CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXII, Issue 8257, 23 December 1911, Page 6

CHRISTMAS SUPERSTITIONS.

Among superstitions associated with thte Christmas season a most interesting one is that which prevails m Devonshire and Cornwall, that' at midnight on Christmas Eve the oxen iix their wtalis are always found -on their'knees m an attitude of devotion. Brand, m a work on the subject, says : —An honest,countryman, living on -the edge of St. Sefcnhen's Down, near JLaunoUEiton," Cornwall, informed me, October 28, 1790,' that he once, with, some others, made a trial of the truth of the above, and watching several oxen m their stalls at the above time —at iwelvo o'oiuck night-—they observed the two oldest oxen only fall upon their knees, and, as he expressed it m the idiom of the country, make..." a cruel moan like Christian creatures." There is an old print of the Nativity, m which th© oxen m the'stable, near the Virgin and Child, are represented on their knees m a suppliant posture. This picture, Brand thinks, may have given rise to the West of England superstition. Another old print, mentioned by Hone, depicts the stable at Bethlehem; Christ m the crib watched by Mary and Joseph; shepherds kneeling; angels attending; a man playing on tho bagpipes; a woman with a basket of fruit on her head; a. 'sheep bleating and an ox lowing on the ground; a raven croaking and a crow cawing on the hay-rack; ,a cock crowing above them, and angels singing m the sky. The-, birds and beasts are represented as carrying on a colloquy, ■which is begun by the cock proclaiming "Christ is born," and is ended by tho angels proclaiming "Gloria m Exdelsia."