St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-21


out, are all cOmpOnentS OF that prOpi-
| tlOuS feeling to which the religious
| spirit of the season, and all its qurint
and characteristic Observances, make
their appeal.
The practice of halling the Nativity
| with music, in cOmmemOratiOn of the
| song of the angels. is OF remote origin.
/ One of the sweetest of the carols of
Olden days is entitled ga Christmas
| Lullaby" and is as follows:
| A Christmas Lullaby
| BY JOHN ADDINGToN sYMoNDs.
Sleep, baby, sleep. the mother sings.
heavens angels kneel and fold their wings.
| Sleep, baby, sleep!
| With swathes of scented hay thy bed
| by Mary's hand at eve was spread.
| Sleep, baby, sleep.
! Ad midnight came the shepherds, they
Whom seraphs wakened by the way.
| Sleep, baby, sleep!
And three kings from the East afar
/ E1e dawn came, guided by thy star.
sleep, baby, sleep,
Iney brought thee gifts of gold and gems
Fure Orient pearls. rich diadems.
Sleep, baby, sleepl
But thou who lest slumbering there
Art King OF kings, earth, ocean, air.
Sleep, baby, sleep!
| Sleep. baby, Sleep The shepherds sing;
through heaven, through earth, hosannas
| ring.
Sleep, baby. Sleep
The novels of France are of the same
| character as the
| Christmas Carols
| or England, and the visions of street
musicians in England at this season are
| closely resembled by the wanderings of
| the Italian pifferari. These pifferari
Ia a hrI0 G bor dc ,bO
| from the mountains at the season of
Advent, and enter the Italian cities,
! Salutiag with their hill music the shrines
| of the Virgin and child which adorn the
| streets. VI these rude minstrelS Lady
| Morgan, in her ''Italy." gives some ac-
! count, and states that. having fire.
32quently observed them stopping to play
! before the shop of a carpenter In Rome,
her inquiries on the subject were an
| SWered by the information that the in
/ tentlon OF this part of their performance
| was TO give his due share of honor to
st. Joseph.
In some parts of ireland and Ger
many, and in England. too. Christmas
| eve IS treated as a night of OmenS. 1t
! Is stated by Sir Walter Scott, in one of
4 his notes to ''Marmion." to be an article
OF popular faith ''that they who are
born on Christmas or Good Friday have
the power of seeing spirits, and even of
4 commanding them;' and he adds that
the Spaniards imputed the haggard
and downcast looks of their Philip IL.
| to the disagreeable visions to which
I this privilege subjected him. IN the
| Southwest of England there exists
| SuperStltlouS notion that the oxen are
J to be found kneeling in their stalls at
midnight of this vigil. as if in alteration
OF the natlvity-an idea which Brand
supposes to have originated from the
representations by early painters of the
event itself. That writer mentions a
| Cornish peasant, who told him of his
having. with some others, watched sew
eral oxen in their stalls on the eve of
Christmas. AT IL O'Clock at night
they observed the two oldest oxen fall
| upon their knees. and, as he expressed
1t in the idiom of the country, make "a
cruel moan like Christian creatures"
10 those who regard the analogies of
the human mind, who mark the progress
OF tradition, who study the diffusion of
certain fancIes and their influences upon
mankind,
Anecdote
related by Mr.. Howison in his Sketches
| OF Upper Canada" is full of comparative
interest. He mentions meeting an In
dian at midnight, creeping cautiously
along in the stiffness of beautiful
Christmas eve. The Indian made sig
nails to him to be silent, and, when cues
toned as to his reason. replied: "Me
watch to see the deer kneel; this is
Christmas night. and all the deer fall
upon their Knees to the Great Spirit and
look look up" In some parts of England
bees are popularity said to express their
veneration for the nativity by ''sing-
ing, as 1t is called, in their hives at
midnight upon Christmas eve.
A custom which is called s'hunting
the wren' is generally practiced by the
peasantry Of the South Of Ireland on st.
Stephens day. 1t bears q close resem-
blance to the Manx proceedings de-
scrbed by Waldron-aS taking place,
however, on different day. son the
Oath Of December" says that writer, in
his account of the Isle of Man. toward
evening, the servants in general have a
holiday; they do not go to bed all night,
but rambie about till the bells ring in
all the churches, which is at IL o'clock,
Prayers being over, they go out to hunt
the wren, and, after having found one
of these poor birds. they kill her and
lay her on bier with the utmost solem-
nifty, bringing her to the parish church,
and burying her with whimsical kind
of solemnity, singing dirges over her in
the ManX language, which they call her
knell: after which Christmas begins"
The Wren boys i'll Ireland, who are also
L called Dr0leenS, go from hous to house
for the purpose of levying contribu-
| lions, carrying one or more of these
| birds in the midst of bush of holly,
L gayiy decorated with colored ribbons,
| which birds they have. like the Manx
mourners, employed their morning in
killing. Tradition says that a Danish
| army wOuld have been surprised and
4 dQctrnUQd nv Iris 1, l,oI
"a wren given the alarm by picking at
some crumbs on drumhead, the re-
mains of the sleeping drummer's sup
| per, which reused him. when he in
Instantly beat to arms. And from this cir
substance the wren became an object
iiof hatred to the Irish.
The Custom of Decorating
churches and houses with evergreens,
branches and flowers is OF very early
| date. The Jews used them at their
feast of Tabernacles, and the heathenS
IN several of their ceremonies, and they
were adopted by the Christians. Christ
permitted branches to be used as a
token of rejoicing upon his triumphant
entry into Jerusalem. 1t was natural,
| therefore, that at Christmas time, when
his birth was celebrated, this symbol of
| rejoicing should be resorted to. Some
of the early councils, however. consid-
ering that the practice somewhat saw
ored of Paganisnl, endeayored to abol-
1 iSh it, and at one time it was enacted
| that it was not lawful to begirt or adOrn
| houses with laurel or green boughs. A
/ Christmas song in the Poor Robin AL
| manac says:
| With holly and ivy
| So green and SO gay
| We deck up our houses
AS fresh as the day;
With bays and rosemary
| And laurel complete,
And every one now
1 Ie III,