Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-12-23
NO. SO.
CHRISTMAS COMES BUT ONCE A
YEAR.

CHRIsFMAs COMES BUT ONCE A
YEAR.
1t was Saxon King ALFRED that COM
imanded Christmas to be kept for twelve
days, beginning with Christmas Eve,
and ending with Twelfth Night. Our
sturdy ancestors, in days before good,
hearty living and merry, athletic sports
were supplanted by what are equivocal-
" called the rehnements Of modern civ
iiization, knew how to keep the Christ
mas holidays right royalty. Instead Of
a feeble celebration, confined to the two
days of Christmas and New Years, they
spent the better part Of two weeks in
plays, festivities, outdoor sports and in
door froliclzing and iunketing, such as
warmed the blood Of the old and filed
the young with delight.
Some of the accounts Of Christmas
entertainment which came down to us
read ike a chapter out of the Arabian
Nights, or a description of the banquets
which attended the famous Camancho's s
wedding, in Don Ouixote In 5o8 the
Duke of Buckingham had not less than
four hundred and ffty-nine guests to
dinner, whom he regaled with three oxen,
roasted whole, seven boar pigs, a hun
dred fat capons, three swans, two pea
| cocks, two gallons of furruity, and TWEEN
ty huge dishes Of roasted apples. These
were smoothly washed down with vine
of Malvoisy, and two hundred and fifty
nine hagons of ale. The music of two
minstrels and six trumpets enlivened the
dinner. Swans used to be standard
dishes at great houses on Christmas day.
CHAUCER's monk was no doubt, a
good Judge for we read
"a fat swan loved 10 best Of any roast.D
AS early as the third century the Brit
ons had their wassail bowl, or lambs
wool, and this was always compc Inded
of good brown ale, sugar, toast, apples
and roasted crabs, the latter swimming
and Kissing in the bowl. To this nut
megs and other spices were sometimes
added. The famous Christmas beverage
known as "egg-nog" is the besE modern
substitute for this drink that we know Of
In the days of Charles the First, be
fore puritanic severity had yet driven out
the jolly Christmas holidays as abomi-
nations improper for the saints, there
was much parade of festivity. A splen-
did entertainment at Sheriff Evelyn s, at
Wotton, in Sussex, in I67s Brought to-
gether the whole couuir r8und. The
hall of the mansion was thrown wide
open, and many gifts were made to as
sist in provisioning the guests, among
which were two sides Of venison, three
pigs, nine capons, five geese, six tur-
keys, four rabbits, eight partridges, II
pullets, six sugar-loaVes, three pockets
of apples, five buckets of eggs, and two
baskets of pears.
A writer who describes the home life
of England at about the middle of the
seventeenth century, gives us the assur-
ance that
''This great festival was in former times
kept with so much freedom and opennesB
of heart that every one in the country
where q gentleman resided, possessed at
least day Of pleasure in the Christmas
holidays the tables were all spread, from
the first to the last, with the sirloyns OF
beef, the mined pies, the plumb-porrtdget
the eapons, turkeys, geese and the plumb
puddings, were all brought upon the board;
and all those who had sharp stomaches
and sharp knives, eat heartily and wear
welcome, which gave rise to the proVerD
Merry IN the hall, 2OheTe boards tO0c atts' I"
Turkeys and capons were customary
Christmas presents in the last two centu-
ries as they are now. The turkey that
royal bird, emblematic of good cheer.
was not introduced into England until
the sixteenth century. The goose was
many centuries earlier, and presided at
festive boards even in the time Of the
Roman Empire. Turkeys are now
brought into London from Norfolk in
prodigious numbers at Christmas time,
some Individual BIRDS weighing as much
as quarter of a hundred. Well stuffed
with thyme or other sweet herbs, with
iellies and with cranberry sauce as ac-
compartments, there is not such anoth-
er delicacy in the whole range of culi-
nary art as your roast turkey.
In the good old times the MonarChs
of England used to make the Christmas
merry with stage plays, specially writ
ten or commanded for the occasion.
Thus, at the court of James the First we
find sumptuous provision made for bring
ing out a comedy called Measure for
Measure, and the "Plaie of Errors,
by "Shaxberd "a new spelling of the
name of our glorious dramatist. Some
of Ben Jonson's fine works and comedies
were composed for Christmas festivities,
and players, "tumblers' and clowns re-
ceived royal gratuities for amusing the
court during the holidays of winter.
It is pleasant to read how the nobility
and gentry of those days overfiowed
with hospitality for all the neighborhOod.
Though many were allured to town by
the superior festivities of the metropolis,
many more remained in the country, to
fulfill the ancient injunction
"At Christmas be merry, and thank God Of
And feast thy, poor neighbors. the great with
the smallS
We will close with little story of wo-
mans rights in the olden time:
u. r.rr oz, ,rvpr,,y -rrprs-r,r u, q q, pporr
SUNG BY WOMEN.
There was sometime an old Knight, who
being disposed to make himselfe merry in a
Christmas time, sent for many of his ten
ants, and poore neighbors, with their wives,
sent on the table, would suffer no man to
drinke, till he that was master ouer his
wife should sing carroll, to excuse all the
company, Great nicenesse there was, who
should bee the musician, now the cuckoo
time was so farre of. Yet, with much adoe,
looking one upon another, after dry hOIn-
me or TWO, a dreaming companion drew
out as much as he CI7rst towards 3 an ill-fash-
Toned ditty. When, having made an end,
to the great comfort Of the beholderss at
last it came to the Woman's table, where,
likewise, commandment was given that
there should no drink be touched till she
that was master ouer her husband had sung
a Christmas carroll; whereupon they fell
all to such a singing, that there was never
musicke; whereat the Knight laughed
HEARTILY, that IL did him halle as much good
as a corner of his Christmas pie"
CORRESPONDENCE CARDS.