OUR LITERARY CORNER.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14854, 20 December 1913, Page 9

OUR LITERARY CORNER.

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED MATTER.

NOTES ON BOOKS AND AUTHORS*

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS.

(By JosnrH M_d_.) (srEciAiXT wnrrr_v for "thk f__s3.') Christmastide has preserved more than any other time of the year a survival of old customs from past centuries many of which continued well into the'-iiodie of the nineteenth century, and their memory has come down to us through our grandparents. Even in the form in which they reach us they present a picture of religious and social customs of more ancient periods, _nd throw side-lights upon much that js done In the present day. In connexion with Christmas carols and carol singing hold the first place. Perhaps - -the oldest sheet of carols ever printed is that mentioned by Hone .in his "Every Day Book." It is headed, "Christus natus est." There is below O woodcut ten inches high, and eight and a-half inches wide, representing the stable at Bethlehem, Christ in the cnb watched by his mother and St. Joseph, shepherds kneeling, angels attending, a man playing on the bagpipes, a woman with a basket of fruit on her head, a sheep bloating, an ox lowing, a crow cawinfi on the hayrack, a cock'crowing above them, and angels singing in the sky. The creatures have labels in their mouths bearing Latin inscriptions. Down the side of the woodcut- is the following:— "A religious man, inventing tho conceits of both Dirds and beasts drawn in the picture of our Saviour's birth, doth thus express them:—The" cock croweth, 'Christus natus est.' (Christ is born.) The raven askoth, 'Quando?' .(When.) The crow replieth, 'Hoc , nocte.' (This night.) The ox crieth .'out, '-ÜbiP Dti? (Where? Where?) The sheep bleateth out, 'Jjethlehem, .Bethlehem.' A voice from heaven sounded, 'Gloria in Excelsis.' (Glory be on high.) London: printed and sold by J. Bradford in Little Briton, the - corner house over against the pump, 1701. Price one penny." Hone's book was published in 1826, and ho speaks of the fondness of the Welsh for carols at that date. He adds that formerly the Welsh folk "had carols;adapt.d to most of the Church . festivals, and to the four seasons of the year, but in our times they are limited to that of Christmas.", He ■' states further that after the turn of midnight on Christmas Eve;.servicers performed in, the churches, followed by the';«anging of carols to the harp. 7The ringing of the bells at midnight .on .Christmas Evoy maintained .to the Sesent day, is mentioned, by Joseph torn in 1795. He said:— ■•■ The welcome eve, loved Christmas now arrived, ¥bo parish bells their tuneful peals resound. ■ Half a century later Tennyson ; spoke:x" ... l''The Christmas "bells from hill to hill .'-. Answer each other'through tho mist." This ringing of bells as well as singing of carols waa much encouraged by John Wesley. Carols, bellringings, and midnight services at Christmas time,.are survivals of the Christmas midnight mass. Hone, writing in the earlier part of the last speaks of a curious custom uTconnexion with carol singing which was at that time observed in th© Isle of - Thanet; and with which the Christmas festivities began. A party of young people] procured the head of a dead horse, which was fixed to a pole about 4ft in length. A string was tied to the lower jaw, and a horse-cloth was 7t_en attached to the whole, under which oho of * tho party, got,, and, by pulling, the string kept up a loud snapping noise, The rest of the party, grotesquely habited, rang handbells. They thus went from house to house : Bounding their hells and singing carols and songs. They were commonly gratified with beer and cake, or. perhaps : with money.. This was provincially called, -a and tho figure above described as a "hoden" or wooden horse. It was supposed to be an ancient relic of.. a festival' ordained to commemorate our Saxon ancestors landin]**; in that island. ' vA correspondent whose letter'appears in ;the same volume, states, that near village of Raleigh there is a valley said to. have been caused by an'earthquake several hundred years, ago, which '•• sirallotfed" up a whole village,'rtogether with the church. Formerly it was tho custom for people to assemble in this valley on Christmas Day morning to listen to the ringing of the bells be..neath them. This, it was positively asf sorted, might be. heard by putting tho ; ear to the ground and listening atten- ■ .tively. Even in 1826 it was usual on H Christmas morning for the old men and women to'tell their young friends to go to .tKe ! valley, stoop down, and hear'the bdls ring merrily. In/ his "Exeter Fifty Years Since." ■■'•Mr/Cousins states that early in the nineteenth century at 7 o'clock on Christmas Day, previous to morning : priyers, the tune of the Hundredth Psalm wa. played on the "Cathedral organ, the chorister boys ; singing the words in the minstrel gallery which was ; provided with candles. THundreds of /petiplq attended; but, in consequence of *■ cbnduct,'of, parties who had ; accom{i_-ied. the various choirs during 'the night, singing anthems and carols, the Dean and Chapter gut a stop to tho ■custom. At Hucknall Torkard, in Nottinghamshire, until some twenty-five years :*_*>, the children who went about sing- - ing carols at Christmas, used to take with them a box in which was a doll - decked out. Although the custom was not then observed in other villages in r the- neighbourhood, yet at least in the West Riding of Yorkshire the practice was very common. The carrying of a doll at Christmas time is a survival of therold miracle play of earlier days, in which the scenes of the Nativity were vividly presented, and which finally became reduced to an image of the Blessed Virgin with a holy Bambino ' (baby) in her arms. This practice has . become revived in our own day in the form, of Bethlehem tableaux, which aro exhibited in an increasing number of parishes in England each Christmastide.

A contributor to "Notes and Queries" in 1873 says that, when ho was a hoy, the colliers at Llwynymaen, two miles from Oswestry, were in the habit, during the evening of Christinas week of carrying from house to house in the town boards covered with clay, jn which were stuck lighted candles. This was done at Ohrjstmas," not at Candlemas, and only by the colher3. It was probably an ancient usage and intended to indicate the birth of the 'Light of the World." [ On Christmas day at 4 o'clock in the morning, in tho beginning of the nineteenth century, it was customary at Tenby for tbe young men of the town to escort the rector with lighted torches from his house to the church. Extinguishing their torches in the porch, they went into early service, and when it was ended the torches were relighted, and the procession returned to the rectory, the bells chiming till the time of the usual morning service. This custom in the Welsh district is called Pylgain or Plygain, which means "The -Morning Light." At St. Peter's

Church, Carmarthen, an early service used to be heid on Christmas morning within tho memory of thoso who witnessed the birth of the Tractarian movement. For this early Christmas service the church was lighted with coloured candles, carried thither on that occasion by tho congregation. Similarly an early Christmas service was held in many Welsh churches, but th© name ''Pylgain," which was given to it is now applied by tbe Welsh Wosleyans to their Watch Night services. It was the custom at St. Asaph, Caerwys, for the household fire to bo mado upon Christmas Eve, and a leg of beef to be put on to boil down for broth at 8 o'clock. Then everybody went to bed, and rose at 4 or .. to go to church for Plygain, which in this instance was the name given to carol singing. The clergyman sang tho first carol (or, perhaps, the first verso of a carol) and the clerk the second. Then the carols were sung round the church in procession. This was ovor about 7. There were basins of hot broth for any one who choso to oomo to the house, servants, their friends and neighbours. This had been the usage for a hundred years or more.

Tho Rev. J. Moore, of Minsterly, Salop, eaid in 189-1 that old people there can remember it a universal custom not to light a fire on Christmas Day. except with fire borrowed from a neighbour's house. About 1835 died tho Rev. George Aldorson, who had boon for nearly sixty • years rector of tho out-of-the-way village of Birkin,, Ferrybridge, Yorkshire. In his days it was the custom for tho clerk to present the rector with a nosegay of flowers before the beginning of the morning service on Christmas Day. This nosegay tho rector carried with him wherever ho went —to desk, pulpit, or altar —during the service. It was a difficult matter, of course, to get flowers at that time of tho year, but the c.'erk always got enough to'make a good bunch.

Many to-day remember that in the Old Country especially in tho remoter parts, tho decoration of the church at Christmas time with holly and ivy was the only floral decoration of the year, and that the innovation of adding flowers on Christmas Day or decorating the church at Easter or other times was veiy severely commented' upon as being, as was then termed the thin edge of the wedge to Rome. That today the custom has extended to most other churches besides the Anglican has proved tho fear groundless, yet it was not infrequent for the innocent bunch of flowers or the decorations outsido Christmas-tide to lead to stormy scenes and even act 3of violence. Here, again, the incident just above related in the village of Birkin, is a link connecting the present use of flowers in worship with the past. Until tho last forty or fifty years ago it was the custom for the choir at Christmas-tide to sing anthems and carols on the top of the church tower at Crondall, Hants. Mr S. Cranstone, the parish clerk, said that this was an old custom in the days of his grandfather.

The mince pie which a generation ago wa» generally a more oval shape, was originally a crust baked to represent the manger in which ''the Holy Child was placed. At a still earlier date tho mince pie. apparently harmless only to the digestion, roused the wrathful ire of the Puritans who called it "an hodgepodge of superstition, popery, the dcvii. and all his works," and connected with the Babylonian lady of the Apocalypse, whose scarlet robo they saw under every toadstool. One -.old writer speaking of the mince pid, named "it "Idolaterie in crust,"

Raked from the grave and baked by hands, then Served up in coffins to unholy men, Defil'd with superstition, like the Gentiles Of old, that worshipp'd onions roots, and lentiles.

The mince pie, however, has survived, and is a witness to the earlier traditions of hospitality being looked upon as the most appropriate virtue for the birthday of Him who said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." ■'