The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-03-14
some CURIOUS CUSTOMS
They Are Prevalent Yet in Different
Parts of the British
Empire.
The Observance of Handsel Mon
day and the Wassailing Of
Apple Trees.
st. DIstaf's Day, Plough Monday, Can
dlemars Day, shrove Tuesday, st. David's
Day, Maunday- Thursday.

England and her sister islands are the
home of old customs and traditions. The
tenacity with which old rights and habits
hav(been held there has no parallel in a
new country like this, writes Joel Benton in
the New York Ledger. Mainly though,
those that still live gain their observance
and perpetuity through the peasant classes
and the children. In Scotland. not long
ago, the plain people observed the first
Monday of the year as q holiday, which
they term "Handsel Monday" Children
then visit their elders in expectation of
gifts; and servants, postmen and the deliv-
erers of newspapers expect on this day an
annual foe. In rural neighborhoods, the
day, reckoning by the old style, is the first
Monday after the twelfth Of the month"; On
this day farmers give all their help a boun-
tiful breakfast, to which liberal rotations
are added.
The old custom of blessing or wassailing
the apple treea, on the eve OF Epiphany, to
make them bear is not now common, but l
believe it is occasionally followed. Pans
and pitchers of cider are taken to the
orchard-and roasted apples. A part is
partaken of and tho remainder is thrown
uOWu a. eko loOu VI Iuo VkCoss SOuIcbIuch
firearms are discharged. and, at the end of
all. this doggerel is three times repeated:
Here's to thee, old apple tree,
Whence thou mayst bud
And whence thou may'st bow!
And whence thou may'st bear apples enow,
Hats full! caps full.
Bushel-b ushel sacks full!
And my pockets full, too. Huzza!"
Herrick, the sweet Elizabethan lyrist, re-
fers in n of his poems to the custom as
follows:
"Wassail the trees that they may bear
You many a plum and many a pear:
For more or less fru t will they bring
As you do give them wassailing. "
On the return Of the party to the house,
the doors used to be bolted. nor was ad-
mittance allowed until some one of them
guessed what was cooking on the spit. He
who guessed correctly had the use and dis
tribution of it.
In Herefordshire. the farmers with their
friends and laboring people would go to
the wheat field about six p. IN. Of this day,
where thirteen fires or more were lighted.
Cider was drunk, and a general chorus of
shouting WAS set up which resounded from
farm to farm. On the return home there
was a good supper found ready, and be-
sides a large cake baked with Il hole in the
middle. This, after the repast was over.
Was taken out and put on the horns ''of
the first. or finest OK" all the oxen being
addressed and toasted. by tickling the
ox's head he was made to toss of the cake.
II it fell backward it was tho housewives;
If forward, il was the farmers. On the
return' TO the house the evening was spent
in mirth and festivity.
st. Distaf's day and Plough Monday, the
first held directly after Twelfth day, and
the second the frst Monday after, were
festival days. showing that the long period
OF holidsying, beginning with Christmas,
was now over. st Agnes eve. made men,
orable by Keats poem, was observed not
many years ago in Scotland. II was tho
night Of January 70. Young people there
went out to a plough Geld, At midnight, 10