The record-union., 1891-12-26
CHRISTMASIN GREAT BRITAIN
Celebration of the Day Among the
Rich and Poor.
The sschristmas Mold'' and "Bog
Deal'' in ireland and the 'sYule
Log'' In England : Hunting the
wren-No Religious Significance to
the Day in scotIand-Daft Days in
the Land o. Cakes.
Especial Correspondence of REcoRD-UNIoN
Copyright, 1871


LONDON, December 10, 1891.
Ireland in the Christmas holiday time
is scenically, perhaps, in its least pleasing
aspect. But Natures hand is loving one
even in the Irish winter, and the blessed
hold that Christmas time has taken upon
the universal Christian world heart, blend
ed with that marvellous comparative
power of utilizing the most trifling posi-
bilities for human joy which the Irish ma
Jure possesses, permits and provides a
quality of Christmas time cheer which is
often surprising to those whose lives are
measurably filled with bounteousness
and content. OF the Irish Christmas-tid
itself there is little in the life and customs
of the great and powerful, better than an
echo of English Christmas cheer. AT the
country manor houses and castles there
are the same feasting and alms-giving as
in England. In the cities throngs surge
and crowd with elation and despair in
their faces as with us. But nowhere else
on this earth does Christmas time bring
such shuddering, pallid, piteous poverty
to stand, stare and hunger for the glories
of home windows open, or the wonders OF
chop windows ablaZe with what these
sperately-forsaken humans have never
owned or known.
While there is undoubtedly an almost
universal reverence for the more sacred
side of the Christmas-tide-and l truly
know that at least the Irish peasantry
have an innate reverence for all that is
sacred and good-Christmas is not gen
orally observed in its high and holy sense
in Ireland. 1t is a time for much that is
tender and worthy, but also one for de-
plorable excess. In decoration the IVY
and holly are everywhere seen and pro-
cured, and tiny sprig of mistletoe con-
spicuously appears in all the homes of the
more favored classes. Rich or poor,
Catholic or Protestant, every family will
possess a christmas block" of ash,
which is the favorite, or of ''bog deal, -
found in the Irish peat banks or boys.
This is to Ireland as the yule log to
England, and it burns brightly for the
home coming of every heart the home
may own.
Passing Christmas at home is senti-
ment and determination more impressive
and unvarying, save with the Irish no
bllIty, than In any other land L know.
And on Christmas Eve itself there cannot
be found among the lowly classes a hui
man soul not a lost one, that is not there,
or sometimes there, within the glow and
warmth. With the humber villagers
everywhere, and always with the peas
antry of,the south and west, the Christ
4A'e@o ALlOiNl' VI AibSSCs AOilSs SciiiOiCs
ing from one to two pounds, if its price
needs be begged or stolen, is an invalu-
able requisite for Christmas Eve. 1t will
simply irrevocably be had. The bog deal
block is fired; the doors are flung wide
open for friend, mendicant or enemy to
enter with ceGd mile fGitte IA thousand
times welcome); the mammoth candle is
lighted to burn out, but never be extin-
gaished; and while there is constant
going and coming, it is softly done, as if
the Nativity were still q universal Pres
ence.
There is always a circle of eager faces
about the fireplace, where strange, weird,
ever cid and ever new tales, Astounding in
religious sentiment, are told, while the
half lights dance fairylike among the
blackened, century old thatch rafters
above. To midnight mass nearly all
repair; then the tea breakfast" is had;
those who have saved enough brew great
bowls of punch; those who have not got
along quite as well upon the stirring po-
teen, and as the day comes in Irish roys-
Iering with all its liberality begins.
But Christmas time in Ireland is one of
unspeakable loss to the bird families of
tiny wrens. This tragedy of the wren
should have a luminous place in litera-
ture. Half million of Irish children,
with kippens and clubs, are beating about
the hedges for victims. Sacredly pro-
tected during every other day of the year,
the wren is now sought with ferocious
feeling of
Come huntin' the wren, says Robin to Bobbin:
Come huntin the wren, says Richard to Robin;
Come huntin' the wren, says Jack Tilaone;
Come hunt'n the wren, says every onei
The wren is hunted, for, according to
the superstition, it must be found; its
mangled little body is beribboned and
dangled in rush-cage, or hung from q
holly branch, and, with this strange hint
to alms-giving swaying aloft, hordes Of
youngsters shrieking-
We hunted the wren through frost and snow
We hunted the wren seven miles or more;
We Knocked him down and he could not see
And we brought him home in holly tree!
crowd the streets in Irish Christmas DAYS,
knock at homes and are given coin, and
when the night comes hold such wakes
over the dead wrens as only a master
could paint or describe. The origin OF
this strange custom cannot be found. II
is lost even in the rare and fecund birth
spot for so much that gives Ireland sur
passing interest-that wild, weird, whim-
steal, loveable phantasy called Irish ira
dition.n
The genuine Christmas-tid which the
people of England and America know.
and which has ever been such a season OF
joy in all Catholic countries, has scarcely
been known in Scotland since the domi-
land o. cakes. The clergy have ever been
interchangeable in their efforts to stamp out
any manner of celebration of the Nativ-
ity, and there was a time, happily long
past, when ministers visited every house
in their parishes TO detect, if possible, any
superstItlous" Christmas obSeryances on
the part of the people.
Even to this day any sacred and reyer-
entail observance of Christmas in Scot
land is made by Episcopalian families
and among the Highlanders and Island
ers, who still retain strong affinities with
that ancient religion for whose re-estab-
lishment so many of their ancestors lost
their lives. In cities like Edinburgh
Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen, the day is
observed by the whole people as mere
holiday, an occasion for license and en-
joyment of the more boiSterous kind, al
though of late years there is marked
tendency to eventually adopt some of the
immemorial customs of the English
Christmas.
The Scotch, as people, therefore gen.
orally observe the last day of the old and
the first day of the new year with much
1estivlty. Having no religious signif-
canoe this festivity, until late years
reached pretty closely to frantic merri-
Inent and license and while the poetical
literature of Scotland is as bare of Christ
mas reference as that of England is
rich and sweet, it is full of quaint old
rhymes upon New Years time, customs
and cheer.
In many portions of Scotland, in defer
ence to the march of modern ideas and
particularly significant of the gradual en-
croachment of English thought and feel
ing, these New Years time festivities
have been transferred to Christmas time
but they are the old New Year Scotch
customs still, and all the real sentiment OF
the time appears to be that growing out OF
ancient Yule, or Iol. which was the great
annual gorging feast of the Scandinav-
ians. Our own Christmas had the same