The morning call., 1891-12-27
CHRISTMAS In
GREAT BRITAIN.
The Block Of Ash Is to The Irish What
the YulG-L0g Is to the English.
Hunting the Wren-How the Day Is Observed
in scotland-Many of the Old English
Customs Are Disappearing.
Special to THE SUNDAY CALL.

Special to THE SUNDAY CALL.
LONDON, Dec. 10. 1S91.-Ireland in the
Christmas holiday time is scenlcally per-
haps in its least pleasing aspect. But
natures hand is loving one even in the
Irish winter. and the blessed hold that
Christmas time has tlken upon the uni
versal Christian world heart. blended with
that marvellous compensative power of
utilizing tie most trifing possibilities for
human Joy which the Irish nature possesses,
permits and provides quality of Christmas
time cheer which is often surprising TO
those whose lives are measurably filled with
bounteousness and content. OF the Irish
Christmas-tide 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 aims
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 9lories OF
home windows open, or the wonders OF shop
windows ab!aze with what these desper-
ately forSaken humans have never owned
CT known.
In decoration the ivy and holly are every
where seen and pr0curable, and Il tiny sprig
Of mistletoe conspicuouSly 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 fayOrite, or Of bog deal,
found in the Irish peat banks or boys This
is to Ireland as the yule-lOg TO Ensand, and
1t burns brightly for the home coming of
every heart the home may own.
Passing Christmas at home is a sentimen
and determination more impressive and I'M
varying, save with tie Irish nobility, than
in any other land know. And on Christ
mas eve itself there cannot De found among
the lowly classes a human soul nOta lost one,
that Is not there or some Time there within
the glow and warmth. With the humber
villagers everywhere, and always with the
peasantry of the south and west. the Christ
mas mold, or huge, long candle, weighing
from one TO two pounds, II It's price needs be
begged or stolen. Is an invaluable requisite
for Christmas eve. 1t will simply irrevoca-
bly, be had. The bog deal block is fired; the
doors are flung wide open for friend, men
dcant or enemy to enter with cead mile
failte ia thousand times Welcome; the
mammoth candle is lighted to burn out, but
never pe eXtingulshed; and while there is
constant gol and coming 1t Is softly done,
as if the Nativity were still universal
Presence.
There is always circle of eager faces
about the fireplace. where strange, weird,
ever old and ever new tales Astounding in
religious sentiment are told, while the half
lights
DANCE FAiRYLIKE
Among the blackened, century-old thatch
rafteIs 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 IS we'll upon the stirring poteen,
and the day comes in Irish registering
with all its lIberaIity begins.
But Christmas time in Ireland is one of
unspeakable loss 10 the bird families of
tiny wreus. This tragedy of the wren
should have a luminous place in literature.
Half a million of Irish chldren with kip
pens ana clubs are beating about the hedges
for victims. Sacrcdly protected during
every other day of the year, the wren is now
sought with feToCinus yelling of:
Come buntin' the wren. says Robin TO Robin:
Come huntin the wren, says Richard To Robin:
Come huutin the wren, SAYS JACK Tilaone;
Come huntin' the wren, says every one
The wren is hunted, for, according to the
SUPERSTITION it must be found: its mangled
little body is beribboned and dan.led in a
rush-cnge, or hung from IA holly-0ranch
and with this strange hint TO alms-giving
swaying aloft, hordes Of youngsters shrek
ing
We hunted the wren through frost and snow;
we hunted the 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 master could paint
or describe. The origin of this strange
| custom cannot be found. 1t is lost even in
| the rare and fecupd hirthspot for so much
| that gives Ireland surprising interest-that
wild. weird, whimsical, lovable phantasy
| called Irish tradition
The genuine Christmas-tide which the
| people OF England and America know, and
! which has ever been such a season of joy
in all Catholic countries mas scarcely been
| known in Scotland since the domination of
| the Presb terrain Church in the land o.
| cakes. I clergy have ever bapn ndefat-
| igable in their Efforts to stamp out any man.
! ner of celebrate n of the Nativity; and
there was time. happily long past. when
| ministers yiSit-d every house in their
| parishes to detect, If possible, any super
stitious" Christmas observances on the pa IT
| of the people
Even to this day any sacred and rover
| entail observance of Christmas in Scotland
is made by Episcopalan families and among
| the highlandeTs and islanders, who still
| retain strong aftinlties with that ancient re-
| lgIon for whose re-estaDllshment so
MANY OF THEIR ANCESTORS
| Lost their lives. In cities Ike Edinburgh.
| Glasgow, Perth and Aberdeen, the day is
| observed by the whole people as a mere
holiday; an occasion for license aud eHioy-
msnt of the more boisterouS kind; although
| OF late years there Is 4 marked tendency ia
eventually adopt some of the immemorial
| customs of the English Christmas.
The Scotch as people therefore generally
observe the last day of the old and the first
day of the new year with much fes:iyity.
Having no religious significance, this fes-
| tivity until late years reached pretty closely
| to frantic merriment and license; and while
! the roeticai literature of Scotland is as bare
| of Christmas reference as that of England
| is rich ard sweet, it is full of quaint old
! rhymes upon New Years time, customs and
cheer
| In many portions of Scotland, in defer
eDce to the march of modrrn ideas, and par.
! ticularly significant of the gradual en-.
| croachmrnt of English thought and feeling,
| 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 Scandinavians. Our own Christmas
| had the same origin, but the early Christian
missionaries eBgraftrd upon the festival the
sacred character it should ever possess to all
| Christian people.
The boys in the Scottish lowlands have 8
! rhyme
on Christmas night turned the spit
| burnt my fngers-I find 1t yet
| But there is no Christmas, as we know it
among them. In Fifeshire there is also the
| quatrain-
| Yule's come and Yula's zane
| and we haze Toasted weel
| Sac Jack must to his fail again,
And Jenny to her wheel
| But there is as little Christmas in Fife as In
any part of Scotland. The entire holiday
/ time in Scotland is generally known as the
DAFT days, and the only day of them ali tina,
WAS ever held in anything like respect was
| HlnHSpl Mnnh1v 10 be