Curious Christmas and New Year Customs.

Otago Witness, Issue 2285, 16 December 1897, Page 17

Curious Christmas and New Year Customs.

Throughout Christendom, the advent of a new digit in the yearly changing suns of a century's life is generally hailed with demonstrations of rejoicing, and furnishes a welcome occasion for family festivity. Even among those whose lines are by no means cast in pleasant places, there would appear to be a common agreement that acoming New Year is to be regarded cheerfully and hopefully. To " see the Old Year out " in the society of those nearest and dearest to one is an observance held in favour in

every European country, and is fulfilled by all classes of society. Gauls and Teutons, Scandinavians and Slavs, Greejcs and Latins, all hold revel on New Year's Eve, with the dual purpose of bidding a kindly farewell to the familiar date that has abided with them for a whole twelvemonth past, and' of gaily greeting its upstart successor.

In the mere manners and forms of celebrating this annual change, the nations display a greater sameness that might be anticipated, considering how diverse, and even strongly contrasted, are many of the salient characteristics of their respective peoples. It is chiefly in the eating of certain comestibles and in the drinking of particular potables, that the distinctions established by the different European races in their mode of commemorating this anniversary are manifest. It is the custom in France to feter le reveillon by swallowing crisp crepes or pancakes, hot from the fryingpan, and spiced hot wine brewed in a metal biggin over a spirit lamp, and bearing a faint family resemblance in colour, if not in flavour, to the old-fashioned British Christmas wassail, which, save in a few archaic country houses, has of late fallen into desuetude in Great Britain.

At any other time of the year, hot claret, laced with brandy, acidulated with slices of lemon, and flavoured out of recognition with nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and other aromatic substances culled from the kitchen spice box, would be rejected with scorn and contempt by any cultivated Frenchman, as an anachronism

intolerably repugnant to the good taste upon which he justifiably prides himself. On New Year's Eve, however, he ingurgitates it unmurrnuvingly and with a cheerful countenance, even making an heroic semblance of keenly enjoying a nondescript potion which must be little short of poison to him. The " Pfannekuchen " which Germans put away with characteristic steadfastness and perseverance on " Sylvester Abend " if literally translated into our vernacular should be pancakes pure and unadulterated. Few things in nature or art, however, are really less like a pancake than its Tentonic synonym, which is a podgy sort of flour fritter, lightly powdered with crushed sugar, and as heavy as a slack-baked bun. The " Pfannekuchen " has been aptly defined as " a solid farinaceous sphere, flattened at the poles, and only one degree less provocative of dyspepsia than its first cousin the baneful " Pfefferkuchen/ 3 Throughout the Fatherland this dreadful cake is recklessly devoured on New Year's Eve by peer and peasant alike, while among the upper circles it is usually washed down by a liquid contrivance at once sickeningly sweet and furiously fiery, called " Swedish punch " —an invention of the enemy to steal away men's brains and derange their livers. To make sure, as it were, that once

a year, at least, indigestion shall " wait on appetite," the fearless German consumes no inconsiderable quantity of marchpane as well as " Pfannekuchen," while awaiting the chimes ringing in the New Year. With the last stroke of the clock bell that announces the expiration of St. Sylvester's anniversary in Berlin, the trumpeters of the Guard Cuirassiers, drawn up on the platform at the top of the square red tower which surmounts the huge llathhaus,

blow a fine old chorale, the broad harmonies oJi which, sounded high in the air, seem to float gently down from heaven to earth, bringing with them benedictions to all men during the year whose birth they tunefully proclaim. In Germany gift-giving is not. as in France, compulsory on January 1. The interchangeable liberality which in both countries is deemed peculiarly seasonable at the end of the year finds expression among Germans rather in Christmas presents than in New Year's gifts. The morrow of " Sylvester Abend," however, is the day of days for complimentary calls and tor congratulations — printed, written, and verbal. Whereas the Christmas-card has never taken deep root, so to speak, in German soil, the " Neujahrskarte" is an institution high in favour throughout the length and breadth of the Hohenzollern realm, and millions of these missives, " zum gratuliren," are despatched from house to house on New Year's morning. rv*--^ In Italy the " Vigilia del Nuovo Anno" is celebrated by family gatherings, in which supper at an hour before midnight plays an important part. Italians, however, do not toast the arrival of the New Year in hot drinks, which have always failed to recommend themselves to the Peninsular palate and stomach. They pledge the coming twelvemonth and one another, if well to do, in champagne ; if poor, in one of the many cheap rough wines with which the land of the cypress and myrtle abounds. During the following day every Italian meeting a friend, relative, or even casual acquaintance invariably salutes him, or her, with the kindly formula "Felicissimo Capo d'Anno," an ornate and superlative version of our " Happy New Year," and of the French " Je vous souhaite la bonne annee." In Russia, Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and other European States in which the Orthodox Greek variety of the Christian religion is prevalent, the coming of the New Year — which takes place twelve days later

than in Catholic and Protestant countries — is celebrated'] by heavy feasting, and, for the most part, by deep drinking. The wealthy boyars of Moldavia and Wallachia keep open house after dark on the last day of the twelvemonth, and toward midnight the Dacian jeunesse doree make congratulatory pilgrimages from palace to palace, in every one of which they find tables spread with dainties in and out of season, admirable confectionery, champagne galore, and steaming bowls of " Venft Caldti," most congenial of beverages when King Winter holds Eastern Europe all but paralysed in his icy grasp.

Roumanian bachelors of the first fashion pay their New Year's Eve round of visits in full evening dress, their garments of ceremony thickly en shrouded in warm furs, while they are being driven in light sledges and at racing speed by their shouting " Birjai." Arrived at the house of a kinsman or friend, they put off their wrappings in a well-warmed and gaily-lighted antechamber, where, ranged in deferential rows by either wall, stand the " laotari *' or gipsy minstrels, " louting low" as each new comer enters the room, and striking up" a hrury " hora," or plaintive" Colinda," the latter — a sort of carol dear to the heart of every true-born Roumanian — being peculiarly appropriate to Christinas and New Year's Eves. jf£.- ,