LEGEND OF CHRISTMAS EVE.

Northern Advocate, 18 December 1923, Page 15 (Supplement)

LEGEND OF CHRISTMAS EVE.

INDIAN SUPERSTITION. December and January, with their long dark nights, heavy rains, and raging storms, have given rise to many awesome tales and eerie superstitions, and many of these have naturally been associated with the eve of Christmas. The Story of the Child in the manger originated various old prints of the Nativity, in which the oxen in the stables are depicted as suppliants to the Virgin and her Child; and these prints probably accounted for the belief, current in many parts of the country, that the ox and ass never fail to bow the knee as the midnight chimes usher in the morn of Christmas, To those acquainted with the peasant's tale .in Thomas Hardy's "Tess," this curious belief cannot fail to be familiar. But tradition further asserts that at this holy time these animals are endowed with the gift of speech! A peasant of the German Alps, so the story goes, once ventured to test the truth of this belief by paying a visit to his master's stable on Christmas Eve just before the "witehing hour" had sounded. The midnight chimes had barely ceased their peal when he was horrified to hear one of the occupants of the stalls utter his own name. Then, addressing its mate, it remarked: "We shall have hard work on this day week, for the churchyard road is long and steep." Within a week, the story concludes, the asses bore the peasant along that road to his last resting place!

The ox and ass, however, are not the onlv animals associated with these and similar superstitions. Ia the New World the Indians still believe that at the winter solstice the wild deer kneel and raise their heads in silent adoration of the Great Spirit of the Universe. The Scandinavian trolls, too, mythical beings, half man, half god, are said to celebrate this mystic time by riding upon broomsticks or the backs of wolves to a carnival of dancing and revelry.

And in the North of England, dalesmen tell even to-day of the gathering of bees on Christmas Eve to hum a seasonable hymn. In his "Hamlet," Shakespeare has immortalised another charming tradition in those exquisite lines of Marcellus: '' Some say that ever since the season comes, Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike; No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time." One of the hardest things in the world is to do nothing. * ♦ * • Tf some men had to eat their words. they would soon be poisoned. * * * # When o poor girl marries a poor man, that's love. * ♦ # # One active virtue is worth ten absent vices.