OCR Text |
Show liDrrsfifiOttft 0f N ANY attempt to trace a..A..4ltli-kn- . a. to amis . BVO .EDV4RDr0STERi "" of the innumerable tnyths nl mlth lha otafl ftflli f Aft tivala of the calendar, the student is confronted with two prob-- I lews: The strong probability of their having been primarily of I II I (I k... .mo. iuibuciud, mm 4t nffifd nfuuuJ iuub iciitiuua eiuiui;am;v, cults long forgotten, and the possibility of their having become X X garbled or altered In being handed down through the centuries. Pausanlaa 17 hundred years ago evidently realized this difficulty to the full when he wrote In bis "Description of Greece:" "As to these fables of the Greeks I considered them childish when I began this work, but when I get as far as this book I formed this view: That those who were reckoned wise among the Greeks spoke of old in rid-- , dies and not directly, so I Imagine the fables about Chronos to be Greek of the traditions therefore about the gods I shall state such as I meet . with." Plutarch also warned us against approaching these studies In the spirit of skepticism and does not leave us in the dark as to his attitude of steering a middle path between absolute unbelief and blind trust. "In regard to legendary lore," he says, "I stand in the position of one who neither altogether believes nor altogether disbelieves. There are Indeed some slender and obscure particles of truth scattered about in the mythology of the I I X 1 the origin mam n Stj J t V. '; -- 'Tf ....tkni j wis-doi- - U rl' ,rU I - ' Nfc ; ' I " rfyI.. I ?! M ,fM t T' I" h-vI V subject when he says In his "Fivf I Points of Husbandry:" I Yer Chrtalmu ba paed, let hore. be I let blood; For manle a purpose it dooth them . V? Vi xVL J -- -- l r r1 J "ii 5 5? i ! much good; The day of 8t Steeven old fathers did use; It that do mlellke thee, some other da: chuae. for reason The commonsense waa this on horses day the bleeding ' - " 1 ", T M V 'A C N!i I :, VI .... ' I V,V: ;:., that both man and beast had the three day following Christmas day as a holiday. In parts of Bohemia and elsewhere among the Slavic peo-- ; WW plea of Europe the master of the house gets no work out of his servTJrt oirctuwu from Christmas to Innocents' ants The Lord of rr- -r i Egyptians, but they require a clever man to hunt them in many sections the holl and day, out, a man capable of getting great results from small Misrule had of work and suspension general day In -?fcY data." r.,.:,i;i.;.vT., V is kept up until Twelfth day Epiboth the greats At the period when these two authors wrote, all learnphany. Among the Valaks there Is unlver-titleing and science were confined to a very narrow circle of English a very significant custom. On the from initiates. The common folks were kept in strict ignoof St. Stephen's day the morning the mysrance of the true meaning of their festivals; Christmas to of the house presents her mistress teries were a hidden book as to their true significance, Twelfth day. He husband with a pair of trousers in TPANCn jeTJfJ TO FJTiD TjfJT the and only the outward and visible sign of the celebrations regulated token of her obedience during the or wheat nomx came within their ken. How far the secrets were kept celebrations and tjjs ensuing year. Evidently the sufwhich with directed combination a these initiates compared by fragette campaign has not reached our steel and sugar trusts sink into mere Insignificance plays acted at into these remote Slavic regions. cases in many is too well known to every student Thus , this period, for Holy Innocents' It Is Impossible to trace definitely the actual basis of which he re' WITH A PAW OJ TfiQViM or Chllder- - been marked by unpleasant features. On the eve of New ' day, customs and and celved a ancient these any attempts, per myths regular sacre oTthe Year, 1&12, the hoodlums of Edinburgh took advantage of mas the commemorates n.as (December 28). force, must necessarily remain much in the nature of a stipend, but from the records of his rule that have been the festival to rob unsuspecting citizens. Two ot the This In Itself Is Herod under here there from and A seem would us handed to himself in children down he Bethlehem, rather It that scrap gathered patchwork quilt citizens died from the effects ot the maltreatment at the church the by recognition Us but early work the the was sadly in need of being regulated and disciplined. sufficient to explain the ancient writings helps to up quilt, hands of these rowdies, of whura three were executed aa a dies Each city had Its similar functionary, and his jurisdiction The superstition that the day Is an unlucky one ''i.lmate stage baa a somewhat crazy appearance. an example. This unfortunate Incident threatened to put but over all Europe, spread not widely was not to he had festive the nefastus"only limited -ls this regu' season; It ta all the more exasperating, because many of these an end to the celebrations. IeaWy hundreds wrlurs. such as Herodotus. Plutarch and others lation of all the festivals of the year The reign of the is deeply rooted and can be traced back many With the Scots, the eve of New Year Is known particuof years. aave stopped short in their screeds Just when a few ex- Lord of Misrule may be said to have ended when Cromas "Hogmanay." Throughout the northeastern larly middle the all "crop-eared" well took of was and his Puritans through the tra words would have eased the knots that now prevent strong charge The superstition counties of England It Is known as "Hagmena," but la was thought us from unraveling the skein. They were initiates and government and while there was some attempt to revive ages. In England, in the fifteenth century. It many districts of the latter It Is the entire week precethus sworn to silence Their oaths, however, .did not pre- bis lordship after the restoration of Charles II., the bones so Inauspicious that the day set for the coronation of Edding the New Yenr, rather than the last day of the year. vent them whetting our curiosity and leaving us In a po-- ' had become too dried and the flesh shriveled up he was ward IV. (Sunday), happening to be Chlldemas, the cereThere have been many attempts by philologists to get at sltion where, as Plutarch cynically remarks, it would in-- . a mere mummy of his former self. In Scotland the Abmony was postponed until the following day. In the the derivation of the term, and it has even been suggestcarried is 1555 was much of Unreason the bot earlier this at deed be a clever task to get "great results from small superstition suppressed by County of Suffolk day ed that it is a coriuption of two Greek words, signifying the legislature, but whether such strong action was due . data." even further, and on whatever day of th.i week Chllde"the holy moon or month." Opinion, however, leans toto be held Is scenes of to unbridled or to the unlucky the Puritanism to that fall, mas day spread may happen Athenaeua, another of the old Greek gosslpers, in ward Its French origin "Au gul menez" (bring In tha new of commencement a of Under disorder is any the The Henry VIII., (1540) question. throughout the year. speaking of the policy of the Romans in adopting the cusand "Au'gul I'an neuf (to the mistletoe the mistletoe), toms of peoples whom they had conquered says: "For it procession of children on Childermas, or Innocents day, task is thought to be certain to be followed by failure. New Year), both In allusion to the ceremonial gathering in in the belief was forbidden There of this by Instance an are, England proclamation. Spectator Addison gives Is the conduct of prudent men to abide by those ancient of the plant by the Druids. In almost every district la institutions under which they and their ancestors have however, still a few traces of the Lord of Misrule. The of March 1, 171011. "'Thursday enys she, 'No, child, France we find the term In a jnore or less corrupted or on Childermas 26 December Christmas not shall God! open You upon English pantomimes begin If it please rived, and made war upon and subdued the rest of the dialectal form. The Scottish custom of the children gosoon will as now much be become estabhave and an of master Doxlng that Friday day day. Tell your writing world; and yet at the same time, if there were any use-- , ing from house to house singing a short verse and beglished institution as ever the Lord of Misrule was in his enouRh.' " ful or honorable Institutions among the peoples whom ging the "guld wile" for a small present Is Identically the Of recent the institution has x found years days. palmiest of reminder as of4 Tho custom whipping the children they have subdued, those they take for their imitation at favor on this side of the Atlantic. The same as that known all over France. on masquerading the same time as they tak their prisoners. And this was the event commemorated by Childermas was common In Get ' '' up. guld wife, and shake yere feathers, his the streets the of of Misrule and followers has Iord ts still of in there olden of Itomans maintb some conduct and the Normandy time; for they, France, parts An' we dinna are think bPKRars. that ';') r been merely transferred to the tvards of the theater. In a remnant Kor we're balm come oot the day, existing among the country folks, but the retaining their national customs, at the same time Intro1 8o rise oor method ThU and lost. duced from the nations whom they had subdued every many parts of Frtince masquerading by children is still been Hogmanay. has partly ligious significance in the three and vogue Christmas, during following days scorof desirable chants urchin which Scotch luckless and th the little the analogue of 'relic kiddie, by of assisting the memory of the practices they found." This, in a measure, was the policy of the early fathers in adapt- in most countries something analogous is to be found. ing his epidermis was formerly In vogue on other occadoggerel can be found In every village of France. As the the Sometimes feature is kept up until Twelfth day, sions than Holy Innocents' day. In England It was for Scottish verselet shows, the "hogmanay" applies to the ing heathen feasts and sacrifices to the festivals of the church. With them, however, it was rather a case of while in some sections the fun does not commence until merly a common practice during the riding of the bounpresents to the children, and has not the custom of givYear's day. centuries? Ovid, daries of parishes and manors on Ascension day to whip ing presents at this season ep&ilid-Jo- r adaptation than of adoption, believing that the new or- - New These first three days have been specially consecrated in his Fasti, alludes to the custom among the Romans ot der of things would come easier to the converts to the the youngsters at every important or disputed point his day. Then the presents do not seem to have Been Christian religion if the changes were not . made too to the memory of saints and martyrs St. Stephen on the This "Christening in the days of his youth," was remem2Cth, St. John the Evangelist on the 27th, and holy innobered ever afterward, and tho particular stone, cairn or at all costly and were more symbolical than otherwise. sweeping nor too harsh. Thus it is that so many of the The palm-datiiifltoms connected with our festivals have come down to cents or Chlldermns on the 28th. nnd dried fig with the Jar of hon,ey nnd streamlet marking the metes and bounds between adjoinThe fact that the day next after Christmas was dedimatho small coin were the gifts, and It does not need any on his was thus gray jb from time long prior to the birth of Ihe Saviour. mapped Indelibly to St. Stephen, the protomartyr, shows with what ing parishes cated great stretch of Imagination to guess their symbolic Unlike the many customs connected with the celebrattera proceeding quite ns efficacious as a survey. veneration he was held by the early church. On this day, are still given meaning. The cakes, fruit and tion of Christmas, those of the beginning of the New in many parts of Ireland, and in the Isle of Man, it Is Although the festivities connected more closely with the children they are their "hogmanay." Year seems to bear more of the stamp of paganism. At overhave Christmas celebration of tho completely day still the custom of boys to hunt the wren. The origin the same time such customs show a rather close resemThe superstition that the first person entering the shadowed those of tho New Year, still there are not a of this curious but cruel custom Is hidden In the mist in measure a due to tbo both fact that can blance, large house on New Year's morning, or the first one met durfew coiners In Christendom wherein the latter season of ages and thus offers another difficulty of "getting great be traced to the celebrations round the ancient festival of results from small Is held in much greater repute. In Scotland, In particuing the day, presages good or bad luck during the ensudata." One legend current in Ireland, the Saturnalia and winter solstice, when the old year and told eve of the Is It tho the year, ing year Is almost universal. The first to cross the holiday anjLxin Is lar, to great on oceffect one the that Wilde, Lady by went out and the new came in; a period of general rehimself threshold or "first foot" has thus a peculiar significance out New Scot the Year lets of and the canny when day were the Irish troops casion, approaching to atjoicing, and it must be admitted of a great degree of row- - tack a partlon of Cromwell's and many are the precautions taken that he be of the with a vim. It wou'4 seem as if his spirits, pent up for wrens the came and army, dylsm, noise and license which all the fulmlnatlons of perched on the Irish drums, and season. find vent a at this whole twelvemonth, lucky variety. We mention "he" for except In a very few patlcular their by tapping and church councils In the Middle Ages and city ordinances ' Isolated instances tho noise aroused the English soldiers, who fell on the Irish superstition that should a woman Roman! custom and have law In France, Impressed and orders of chiefs of police in these later days have "first-foot- " the be will follow Is almost universal. soldiers and killed them all. This tale Is a close analogue EuIn more elsewhere themselves perhaps strongly than been unable to suppress. The youngster of with Moreover, he must be a dark man a red beaded man is to that in which the cackling of geese Is said to have and close not even pothe itself, Italy excepting rope, Is In his horn just as prominent creating a racket as was anathema. A splay-footea pigeon-toed- , squint-eyesaved Rome from capture, which even the staid Roman or litical friendship which existed between Scotland and his prototype of a couple of thousand years ago. ' . an Individual whose in eyebrows closely historian, Livy, seems to treat with a show of belief. The approximate, France previous to tho ascension of James VI. to the fact any bodily or mental deformation carries bad luck Of late years this period of tiolse has been largely recustom, however, dates back much further than Cromthrone still finds expression In the country to the north with It. Yet even here we find a few exception which well and his Ironsides. Ip County Leitrlm the dead birds stricted to the eves of Christmas and New Year, but forof the Tweed in a much stronger fashion than la genertend to disturb our belief In the Infallibility of the rather from hotiRe are carried to 'Christmas a the house tied to or was bunch one period closely following polo merly day ally believed. Many of the lowland terms of today are rule. In the toidwell District of Northumberland of furae, covered with ribbons, etc., the boys chanting: a of continuous Jollification. Mummers perambulated the In Is It more Scottish a French guise. merely perhnps and Splay-footeIndividual Is preferred. la strees of the towns ahd villages, and the Lord of Misrule, The wren, tho wrn, th king of all birds, to this close political entente than to the spread of the the Abbot of Unreason or the Abbas Stultorura held On BU Stephen's Day he w.u ouuifht In the furse; Puritan doctrines doctrines which held everything In parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire a blonde "first foot" Is reckoned quite lucky, while In the Maritime Alpine disAHhoiiKl) lie It llttlo liln fnmlly I grtmt. sway. The "Fete of Fools" was celebrated on the three Bo nboinlnatton, that smacked In the slightest degree of rlno up mlnlri'Hi ami kIvs u a treat. tricts a hump-bnekevisitor on New Year's day Is held on Innocents Chrlstmos, days following culminating church festivals that so many of the customs and superHoly, The mistress has to turn in a few pence to the boys, stitions now current among tho canny Scots so closely' to bring In great luck with him. In Scotland the prejuday in a general Jamboree, in which not even the dice against a red hatred "first foot" Is very strong and the "Jackpot" thus created being opened by the boys at resemble those of France. Christmas at one time was churches were spared. Young people dressed themselves In the Isle of Man nnd all through Ireland It is quite aa the as end of tho even the of the the great dignitaries day." church, and up almost as much of a festival In Scotland as to the south In the Isle of Mun the boys give a feather of the wren very offices seem to have been parHdled and dances held of the border, and It seems that in the cities, at least. It pronounced. In the churches. The second canon of the Council ol Cogto each good wife who contributes the necessary coin, But among the rank is again showing recrudescence. The superstition of being attached to red hair and It can well be Imagined that by the end of the day nac, held In 12C0, put under pain of excommunication all Is very ancient. Among the ancient Egyptians and Jewnnd file of the people, with the "Man In the Street," It is such as masqueraded as bishops, etc. At the councils tho arpearanco of the bird Is somewhat dilapidated. It Is the New Year that holds his heart nnd nt the tame time ish people It was known. Typhon Is said to have bad held nt Nantes in 1431, and at Hourgos in 1438, fulmlnathen burled on the sea shore with certain mock cere-- , disturbs his digestion and addles his brain. Any one this particular color to hU "thatch," and men tlons were hurled against the "Fete or Fools," while as monies. Id former years tho Interment was mode in the who has been in the "Canny Toun o' Edinbro" or Glaswere obused at certain festivals, as Plutarch tells us In early as 1313 the' celebration was abolished by the council his "Moralla." Cnln nnd Judas Iscarlot are both said to churchyard. gow on a New Year's eve realizes the spirit of good will held at Tarls. Yet the custom of masquerading on the It was and la still the custom in many parts of England have had tho crimson topknot, while a that reigns even if his ears be split by the pandemonium legto bleed tho horses on St. Stephen's day. The efficacy of of nolso and bis eyes suffer by the reek of the torches, days following Christmas Is not yet extinct in ninny disend current among the Jews says that this peculiar tint tricts of Franco and elsewhere, but the celebration has this trentment on this particular day, os a preventive of and it Is rarely that the Scot In nil his Jollification at was the effect of falling down and worshiping the golden been shorn of much of Its plcturesqueness all equine ailments, was thought to be undoubted, but this period conatrues liberty ns license. The custom of calf. In Norso nnd Gaelic li gend we find that the hero and at the even old Tusser ser ms to have had bis doubts on the welcoming lh tho New Year ban, however, on occasions, seine time of Its extreme license. is warned against a "ginger-headedIndividual. . mm , - wVV s"l v 7 vji;.i.' s rmcs the Z ' r . i to-da-y . luck-penn- y te ' k .... to-da- y ' . i 7!' light-haire- d -- . d sjh k red-haire- well-know- n " |