CHRISTMAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 December 1934, Page 10

CHRISTMAS

THS DAY OF DAYS. Christmas is upon us with its joyous greetings and memories of the years vhich have fled. In this warm land we do not get the scarlet berried plant which sb /delighted our pioneer forefathers, but in its place comes the crimson pohutukawa in the north, and the silvery tpitpi in the south. But around, therii has,not gathered the legends that come, to mind in older lands, where it is'thought to be unlucky to bring holly into the house before Christmas Eve. , That revered- journal, The Spectator, of January 23, 1712, has the following: “Our clerk, who was once a gardener, has this Christmas so overdeckt the church with greens that he has quite spoilt my prospect . . . The middle aisle is a very pretty shady walk, and the pews look like so many arbours on each side of it. The pulpit itself has such clusters of Ivy, Holly and Rosemary about it that a light fellow in our pew took occasion to say that the congregation heard the Word out of a bush, like Moses.”

THE CAROLS. Carols of great beauty are to be found in most European countries. Originally they were dance-songs, but gradually they changed. In Germany the best-loved carol is that written by Luther for his boy Hans in 1540: — “From heaven -above I come to you to bring you tidings good and true.” It is 1 said that, in Luther's household the first .five verses were sung as a sclo,. the singer impersonating the Angel, and the rest in chorus. The earliest known carol is a fragment published by Ritson and written in the early fifteenth'century:— I saw a sweet, a seemly sight, A blissful b.ird, a,blossom bright, That mourning made and mirth among; , A maiden mother, meek and mild, In cradle keep a knave child, That softly slept; she sat and sung, Lullay, Julia balow, My bairn, sleep softly now. “Wassail!” which is equivalent to “Your health!’ was the old Anglo-Sax-on drinking pledge, to which the re-sponse-was “Drinkhaile.” To the old English Christmas feast the wassail bowl was indispensable. It was used also on New Year’s Eve and Twelfth Night.

THE CHRISTMAS FEAST. Other times, other manners! In the old days the favourite dish was peacock, swan, beef and, of course, the boar’s head. When King Henry 111. was keeping his Christmas at Winchester in 1248 he ordered his treasurer to fill Westminster Hall with poor people and feast them for a week. An old writer tells of a feast that began at 3 p.m. and ended at midnight. Here is a bill of fare about the middle of the sixteenth century: A shield of brawn with mustard; a boiled capon, a boiled piece of beef; a chine of beef, roasted; chewets (mince pie), baked; a goose roasted; a swan, roasted; a turkey, roasted; a haunch of venison, roasted; a pasty of venison; a kid with pudding in the belly; an olive pye; a couple of capons; a custard or dowset. There were also the usual accessories. They were great trencher men in the bygone days; evidently indigestion was then unknown, or if suffered from, must have been ascribed to some wick-

ed spirit, for spirits were held to be very restless and hard-working in the Dark Ages. One of their dishes was very gay, for when the peacock came in he arrived with all his plumes attached. He was carried in shoulderhigh by serving men and must, have presented a gay sight. The method of preparing was to have the plumed crest of the bird appear at one end of the dish and the plumed tail spread aloft at the other. To obtain this effect the dressing of the bird was very careful and remarkable, for the skin was first carefully stripped off with ail the feathers attached, and into this was placed the cooked bird and all carefully sewn up again, so that it looked as if the bird was still alive m all his gaiety when he was borne to table. They were great feasting days, when land was called Merrie England, and life was simple for the English folk.