The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1915-12-30
Old Time New
Years Customs
Setting w" in Years Gone BY.
The Dutch and Their Calls. > -

Coin TO sit UP tonight?"
''I reckon-yes. / reckon I will. Nuth-
In In it, y know. but lots O. fun and
fresh cider"
Such conversation might have been
heard In any rural region of the CEN
tral west some forty years ago on any
New Years eve. And the setting up"
was the one and only point in which
New Years observations differed from
those of Christmas. rhe Knickerbock-
ers have SO far impressed themselves
present generation think "calls and
congratulations" have always been the
great feature of New Years. .ar
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
new year in was the one thing Pc
cuIiar to New Years. Wonderful things
were to be seen at that hour. Cows
fell upon their knees. fowls went
through a sort OF reverential perform
ance, the wild animals lost their fear
Of man, and certain plants of a mys-
terious nature 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, she honestly believed 1t.
A little later, when the old superstition
died out, watch night" became a re-
ligious proceeding. The ordinary even
ing meeting was followed by song
aud praise session. A few minutes
10 MI terhf ~ he
church gathered around the "altar"
at was merely the space in front of the
pulpit, but the old name remained) and
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
closing year. When the new hour and
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 faithfulness 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 1t still survives in the
far south as walking Egypt
But what of the original watch
night?" Wei, all we can say Is that
some OF our ancestors brought II from
Scotland with them, and. as they told
OF the WONDERFUL things that had hap
pened in Scotland, so their children In
kentucky and Indiana told the same
things as having happened in Mary
land, and by and by their children in
Illinois and Missouri told of them as
occurrences I'm Maryland or Kentucky,
and so the superstition lived on In
many nefghborhoods even to the out
break OF the civil war.
Strange to say, the custom OF calling
on New Years day grew most nearly
| universal among the Chinese and
Americans The former celebrate the
new year through three days, during
which they CAN on their friends, ex-
change greetings In the streets, beat
| gongs, offer prayers and make q
| Fourth OF July Of 1t In fireworks.
In the days when a little group oi
l frame houses with gable ends Of Dutch
| brick clustered about the fort adjoin-
| ing the point called the Battery In
} New York, Mynheer and Vrouw, to-
gether with their children, the youths
and maidens of New Amsterdam
would go about making visits to each
other, celebrating the day as only q
| primitive people could celebrate it, the
elders smoking their pipes and this
youngers making merry and all en-.
ioying themselves heartily.
But the burghers OF New Amsterdam
4 as new generations came on waxed
! rich Broadway passed the ole rope,
| walk near the present site of the Aston
House. shot ovqr Union square. and