The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-15
MODERN CHRISTMAS DINNERS CAN
NOT MATCH THE FESTIVE
BOARDS OF OLD
BOAR HEAD AND WAssAIL CUP
Wealth of Myth and Mystery Sur
rounds Early English Christ
mas Festivals and Mis-
tIetoe Customs.
Special to The Globe.

compared with those of the mighty
trenchers who graced the festive boards
of old.
The Christmas dinner de regeuer now
consists of roast beef. turkey, perhaps
venison, vegetables and a little pastry.
Wine may or may not play a part in the
economy of the table, and the dissipation
of an after dinner cigar may round off
what we would consider regular Christ
mas banquet. OF course pumpkin pie,
mince pie and plum pudding are very es-
i sential features of the modern holiday
meal.
This is the modern evolution of the
Yuletide feast which our forefathers were
wont to stretch out over the goodly ten
ure Of twelve days.
The boar's head plays very small part
at the modern Christmas table, but in the
old time English and German celebra-
tons it figured as the principal dish.
The boar's head in hand bring
With garlans gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merely,
Qui estes in convivis.'
The boars head was the most distin-
guished of Christmas dishes and there
are many carols yet surviving in it's
honor. The dish, though the chief ser
,vyce in the land probably as old as the
SaXons-was the principal entree at all
big feasts as well as that of Christmas,
figured largely at the Inns of Court
revels, where it was generally washed
down by some old maIvesie bastard or
muscadel.
The salmon was also a favorite dish
for the Christmas feast.
Lastly, the sanmon, king of fish,
Fills with good chere the Christmas DISH
The old English drank heavily at their
Christmas feast which often savored lit
tie of piety. They drank their hippocras,
ale, mead and claret celebrating the holt
day with great festivity.
As Iag9 says; Your Dane your Ger
are nothing to your English
The talent was probably inherited from
the Saxons for their kings had wine
mead cider, ale, pigment and morat. to
which the Normans added claret gar
hioiilac and hippocras. Morat was made
from honey and mulberries; claret, pig
ment nlppocras and garhiofilac $50 called
5 from the girofie, or cloves. contained in
IT. Were different preparations of wine
mixed with honey and spices Hippocras
was Particularly indispensable at the
great feast.
Salmon pies and peacock were also nee
essary delicacies OF the Christmas board.
The particulars of the Christmas feast
are thus GENEROUSLY dilated upon by an
old poet:
They sewed mp salmon. venissa and
BY humid eds and by dozens and by scores
tard.
Mutton. and fat,ed b5eves and bacon
HIcrops and btterns, peacock. swan and
buSttTd,
Teal, ma lard, pigeons, wilgeons, and. in
fine.
Plum buildings. pancakes, apple PIES and
CtiStard.
And thercwithal they drank good Gascon
wine,
With mead, and ale, and cider of our
own,
For porter punch and negus were net
known
+n The W VI, S; bowl figured largely at
fEture sttte believed that they would
quaH mead and ale from the skulls OF
their enemies, while feasting from the
great boar Serguer.
The wa;sail bowl is believed to have
been especially Saxon institution. The
first Of which we have record was an
elegantly mounted skull filed with mead
winch R0Wena, the beautiful daughter OF
Iiengist, presented to the British king
NortigfTn WITH bowl of wine. saluting
him with Lord king wass-heil," to which
ne answered, as he was directed "Drinc
he'll; salutmg her after his own fashion
as his eyes Gevoured her charms. The
contents of the WaSSail cup were ale or
cider, to which sugar toast and roast
craps We're added.
Tne, followers of odin and Thor drank
largely in honor of their pagan deities.
ana Wllen converted still continued their
potatioIIs. but IN honor of the Virgin
Mary, the apostles and the saints The
early missionaries We're compelled to sub
NIT to the substitution, being unable to
abolish the practice, Which later degen-
Grated into drinking the healths of other
people, to the great detriment of our own
From the earliest ages the cup bearer
mas been one of the principal courtiers in
the royal palace
But eating and drinking were not the
only amusements at these early Christ
mas feasts. The DAYS of festivity Were
rleald nonsense making the Feast of
Asses and Feast of Fools being religious
ly Kept. These were what ultimately de-
Yeloped into the mummers plays. They
consisted mainly of young men going
about in female attire or skins of beasts
and with these pranhs there was occa-
siopally much vice and debauchery con-
nected. All sorts of buffoone, les and
denominations We're permitted at these
representations: mock anthems and serv-
ices We're sung; an ass covered with
rich pneStly robes, was gravely conduct
ed TO the choir, and provided from time
70 time with inferior provender, clergy,
him and braying and indulging in all
sorts Of impurities.
The boisterous, care free revel which
constituted the highest form of enjoy,
ment to the early celebrators of Christ
mas continued with more or less abridg-
ment to the proper way of celebrating
until long after the RoundheadS in Eng
land and the Lutherans in Germany had
tried to imparC sober tone to the
great Christian festival ana the seed
of itrmay be seen today in the glutto,l
and drunkard who rounds up the HOLIDAYS
with ali the signs of having INDUCED
In an uncurbe6 GeOauch.
Ivy and miStletoe are the two most
ancient features Of the Yuletide decora-
lions. The popularity of the former
reaches. back into ante Christmas times
In Egypt the ivy was sacred to Osiris
In Greece to Bacchus tDionysos) whose
thyrsuS was represented as surrounded
with ivy. The Romans mingled it in
the laurel crowns of their poets; it
therefore lent itself readily to the pur-
poses OF the Christmas feast.
The mistletoe was an object OF venera-
ton among our pagan ancestors in very
early times, Some authorities believe it
was the golden branch referred to by
Virgil in his description Of the descent
to the lower regions. 1t may therefore
have been used in the religious cere-
monies of the Greeks and Romans This
branch appears to have been the miStle-
toe of the oak, now of great rarity al
though the plant is found on a grea.
many trees
BY the Celtic nation and the Druids it
was held sacred they attributing many
valuable qualities to it. On account Of
he'll. They preferred and used excll-
sively the mistletoe of the oak
Vallancy says they held the plant 5a-
cred because the berries as we'll as the
one stalk. number which they held sa-
cred, but on the mStleoe of today the
leaves come in pairs only.
The Gothic nations all attributed eX-
it was the cause of the death of their
deity Bladder 1t came about this way:
Friga, when she adjured all the other
plants. and the animals birds, metals,
earth fire. water, reptiles, disease Ind
poisons not to do him any hurt, unfor-
fuO3tNlS neglected exact DlG0pA