Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-19
A FRENCH CHRISTMAS
Santa Claus Does Not Come
on That Day,
BUT ON DECEMBER 6
FOR THAT rs THE FEAST OF ST
NICHOLAS.
True Spirit Can Best Be Found in the
Villages and Coun-
tYv
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
CHATEAU CROIX- TUQUELLEMAIM

| CHATEAU CROIX-TUQUEL.LEMAI
| (near Parfs). December g. 1gOS.
| To get the true flavor of French Christ
mas you must quit your Paris. In the
Burgundian hills and among the fisher
| folks Of Brittany they say that 1t Is purest;
but here also. in little corner forty m les
| from the cynical capital. I am astonished-
for the second time. 1t makes my second
| Christmas in the French countryside.
| In the village close to this country house
all the population keeps the eve and the
day and the night well. except. of course,
| the schoolmaster and the postmaster. who
| represent the government and what it calls
| free thought.
| I rather wish I could tell how the cha
teau people make it pleasant for the VII
layers. how the peasants eat and drink in
| the great hall below the SALT and how the
| marquise dances with Old Pierre, the black
| smith century ago they did 1t. Now
| they do 1t no more. The village is too
| proud and the chateau too Indifferent.
Santa Claus comes to each apart
That is to say. Santa Claus does not come
at all. 1 mean on Chr .stmas day His day
mas always been. in France. December s..
the Feast OF st. Nicholas-from whom (Ni-
cholas. cloas. claus, We have our Santa
Claus by direct descent by way of Holland
| and the Dutch of New York.
iOih6ut 10 Lie night OF NICHOLAS, n
eh.ldrens feast. when every rather naughty
! BOY in village and country house is wonder
! ing whether he shall find a birch sw tch or
lot OF toys and candies-in his shoes, not
! in his stockings!
l must either choose the village or the
chateau. Let it be the village. Wen, In at
least twenty households st. Nichols VIII
| appear personally with his whin To scare
| (not strike) the naughty and a bag chock
tuii or presents. He will go from house to
mouse and in the end h g long white false
eeard VIII come Off and he will sit beside his
| hre to drink mulled red wine with spice
and sugar in 1t. He will be wrapped up IKE
bishop, with bishops crook in his hand
and the praise and blame he distributes re-
main In children's minds for six months.
When st. Nicholas Comes.
so much for ST. Nicholas. Christmas eve
day is itself a fast day-the last of the sea-
son of Advent; but when nightfaIl comes
the strictness Is relaxed and grown folks
and little ones are served alike with Chr ST.
mas cakes and sweetmeats When all has
been slowed away the latter are hustled off
TO pretense of sleep But do you tn nix
tney can sleep between an s o'clock sumner
or sweets and a reveillon or utterly excen
uonal breakfast, to come off after the mid
night mass at o'clock in the morning.
In the center and south of France the
houses must be darkened during this first
watch OF the night. for the most ancient
ceremony of all must take place between II
p. m. and midnight. 1t represents the mys-
tic hour when all Bethlehem Silent 1,To,,
the angels descended and stirred the shep-
nerds with their song. The shepherds who
watched their fiocks by night, you know
The singers who awake the French villa
gers are no angels. The sweetest tenor
voice of the village is that of lean pierra
an outrageous village f1irt, to put it mildly
ana at least three others of the ouartat
cannot be trusted with either pretty girl or
bottle; nevertheless, they sing with notes
angelicai to many a harp Yes there are
harps. and still more curious anti1uated in
struments of wood and brass Resembling
serpents. making a lugubrious tender sound
First, there come three knocks at the
door, '-i-
who is thereT' called out severely the
master of the house. the father of the
family. '
Three louder knocks come in reply. The
good man within must strike hard with his
INST on the table. shouting still more harsh
ly:-'
Who goes there at such an hour?"
And then. with three more knocks. begins
the Song of Noel Just beyond the threshold.
song for hospitality in memory of the
first Christmas night when the Virgin and
Joseph knocked in vain for shelter In Beth
lehem.
Christmas Waits.
The door is thrown open and the singers
rush into the great kitchen. where the
Christmas log is burning in the chimney
place. All this Is essentially the Christmas
waits and Yule log inherited In Eng
land from the middle ages and made ia
nliliar to US by the sketches Of Washington
Irving. The singers receive their offerings
For the love of JesusI" Different bands
of young men thus divide up the houses OF
the well-to-do, SO that the very poor of the
village may share in the Christmas cheer.
Longfellow has translated one of these
Christmas songs from Burgundy who
wrote them? 1t tells how
Nuns in frigid cells.
At this holy tide
For want OF something else
At Christmas songs their hands have triedt
Some date back to the time when French
and Latin were still mixed together:
Compagnons eamus.
EaisOns gaudeamus,
VENT Dominusi
Most have been greatly modernized. such
Les anges dams nos montagnesi ."
which has sounding refrain of GLORIA In
excelsis Deo." Personally, however, I rather
prefer one they sing here In the town Of
Observation-Disclosures which its Inhabitants
call Croix for short 1t tells the whole
lot of details that probably did not happen
You will see how, at this season of good
WILL. each generous shopkeeper Is given a
free "ad" in II:
As soon as Croix had heard the news,
The drum was beat, to plump IN the pot
Snfpe and hare. capon and quail.
They were bought from Curnilont,
To make the revefIlonf
There are eighteen verses. / do not know
whether the good people really imagine
their town existed at the time of the birth
of Jesus. but here is another (of Besancon)
which has that artless leaning: The Mes
siah is lying on His little bed of straw. Ali
the town comes to see and adore. First,
the cure, with a sermon and handsome
compliment; for the priest has the learning:
then the mayor. putting. and sweating,
bringing cold meat and his best wine: then
Mademoiselle Sophie (from the cnateau)
with silk bed quilt to cover the little feet.
De ce tant joH poupon!
And so on. In one Noel the very birds
come to offer their services. The swallow
says she is something of a mason, to build
the Child house the turkey nebly offers
himself to be cooked: and the crow, for
fear that his unlueky voice should dis
please. hops forward with a nut In his
beak.
Midnight Mass.
At last the bell tolls for the midnight
mass, and all the people-families and
70 y,aiIfae fo0afbor-fha old tho ,,,;dd.a axXod