The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-01-02
CHRIST MAS LEGENDS
THE HOLY THoRN-cHRISTMAS
RoSE-cHRISTMAS EVE-THE
MANGER-cHRISTMAs BELLS.

have sprung legends and beliefs, like
blossoms in a gracious cline, which
testify with subtlety to the depth of
the appeal of the birth of Christ.
Here divinely spiritual symbolism
and there sweet human tenderness
and pathos appear, and, blended, they
evidence the worlds belief that He
was both Son Of Man and Son of
God.
Al Irish legend tells us that, on
Christmas eve, the Christ-Child
wanders out in the darkness and cold,
and the peasants still put lighted
candles in their windows to guide the
sacred little feet, that they may not
stumble on their way to their homes.
And in Hungary the people go yet
further in their tenderness for the
Child; they spread feasts and leave
their doors open that He may enter
at His will, while throughout Chris
tendon there is belief that no evil
can touch any child who is born on
Christmas eve.
The legend which tells how the
very hay which lined the Manager in
which the Holy Babe was laid put
forth living red blossoms at mid-win-
ter at the touch of the Babes body
could only have arisen from belief
in the renewal of life through the
Lord of Life.
The Holy Thorn.
1t is not SO many centuries ago
since there was that holy thorn at
Glastonbury which blossomed every
Christmas, and, so ran the legend, had
done ever since st. Joseph of Arima-
thea, having come as apostle to Brit
ain, and, landing at Glastonbury, had
stuck his staff of dry hawthorn into
the soil, commanding it to put forth
leaves and blossoms. This the staff
straightway did, and thereby was the
king converted to the Christian faith,
the faith which preached life from
DEATH
The holy thorn of Glastonbury
fIOurished during the centuries until
the civil wars. During those it was
uprooted; but several persons had had
trees growing from cuttings from the
original tree, and those continued to
bloom at the Christ-season, just as
their parent, which had grown from
st. Joseph's staff, had bloomed. And
about the middle of the eighteenth
century it was recorded in the Cen
tleman's Magazine how the famous
holy thorn would not deign to recog-
niZe the new style calendar, which
had then come into force, but would
persist in poisoning as of old on old
Christmas day!
In those days the anniversary of
the advent of the Babe had certainly
meant more to the common people
than merely time for feasting and
revelry, for giving and receiving; it
had been also a season for holy OBJ
servances, for they refused to go to
church on New Christmas day, the
holy thorn not being then in blossom.
So serious became the trouble that
the clergy found it prudent to an
nounce that Old Christmas day should
also be kept sacred as before.
The First Christmas Rose.
Another of those spiritual parallels
is the legend of the Christmas rose,
and it tells how good things, fit for
giving, spring UP ready to the hand
which earnestly desires to give to the
Child 1t is said that certain maiden
OF Bethlehem was so poor that she
had nothing to give to the Babe to
Whom kings brought wealth from
afar, and, as she stood, longing and
mourning, an angel appeared to her,
saying: Look at thy feet, beneath
the snow" and 10! on obeying, the
maiden found that a new flower had
miraculously sprung UP and blossomed
at her needs. Ever since then, runs
this story, this exquisite flower, with
it's snowy petals just touched by sug-
gestions of pinkish bloom, is to be
found at this season; and, indeed,
it's half-opened cups are like chalices
of love, and it's fully spread petals
are like happy innocence, fit symbols
for the gifts for the Babe of spotless
1nnOCSuCc, "AOoc hSdlI Wdo Tic NSo-
sci of love.
Christmas Eve.
There are several exceedingly
touching legends concerning bells,
which are heard ringing from buried
cities and villages at this season. One
belongs to village near Raleigh, in
Nottinghamshire, and the story runs
that once, where there is now but a
valley, there was a village which,
with every trace of life and habita-
ton, had been swallowed by an earth
quake; but ever since, at Christmas,
the bells of the buried church are
heard to ring as of old.
A similar legend is told of Preston,
in Lancashire, and yet another and
more moving one comes from the
Netherlands. 1t is said that the city
of Been was notorious for its black
and shameless sins, as well as re-
nowned for its beauty and magnifi-
cence. To the Sodom of the middle
ages came our Saviour on one ami
versary of His birth, and went as
beggar from door to door, but not
one in all that Christmas keeping city
gave the Master of their abundance.
Sin He saw rampant on every side,
but not trace of Christmas bounty
and good will, and He called to the
sea. which, as of old, obeyed His