Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-27

what the word really means, put Hogmandy
Day, whether the day before Christmas or
New Years, is in Scotland that one day of
the year in which all children, in fantastic
dress, are permitted to sing, dance and beg
from door to door, in the most boisterous
manner Imaginable, and no one is so dar-
ing as to refuse them cakes, "sweets" or
coin.
Perhaps this custom is observed with
greatest vigor in the Hebrides, the High
lands and in the Shetland Islands. In the
latter, at Lerwck, the children and youths
prepare for the day for weeks in advance.
The most fantastic and outrageous costumes
are invented. The elder ones taking part IN
the bacchanal are called "Guizers" and the
lads and lasses "Peerie Guizers" or little
disguised ones. They learn some fine carols,
but most of their songs are of the ver1est
local doggerel. Attired in their weird cos
TUNES they proceed from house to house,
shouting as they enter,
Ho1manay,
Irollolay,
Give US your white bread,
And none OF your grayl
In Lerwick they are accompanied by mu-
sical instruments, and agreeable music is
often furnished. They are invariably
offered refreshments: dancing and other
amusements are INDUCED in, for there are
always crowds awaiting them at each house;
they are often given money at their depart
ure. This is kept up through the entire
night, varied by the explosion of fire crack
ers and rockets, and the dragging through
the narrow old streets of the quaint Dutch
built town of numberless blazing tar-barrels-
In Merry Old England.
Probably nowhere in all the world is
Christmas time more thoroughly observed
and enjoyed than in England. In whatever
else the English people are changing, of the
peerlessness of this time and hour there can
be no doubt. True, England can no longer
boast of her royal Christmas masques cost
ing often S25O,OOO of our money; and the
court Lord of Misrule is parsonage of the
past. But royal and noble gluttony, guz-
ling and licentiousness have given place to
Christian tenderness and almost regal opu-
lence in help to humankind.
Whatever may be the shortcomings in
general of the English nobility they should
be credited with splendid munifcence at
this time of the year. The whole area OF
their dependencies is blessed and frightened
during the Christmas holiday season. 1t
began away back in Elizabeth's reign. In
1899 there was such a crush at the royal
masque that an order was issued to the gen.
tlemcn OF Suffolk and Norfolk, directing
them to leave London before Christmas and
give their attention to keeping Christmas
in their respective residences. 1t is an
inviolable social rule OF the nobility to this
day. Wherever English gentlemen's or
noblemen's families may be during all the
rest of the year, they are at their country
seats and castles at Christmas. The manor
house sends its folks and servants to that
one; or the gentlemen from dozen congre-
gate at another. With the gentlemen,
coursing or athletic games, and
with the ladies gracious calls upon tenants
or each other, with mostbrilliant intercourse
and always devout attendance at the little
parish churches, rule the sweet and genial
day.
Going to Church in State.
Great state marks this going and coming
over the crisp country roads. At the cas-
ties it is the same, save that the retinues
are greater, the feasts more tremendous,
and more respect is paid to proprieties and
form. But it may truly be said that there
is not a dependent, tenant or tradesman,
and not a human being suffering from sick
ness or poverty discoverable' in the neigh
borhood of these people of quality, who is
not generously remembered, practically
aided and tenderly succored by this class at
Christmas time. Politically we may abuse
its members at will; but this custom makes
a better Christmas for them and the world
than any olden Yuletide of wassail and de-
bauchery that ever was known.
Many of the old English Christmas Gus
toms are truly disappearing, and good rid
dance to them But there is not one sweet
and good old thing or custom which has not
been retained. Roast beet, plum pudding,
Christmas pies and buns, snapdragons with
the mistletoe and holly, are all cherished
with olden zest and zeal. Even the boar's
head, decorated with rosemary or prickly
holly is still brought in at thousands of
English Christmas boards The mummers
are nearly gone, and only linger, feeble
reminder of their former paganisms, in re-
mote districts of Devonshire and Cornwall.
The Christmas Tree of Germany.
The Yule-log may be to-day found in more
English homes than in the Tudor Christmas
times, and no home is so poor in England
that the glowing ChristmasAtree we have all
borrowed from Germany 1Aay not be found
within it. The Christmas bells of England
chime truer and sweeter than ever. 1 have
sometimes wondered If one could find spot
On English soil where their tuneful voices
could not be heard. Much has been writ
ten of English carols in the vein of their
having disappeared. So they have, those of
were common from the fourteenth century
20 the eighteenth. But in their place, from
Penrith in old Cumberland to Penzance in
Cornwall, there may now be heard through
out all England, from Christmas eve to
Christmas morn, such sweet and tender
words as these of 'In the East Gray
Light, CLARK, the Herald, z" "Hark, What
News, T" "Hail, Smiling Morn r. attuned to
loble song.
The Christmas of England, and for that
natter of all Britain, and our own Christ
mas are blended into one. Protestant and
puritan and prude, are getting
lpon common ground in adapting and pre-
erving all that is best in Christmas in all
ands. Church and home sanctuaries glow
With radiance less and less dimmed by rank
ing wars of creeds; while Christian hu- |
nan1ty gathers closer with its strong and |
ender clasp the poor and the desolate at |
very recurring and blessed festival of the |
birth of our Lord
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.