts.... The woodland rang with voices, the rocks made answer to the jubilant throng." Francis stood before the manger, "overcome with tenderness and filled with wondrous joy"; Ma.s.s was celebrated, and he, in deacon's vestments, chanted the Holy Gospel in an "earnest, sweet, and loud-sounding voice." Then he preached to the people of "the birth of the poor King and the little town of Bethlehem."

"Uttering the word 'Bethlehem' in the manner of a sheep bleating, he filled his mouth with the sound," and in naming the Child Jesus "he would, as it were, lick his lips, relishing with happy palate and swallowing the sweetness of that word." At length, the solemn vigil ended, each one returned with joy to his own place.{38}

It has been suggested by Countess Martinengo{39} that this beautiful ceremony was "the crystallization of haunting memories carried away by St. Francis from the real Bethlehem"; for he visited the east in 1219-20, and the Greccio celebration took place in 1224. St. Francis and his followers may well have helped greatly to popularize the use of the _presepio_, but it can be 107 traced back far earlier than their time. In the liturgical drama known as the "Officium Pastorum," which probably took shape in the eleventh century, we find a _praesepe_ behind the altar as the centre of the action{40}; but long before this something of the kind seems to have been in existence in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome--at one time called "Beata Maria ad praesepe." Here Pope Gregory III. (731-41) placed "a golden image of the Mother of G.o.d embracing G.o.d our Saviour, in various gems."{41} According to Usener's views this church was founded by Pope Liberius (352-66), and was intended to provide a special home for the new festival of Christmas introduced by him, while an important part of the early Christmas ritual there was the celebration of Ma.s.s over a "manger" in which the consecrated Host was laid, as once the body of the Holy Child in the crib at Bethlehem.{42} Further, an eastern homily of the late fourth century suggests that the preacher had before his eyes a representation of the Nativity. Such material representations, Usener conjectures, may have arisen from the devotions of the faithful at the supposed actual birthplace at Bethlehem, which would naturally be adorned with the sacred figures of the Holy Night.{43}

In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the crib can be traced at Milan, Parma, and Modena, and an Italian example carved in 1478 still exists.{44} The Bavarian National Museum at Munich has a fine collection of cribs of various periods and from various lands--Germany, Tyrol, Italy, and Sicily--showing what elaborate care has been bestowed upon the preparation of these models. Among them is a great erection made at Botzen in the first half of the nineteenth century, and large enough to fill a fair-sized room. It represents the central square of a town, with imposing buildings, including a great cathedral not unlike our St.

Paul's. Figures of various sizes were provided to suit the perspective, and the crib itself was probably set up in the porch of the church, while processions of puppets were arranged on the wide open square. Another, made in Munich, shows the adoration of the shepherds in a sort of ruined castle, while others, from Naples, lay the scene among remains of cla.s.sical temples. One Tyrolese crib has a wide landscape background with a 108 village and mountains typical of the country. The figures are often numerous, and, as their makers generally dressed them in the costume of their contemporaries, are sometimes exceedingly quaint. An angel with a wasp-waist, in a powdered wig, a hat trimmed with big feathers, and a red velvet dress with heavy gold embroidery, seems comic to us moderns, yet this is how the Ursuline nuns of Innsbruck conceived the heavenly messenger. Many of the cribs and figures, however, are of fine artistic quality, especially those from Naples and Sicily, and to the student of costume the various types of dress are of great interest.{45}

The use of the Christmas crib is by no means confined to churches; it is common in the home in many Catholic regions, and in at least one Protestant district, the Saxon Erzgebirge.{46} In Germany the _krippe_ is often combined with the Christmas-tree; at Treves, for instance, the present writer saw a magnificent tree covered with glittering lights and ornaments, and underneath it the cave of the Nativity with little figures of the holy persons. Thus have pagan and Christian symbols met together.

There grew up in Germany, about the fourteenth century, the extremely popular Christmas custom of "cradle-rocking," a response to the people's need of a life-like and homely presentation of Christianity. By the _Kindelwiegen_ the lay-folk were brought into most intimate touch with the Christ Child; the crib became a cradle (_wiege_) that could be rocked, and the worshippers were thus able to express in physical action their devotion to the new-born Babe. The cradle-rocking seems to have been done at first by priests, who impersonated the Virgin and St.

Joseph, and sang over the Child a duet:--

"Joseph, lieber neve min, Hilf mir wiegen daz kindelin.

Gerne, liebe muome min, Hilf ich dir wiegen din kindelin."[37]

[Ill.u.s.tration:

A NEAPOLITAN "PRESEPIO."