YULETIDE LORE AND LEGENDS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 2 (Supplement)

YULETIDE LORE AND LEGENDS.

j ~ QUAINT ORIGINS OF CUSTOMS. Most ot our Christnui? ( ustoms hav* i descended to us from the dim time of | myths and legends. One of the most interesting:, the leg- * end ot the Magi, had its origin in J the 'impl f ‘ story oi the Scripture* * told by St Matthew every century j something being added to the fact* , until the original story has been al-Inio'-t smothered in the wealth of deKventually the number of Magi was stated to be three. Melchior. Balthazar and -laoper: royalty was attributed to them, and a complete description given of each .Wording to an old Scandinavian legend, the mistletoe bough was responsible for the death ot Balder the Apollo of the North. His mother hail declared that which had i its root m earth, air fire or water • should hurt him. j His treacherous enemy, the God of | Evil, thereupon made an arrow from the mistletoe bought and gave it to I a blind man to test. The arrow piereI ed Balder and he was slain. Eater, ■ however, Ih was rest red to life. After this tfce mistletoe wa declared harmless, and it became an emblem of love. In Certain parts of Great Britain J it i? still believed that a sunny noonj tide on ('hristmas Dav means a pleu- | tifnl supply »»i apples during the cotn--1 mg year. j Hie custom in hanging up stockings j on Christmas Eve had its origin in a | legend about Sit Nicholas. Jt used to be done on December ti. the Eve j of >t Nicholas, and in Belgium and ! one or two other countries this data J is still adhered to. The story goes that there was a poor j nobleman who had three daughters. I He was so badly off that he could not provide his daughters with a dowry. One night, however, they had a stroke of luck, for St Nicholas dropped three fat purses ot gold down their kitchen chimney. I he fashion of olden days was to make purses something like the modern stocking, and this is how the present-day custom came about. In the Yuletide game known as snapdragon we have an interesting relic of the fire worship of the Druids and possibly of the practice of trial by ordeal. A person suspected of a crim*> had to grip* a red hot- iron bar or plunge his hand into fire as a test of innoI' cence! It was believed that superhuman intervention would l»e forthcoming it the person were not guilty. , One ot the oldest superstitions pre- ! valent all ovt r Europe is the idea that J animals assume rhe power of speech . at Christmas time. How this belief j started is not known. \ BONING DAY BELIEF, bounded upon tins belief is the French legend of the old woman, tb* cat and the dog. This inquisitive old person made jdans tor listening to the conversation which she felt sure would take place between her usually dumb friends. lo her consternation she heard her cat say that burglars were going to b?*eak into the house that night ! Without stopping to think, she jumped to her feet and ran screaming ro her front door, where she was met by robbers. who made short work of her. Boxing Dav has always been the festival of St Stephen, who for some unaccountable leason has for hundreds o? years been regarded as the patron saint ot horses. In olden days it used to be the custom for all horses to b* bled ami thoroughly washed. Thu was supposed to preserve them irou» barm through the ensuing rear.