XMAS SUPERSTITIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 17 December 1926, Page 10 (Supplement)

XMAS SUPERSTITIONS

WHAT WERE THEIR ORIGINS? “Superstition” is a word very loosely used in ordinary conversation. Th a dictionary tells us it means “religious worship applied to persons or objects which deserve none.” The’ word as commonly used, however, is applied in a far more general sense, and means any custom, or belief, which some people persist in without rational grounds. Many of such customs or beliefs can be traced back to quite reasonable origins: origins of which, however, most people are unaware. Others are lost in antiquity. Of both these classes, some seem simply silly; as. being afraid to sit thirteen at a table; of thinking someone will die. it a picture falls. Others are picturesque and even in a way useful—as. thinking it unlucky to walk under ladders; which very often is really the case, for their may be a paint-pot up above! In this article, however, we are concerned only with superstitions connected witli Christmas. There was an old custom, at Dewsbury. in Yorkshire, of tolling a bell on Christmas Eve in a manner similar to the tolling at a funeral. This, it used to be said, was “the devil's knell”; the idea being that the devil died when Christ was born. Linder the old Czarist regime (and no doubt now also to a considerable extent) Christmas in Russia was associated with large numbers of picturesque customs. The ancient practices of heathen times persisted throughout many generations after Russia had been Christianised. As has been said, “still in the villages were the old customs kept up. and when Christmas came round it was greeted by survivals of ttie ceremonies with which the ancient Slavs hailed the returning Sun God." One of those old customs was that of “mumming"; dressing up In all kinds of fantastic disguises, and going about the villages revelling in all sorts of antics. Another Russian festive Christmas custom, of a superstitious nature, was that of divination. One of its forms was called “podblyudnuiya”—from “blyudo.” a bowl. Tokens were dropped into a bowl, over which a cloth was thrown. Songs being, sung, tlie tokens were drawn out one by one, and omens of woe or weal deduced from the. result) Then came the ceremony of “burying the gold." The girl who drew from the bowl a gold ring, concealed it in her hand, singing, “I bury gold." and changed the ring quickly from hand to hand while the company circled around her. The ring was then swiftly passed (as secretly as possible) to someone else in the midst of a romp. The girl who rightly guessed who had it would be the first bride in the New Year.

Returning to our own country, we find that records remain of many old Yule superstitions—of whicli probably some still exist. It used to bo thought, in some parts of Yorkshire, that it meant ill-luck if a female were the first to enter a house on Christmas Day. It was also thought unlucky to hand a light to a neighbour on Christmas Day. In Hertfordshire, in former days, the first Christmas Day act of a farmer was to give a good feed of hay instead of straw to every one of his animals. This brought good luck. In Worcestershire it used to be. thought unlucky to receive new shoes, or tanned leather, into the house, during Christmas week. In some English country districts it used to be thought that, if the sun shone through the. apple trees on Christmas day, next year would see a plentiful crop. If there was no wind on Christmas Eve, the coming year would be fruitful.

There was an old belief that the cock crowed in the night at Christmas. As Shakespeare says in “Ham-let”:-“Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, this bird of dawning- singclh all night long.” • It was believed that- -this scared away fell spirits. On the other hand, in some, parts of the country, -it was thought that the sound of a cock crowing at that time meant, a death in the family. -Among old French Christmas super-' stitions was that of taking twelve grains of corn, on Christmas Day, and giving each one. a name of a month. They were then placed on a hot shovel. The ones which leapt from the shovel indicated in what months of the coming year corn would bo dear. The charcoal of Yule logs used to be kept, being regarded as lucky if placed in medicines. If a piece of this charred log were placed under a bed, it was a safeguard against fire or lightning. If the ashes were mixed with seed corn, the harvest would not be spoilt by blight. The same result could be ensured by wrapping corn-seed in the table-cloth used on Christmas Day. Bread baked on Christmas Eve was supposed to remain incorruptible during ten following years; but it was held lo be unlucky to make bread between Christmas Day and Twelfth Day. SHAD9VJIG3APH'.'