Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1884-12-18
Christmas Customs.

Christmas Customs.
Christmas is a festival that seems I,
be more particularly the property o
children than any other; notthat every
body does not join in the celebration
with all their hearts, but that children
IN honor perhaps of Him who became {
child, are given the chief part in it.
pleasures.
In Cornwall on Christmas eve, tn,
children are all allowed to sit up til
midnight, and to have a taste Of cider
too; and in Devonshire they go, will
their father and all the family ant
friends, out in the orchard with cidel
and a cake, placing the latter in thu
crotch Of n OF the branches, anG
throwing the other over the tree. Thi,
is evidently the relic of an old pagan
rite, bearing every appearance of the
ancient sacrifice, a sacrifice topropitiate
the tree to continue its fruitfulncss, al,
though, why it should be offered on
Christmas eve is not explained.
Indeed, there are many heather Gus,
toms that have been grated upon our
way of keeping Christmas. This will
be understood when it is remembered
that the early Christian fathers found
it hard to keep their focks from join.
ing in the Pagan ceremonies at times ol
good-feeling and iollity. They there.
fore wisely made their own ceremonies
conform to the same occasion, so that il
their people must celebrate, they could
be celebrating Christian facts. Thus
the old Roman Saturnalia, u time OF
great perry-making, to speak mildly,
coming at this season of the year, the
early fathers thought best to harmon
ize it nth their Christmas festivities.
From the Saturnalia ere descended
the "Mummers," q band of people who
go o )out in masks, in England, and en-
ret ONE rude play before the doors.
VIII teyer this play was in the days OF
the 5 aturnalia. in the Christian days il
has usUally been the story Of st. George
and the Dragon,-old Father Christ
mas, crowned with holly and carrying a
wassail bowl, introducing st. George, a
Turkish knight, a huge scaly dragon,
and a doctor to bind up the wounds; to
all OF whom the children at the window
are delighted to throw their half pen
MES.
Again in Great Britain the priests Of
the new religion borrowed from the
Druids, for their Christmas use, the
observance of the winter s~olstice with
great solemnity, and allowed also some
of the customs of the ancient Saxons to
be absorbed. Thus from the Druids
we have the mistletoe, and from the
Saxons the Iule log.
There is cheer and hospitality about
the Yule log which il warns one to
think of. In the places where such a
thing is really burned, when it is cut
and dragged along to be placed on the
hearth, and lighted from the embers of
last years log, put away for that pur-
pose, every wayfarer raises his hat to it
as it goes along, II means so much.
From what the Waits" another ac-
compartment of Christmas, dear to
English children, have descended is
not certainly ascertained but there was
a company of Waits" as early as the
year 400, and it is understood that
they were then strolling players on
hautboys and other wind. instruments;
and that is all they are to-day.
The one purely Christian observance
In all these glad, gay ceremonies is the
Carols" The singers have a pictnr-
e~squeness as the glimmer Of their Ian
terms illlmines them by fits and starts
in the darkness on the snow, and their
have q sweetness half stolen from
their songs. The Carols" are sung
now all over the European continent,
aud in England usually by a portion Of
the church choir ON Christmas ewes, aud
on Christmas mornings, by GER
tam Of the children OF the parish. In
the early ages the bishops sang them
among their clergy.
In all these things children have their
share, being the principal ones to enjoy
them; while with the "Mummers" a LIE.
tie girl goes, having no other part than
that Of carrying a branch of Christmas
green. The Christmas.trec, which is
the most positive feature Of children's
nowadays, was not much
if at all, among the English
speaking children till after the good
Albert came TO England.
The very fact that Christmas means a
rite celebrating the day Of Christ's birth
gives children IN especial claim upon
the day which belongs to the Holy Child,
and n Of the appellations of whose
patron saint Is Kriss Kringle, which
the Christ Child.
H