The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-12-25
Mercy CHRISTMAS-PASr AND
PRESENT.

Via christmas back again!
Christmas is the most agreeable of Christian
festivals. From the earliest time it has been
set aside for recreation and rejoicing. 1t is
the period devoted to gaiety-the brief inter
val from all care, when laughter reigns su-
preme in cot and palace.
The gladdening sounds of the mellow-toned |
BELLS high up in steeples, peal forth joyful |
notes of praise. They call together friends |
and enemies for the only time in the year,
and bid them be hilarious adjure them to
temporary truce from all differences
mend them to forget rivalry, "hatred and all
uncharitableness," and proclaim peace and
goodwill for at least one day, that they may
participate in the universal happiness which
its hallowed associations call forth.
1t is emphatically the time people wish each
other "merry Christmas when the tongue
forgets its acerbity, the heart its bitterness.
Mid jocund laugh and pleasant song, high
holiday is held; eating, drinking, and con-
VITALITY being in the ascendant.
And there must be melody Of purer, richer
sound
A rich key. note, whose echo runs through ali
the music round:
Let kindly voices ring beneath low roof AID
palace dome,
For tnOs6 dlOu0 are carol chimes that bless q
Christmas home.
We cannot, however, IN the present, bring
back the olden times. We do not now haul
in the yule log and foaming tureen Of plum
porridge, and rich sirloin, and smoking pud-
ding, the "good cheer" to the sound OF
trumpet and tabors, accompanied by the
Lord and Lady of Misrule. Refinement
thinks the formularies obsolete, and leaves US
Christmas-trees, holly, mistletoe and ever
greens, as ever-glorious reminders of the
past.
A bright and joyous welcome to the berries ,and
the leaves,
That hang about the household walls in dark and
Up with the holly and the bay set lanrel on the
r-ard,
And let the misletoe look down while pledging
draughts are poured
We look in vain for the ''wassail bowl" and
the "bores heade and the "garlandes gay
and rosemary" which were in the ascendant
in the olden times. Popular superstitions and
customs may generally be traced back to
heather times, and to their saturnalia our
ancestors we're probably indebted for some of
our yule-tid pastimes.
The Reformation gave the first blow to
their popularity, and the Puritans added an
other shock towards their downfall. 1t WAS
even ordered by Parliament, December "a,
1862, "That no observation shall be had Of
the fve-and. twentieth day of December, COM
monty called Christmas Day; nor any solemn
ty used or exercised in churches upon that
day, in respect thereof"
And the old usages now appear to be neg
lected by society, in proportion to its degree
and polish, and in the metropolis and its i'm
mediate neighborhood meet with little en-
couragement from the higher class, and but
partial recognition from the middling, while
the less favored by fortune too frequently
permit their Christmas festivities to degener-
ate into mere debauchery.
In the country, especially in the Western
and Northern counties, Christmas is kept with
spirit; the yule log is still brought out in
procession to cracke on the hearth, and the
slrloins of beef
The smoking srloin stretched immense
From side to side; in which with desperate knife
They deep incisions make, and talk the while
OF Engand's glory, ne'er to be defaced
Nor wanting be the brown October drawn,
/ Nature and perfect, from the dark retreat
Of thirty years
the mince pies, the plum porridge, the eapons
turkeys, geese, and plum buildings. smoke
upon the hospitable board. Each master OF 6
family, like the old courtier in the ballad, ap
pears to have
A good old fashion when Christmas is come,
To call in all his old neghbors with bagpipe ant
drum.
With good cheer enough to furnish every oil
And old liquor able to make cat speak and NAL
dumb
But even in the country the hand of i'm
proyement has been active, and some tavorlt
relic Of ancient festivities is occasionally u'h
cred from the parlor to the kitchen, neve
more TO return to headquarters. Our mon
archs used formerly to join in these celebra
tons, and the Lord of Misrule, or Christina
Prince, was frequently chosen from the hlghes
families.
According to Stow, he was ga master Q
merry disports, usually lodged in the king
house. and in the house Of every nobiema'
of honor or good worship, were ne spiritua
or temporal
Other countries, as we'll as England, ha
their Lord of Misrule. In France he wa
called the Able de Magouverne and Able q
Liesse, and in Scotland, the Abbot OF On
reason.
Mummers. guisar1es or guise-dancers ICON
monty called geese dancers), may slll d
seen in the country, and the story of st. Georg
and the Dragon and the Fair Sabra is an
nuallv repeated, enivened with the frohc
Old Father Christmas and the Doctor WI
cures "each deep and deadly wound" OF tn
combatants, coming for that purpose
From the furhest part Of Spain,
With little bottle of alcumpaln.
These guise. dancers are profusely decorate
with ribbons, each carrying naked SWORD
with the exception of the personator OF tn
fair Sabra, who is ostentatiously decked
female attire, or solemnly disguised as
monk.
But the sons and daughters Of Christina
have seen strange vicissltudes since the lalL
ilv were last assembled at Whitehall, and Mlf
rule is no longer content with his twelve day
empire The goodly number OF sports ~hlc
took place in
Those golden days of yore
When Christmas was high day.
is yearly diminishing Halt century ag
the chapIain of 81. James's Palace retaine
the venerable custom of having "a turee
full Of rich plum porridge" served up, an