]3§gp*, Customs ans ff
of M
vv r "
N AXV attempt to trace the origin of the innumerable myths
Sj fw- |3 customs and superstition;; connected with the fetes and fes-
M Sj R tivals oi tlie calendar, the student is confronted with two prob
■ I '''Hi's: The strong probability of their having been primarily of
religious significance, and thus the potsherds, as it were, of
cults long forgotten, and ihe possibility of their having become
Byo o% pC B g«>'ble<l or altered in being handed down through the cen
difficulty to the lull when be wrote in his "Description of
Greece: \s to these fables of the Greeks 1 considered them childish when
I began this work, but when I get as far as ibis book I formed this view:
I hat thoM» who were reckoned wise among the Greeks spoke of old in rid
dles and not directly, so i imagine the fables about Chronos to be Greek wis
dom, of tlm traditions then fore about the gods I shall state such as 1 meet
with."
Plu'nrch also warned us against approaching these studies in the spirit
of skepticism and does not leave us in the dark as to his attitude of steering
a middle path between absolute unbelief and blind trust. "In regard to
legendary lore, he says,"l stand in the position of one who neither alto
gether believes nor altogether disbelieves. There are indeed some slender
and ob.-enre particles ot truth scattered about in the mythology of the
Egyptians, but they require a clever man to hunt them
out, a man capable of getting great results from small
data."
At the period when these two authors wrote, all learn
ing and science were confined to a very narrow circle of
initiates. The common folks were kept in strict igno
rance of the true meaning of their festivals; the mys
teries were a hidden book as to their true significance,
and only the outward and visible sign of the celebrations
came within their ken. How far the secrets were kept
by these initiates—a combination compared with which
our steel and sugar trusts sink into mere insignificance
is too well known to every student. Thus in many cases
it is impossible to trace definitely the actual basis of
these ancient myths and customs and any attempts, per
force, must necessarily remain much in the nature of a
patchwork quilt A scrap gathered here and there from
the ancient writings helps to work up the quilt, but the
ultimate stage has a somewhat crazy appearance.
It is all the more exabperating, because many of these
early writers, such as Herodotus, Plutarch and others
have stopped short in their screeds just when a few ex
tra words would have eased the knots that now prevent
us from unraveling the skein. Tney were initiates and
thus sworn to silence. Their oaths, however, did not pre
vent them whetting our curiosity and leaving us in a po
sition where, as Plutarch cynically remarks, it would in
deed be a clever task to get "great results from small
data."
Athenaeus, another of the old Greek gossipers, in
speaking of the policy of the Romans in adopting the cus
toms of peoples whom they had conquered says:"For it
is the conduct of prudent men to abide by those ancient
institutions under which they and their ancestors have
lived, and made war upon and subdued the rest of the
world; and yet at the same time, if there were any use
ful or honorable institutions among the peoples whom
they have subdued, those they take for their imitation at
the same time as they take their prisoners. And this was
the conduct of the Romans in olden time; for they, main
taining their national customs, at the same time intro
duced from the nations whom they had subdued every
relic ot desirable practices which they found." This, in
a measure, was the policy of the early fathers in adapt
fng heathen feasts and sacrifices to the festivals of the
church. With them, however, it was rather a case or
adaptation than of adoption, believing that the new or
der of things would come easier to the converts to the
Christian religion if the changes were not made too
sweeping nor too harsh. Thus it is that so many of the
customs connected with our festivals have come down to
us from time long prior to the birth of (he Saviour.
Unlike the many customs connected with the celebra
tion of Christmas, those of the beginning of the New
Year seems to bear more of the stamp of paganism. At
the same time such customs show a rather close resem
blance, due in a large measure to the fact that both can
be traced lo the celebrations round the ancient festival of
the Saturnalia and winter solstice, when the old year
went out and the new came in; a period of general re
joicing, and it, must be admitted of a great degree of row
dyism, noise and license which all the fulminations of
church councils in the Middle Ages and city ordinances
and orders of chiefs of police in these later days have
been unable to suppress. The youngster of to-day with
his horn is just as prominent in creating a racket as was
his prototype of a couple of thousand years ago.
Of late years this period of noise has been largely re
stricted to the eves of Christmas and New Year, but for
merly the period closely following Christinas day was one
of continuous jollification. Mummers perambulated the
strees of the towns and villages, and the Lord of Misrule,
the Abbot of Unreason or the Abbas Stultorum held'
sway. The "Fete of Fools" was celebrated on the three
days following Christmas, culminating on Holy Innocents
day in a general jamboree, in which not even the
churches were spared. Young people dressed themselves
up as the great dignitaries of the church, and even the
very offices seem to have been paradied and dances held
in the churches. The second canon of the Council o! Cog
nac, held 111 1200, put under pain of excommunication all
such as masqueraded as bishops, etc. At the councils
held at Nantes in 1431, and at Bourges in 1438, fulmina
tions were hurled against the "Fete of Fools," while as
early as 1212 the celebration was abolished by the council
held at Paris. Yet the custom of masquerading on the
days following Christmas is not yet extinct in many dis
tricts of France and elsewhere, but the celebration has
been shorn of much of its picturesqueness and at the
so.'B". *imo cyf its extreme li«.?n?
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1909.
The Lord of
Misrule had jur
isdic ti on in
both the great
English univer
sities from
Chr i st ra a s to
Twelfth day. He
regulated the
celebrations and
directed the
plays acted at
this period, for
which here-
ceived a regular
stipend, but lrom the records of his rule that have been
handed down to us it would rather seem that he himself
was sadly in need of being regulated and disciplined.
Each city had its similar functionary, and his jurisdiction
was not limited to this festive season; he had the regu
lation of all the festivals of the year. The reign of the
Lord of Misrule may be said to have ended when Crom
well and his "crop-eared" Puritans took charge of the
government, and while there was some attempt to revive
his lordship after the restoration of Charles 11., the bones
had become too dried and the flesh shriveled up—he was
a mere mummy of his former self. In Scotland the Ab
bot of Unreason was suppressed much earlier—lsss—by
the legislature, but whether such strong action was due
to the spread of Puritanism or to the unbridled scenes
of disorder is a question. Under Henry VIII., (1540) the
procession of children on Childermas, or Innocents day,
was forbidden in England by proclamation. There are!
however, still a few traces of the Lord of Misrule. The
English Christmas pantomimes open on December 26 —
Boxing day and have now become as much of an estab
lished institution as ever the Lord of Misrule was in his
palmiest days. Of recent years the institution has found
favor on this side oi the Atlantic. The masquerading on
the streets of the Lord of Misrule and his followers has
been merely transferred to the boards of the theater. In
many parts of France masquerading by children is still
in vogue during the three days following Christmas, and
in most countries something analogous is to be found.
Sometimes the feature is kept up until Twelfth day,
while in some sections the fun does not commence until
New Year's day.
1 hese first three days have been specially consecrated
to the memory of saints and martyrs—St. Stephen on the
26th, St. John the Evangelist on the 27th, and holy inno
cents or Childermas on the 28th.
I he lact that the day next after Christmas was dedi
cated to St. Stephen, the protomartyr, shows with what
veneration he v/as held by the early church. On this day,
in many parts of Ireland, and in the Isle of Man, it is
still the custom of the boys to hunt the wren. The origin
of this curious but cruel custom is hidden in the mist
of ages and thus offers another difficulty of "getting great
results from small data." One legend current in Ireland,
and told by Lady Wilde, is to the effect that on one oc
casion, when the Irish troops were approaching to at
tack a partion of Cromwell's army, the wrens came and
perched on the Irish drums, and by their tapping and
noise aroused the English soldiers, who fell on the Irish
soldiers and killed them all. This tale is a close analogue
to that in which the cackling of geese is said to have
saved Rome from capture, which even the staid Roman
historian, Llvy, seems to treat wi'h a show of belief. The
custom, however, dates back much further than Crom
well and his Ironsides. In County Leltrim the dead birds
are carried from house to house tied to a pole or bunch
of fuize, covered with ribbons, etc., the boys chanting:
The wren, the wren, the kins of .-ill birds
On St. Stephen's Day he was caught In the furze:
Although ho is little his family is groat,
So rise up mistress and give us a treat.
The mistress has to turn in a few pence to the boys,
the "jackpot" thus created being opened by the boys at
the end of the day.
In the Isle of Man the boys give a feather of the wren
to each good wife who contributes the necessary coin,
and it can well be imagined that by the end of the day
the appealance ot the bird is somewhat dilapidated. It is
then buried on the sea shore with certain mock cere
monies. In former years the interment was made in the
churchyard.
It wus and is still the custom in many parts of England
to bleed the horses on St. Stephen's day. The efficacy of
this treatment on this particular day, as a preventive of
all equine ailments, was thought to be undoubted, but
even old Tusser seems to have had his doubts on the
day, or Childer
mas (December 28), commemorates the massacre of the
children in Hethlehem, under llerod. This in itself Is
sufficient to explain its early recognition by the church.
The superstition that the day is an unlucky one—a "dies
nefastus"—is not only widely spread all over Europe, but
is deeply rooted and can be traced back many hundreds
of years.
The superstition was strong all through the middle
ages. In England, in the fifteenth century, it was thought
so inauspicious that the day set for the coronation of Ed
ward IV. (Sunday), happening to be Childemas, the cere
mony was postponed until the following day. In the
County of Suffolk at this day the superstition is carried
even further, and on whatever day of the week Childe
mas may happen to fall, that day is held to be unlucky
throughout the year. The commencement of any new
task is thought to be certain to be followed by failure.
Addison gives an instance of this belief in the Spectator
of March 1, 1710-'ll. "'Thursday,' says she, 'No, child,
if it please God! You shall not begin upon Childermas
day. Tell your Writing master that Friday will be soon
enough.'"
The custom of whipping the children as a reminder of
the event commemorated by Childermas was common in
France, and some parts of Normandy to-day there is still
a remnant existing among the country folks, but the re
ligious significance has been partly lost. This method
of assisting the memory of the luckless urchin by scor
ing hie; epidermis was formerly in vogue on other occa
sions than Holy Innocents' day. In England it was for
merly a common practice during the riding of the boun
daries of parishes and manors on Ascension day to whip
the youngsters at every important or disputed point.
This "Christening in the days of his youth," was remem
bered ever afterward, and the particular stone, cairn or
streamlet marking the metes and bounds between adjoin
ing parishes was thus indelibly mapped on his gray mat
ter—a proceeding quite as efficacious as a survey.
Although the festivities connected more closely with
the celebration of Christmas day have completely over
shadowed those of the New Year, still there are not a
few coiners in Christendom wherein the latter season
is held in much greater repute. In Scotland, in particu
lar, it is the great holiday of the year, and on the eve
and the day of New Year the canny Scot lets himself out
with a vim. It would seem as if his spirits, pent up for
a whole twelvemonth, find vent at this paticular season.
In France, Roman law and custom have impressed
themselves perhaps more strongly than elsewhere in Eu
rope, not even excepting Italy itself, and the close po
litical friendship which existed between Scotland and
France previous to the ascension of James VI. to the
throne still finds expression in the country to the north
of the Tweed in a much stronger fashion than is gener
ally believed. Many of the lowland terms of to-day are
merely French in a Scottish guise. It is perhaps more
to this close political entente than to the spread of the
Puritan doctrines—doctrines which held everything in
abomination, that smacked in the slightest degree of
church festivals—that so many of the customs and super
stitions now current among the canny Scots so closely
resemble those of France. Christmas at one time was
almost as much of a festival in Scotland as to the south
of the border, and it seems that in the cities, at least, it
is again showing recrudescence. But among the rank
and file of the people, with the"Man in the Street," it is
the New Year that holds his heart and at the same time
disturbs his digestion and addles his brain. Any one
who lias been in the "Canny Toun o' Edinbro" or Glas
gow on a New Year's eve realizes the spirit of good will
that reigns even if his ears be split by the pandemonium
of noise and his eyes suffer by the reek of the torches,
and it is rarely that the Scot in all his jollification at
this period construes liberty as license. The custom of
welcoming in the New Year has, however, on occasions,
subject when he says in his "Five
Points of Husbandry:"
Yer Christmas bo passed, let horses bo
let blood;
For manie a purpose it dooth them
much good;
The day of St. Steeven old fathers did
use;
If that do mislike thee, some other day
chuse.
The commonsense reason for
bleeding the horses on this day was
that both man and beast bad the
| three day following Christmas day
as a holiday. In parts of Bohemias
and elsewhere among the Slavic peo-S
pies of Europe the master of they
house gets no work out of his serv-m
ants from Christmas to Innocents'X
day, and in many sections the holi-J
day and general suspension of work®
is kept up until Twelfth day—Epl-C
phany. Among the Valaks there is?
a very significant custom. On the
morning of St. Stephen's day the
mistress of the house presents her
husband with a pair of trousers in '
token of her obedience during the v
ensuing year. Evidently the
fragette campaign has not reached *:>
into these remote Slavic regions. i$
Holy Innocents'
boon marked by unpleasant features. On the eve of New
Year 1812, the hoodlums of Edinburgh took advantage of
the festival to rob unsuspecting citizens. Two ot the
citizens died from the effects of the maltreatment at the
hands of these rowdies, of whom three were executed as
an example. This unfortunate incident threatened to put
an end to the celebrations.
With the Scots, the eve of New Year is known particu
larly as "Hogmanay." Throughout the northeastern
counties of England it is known as "Hagmena," but in
many districts of the latter it is the entire week prece
ding the New Year, rather than the last day of the year.
There have been many attempts by philologists to get at
the derivation of the term, and it has even been suggest
ed that it is a corruption of two Greek words, signifying
the holy moon or month." Opinion, however, leans to
ward its French origin—"Au gui menez" (bring in the
mistletoe), and "Au gui I'an neuf (to the mistletoe the
New Year), both in allusion to the ceremonial gathering
of the plant by the Druids. In almost every district in
France we find the term in a more or less corrupted or
dialectal form. The Scottish custom of the children go
ing from house to house singing a short verse and beg
ging the "guid wife" for a small present is identically the
same as that known all over France.
Get up, guid wife, and shake yere feathers.
An' dlnna think that we are beggars,
For we're yere bairns come oot the day.
So rise and gie'a oor Hogmanay.
chants the little Scotch kiddie, and the analogue of the
doggerel can be found in every village of France. As the
Scottish verselet shows, the "hogmanay" applies to the
presents to the children, and has not the custom of giv
ing presents at this season endured for centuries? Ovid,
in his Fasli, alludes to the custom among the Romans of
his day. Then the presents do not seem to have been
at all costly and were more symbolical than otherwise,
The palm-date and dried fig with the jar of honey and
the small coin were the gifts, audit does not need any
great stretch of imagination to guess their symbolic
meaning. The cakes, fruit and luck-penny are still given
the children--they are their "hogmanay."
The superstition that the first person entering the
house on New Year's morning, or the first one met dur
ing the day, presages good or bad luck during the ensu
ing year is almost universal. The first to cross the
threshold or "first foot" has thus a peculiar significance
and many are the precautions taken that he be of the
lucky variety. We mention "he"for except in a very few
isolated instanees the superstition that should a woman
be the first-ioot ill-luck will follow is almost universal.
Moreover, he must be a dark man—a red-headed man is
anathema. A splay-footed, a pigeon-toed, squint-eyed or
an individual whose eyebrows closely approximate, in
fact any bodily or mental deformation carries bad luck
with it. Yet even here we find a few exception which
rather tend to disturb our belief in the infallibility of the
rule. In the Bradwctll District of Northumberland a
light-haired and splay-footed individual is preferred. In
parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire a blonde "first, foot"
Is reckoned quite lucky, while in the Maritime Alpine dis
tricts a hump-backed visitor on New Year's day is held
to bring in great luck with him. In Scotland the preju
dice against a red-haired "first foot" is very strong and
in the Isle of Man and all through Ireland it is quite as
pronounced.
The superstition of ill-luck being attached to red hair
is very ancient. Among the ancient Egyptians and Jew
ish people it was known. Typhon is said to have had
this particular color to his "thatch," and red-haired men
were abused at certain festivals, as Plutarch tells us In
his "Moralia." Cain and Judas Iscariot are both said to
have had the crimson topknot, while a well-known leg
end current among the Jews says that this peculiar tint
was the effect of falling down and worshiping the golden
calf. In Norse and Gaelic legend we find that the hero
is warned against a "ginger-headed" individual.
9