WHERE THEY FEAR CHRISTMAS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

WHERE THEY FEAR CHRISTMAS.

Thibet, the home of the strangest and least known people on the face of the earth, is also the home of the strangest of Christmas customs. The Feast of Queen Winter in Thibet corresponds with our own Christmas festival. The figure of this queen, or goddess, is painted blue and mounted on a camel, surrounded by a string of human skulls. The dance celebrated at this feast is called Tsam, and the masked figures which take part in them would be comic if they were not so horrible. One represents a horned bull, another a deer; but this deer, peculiarly enough, has a horse's head, an ancient symbol among the Thibetans of the messenger of death. There are evil spirits in hordes, demons and other bad spirits, to shock the ignorant people into blind obedience to the Lamas One god curses another, and every town has its local protecting divinity. There are serpent gods representing the spirit of evil, but they are fought by such protecting divinities as Garuda, who is always represented in Lamaism with a stout body, human arms, wings, and the head of a bird.

In Drayton Beauchamp, Berks, the custom of " Stephening "on Boxing Day used to be highly popular. Stephening meant the visit of all the parishioners to the rector to assert tl*eir right to as much bread and cheese as they chose at the rector's expense. In Cumnor a similar custom obtained on Christmas Eve. To Feed London on Christmas Day requires, among other things, 1800 head of cattle, 8000 tons of poultry, and an almost infinite quantity of currants and raisins.