Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-01-01


St Nicholas day, il is no less true that the Fest
val of the New Year has been despoiled of some of
its honors in another way than by that gradual non
observance which has impaired them all. This Fes-
tiva was once celebrated at the vernal Equinox at
which time the Feast of the Passover Easter, is
now commemorated Hence it came to pass that
when New Years Day was referred, in the order of
time to the Winter Solstce it lost many of the po
puar usages and supersttions which refused to be
put back along with it in the calendar, and have
therefore since remained in association with Easter
until they have become wholly identified with it,
Eggs, which figure so largely in this last named
feast and in the boyish sports connected with 1t,
were once a "peculiar institution of the FSte au
Noacl An though not so jealousy guarded and
maintained, it would seem, as is political nstitu
ton among which rejoces in this epithet If it
be alleged that by thus making the Feast of Eggs"
fortuious and not natural and original concomi-
tant of Faster day. deprive ourselves Of all argu-
ments by which the egg was maintained to be "most
appropriate to this festival as being striking
type of the Resurrection answer in the words OF
French writer of the last century, Count de Gebe-
lin, that as the old New Years Festival, occurring
on the vernal equinox, was designed to commemo-
rate the !" triumph of the physical sun, so also is
Easter instituted in memory of the triumph of
that Sun of Righteousness the Saviour OF the world
who rose superior to DEATH He'll and the Grave:
so that if eggs have ever been deemed sacred and
typical emblem of renovation and of new, mystic
rous fe Gas they certainly were so regarded by the
Egyptians and by subsequent nations it is evident
that they are equally appropriate and significant,
whether applied to the usages of those festivities
which inaugurated the New Year according to the
old Calender, IL being PrvsaSv Of reviving MATURE
and the summers yerdure or to those which COM
memorate that resurrection from the grave, which
is but the pledge and type of that general resurrec
ton from the dead, on which rests the whole truth
of Christianity.
But let US return to our subject from which we
have thus wandered only to reclaim some of its lost
and forgotten attributes. As of Christmas and its
accompanying pagan Feast Of Yule, the +" enormous
Christmas brand" was the central object, SO of the
New Years carouse, the wassail bowl was in oden
time the chief attraction and ornament of the Eve
which ushered in the infant year. The contents Of
this cup were ale nutmeg, sugar, toast and roasted
crabs or apples the whole foaming compound being
also called Familiarity "lambswool." Thus in Her
rick's g Hesperides" we read
Now crown the bowie full
With gentle lambs rooH
Adde sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale DO;
And thus we must doe
To make the wassaie swnger
| New Years Day has been the appointed time for
the presentation OF gifts to friends for aperiod
| far back that I" the memory of man runneth not to
the contrary" This has been by some considered
as a Renaissance of the gifts of Colds and frank
incense and myrrh presented by the wise men of
the East to the Infant Of Days" in the hosiery
of Bethlehem; as the old rubric of the Festivals
phrases it.
Tres reyes Regi regum tria dona ferebant
Myrrham Homini, uncto aurum, thura dedere Dec.
But the quaint old Polydore Verg ascribes to this
custom remoter original. Gevyng Of New Years
Cities" says he, chad its origin there Told Romel
ykewyse, for Suetonius Tranquillus reporteth that
the Knights of Rome gave yearly, on the calendes
of January, present to Augustus Caesar, although
he were absent, whiche custom remayneth in
England
If the Gevying of New Years Cities was to be
truly deemed an importation rom Heathendom, we
need net wonder to find that the sturdy old Puri-
tans set their faces like flint against the superst
tons and Pagan observance. We are further in
formed that four councils of the Catholic church
have positively prohibited the solemnization Of
Nan va--,- ~ NJ aana:-r Or syv-,
\ ears Gifts, under an ,anathema and excommuni.
cation" pronouncng the observation of the Janu.
airy calendes to be "a mere relique Of Pagansme
and idolatry, derived from the heather Romans
feast of twofaced Janus" and therefore practice
Among the entertainments most popular during
the latter part of the middle ages were the socaled
Hystertes-a sort of pantomimic theatricals-a mi
racuous cross between tableaur rivaats and puppet
shows. These "mysteries always represented
some scene in Scripture history, generally accom-
panied, however, with copious infusion Of embel-
lishments with which the fancy Of the time con-
trived to popularize the venerable and the sacred
Thus old father Adam was wont to be exhibited on
the stage as Jack Cade loved to think Of him, dely
| ing with the spade, while our mother Eve was
shown up" in the charming domesticity of spin
nlng lax and washing the faces of Cain and Abel
But on Christmas Eve and New Years Tide the
popular taste was specially INDUCED with these
scrlptural advertisements The scene of the Nativ-
ty was acted Ger again" in some cathedral trans
formed into convenient stable; in the maneer
there lay "wee infant" borrowed for the occa-
sion and by his side the inseparable OK and ass ac
cording to Habakkuk* Some celibate Monk.
from neighboring monastery, or wandering friar
with saw under his arm, personated st. Joseph.
the carpenter, while vestal nun sustained the cha
racter of the-always-virgin Mary, and yearned ma
ternally over the representative babe of Bethlehem
i'ew Years Day, it will be remembered, il the
anniversary of the Saviour's circumcision. which
took place the eighth day after his birth accord
ing to the law Of Moses" We need not add that
this day too had therefore its appropriate and edy
ing mysteries, in which the drdmafis persono were
the "holy child, and his putative parents, Simeon
and Anna the prophecies, with the bearded and
mitred Rabbi appointed to do after the custom of
the law and the doctors disputing in the temple