CHRISTMAS LURE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 14, 14 December 1932, Page 11

CHRISTMAS LURE

VEIL OF MYSTICISM. “Lo, now is come our joyful’fit feast I Let every man be jolly, Eache roome with yvie leaves is drest, And every post with holly. Now all our neighbours’ chimneys smoke, And Christmas blocks are burning; Their ovens they with bak’t meats choke And all their spits are turning. Without the door let sorrow lie, And if, for cold, it hap to die, Wee’le bury’t in a Christmas pye, And evermore be merry.” A veil of mysticism has always shrouded Christmas, its origin, doubtless, is attributable to the legend of the Alagi, and for that we must look to the simple Scripture story as related by St. Matthew. In far-distant days it was believed that all Nature, in a variety of ways, testified to a recognition of the event in the birth of Christ—commemorated in the celebration of Christmas. The winds and the seas, trees and plants, and all things animate, afforded evidence of knowledge of the approach of the anniversary and became imbued with the spirit of adoration, joy and peace. According to tradition, at the moment the Saviour was born, peace—a profound silence—prevailed throughout the world. Birds stopped in their flight, cattle ceased to feed, men ceased to toil and were suddenly overcome by awe, whilst the stars glittered with added lustre. In this tradition originated the Middle Ages superstitions attaching to the miraculous phenomena supposed to recur each Christmastide. It is upon such traditions as this that Christmas has descended in these matter-of-fact days, over 19 centuries following the birth of Him after Whom the greatest festival of the Christian year is named.

THE CHILDREN’S PATRON SAINT. It is to a legend that we owe the most commonly practised of Christmastide customs, that of present-giving; and the most popular of Christmas figures—Santa Claus, the mysterious being who flies o’er land and sea, descends chimneys, and distributes toys to good little boys and girls. “Santa ■ :laus” is really a corruption of “St. Nicholas,” patron saint of the children. There was, so runs the traditional story, a poor nobleman who had three daughters. So poor was he that he could not provide dowers for the girls. He therefore planned to kill them. Warned in a vision of the projected tragedy, St. Nicholas, at night, visited the nobleman’s castle and dropped a fat purse of gold down the kitchen chimney. Thus was mysteriously provided a dower for the eldest daughter. In like manner, oil successive nights, St. Nicholas dowered the nobleman’s two other girls. In olden times purses possessed something of the shape of the stocking as we know it to-day. Hence the old and still prevailing practice of excited children hanging up stockings to receive Santa Claus’ good gifts down the chimney in the early hours of Christmas Day. NO MISTLETOE BERRIES, NO KISSES!

Another very old Christmastide custim is that of kissing under the mistletoe.

Many a maiden’s cheek is red By lips and laughter thither led; And fluttering bosoms come and go Under the Druid mistletoe. The mistletoe was undoubtedly bequeathed by the ancient Druids, who deeply venerated the parasitic plant, for the reason that the mistletoe produces its berries in clusters of three on one stalk, and they had a remarkable reverence for the number three. It was a Druidical custom to greet one another with a kiss of peace in the mistletoe’s shadow. This fact would seem to have endowed the mistletoe with mystic qualities.