The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-09

bed, for one or more nights during
Christmas. Perhaps this is a relic Of
the old idea-commOn for the Nor
mans as we'll as for the Romans-that
at the change of the year everybody
should be equal for a short time at
least. On the west coast of Norway
it is still the custom, where the fam
lily sleeps in this manner, for the
man of the mouse and his wife to get
UP first in the morning and to wait
on the others, which corresponds with
the old Roman way of acting under
similar circumstances. Services We're
held in the churches during the night,
as long as Catholicism was the re-
ligion of the country; latterly it has
gradually died away.
Christmas was considered as day
which should be spent at home; at
tending church was the only excursion
! proper, and no parties were given on
! that day. If any one tried to pay
a friendly visit to his neighbor on
that day, he was not only considered
a man without manners, but instead
of being met with an outstretched
hand of welcome, he would-in Jute-
land at least-receive a jugful of the
water, in which the fish had been
boiled on the previous night poured
| over his head. In the country Christ
mas Day is still reserved for the en-
tertainment of ones own household
| exclusively.
Second Christmas Day, or st. Ste
| phen's Day, which was the beginning
of festivities on broader scale, start
ed in with a, horse race early in the
| morning. This is another relic from
| the time when the race was held in
| honor of Frey, the deity Of the old
| Norsemen, who was a special sort of
protector for horses.
Social Entertainments.
The rest of the holidays was given
| over to social entertainments of diff
| ferent kinds in which dancing, sew
| eral odd games, a lot of eating and
still more drinking were the main fea-
| lures. The peasants used each to put
in their share for such parties. There
was the same motive behind these
gatherings as behind the sleeping on
| the straw together-the rich were to
| mingle with the poor, the servant
with his master, all should be BROTH
ers and equals for the time being.
| 1t seems as If even fourteen days
| Christmas was not quite sufficient to
satisfy the laziness or desire for pleas
ure of some people, and as late as
at the end of the eighteenth century
| we find that the feast first was con-
sidered properly over on the twentieth
| Christmas Day, or Jan. IS. But even
this date does seem to have suited
everybody, because to the common
greeting, God blass your Christmas
was added, may it remain Christmas
until Easter
Things change even in Norway, the
glorious fourteen days Christmas is
| reduced to two days-legal holidays,
/ of course. Thirty odd years ago it
i was three; the same number of years
ahead it will very likely have been
reduced to one.
Instead of attending the Christmas
games and beer-and mead parties Of
the past the young people now devote
1 these December and January evenings
more and more every year for. out
door winter sport. such as skating,
skiing and the like.
! Not that parties and dances do not
still exist, but experience has taught
the present generation that the in
vigorating air. in the pine forests is
i more beneficial for the lungs than the
ballroom dust. M. A.