STRANGE WAYS OF KEEPING CHRISTMAS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 13948, 3 January 1906, Page 4

STRANGE WAYS OF KEEPING CHRISTMAS.

When the ferocious savages roamed among “the'bakwoods Of Scotland they kept up Christmas by weird ceremonies, for in those days the world had not got down to a dead-level of mistletoe and plum pudding. They had a pleasing habit of making bonfires or as many old wives as they could Conveniently lay hands on. . On Christmas Eve, whilst the womenkind were preparing th’e meals for the morrow, a number* of the men went forth to seek an old wife or two for sacrifice. Having obtained the necessary number, they dragged them by the hair up a steep, hill, and unceremoniously dumped them on to a great fire, blazing away oh the summit. Here they were roasted to death, their cries being drowned by the bone musical instruments of the s'avages. This old custom of .“Burning the Christmas Old Wife” is still. carried out in many lowland villages in bootland, but the “ old wife ” is no longer flash and blood, but a big, solid treetrunk; , , , _ ~ . “ Burning the Ashton Faggot ” is a similar custom, the origin of which the oldest inhabitants of the Devonshire villages whore it is carried out,. know little or nothing about. . While twenty meh collect peat and twigs, and make a bonfire, twenty others construct a faggot of ash timber and tightly bind it with green withes. The faggot is then thrown on to; the blaze, .and the bursting of each witho is signalised by a cheer from the crowd gathered During a savage contest between Erse and Dane, the sentinels of the former fell asleep, and the Danes crept through the dawn of a Christmas Day to make a surprise attack upon the enemy s camp.. Suddenly a wren flew down from a tree, and, landing on the resonant head of a drum, created a boom that awoke the guard just m time to raise an alarm, and save the Irish from extermination. The .birds _ai,epory has been kept, green in the South or Ireland ever since that Christmas Hay morning, and even now processions ox boys march through the Irish streets on the 25th, carrying hunches of evmgreeps on long, poles, and a wren in a gold cage, singing. , a The wren, the wren, the king of all buds, St Stephen’s Day was caught in the furz, Although he’s little his family s g«at, I pray you, good lady, you’ll/ill m a trate. One of the most curious parties takes place every Christmas Day m Mexico. It is held in an underground cell, lighted with oil lamps, and thirty persons sit down to dinner. To reach this unique dining saloon it is necessary to descend by means of a wooden cage. The thirty guests assemble at the pit month at twelve o’clock on Christmas Eve, and are let down to the, cell. For twenty-four, hours—that it,, until Christmas Day is once more a thing of the past—they must not leave the cell, Ox anyone else to their company. There are four meals, each of which consists simply of cocoa, bacon, eggs and bread. No intoxicants or smoKes are allowed. These thirty men are all bachelors, and they make themselves miserable at Yuletide, because they cannot endure the spectacle of people trying to look happy and unconcerned, when all the time they are inwardly bewailing the), expense they are being put to in celebrating the auspicious occasion. h A festive party of quite.an original kind takes place annually,in a certain quarter of Leeds. Only , those men who have spent at least ten years in one or other of his Majesty's prisons can take a chair at the table. The guests are limited to twenty, A Christmas club of a strange sort, but with some sense in it, belongs to Ohio. Young men who have quarrelled with their swe are ask°d to send in their own names, and the names of their lady-loves* to the secretary of the club. This gentleman, then invites” the - ladies to a banquet ■ at the club rooms on Christmas Day. and th*

swains, unknown to the ladies, attend also. The majority of the lovers in this way kiss and make it up again, and are arm-in-arm ere the night iff done. The members of a bachelors’ club in Glasgow arrange, a email banquet at Yuletide, and each one invites a lady to whom he is desirous of declaring hm ■ affection. The invitations are sent out in the names of the committee, so that the young ladies are quite ignorant a* to whom they owe the favour. One Of two engagements are brought about every'year end. Three American aeronauts invariably spend Christmas Day in the clouds,. v They ascend; in a balloon first thing in the morning, and if the weather.,, iii favourable they, do not descend till dusk begins to gather. They cirry their dinner up with them in a, basket, and warm it over a small spirit stove. This is, perhaps, the most original way of spending Christmas.