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December 24th
Born: Galba, Roman
emperor, 3
B. C.
; John, King of England, 1166, Oxford;
William Warburton, bishop of
Gloucester, 1698, Newark;
George Crabbe, poet, 1754, Aldborough; Eugene Scribe,
French dramatist, 1791, Paris.
Died: George of Cappadocia, noted Archbishop,
slain at Alexandria, 361
A.D.
; Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, 1426, Bury St.
Edmunds; Vases de Gama, celebrated Portuguese
navigator, 1525, Cochin, in Malabar; Madame de Geniis,
popular authoress, 1830, Paris; Davies Gilbert,
antiquarian and man of science, 1839, Eastbourne,
Sussex; Archdeacon Henry John Todd, editor of
Johnson's Dictionary, &c., 1845, Settrington,
Yorkshire; Dr. John Ayrton Paris, chemist, 1856,
London; Hugh Miller, geologist, 1856, Portobello.
Feast Day: St. Gregory of
Spoleto, martyr, 304. Saints Thrasilla and Emiliana,
virgins.
Christmas Eve
The eves or vigils of
the different ecclesiastical festivals throughout the
year are, according to the strict letter of canonical
rule, times of fasting and penance; but in several
instances, custom has appropriated them to very
different purposes, and made them, seasons of mirth
and jollity. Such is the case with
All-Saints' Eve, and perhaps even more so
with Christmas Eve, or
the evening before Christmas Day. Under the latter
head, or 25th of December, will be found a special
history of the great Christian festival; though the
observances of both days are so intertwined together,
that it becomes almost impossible to state, with
precision, the ceremonies which are peculiar to each.
We shall, however, do the best we can in the
circumstances, and endeavor, under the 24th of
December, to restrict ourselves to an account of the
popular celebrations and customs which characterize
more especially the eve of the Nativity.
With Christmas Eve,
the Christmas holidays may practically be said to
commence, though, according to ecclesiastical
computation, the festival really begins on the 16th of
December, or the day which is distinguished in the
calendar as O. Sapientia, from the name of an anthem,
sung during Advent. It is proper, however, to state
that there seems to be a discrepancy of opinion on
this point, and that, in the judgment of some, the
true Christmas festival does not commence till the
evening before Christmas Day.
The season is held to
terminate on 1
st of February, or the evening before
the Purification of the Virgin (Candlemas
Day), by
which date, according to the ecclesiastical canons,
all the Christmas decorations must be removed from the
churches.
In common parlance, certainly, the Christmas
holidays comprehend a period of nearly a fortnight,
commencing on Christmas Eve, and ending on Twelfth
Day. Most businesses remove their commercial
Christmas decorations by the second week in January. The whole of this
season is still a jovial one,
abounding in entertainments and merry-makings of all
sorts, but is very much changed from what it used to
be with our ancestors in feudal times, when it was an
almost unintermitted round of feasting and jollity.
For a picture of
Christmas Eve, in the olden time, we can desire none
more graphic than that furnished by
Sir Walter Scott in
Marmion:
On Christmas Eve
the bells were rung;
On Christmas Eve the mass was sung;
That only night, in all the year,
Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear.
The damsel donned her kirtle sheen;
The hall was dressed with holly green;
Forth to the wood did merry-men go,
To gather in the mistletoe.
Then opened wide the baron's hall
To vassal, tenant, serf, and all;
Power laid his rod of rule aside,
And Ceremony doffed his pride.
The heir, with roses in his shoes,
That night might village partner choose.
The lord, underogating, share
The vulgar game of ' post and pair.
All hailed, with
uncontrolled delight,
And general voice, the happy night,
That to the cottage, as the crown,
Brought tidings of salvation down!
The fire, with
well-dried logs supplied,
Went roaring up the chimney wide;
The huge hall-table's oaken face,
Scrubbed till it shone, the day to grace,
Bore then upon its massive board
No mark to part the squire and lord.
Then was brought in the lusty brawn,
By old blue-coated serving-man;
Then the grim boar's-head frowned on high,
Crested with bays and rosemary.
Well can the green-garbed ranger tell,
How, when, and where the monster fell
What dogs before his death he tore,
And all the baiting of the boar.
The wassail round in good brown bowls,
Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls.
There the huge sirloin reeked: hard by
Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas-eye;
Nor failed old Scotland to produce,
At such high-tide, her savoury goose.
Then came the merry masquers in,
And carols roared with blithesome din
If unmelodious was the song,
It was a hearty note, and strong.
Who lists may in their mumming see
Traces of ancient mystery;
White shirts supplied the masquerade,
And smutted cheeks the visors made;
But, oh! what masquers, richly dight,
Can boast of bosoms half so light!
England was merry England, when
Old Christmas brought his sports again.
'Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale;
'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man's heart through half the year.'
To investigate the origin of many of our Christmas
customs, it becomes necessary to wander far back
into the regions of past time, long ere Julius Caesar
had set his foot on our shores, or St.
Augustine
preached the doctrines of Christianity to the men of
Kent. We have frequently, in the course of this work,
had occasion to remark on the numerous traces still
visible in popular customs of the old pagan rites and
ceremonies. These, it is needless here to repeat, were
extensively retained after the conversion of Britain
to Christianity, partly because the Christian teachers
found it impossible to wean their converts from their
cherished superstitions and observances, and partly
because they themselves, as a matter of expediency, ingrafted the rites of the
Christian religion on the
old heathen ceremonies, believing that thereby the
cause of the Cross would be rendered more acceptable
to the generality of the populace, and thus be more
effectually promoted. By such an amalgamation, no
festival of the Christian year was more thoroughly
characterized than Christmas; the festivities of
which, originally derived from the Roman Saturnalia,
had afterwards been intermingled with the ceremonies
observed by the British Druids at the period of the
winter-solstice, and at a subsequent period became
incorporated with the grim mythology of the ancient
Saxons. Two popular observances belonging to Christmas
are more especially derived from the worship of our
pagan ancestors�the hanging up of the mistletoe, and
the burning of the Yule log.
As regards the former
of these practices, it is well known that, in the
religion of the Druids, the mistletoe was regarded
with the utmost veneration, though the reverence which
they paid to it seems to have been restricted to the
plant when found growing on the oak�the favorite tree
of their divinity Tutanes�who appears to have been the
same as the Phenician god Baal, or the sun, worshiped
under so many different names by the various pagan
nations of antiquity. At the period of the
winter-solstice, a great festival was celebrated in
his honour, as will be found more largely commented on
under our notice of Christmas Day. When the sacred
anniversary arrived, the ancient Britons, accompanied
by their priests, the Druids, sallied forth with great
pomp and rejoicings to gather the mystic parasite,
which, in addition to the religious reverence with
which it was regarded, was believed to possess
wondrous curative powers. When the oak was reached on
which the mistletoe grew, two white bulls were bound
to the tree, and the chief Druid, clothed in white
(the emblem of purity), ascended, and, with a golden
knife, cut the sacred plant, which was caught by
another priest in the folds of his robe. The bulls,
and often also human victims, were then sacrificed,
and various festivities followed. The mistletoe thus
gathered, was divided into small portions, and
distributed among the people, who hung up the sprays
over the entrances to their dwellings, as a
propitiation and shelter to the sylvan deities during
the season of frost and cold. These rites in
connection with the mistletoe, were retained
throughout the Roman dominion in Britain, and also for
a long period under the sovereignty of the Jutes,
Saxons, and Angles.
The following
legend
regarding the mistletoe, from the Scandinavian
mythology, may here be introduced:
Balder, the god of
poetry and eloquence, and second son of Odin and
Friga, communicated one day to his mother a dream
which he had had, intimating that he should die. She
(Friga), to protect her son from such a contingency,
invoked all the powers of nature�fire, air, earth,
and water, as well as animals and plants�and
obtained an oath from them that they should do
Balder no hurt.
The latter then went and took his
place amid the combats of the gods, and fought
without fear in the midst of showers of arrows. Loake, his enemy, resolved to
discover the secret of
Balder's invulnerability, and, accordingly,
disguising himself as an old woman, he addressed
himself to Friga with complimentary remarks on the
valour and good-fortune of her son.
The goddess
replied that no substance could injure him, as all
the productions of nature had bound themselves by an
oath to refrain from doing him any harm. She added,
however, with that awkward simplicity which appears
so often to characterise mythical personages, that
there was one plant which, from its insignificance,
she did not think of conjuring, as it was impossible
that it could inflict any hurt on her son.
Loake
inquired the name of the plant in question, and was
informed that it was a feeble little shoot, growing
on the bark of the oak, with scarcely any soil. Then
the treacherous Loake ran and procured the
mistletoe, and, having entered the assembly of the
gods, said to the blind Heda: 'Why do you not contend
with the arrows of Balder?
'Heda replied: I am
blind, and have no arms.'
Loake then presented him
with an arrow formed from the mistletoe, and said:
'Balder is before thee.'
Heda shot, and Balder fell
pierced and slain.
The mistletoe, which
has thus so many mystic associations connected with
it, is believed to be propagated in its natural state
by the misselthrush, which feeds upon its berries. It
was long thought impossible to propagate it
artificially, but this object has been attained by
bruising the berries, and by means of their viscidity,
causing them to adhere to the bark of fruit-trees,
where they readily germinate and take root. The growth
of the mistletoe on the oak is now of extremely rare
occurrence, but in the orchards of the west-midland
counties of England, such as the shires of Gloucester
and Worcester, the plant flourishes in great frequency
and luxuriance on the apple-trees.
Large quantities are
annually cut at the Christmas season, and dispatched
to London and other places, where they are extensively
used for the decoration of houses and shops. The
special custom connected with the mistletoe on
Christmas Eve, and an indubitable relic of the days
of Druidism, handed down through a long course of
centuries, must he familiar to all our readers. A
branch of the mystic plant is suspended from the wall
or ceiling, and any one of the fair sex, who, either
from inadvertence, or, as possibly may be insinuated,
on purpose, passes beneath the sacred spray, incurs
the penalty of being then and there kissed by any lord
of the creation who chooses to avail himself of the
privilege.
 The
burning of the Yule
log is an ancient Christmas ceremony, transmitted
to us from our Scandinavian ancestors, who, at their
feast of Juul, at the winter-solstice, used to kindle
huge bonfires in honour of their god Thor. The custom,
though sadly shorn of the 'pomp and circumstance'
which formerly attended it, is still maintained in
various parts of the country. The bringing in and
placing of the ponderous block on the hearth of the
wide chimney in the baronial hall was the most joyous
of the ceremonies observed on Christmas Eve in feudal
times. The venerable log, destined to crackle a
welcome to all-comers, was drawn in triumph from its
resting-place at the feet of its living brethren of
the woods. Each wayfarer raised his hat as it passed,
for he well knew that it was full of good promises,
and that its flame would burn out old wrongs and
hearthurnings, and cause the liquor to bubble in the
wassail-bowl, that was quaffed to the drowning of
ancient feuds and animosities. So the Yule-log was
worthily honoured, and the ancient bards welcomed its
entrance with their minstrelsy.
The following ditty,
appropriate to such an occasion, appears in the
Sloane
Manuscripts. It is supposed to be of the time of Henry
VI:
WELCOME YULE
Welcome be thou,
heavenly King,
Welcome born on this morning,
Welcome for whom we shall sing,
Welcome Yule,
Welcome be ye
Stephen and John,
Welcome Innocents every one,
Welcome Thomas Martyr one,
Welcome Yule.
Welcome be ye, good
New Year,
Welcome Twelfth Day, both in fere,
Welcome saints, loved and dear,
Welcome Yule.
Welcome be ye,
Candlemas,
Welcome be ye, Queen of Bliss,
Welcome both to more and less,
Welcome Yule.
Welcome be ye that
are here,
Welcome all, and make good cheer,
Welcome all, another year,
Welcome Yule.'
And here, in
connection with the festivities on
Christmas Eve, we
may quote Herrick's inspiriting
stanzas:
�Come bring with a
noise,
My merry, merry boys,
The Christmas log to the firing,
While my good dame she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your heart's desiring.
With the last
year's brand
Light the new block, and,
For good success in his spending,
On your psalteries play
That sweet luck may
Come while the log is a teending.
Drink now the
strong beer,
Cut the white loaf here,
The while the meat is a shredding;
For the rare mince-pie,
And the plums stand by,
To fill the paste that's a kneading.'
The allusion at the
commencement of the second stanza, is to the practice
of laying aside the half-consumed block after having
served its purpose on Christmas Eve, preserving it
carefully in a cellar or other secure place till the
next anniversary of Christmas, and then lighting the
new log with the charred remains of its predecessor.
The due observance of this custom was considered of
the highest importance, and it was believed that the
preservation of last year's Christmas log was a most
effectual security to the house against fire. We are
further informed, that it was regarded as a sign of
very bad-luck if a squinting person entered the hall
when the log was burning, and a similarly evil omen
was exhibited in the arrival of a bare-footed person,
and, above all, of a flat-footed woman! As an
accompaniment to the Yule log, a candle of monstrous
size, called the Yule Candle, or Christmas Candle,
shed its light on the festive-board during the
evening. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, states
that, in the buttery of St. John's College, Oxford, an
ancient candle socket of stone still remains,
ornamented with the figure of the Holy Lamb. It was
formerly used for holding the Christmas Candle, which,
during the twelve nights of the Christmas festival,
was burned on the high-table at supper.
In
Devonshire, the
Yule log takes the form of the ashton fagot,
and is brought in and burned with great glee and
merriment. The fagot is composed of a bundle of
ash-sticks bound or hooped round with bands of the
same tree, and the number of these last ought, it is
said, to be nine. The rods having been cut a few days
previous, the farm-labourers, on Christmas Eve, sally
forth joyously, bind them together, and then, by the
aid of one or two horses, drag the fagot, with great
rejoicings, to their master's house, where it is
deposited on the spacious hearth which serves as the
fireplace in old-fashioned kitchens. Fun and jollity
of all sorts now commence, the members of the
household�master, family, and servants�seat themselves
on the settles beside the fire, and all meet on terms
of equality, the ordinary restraint characterizing the
intercourse of master and servant being, for the
occasion, wholly laid aside. Sports of various kinds
take place, such as jumping in sacks, diving in a tub
of water for apples, and jumping for cakes and
treacle; that is to say, endeavoring, by springs (the
hands being tied behind the back), to catch with the
mouth a cake, thickly spread with treacle, and
suspended from the ceiling. Liberal libations of
cider, or egg-hot, that is, cider heated and mixed
with eggs and spices, somewhat after the manner of the
Scottish het-pint, are supplied to the assembled
revellers, it being an acknowledged and time-honoured
custom that for every crack which the bands of the
ashton fagot make in bursting when charred
through, the master of the house is bound to furnish a
fresh bowl of liquor. To the credit of such gatherings
it must be stated that they are characterized, for the
most part, by thorough decorum, and scenes of
inebriation and disorder are seldom witnessed.
One significant
circumstance connected with the vigorous blaze which
roars up the chimney on Christmas Eve ought not to be
forgotten. We refer to the practice of most of the
careful Devonshire housewives, at this season, to have
the kitchen-chimney swept a few days previously, so as
to guard against accidents from its taking fire. In
Cornwall, as we are informed by a contributor to
Notes and Queries, the Yule log is called 'the
mock,' and great festivities attend the burning of it,
including the old ceremony of lighting the block with
a brand preserved from the fire of last year. We are
informed also that, in the same locality, Christmas
Eve is a special holiday with children, who, on this
occasion, are allowed to sit up till midnight and'
drink to the mock.'
Another custom in
Devonshire, still practiced, we believe, in one or two
localities on Christmas Eve, is for the farmer with
his family and friends, after partaking together of
hot cakes and cider (the cake being dipped in the
liquor previous to being eaten), to proceed to the
orchard, one of the party bearing hot cake and cider
as an offering to the principal apple-tree. The cake
is formally deposited on the fork of the tree, and the
cider thrown over the latter, the men firing off guns
and pistols, and the women and girls shouting:
�Bear blue, apples
and pears enow,
Barn fulls, bag fulls, sack fulls.
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!'
A similar libation of
spiced-ale used to be sprinkled on the orchards and
meadows in Norfolk; and the author of a very ingenious
little work, The Christmas Book: Christmas in the
Olden Time: Its Customs and their Origin (London,
1859) published some years ago, states that he has
witnessed a ceremony of the same sort, in the
neighborhood of the New Forest in Hampshire, where the
chorus sung was -
'
Apples
and pears with right good corn,
Come in plenty to every one,
Eat and drink good cake and not ale,
Give Earth to drink and she'll not fail.'
From a contributor to
Notes and Queries, we learn that on Christmas Eve,
in the town of Chester and surrounding villages,
numerous parties of singers parade the streets, and
are hospitably entertained with meat and drink at the
different houses where they call. The farmers of
Cheshire pass rather an uncomfortable season at
Christmas, seeing that they are obliged, for the most
part, during this period, to dispense with the
assistance of servants. According to an old custom in
the county, the servants engage themselves to their
employers from New-Year's Eve to Christmas Day, and
then for six or seven days, they leave their masters
to shift for themselves, while they (the servants)
resort to the towns to spend their holidays. On the
morning after Christmas Day hundreds of farm-servants
(male and female) dressed in holiday attire, in which
all the hues of the rainbow strive for the mastery,
throng the streets of Chester, considerably to the
benefit of the tavern-keepers and shop-keepers. Having
just received their year's wages, extensive
investments are made by them in smock frocks, cotton
dresses, plush-waistcoats, and woolen shawls. Dancing
is merrily carried on at various public-houses in the
evening. In the whole of this custom, a more vivid
realization is probably presented than in any other
popular celebration at Christmas, of the precursor of
these modern jovialities�the ancient Roman Saturnalia,
in which the relations of master and servant were for
a time reversed, and universal license prevailed.
Among Roman
Catholics, a mass is always celebrated at midnight on
Christmas Eve, another at daybreak on Christmas Day,
and a third at a subsequent hour in the morning. A
beautiful phase in popular superstition, is that which
represents a thorough prostration of the Powers of
Darkness as taking place at this season, and that no
evil influence can then be exerted by them on mankind.
The cock is then supposed to crow all night long, and
by his vigilance to scare away all malignant spirits.
The idea is beautifully expressed by Shakespeare, who
puts it in the mouth of Marcellus, in Hamlet:
'
It
faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm;
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.'
A
belief was long current in Devon and Cornwall, and
perhaps still lingers both there and in other remote
parts of the country, that at mid-night, on Christmas
Eve, the cattle in their stalls fall down on their
knees in adoration of the infant Saviour, in the same
manner as the legend reports them to have done in the
stable at Bethlehem. Bees were also said to sing in
their hives at the same time, and bread baked on
Christmas Eve, it was averred, never became mouldy.
All nature was thus supposed to unite in celebrating
the birth of Christ, and partake in the general joy
which the anniversary of the Nativity inspired.
THE CHRISTMAS-TREE: CHRISTMAS EVE IN GERMANY AND
AMERICA
In Germany, Christmas
Eve is for children the most joyous night in the year,
as they then feast their eyes on the magnificence of
the Christmas-tree, and rejoice in the presents which
have been provided for them on its branches by their
parents and friends. The tree is arranged by the
senior members of the family, in the principal room of
the house, and with the arrival of evening the
children are assembled in an adjoining apartment. At a
given signal, the door of the great room is thrown
open, and in rush the juveniles eager and happy.
There, on a long table in the center of the room,
stands the Christmas-tree, every branch glittering
with little lighted tapers, while all sorts of gifts
and ornaments are suspended from the branches, and
possibly also numerous other presents are deposited
separately on the table, all properly labeled with the
names of the respective recipients. The Christmas-tree
seems to be a very ancient custom in Germany, and is
probably a remnant of the splendid and fanciful
pageants of the middle ages. Within the last twenty
years, and apparently since the marriage of Queen
Victoria with
Prince Albert, previous to which time it
was almost unknown in this country, the custom has
been introduced into England with the greatest
success, and must be familiar to most of our readers.
Though thoroughly an innovation on our old Christmas
customs, and partaking, indeed, some-what of a prosaic
character, rather at variance with the beautiful
poetry of many of our Christmas usages, he would be a
cynic indeed, who could derive no pleasure from
contemplating the group of young and happy faces who
cluster round the Christmas-tree.
S. T. Colridge, in a
letter from Ratzeburg, in North Germany, published in
the Friend, and quoted by Hone, mentions the
following
Christmas customs as observed in that locality.
Part of them seems to be derived from those ceremonies
proper to St. Nicholas's Day, already
described under 6th December.
'
There
is a Christmas custom here which pleased and
interested me. The children make little presents to
their parents, and to each other, and the parents to
their children. For three or four months before
Christmas, the girls are all busy, and the boys save
up their pocket-money to buy these presents. What
the present is to be, is cautiously kept secret; and
the girls have a world of contrivances to conceal
it�such as working when they are out on visits, and
the others are not with them; getting up in the
morning before day-light, &c. Then, on the evening
before Christmas-day, one of the parlors is lighted
up by the children, into which the parents must not
go; a great yew-bough is fastened on the table at a
little distance from the wall, a multitude of little
tapers are fixed in the bough, but not so as to burn
it till they are nearly consumed, and coloured
paper, &c., hangs and flutters from the twigs.
Under this bough the children lay out, in great
order, the presents they mean for their parents,
still concealing in their pockets what they intend
for each other. Then the parents are introduced, and
each presents his little gift; they then bring out
the remainder, one by one, from their pockets, and
present them with kisses and embraces. Where I
witnessed this scene, there were eight or nine
children, and the eldest daughter and the mother
wept aloud for joy and tenderness; and the tears ran
down the face of the father, and he clasped all his
children so tight to his breast, it seemed as if he
did it to stifle the sob that was rising within it.
I was very much affected. The shadow of the bough
and its appendages on the wall, and arching over on
the ceiling, made a pretty picture; and then the
raptures of the very little ones, when at last the
twigs and their needles began to take fire and snap
O! it was a delight to them!
On the next day (Christmas-day), in the great
parlor, the parents lay out on the table the
presents for the children; a scene of more sober joy
succeeds; as on this day, after an old custom, the
mother says privately to each of her daughters, and
the father to his sons, that which he has observed
most praiseworthy, and that which was most faulty,
in their conduct. Formerly, and still in all the
smaller towns and villages throughout North Germany,
these presents were sent by all the parents to some
one fellow, who, in high-buskins, a white robe, a
mask, and an enormous flax-wig, personates Knecht
Rupert�i. e., the servant Rupert. On
Christmas-night, he goes round to every house, and
says that Jesus Christ, his Master, sent him
thither. The parents and elder children receive him
with great pomp and reverence, while the little ones
are most terribly frightened. He then inquires for
the children, and, according to the character which
he hears from the parents, he gives them the
intended presents, as if they came out of heaven
from Jesus Christ. Or, if they should have been bad
children, he gives the parents a rod, and in the
name of his Master recommends them to use it
frequently. About seven or eight years old, the
children are let into the secret, and it is curious
how faithfully they keep it.'
In the state of
Pennsylvania, in North America, where many of the
settlers are of German descent, Christmas Eve is
observed with many of the ceremonies practiced in the
Fatherland of the Old World. The Christmas-tree
branches forth in all its splendor, and before going
to sleep, the children hang up their stockings at the
foot of the bed, to be filled by a personage bearing
the name of Krishkinkle (a corruption of
Christ-kindlein, or the Infant Christ), who is
supposed to descend the chimney with gifts for all
good children. If, however, any one has been naughty,
he finds a birch-rod instead of sweetmeats in the
stocking. This implement of correction is believed to
have been placed there by another personage, called
Pelsnichol, or Nicholas with the fur, in allusion
to the dress of skins which he is supposed to wear. In
this notion, a connection is evidently to be traced
with the well-known legendary attributes of St.
Nicholas, previously described, though the benignant
character of the saint is in this instance woefully
belied. It is further to be remarked, that though the
general understanding is that
Krishkinkle and Pelsnichol are distinct
personages�the one the rewarder of good children, the
other the punisher of the bad they are also
occasionally represented as the same individual under
different characters, the prototype of which was
doubtless the charitable St. Nicholas.
CHRISTMAS GAMES:
SNAPDRAGON
Some interesting
particulars relative to the indoor diversions of our
ancestors at Christmas, occur in the following passage
quoted by Brand from a tract, entitled Round about our
Coal-fire, or Christmas Entertainments, which was
published in the early part of the last century.' The
time of the year being cold and frosty, the diversions
are within doors, either in exercise or by the
fireside. Dancing is one of the chief exercises; or
else there is a match at Blindman's Buff, or Puss in
the Corner. The next game is Questions and Commands,
when the commander may oblige his subjects to answer
any lawful question, and make the same obey him
instantly, under the penalty of being smutted [having
the face blackened], or paying such forfeit as may be
laid on the aggressor. Most of the other diversions
are cards and dice.'
From the above we
gather that the sports on Christmas evenings, a
hundred and fifty years ago, were not greatly
dissimilar to those in vogue at the; present day. The
names of almost all the pastimes then mentioned must
be familiar to every reader, who has probably also
participated in them himself, at some period of his
life. Let us only add charades, that favorite
amusement of modern drawing-rooms (and of these only
the name, not the sport itself, was unknown to our
ancestors), together with a higher spirit of
refinement and delicacy, and we shall discover little
difference between the juvenile pastimes of a
Christmas-party in the reign of Queen Victoria, and a
similar assemblage in the reign of Queen Anne or the
first Georges.
 One
favorite Christmas sport, very generally played on
Christmas Eve, has been handed down to us from time
immemorial under the name of 'Snapdragon.' To our
English readers this amusement is perfectly familiar,
but it is almost unknown in Scotland, and it seems
therefore desirable here to give a description of the
pastime.
A quantity of raisins
are deposited in a large dish or bowl (the broader and
shallower this is, the better), and brandy or some
other spirit is poured over the fruit and ignited. The
bystanders now endeavour, by turns, to grasp a raisin,
by plunging their hands through the flames; and as
this is somewhat of an arduous feat, requiring both
courage and rapidity of action, a considerable amount
of laughter and merriment is evoked at the expense of
the unsuccessful competitors. As an appropriate
accompaniment we introduce here;
The Story of
Snapdragon
'
Here
he comes with flaming bowl,
Don't he mean to take his toll,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
Take care you don't take too much,
Be not greedy in your clutch,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
With his blue and
lapping tongue
Many of you will be stung,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
For he snaps at all
that comes
Snatching at his feast of plums,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
But Old Christmas
makes him come,
Though he looks so fee! fa! fum!
Snip! Snap! Dragon!
Don't 'ee fear
him, be but bold--
Out he goes, his flames are cold,
Snip! Snap! Dragon!'
Whilst the sport of
Snapdragon is going on, it is usual to extinguish all
the lights in the room, so that the lurid glare from
the flaming spirits may exercise to the full its
weird-like effect. There seems little doubt that in
this amusement we retain a trace of the fiery ordeal
of the middle ages, and also of the Druidical
fire-worship of a still remoter epoch. A curious
reference to it occurs in the quaint old play of
Lingua, quoted by Mr. Sandys in his work on Christmas:
'
Memory.
Oh, I remember this dish well; it was first
invented by Pluto to entertain Proserpine withal.
Phantastes.
I think not so, Memory; for when Hercules had
killed the flaming dragon of Hesperia, with the
apples of that orchard he made this fiery meat; in
memory whereof he named it Snap-dragon.'
Snapdragon, to
personify him, has a 'poor relation' or 'country
cousin,' who bears the name of Flapdragon. This
is a favorite amusement among the common people in the
western counties of England, and consists in placing a
lighted candle in a can of ale or cider, and drinking
up the contents of the vessel. This act entails, of
course, considerable risk of having the face singed,
and herein lies the essence of the sport, which may be
averred to be a somewhat more arduous proceeding in
these days of moustaches and long whiskers than it was
in the time of our close-shaved grandfathers.
Part 2 of Dec 24th
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