The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1915-12-30
Old Time New
Years Customs
"Setting Up" in Years Gone BY.
The Dutch and Their Calls. . y
years came in

Coin to sit up ~tonight?"
"I reckon-yes, I reckon 1 will. Nuth-
in in it, v know, but lots O. fun and
fresh cider"
Such a conversation might have been
heard In any rural region of the CEN
trail west some forty years ago on any
New Years eve. And the setting up
was the n and only point in which
New Years observations differed from
those of Christmas. The Kn~ickerbock-
ers " SO far impressed themselves
upon American life that most of the
present generation think calls and
congratulations have always been the
great feature of New Years.
Know then, innocent youth. that as
! late as fifty years ago New Years
calls were an unknown institution in
three-fourths of the United States.
But in the border states, especially the
southern sections of the states just
north of the Ohio, the practice of
watching the old year out and the
Few year in was the one thing Pc
culiar to New Years. Wonderful things
Were to be seen at hat hour. Cows
fell upon their knees, fowls went
through a sort of reverential perform
ance, the wild animals lost their fear
of man ar1 certain plants of a mys-
ferrous 4-ature sprang up in the door
yard.
II have had the children pull and lay
on my lap shoots as long as my hand"
was the testimony of one good old
lady, and, for aught any nearer could
ever discover, h honestly believed it.
A little later, when the old superstition
| died out, watch night" became a re-
ligious proceeding. The ordinary even
ing meeting was followed by a song
praise session. A few minutes
before midnight the members of the
church gathered around the ALTAR"
ut was merely the space in front Of the
= - ,-.L H. II 49, 40 -~lN n al
sometimes joined hands in a circle.
AS the minute hand of the clock
neared the XII mark the most pro-
found silence was discretionary
Christian was supposed to be in silent
prayer for pardon for the sins of the
new year began, all broke into a glad
song, often mingled with shouts in
Methodist or United Brethren churches,
and after the song closed the members
pledged cath other to renewed devotion
and greater f~aithfulness to duty" for
the coming year. The negroes, always
quick to adapt their old African GUS
toms to their new religion, took special
delight in this one, adding many fanci-
full features, and it stiIl survives in the
far south as walking Egypt
But what of the original watch
night?'' Well, all we can say is thai
some Of our ancestors brought it from
Scotland with them, and, as they tolo
of the wonderful things that had hap,
pened in Scotland, SO their children II
Kentucky and Indiana told the sam
things as having happened in Mary.
land, and by and by their children IL
Illinois and Missouri told of them a:
occurrences in Maryland or Kentucky
and so the superstition lived on il
; many neighborhoods even to the out
break of the civil war.
Strange to say, the custom of calm,
on New Years day grew most nearl.
universal among the Chinese an,
ii Americans. The former celebrate tn
new year through three days, durini
which they call on their friends, ex
change greetings in the streets, bea
u gongs, offer prayers n make
Fourth of July of 1t in fireworks.
In the days when a little group Q
frame houses with gable ends Of Dutc
brick clustered abou the fort adjoin
ing the point called the Battery j
New York, Mynheer and Vrouw, to
gether with their children. the youth
and maidens of New Amsterdam
would go about making visits to eac
other, celebrating the day as only
primitive people could celebrate it, til
I elders smoking their pipes and tn
4 youngers making merry INK ali err
!; joying themselves heartily.
But the burghers of New Amsterdam
MS new generations came on wake
rich. Broadway passed the old rope
walk near the present site of the Aste
Hoase. shot yer Union squara- an