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Show : ra i By ELMO SCOTT WATSON r--"-iffla IKE many of our other ) t holidays the celebration of B New, Year's day has un-'CTranJl un-'CTranJl (ierKne many changes I' jrTrM t,lrou'n tne Passing years. Of course, .the custom of 3 ffirvl no'dinS "watch parties" !'i)liW2 81 wnicn farewells are I ? JJ "9 said, to the old year and 3 xxi 1 tlle new year is welcomed ' 'VlX' fi In still survives and in al-inssii'LiiBBSiil al-inssii'LiiBBSiil most any city or town in the land you are pretty nure to hear whistles being blown and hells rung immediately after the stroke of 12 on the night of December SI. In the large cities cafes, restaurants, restau-rants, hotels and night clubs are still the centers of New Year's eve celebrations, cele-brations, and great crowds of merrymakers merry-makers still throng the streets, although al-though the Eighteenth amendment has curbed some of the hilarity which used to characterize the celebrations. But most of the old customs, associated wiih New Year's day itself, have almost al-most passed out of existence. Among them Is the ceremony of "paying New Year's calls." About the only relic of this ancient rite in this country is the annual reception at the White House, where thousands stand in line, no matter mat-ter what the weather may be, in order tu get a chance to shake the hands of the President and the First Lady of ihe Land. In considering the various ways in which the custom of welcoming the new year lias been observed through the centuries, it Is Interesting to note that New Year's day was not always celebrated on January 1. The peoples of the ancient world, the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Persians, and those of the Far East celebrated the com- iiicncement of the year either in the fall, when harvests were In for the season, or in the spring, when new life was pushing upward In every blade of grass and every budding almond tree. Even among medieval Christians, the lii. st day of the year generally corresponded corre-sponded with the spring equinox. March 21. It was Julius Caesar in the Roman empire who decided that January 1 should be the opening show of the IK w year; and in England, William llu Conqueror picked out the same day hecause it happened to coincide with the date of his coronation. England Eng-land returned to March 25 for a few centuries. It was in 1582, at the adopt Ion of the Gregorian calendar, that January 1 became the accepted New Year's day of all Catholic coun tries. Germany, Denmark and Sweden Swed-en followed suit In 1700, England in 7." 1. Julius Caesar having made January 1 a general holiday, the populace went Into the thing In true Latin fashion. They made sacrifices to Janus, two-faced two-faced god of the new year, looking backward and Into t lie future; they paid visits, they feasted, masqueraded, and gave gifts. Magistrates entering nllire were given congratulatory pres t'cls; and the emperor himself graciously permitted each of his sub ji'ils t make him a present of n pound of gold. These quasi-presenls v ere known as "Sirenae," a term which gradually included all New Year's gifls and Is reflected In France 'I today, whore Now Year's is known as "le Jour d'etrenncs." The origin of the term Is connected with the legendary King Tatius, to whom Washington crowds will brave ice and snow for the White House reception. recep-tion. Above is shown a part of. the long line waiting to shake hands with President and Mrs. Coolidge at the annual New Year's reception in the Executive Mansion. S, branches of vervain gathered in the sacred Grove of Strenut, the goddess of strength, were presented on the first day of the year 747 B. C. As far back as the era of the Druids, New Year's gifts were made in England. Just at midnight on New Year's eve, the priests of the ancient forest cult stole into the heart of the enchanted grove.' and cut sprigs of sacred mistletoe with their silver knives, glittering along their mystic curves in the moonlight. These sprigs, sent out the next day, brought luck for the year to those so fortunate as to possess them. The Saxons celebrated so gloriously and so drunkenly that they even reckoned reck-oned age by the number of 'Tolas" or merry-making wassail-bouts in which they had participated. It was in Queen Elizabeth's time that the giving of New Year's presents pres-ents reached a height of burdensome-ness burdensome-ness not even surpassed by the present pres-ent endless chain of Christmas gifts. From the loftiest peer in the realm down to the lowliest servant, Good Queen Bess expected a present in proportion pro-portion to the giver's means. One chronicler says that her wardrobe and jewels were principally supported by her New Year's gifts. There were looking glasses, caskets, silk stockings, jewels, money. Bishop Hall's "Satires," published In 151)8, tell how every tenant at the dawn of the New Year presented his lord with a fat capon ; and Ben Jon son, in his "Christmas Masque" Intro duces among his cast of characters "New Year's gift in a blue coat, serv Ing man like, with an orange and a sprig of rosemary on his head." Oranges or nutmeg, gilded and decorated dec-orated apples, were frequent gifts in terchanged among the poorer people ; and ladies of fashion delighted in pins, invented about the Sixteenth century to take the place of the clumsy wood en skewers used before to fasten up the kirtles and hold down their stomachers. stom-achers. Here we have the origin of our own "pin money" a gift of money given in place of pins. Gloves were another fashionable gift, and so were books, of a sort in 1G04, Prince Henry, then ten years old, sent his father, James I, a short poem. The precocious princeling wrote it in hexameter Latin verse. Over England and Scotland, In the villages of the plains and the highlands, high-lands, superstitious dating back. to the days when the beacon-fires, of the Druids lighted the death of the old year, still exists, according to students' of folk-customs. It Is considered un lucky to wear old clothes on the New Year; had luck falls on a house H any. me g'es out before some one has-entered. has-entered. If the first comer "tiist foot," as they call it collnquhilly be a man. gooj luck will bless the house: if a woman or a fair-haired nam. th" luck is evil. So widespread is this he lief that in main villages the dark haired men of the community make it a regular business to go from lions, to house to "take the New Year in.' In Herefordshire, at midnight, tie girls rush to the spring. The one who .gets the first drink, or the "cream of the well," is sure of a handsome husband. hus-band. Unlucky, too, Is the good woman who gives away a light on New Year's day ; where a brand goes out, the evil fays come in. The most tenderhearted tender-hearted woman will see her neighbors shiver in a tireless house rather than give away a light on the New Year. In Nottinghamshire, a superstition exists which might have had its origin in practical economy. It is unlucky to take anything out of the house untl1 something had been brought in. Take out, then in, Bad luck will begin; Take in, then out, Good luck comes in runs the rhyme in Brands' "Antiquity," While funeral services over "Old Tom," the old year, are being held hilariously in inns and taverns, troups of boys go about beneath lighted windows win-dows singing: 1 wish you a Merry Christmas And a happy New Year, A pocket full of money, And a cellar full of beer. And a good fat pig To serve you all the year. Ladies and gentlemen Sate by the fire, Pity we poor boys Out in the mire. Of course, the singers are asked to coree In and drink the householders' health in ale and stout. It is in Scotland that the custom of interchanging purely platonic kisses has nourished. In the memoirs of Lord Langdaie by Sir T. D. Hardy, it is recounted how just at 12 o'clock, wherever you may happen to be, you proceed to kiss the nearest girl by way of a New Year greeting. After a few quarts of spiced, warm ale, it doesn't always stop with the first, the writer declares. In Scotland, no work was done on New Year's as late as 1004 no posters or cabs were at the Waverly station In Edinburgh, and a visiting noble lord had to wend his way to his hotel in a milk cart. Christopher Columbus, so far as Is known, was the first white man to celebrate New Year's day in the Western hemisphere. While his ships were undergoing repairs on January 1. 1403, he enjoyed a sumptuous dinner with two savage mnnarehs on the Island of Haiti. After this meal, his tory says, the discoverer of America had his first smoke of tobacco. The Pilgrim Fathers and the first families of the older states of the Union enjoyed a quiet holiday as each year came around. They feasted, but not until they had attended religious services. In the Nineteenth century j people with big houses and flowing j sideboard, held open house on New Year's day. and from all over friends j caaie afoot, on bicycles and in surreys and stanhopes to pay short visits' and sample the contents of (vine cellars I Then they went off to call on other j friends. This custom began to p; ss out quietU with the dawn of the Tuenlieth century, automobiles and cabarets It was succeeded by "nothing "noth-ing but wine" habits amid the ihoti sands who frequented cafes and grill rooms in ne cities on New Year's eve. |