Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-12-25
CHRISTMAS.

Quotations..
The mode OF observing this period
Of the year has often varied. The re-
ligious observances of the day became
universal as regarded the Catholic
Church about the year 800, and our
ancestors looked on it in the mixed
light Of religions and joyful season
Of festivities. For instance, the mid
night preceding Christmas. day every
person "gentle and simple attended
high mass, and on Christmas-aay three
different services were sung with much
solemnity. The great Alfred saw fit to
publish an edict ordaining, that Eye
twelve days after ye Nativitie be
festivale;" and Bishop Holt assures us
that the whole Of the days were dedica-
ted to "high jinks," and celebrated with
great parade, splenGor, and con.
VITALITY. Business was superseded by
merriment and hospitality; ot,u cara,
which Horace assures us "rides on
everybody's back" was for the nonce
kicked off, and the most careworn
countenance frightened up for the &C.
casion.
From Christmas-day to Twelfth. day
the origin Of this letter dies festus
was from Allred's edict-there was q
mad and continuous career of enter
tainments; the mobiles and barons gave
their countenance TO the various sports;
the palace OF royalty and the iabourer' g
cot alike resOunded with tumultuous
joy.
'' Now too was heard
The hap'ess cripple, tuning through the streets
His carol new and oft, amid the gloom
Of midnight hours, prevailed tn accnston,d sounds
Of wa'eful acaitS, whose hurmOny-cOmpOsed
OF hantbOy, organ, violin, and flute,
And various other Instruments of mirh-
II meant to celebrate the coming time.''
The custom OF strolling from street
to street, playing musical instruments
and singing seems to have originated
from a very ancient practice which pre-
vailed, of the minstrels attached to the
kings court and retinue of the barons,
who paraded the streets and sounded
the hour from Christmas-eve till dawn.
The "lord mayors music" is q relicr
of this custom and it may not per-
haps be generally known that in the
year OF grace 1871 'waits" are regularly
sworn before the SCOUT OF burgesses"
at Westminster, an act under the au-
thority of warrant, signed by the
clerk, and sea1ed with the arms of the
city and libel J; in addition to which
they We're bound to provide themselves
with silver badge, also bearing the
arms of Westminster.
The custom of serving boars' heads
ut Christmas feasts is one to which
much pomp and ceremony formerly at.
tached. Henry II. served his son at
The table as server, bringing up the
boar's head with trumpets before it :"
so saith the ertlditc dignitary of the
Church hereinbefore quoted. The
various amusements were conducted by
master OF the revels, called the "Lord
of Misrule," whose duty it was to keep
the best order he could during the
sports and pastimes. The universities.
the lord mayor and sheriffs, and all
noblemen and gentlemen, had their
lords of misrule. These lords were
animadverted on severely at Cambridge
by the Puritans, in the reign of the
Scotch Scion, James l., cas- unbecom-
ing the gravity and dignity of the
university inheriting evidently the
mantle of the "vaine players of inter-
ludes" stigmatised by act of parlia.
ment in the preceding reign.
During the Commonwealth stern
Noll's p,lritanical followers i'll brooked
what they We're pleased to term "super-
stitious festivals" and amongst these
was Christmas. So determined was the
Puritan purity to make clean weep of
all vestiges Of "evll creeds and evil
Deeds" that they resolved in council
to attack old Father Christmas and his
concomitants. The holly and mistletoe
bough were TO be exterminated root
and branch, as plants OF the evil one
cakes and splccd ale were :oted not
only superfluous, but simply ''impious
libations to superstition, and the
Observation-Disclosures we call them
would have none oft. Accordingly,
in the year 1947, Cromwell announced
through The mouth of the common
crier, the usual mode of announcing
anything unpleasant in those days
"that Christmasday should no longer
be observed, being a superstitious and
hurtful custom; and that in place
thereof, and the more elfectually to
work A change, markets should be held
on the 25th OF D cember." The news
letters and PRIV tie correspondence Of
those days are full Of indignant com
ment on such an arbitrary proceeding.
This was attacking the people, especially
the country folks, in their most SEN
sitive part. It was hardly to be ex-
pecte'l that they would quietly submit
to such Il bereavment nor did they
The author of this black act and his
aiders and abettors came in time to Ike
detestcd, and made people long for q
more liberal rule ; in fact, such want
of consideration for the conservative
feelings of the English people could
not fail to bring about the downfall OF
any government. lreton, who was re-
mica to have been a prime mover in
prompti,.:. such an unpopular edict:
had forever alter considerable personal
o,llum attached % him; and at his
death in Whitehall, one OF u glees"me
mob standing outside the door, ever
the portal Of which wa&.' llsc' '.""
"Decus ct decorum esi p.o p,'i'"
mor;," with bitter irony constrs:".- az,
" It was q good thing for his co:i''> ~
that he died.
The rosemary, the holly, and the
from time 1mmemOrl,1 uaVe
been plants used for Christmas dccors.
lions. GAY says
'' When r"s>n,o, y and hay:, the poets croWh;
Are baw'd in frequent ere: through all the town.
! hen judge the festival of Chr;stm ~ near
the JOYOUS period OF the year
Now with bright h"ity nl your icnl,i.S strOw,
With tamrsl green and sacred mtSttctoe.'
The yuIe log, or yuletile log, so call
ed from Il huge log Of dry wood spark
ling and era chling in the chimney corner
whilst the yulc cakes arc baking on ii
'.gridle - north country parlance for
g grlddic us apparently OF worry old
as ~ cuncomltant Of Christmas
in those parts, an old song running
thus:
"Now all our nc",s,rs' chmneys smoke,
And yufe.tius logs Qnd burning:
There vtl,s they with baked ucutc choke
hI'l all ttcr splits arc turllin3;'
while the youth Of both sexes cOnvre
gate nightly ut neighboring friends
houses to hear Of
flob"hs, gl"us, and >lchlikc larous sp!i!r4'
1t IL to these gatherings VT owe tic