CHRISTMAS OF OLD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 13, 23 December 1911, Page 13

CHRISTMAS OF OLD.

BYGONE DAYS AND WAYS. In the "Mcrrie England" of the past centuries, Christinas was an orgy of pleasure and noise for growu-up men and women, who feasted. _ rollicked, and cut capers, heedless of dignity and decorum. "Gone are those golden days of yore, When Christmas was.a higli day, , Whose snorts we now shall more, J Tis turned into Good Friday." ' The above lines would be re-echoed by our great-grandfathers if then; shades could revisit the scenes-oftheir youth, and behold our feeble elforts at invoking the goddess of mirth. , Twelve days the high Jinks and junketings used to last, From Christmas hvc to Epiphany was one riotous holiday. "When Christmas comes in like a bride, ■ ''.With holly and ivy clad, . Twelve days in the year, much • -mirth and good clioer In every household is had." The mirth was not always of the most refined kind. From courts to mansion, from mansion to cottage, tile Lord 01 Misrule hold sway. This personage was a kind of king of the jesters, dressed in a fantastic manner in many-coloured garments adorned with bells, ribbons, and feathers. His followers, generally a numerous horde, and known as mummers, were armed .with peacocks' feathers and bladders filled with peas. Implicit obedience was demanded from this mock monarch, so long as the feast lasted, and his jokes and antias were, according to our modern way of thinking, of the most riotous, and unseemly kind. Nor did the revellers always confine their antics to the court mid the mansionhouse. Led bv the "Abbot of Unreason as he was called, and of whose personality We obtain such a lively description in Keott's "Kenilworth." they would even break into a church during the service. At the sight of their antics, the worshippers would forget their duty, and would stand upon pews and desks in their eagerness to s«e the fun. _ ... The modest little'mince pies of to-day are verv degenerate descendants of the Christmas pic as it used to be. This noble challenger of indigestion contained pigs' brawn, slioes of capon, apples, ana spices. When ready, the huge pasty, ~n all the splendour of piecrust roses and paper frills, was set with great rer»:nony upon the topmost shelf of the larder, and guarded all night by a trusty sentinel, until s*uch time as it appeared the centre decoration on the dinner table. Christmas candle.s in those limes, too, were on a much larger scale than the fairy tapers o£ to-day. On the hearth burned the Yule log, dragged in from the woods with a yo-heave-ho, and set afir; till sundown. "Kindle the Christmas log, then Till sunset let it burn; Which quenched, then lay ir. Up sgain Till Christmas next r^ui'ii.'* Nor did our ancestors confine their de-, corations to the inside of their dwellings. The streets were decorated as if for a triumphal procession, and London's greyness was all transformed at Yuletide by garnishing* of boughs and ribbons. Country Yiile customs were varied and many. We are told in detail of an elaborate ritual observed by a "gentleman of Aston, near unto Birmingham, in 1795,. and which was carried out every day until he died." After supper a table was set iti the- hill, on which stood a brown loaf, with twenty silver sixpences laid 011 the top. Behind the tablo sat in state the two oldest servants of the establishment. To .them entered all the other domestic servants in turn, each enveloped- in a "winnow sheet." which left only one hand exposed. Advancing lo th" table, the sheeted figure laid its hand on the bread, and the judges alternately gnessed to whom the hand belonged, l.f they failed lo guess the identity of the sheeted figure the lucky man or maid received the silver sixpence.. If the name was guessed correctly, the "ghost" required sixpence less. Not a word was uttered, except by the judges, till all. the money had been removed. The ordeal over, merrymaking was indulged in till bedtime. "So now is come our joyfullest feast, Let every man be jolly; Each room with ivy leaves is dressed. And every post with holly. _ Though some churls at our mirth repine, Round your foreheads garlands twine; Drown sorrow in a cup of wine, And let us all be merry."