Queer Rites of Yuletide.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue XXVI, 29 December 1900, Page 1212

Queer Rites of Yuletide.

PECULIAR MINGLING OF CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN (T STOMS IN THE EAST. PAST LIVES TO-IXAY. When a search is to be made for sctniething new in the way of Christmas legends and observances, the best plan, though it may appear paradoxical. is to look for something old. There are many Yuletide practices which in nearly all parts of Christendom fell into disuse centuiies ago, but which are still in vogue yearly in certain remote places. The majority of the ancient observances have lived in story if not in fact, and to readers of Christmas lore they have become much more than a thriee-told tale. Others of the rites have l»een forgotten, in western Europe and America: yet if the steps be turned at this season to the region of the Black Mountain, just beyond the Adriatic, there will be found a primitive condition of Christmas ceremonial that will delight the

antiquarian. The vicinity of Petrovatz in Bosnia is an ideal place for a debtor’s residence. There, once a year at Christmastime. all debtors and creditors must eome together and kiss one another. The debtors are supposed to pay their creditors if they can, but if they can’t they make excuses to the creditors and the matter is declared off for another year. This seems to l»e a sort of pleasing “stand-him-off” arrangement that could be possible nowhere save among the guileless Easterners. This custom has prevailed in the countries to the east of Austria from a time to which man’s memory runneth not. A BLACK MOUNTAIN CHRISTMAS. Lest any should suppose that the peasants of Bosnia and Montenegro, and especially those of the “Black Mountains” proper, do not earn their Christmas feast, it should be known that for six weeks before the anniversary of the Nativity the people do not put meat of any kind into their mouths. Perhaps nowhere else in the world can be found so curious an intermingling of Christian and pagan rites at Yuletide. The peasants even mingle relies of ancestor worship with their observance of Christ's birthday. One of their practices at this season dates from a time when iron was unknown by their forbears. The night lief ore this Eastern people begin their six weeks’ fast prior to Christinas day all the meat dishes in every house in the land are put upon the tables. When supper is ready each member of the family takes a bit of each kind of food and proceeds with it to the roof of the house, where it is placed as a potent charm against witches and uncanny spirits. This custom is traceable directly to a practice of extremely ancient times, when food was placed on the housetops as an offering to certain household spirits. At the supper all the meat in the house is eaten, and if this prove to be a physical impossibility at one sitting the members of the household mus’ needs rise in the middle of the night and finish the repast. After the meat lias disappeared each partaker must rinse thoroughly his mouth, lest a bit of meat adhere to the teeth. The next day no one eats anything. If the fast be broken the culprit certa’n’y will be shot with arrows by the spit its. It is the duty on this day to pick out a pig. a sheep, or a goat to be fattened for the Christmas feast. The animal is killed the third day befo e Christmas, and no more terrible misfortune can happen to a peasant than not to have a “bloody knife” in his house on that day. THE YULE LOG CUSTOM. About the only Christmas practice which these Easterners seem to have in common with the peasants of wes tern Europe and England is the cutting and burning of the Yule log. They carry the thing much further, however, even to-day, than the Saxons. the famous lovers of good Christmas cheer, ever did. In the Black Mountain there is a “great log for Christinas,” and smaller logs for each member of the family. The Yule log idea is traced to the fire worshippers. The wood must be

cut before sunrise Christmas morning. The head of the house, followed by his family, goes to some standing stump and cuts it down. He then takes off his cap to the log. turns toward the east, crosses himself, and offers up a prayer: “Give to me and to Christmas abundantly, O God.” If a log falls the wrong way another must he cut. unless the family wishes to he unlucky for a year. Smaller logs are then cut for the members of the family. The wood is drawn to the house and leaned against the wall, with the cut ends uppermost. If one by mistake is reversed the whole thing must lxdone over again or else misfortune will come. When the fire is lighted there is great joy in the household, but no one on any account must sjx-ak of nitehes after the great log is put on the fireplace, for they are supposed to be flying around on Christmas night as “plentiful as sparks.” THE FIREPLACE CHAIN. There is a legend, and in fact a belief. in the Black Mountain, of which research shows no trace elsewhere. Every fireplace has hanging in it. directly over the blaze, a great kettle chain. When a fire is started it takes but a few moments for this chain to become highly heated. On Christmas night, however, no matter how briskly burn the great logs, the iron chain remains cool and pleasant to the touch. There is no Montenegro peasant but will tell you that this is a fact, and he knows it to be so for he has made a test of it on many succeeding Christmas nights. The coolness of the chain is accounted for by the statement that a similar chain hung over the fire built on the floor of the stable in Bethlehem, and that at the birth of Christ the Virgin Mother grasped it for support. It became cool at her touch lest, it burn the saintly hand, and from that day to this there is no fire hot enough to heat the fireplace chain on Christmas. The fire is lighted by means of kindling, bits of which are placed under the log by each member of the family. KISSING OF EWES AND COWS. After this the head of the house and the son who acts as the shepherd of the sheep flock to the stables with candles and light up each comer of the initerior alternately. Then they return to the door. and. as each holds his candle high, the animals are driven in one by one. The household wife then sprinkles a little wine over the oldest female of each of the different species of live stock, and. having done this, kisses the animal on the head. This is a. unique Christmas practice, and antiquarians have been able to find no reason for it. nor have they been able to set the time when it began. This kissing ceremony over, the family “clucks” like a hen and “cheeps” like a chicken. This is said certainly to insure a plentiful increase of the fowls during the coming year. It should have been said that before the fire is lighted the iron shovel and the poker are hidden away. The Christmas fire must be stirred only with a piece of wood. As soon as a piece falls from the end of the burning Yule log one of the sons of the family picks the bit up in his teeth and at the imminent danger of being burned carries it thus into the yard and there drops it. Now of a certainty no witches can get in during the Christmas festivities. The carcass of the Christmas feast —sheep. pig. or goat —is roasted whole. In carving it no rib of the creature must be broken. Otherwise a. dire calamity is in store for the family. A cake is baked on the hearth, and as soon as the spot where it was cooked is cool each member of the family puts his bare foot on the place, and is thus insured against blistered feet for a year.

When writing of Saxon Christinas legends and odd Christmas ceremonials one writes in the past almost wholly. In the Black Mountain region the oldtinie customs are the customs of to-day, and time seems to have been unable to change their infinite variety.