The commonwealth., 1910-12-22

present day is a far cry in point of
time, distance and customs of celebra-
tion. Aside from the church services
there is much of interest in the land
of "Mo'sieur" at Christmas. The day
is chiefly for children, though, Of
course, the grown-ups lose sight of
the real meaning of it no more than
do the fathers and mothers of our
own land. In France the great SYM
Dol of Christmas is the mistletOe. All
over Northern France it is cut in
carloads, carried to the quaint quays
of seaport towns and shipped to Eng
land-for John Bull comes nowhere
near supplying the Christmas demand
for mistletoe in his own land.
Just before Christmas the French
lads and lassies go out into the hoary
old forests and search for mistletoe.
The boy who sees the first tuft gives
a shout of Joy, climbs the tree, cuts
it, and is carried back in triumph with
his prize, as king of the feast. The
mistletoe is hung above the entrance
to a door and the young girls pass be-
meath it, one by one, to be kissed by
the first lad who catches them. On
all Paris streets at Christmas mistle-
toe is for sale, and 1t is real Christ
mas necessity.
A queer superstition clings to this
winter blossom in the minds OF the
ignorant French peasants-the burn,
ing of the mistletoe. Ugly practices
and crazy exaltation have been known
to take hold of an entire village. with
the superstitious excitement attend
ing the burning of the mistletoe. The
custom is, apparently, an ancient one
from the Celts. A part of the blossom
is broken up into little bits. placed in
a pan and held over the blazing fire
The ashes are carefully collected
placed in little bags and distributed
to be worn around the neck as tails
men. Frequently these little bags are
buried In the middle of a field to bring
good crops.
Some wives of the French peasants
hold that these little bags are mar
velous in preventing their husbands
from coming home drunk and fero
cious. All that is necessary Is tC
sprinkle a little of the ashes of the
mistletoe in his drink, when he ISM
looking. and his appetite for drinl
will decrease. The ashes will, al
least. keep him soberer than he
would be without them.
In many sections of Germany
Christmas is celebrated in many di
verse ways Yet all the festivities
cling together by tradition and have
many parts quite similar. Santa Claus
is the main feature, and he differs q
great deal from the Santa Claus OF
America.
The German Kris Kringle never dis
tributes any toys, but he carries a
large bag of nuts. These nuts are
distributed among the German chill
dren on Christmas day. Santa is pc
culiar in that he also carries bundle
of switches They are for the chill
dren who have been disObedient dur
ing the past year When the nuts are
distributed the bad children receive q
switching, instead of their portion Of
the nuts. In distributing the nuts
they are usually placed In the center
of the table and Santa Claus hand:
them to the youngsters. Frequent!
the lads are too anxious for their por
ton of the goodies and the switche:
in the hands of Santa come dowr
across their shoulders with whack
Then they keep safe distance from
the table.
The German children believe 1,
Santa Claus until they become abou
10 years of age. In Germany only on'
day is celebrated, Christmas eve be
ing left unnoticed. This is more 81
among the laboring people, as thu
shops and factories never give hal
holiday on the day before Christmas
On Christmas day almost all of th'
churches have Christmas tree TO
the little folks. and the gifts are dis
tributed from it. In nearly all of th'
homes Christmas trees are to b.
found The gifts are very rarely Civ
en- out on the night before Christmas
German children have many of tn
same Christmas amusements that tn
American children have, and some O