CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS IN MANY LANDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 64, 18 December 1946, Page 6 (Supplement)

CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS IN MANY LANDS

QUAINT AND CURIOUS OBSERVANCES

Christmas is the season of

good cheer wherever the story

of the birth of the Christ Child has been told. Many quaint and

curious customs have grown up

around the observance of the day among different people. A few of these are here briefly recorded. Festivities Forbidden In England the Puritans protested against the immoral character of the Christmas celebration in the days of the Cavaliers. “Merry Christmas” meant for many a drunken Christmas. A Puritan parliament prohibited all Christmas festivities. After the restoration of Charles 11. this ban was lifted and the nation’s way of celebrating Christmas had been purified in many respects when the old festivities returned once more to popular favour. Christmas trees had been used in England for centuries, but with the marriage of Queen Victoria to the German Prince Albert, the Christmas tree became a national favourite in England. The children enjoyed more of the frolic and fun than ever before. Through Queen Victoria the religious significance of the day received increased emphasis. Christmas trees came into the churches and cathedrals of England as they had in Germany. There was a sanctity about the beautifully illuminated evergreen trees in the stately cathedrals which lent added charm ■and thrill, to the Christmas celebration.

A number of beautiful Christmas hymns come to us from England—- “ Joy to the World,” by Isaac Watts, written in 1719, and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” by Charles Wesley, written in 1739, being popular favourites.

In Scandinavian Lands

Norway, the land of the midnight sun, was the first Scandinavian country to observe Christmas. The several countries which formed ancient Scandinavia are one in spirit regarding Christmas. In the far north, among the tribes of Lapps living above the Arctic Circle, as Christmas draws near, each wandering tribe heads its reindeer toward the nearest settlement containing a church. They gather to listen to the old, old story of the first Christmas morn, which never grows old, though told year after year by the pastor. The people in the settlements live in low earth-covered huts. At Christmas these stuffy, unventilated houses are filled with the wandering Lapps as guests. The chief joy of these people is the reunion of friends, in attending church services, and in the marriage of young people. The children are happy because they can attend school, for at Christmas time they are brought to the settlement and left with friends so they can go to school. They attend from Christmas until Easter, working hard to gain knowledge and religion, which they crave. There are no gifts for these children—nothing but the chance to learn. In Norway and Sweden Christmas morning opens with an early service in the churches, to which all the older members of the family go in sled parties. The first to awaken Christmas morning does not say, “Merry Christmas,” but instead, sings a hymn. In Sweden there is a general house cleaning before Christmas. Everything must be scrubbed, polished, beaten and made clean. All rubbish must be burned.

Christmas baking is a matter of great moment. No Scandinavian peasant will sit down to his Christmas dinner until he has provided a dinner for the birds in a sheaf of grain fastened to the top of a pole. As a symbol of the spirit of Christmas, on Christmas Eve the shoes of all the members of the family are placed in a row, typifying that during the year all the members of the family live together in harmony and peace.

Singing In France December is the month of song in France. From first to last, everyone who can utter a sound is singing. Strolling musicians go from house to house playing and singing Noels. People sing on the way to market, to work, to church, or at play. In the winter of 1870 the victorious German army celebrated Christmas in Paris. German officers placed a great Christmas tree in the cathedral of Notre Dame. The French liked the idea, however much they hated the Germans. The beautifully gilded tree-captured the fancy of

many of the French people and they adopted the idea for the church at Christmas time.

The shops display fine goods, pretty toys, a great assortment of candies, and neatly trimmed Christmas trees. Among the confections on sale are little, delicate cakes, boxes made of chocolate containing candy in the form of fruit, vegetables, musical instruments, and all manner of quaint, artistic devices to be used as gifts or table decorations.

Although the cities make great efforts to attract Yuletide shoppers by the display of lovely wares, the idea is purely commercial. Only the churches keep alive the religious feature of the day. In the country the children gather laurel, holly, and bright berries with which they build a miniature Holy Manger. This fet placed on a table. With bits of sfone they form a hill, partly covering the rocky surface with green, then sprinkling it with flour to represent snow. On and about the hill they arrange tiny figures representing men and beasts. They suspend a star above the hill. In the evening children light the manger with small candles—then sing carols in praise of the Little Lord Jesus. They continue to light the candles each night until Epiphany—January 6 th—commemorating the coming of the wise men.

“The First Noel,” written in 1833, one hundred years ago, comes to us from France.-

First Christmas Carol

Christmas in Holland has a peculiar interest of its own. At midnight on Christmas Eye the men in al the towns meet in the principal square and chant the “Gloria in Excelsis,” the first Christmas carol ever sung.

A large star, in which there are several candles lighted and shining as one, is.mounted on a pole. This star is symbolical of the star which guided the wise men from the East, and the star is carried at the head of a long procession that winds through the streets chanting the “Gloria in Excelsis.” The people watch, slowly chanting, and the star casts a beautiful radiance in the dark and winding streets. Christmas is a Holy Day.. The people attend services in the churches, after which they hold a feast. They do not give presents at Christmas, but nearly three weeks before, they observe what is called St. Nicholas Day. On that day St. Nicholas comes driving his white horse instead of a reindeer. The children prepare for his coming by carefully cleaning their wooden shoes, filling them with hay and oats. They place the shoes on the hearth for the good saint’s horse. In the morning the oats and hay are gone, and in their place are toys and sweetmeats for the children.

Great Social 'Activity In America Christmas is the period of the greatest social activity of the whole year. It has become so commercialised and secularised that very little of the sacred clings to its observance. The Dutch settlers of New York brought with them the Christmas, customs of their fatherland. Their San Nicholas became our Santa Claus. In Holland the children placed their wooden shoes beside the fireplace to receive presents; but the stocking took the place of the wooden shoe in America.

The Germans brought to America the Christmas tree. Soon presents were hung on the branches of the tree, rather than ' beside the chimney. For generations' the Puritans would have nothing to do with Christmas celebrations because of the abuse of the season in England.

America has given to the world two beautiful Christmas hymns: “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear,” written by the Rev. Edmund H. Sears, 1849, and the popular favourite, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” by Bishop Phillips Brooks. It is said that Phillips Brooks when a boy could sing more than two hundred songs.

He had gone to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve,. 1868 ,to be under the same stars that looked down on the shepherds and the stable where the Christ Child was born. The stars impressed him more than any stars he had ever seen; they were large and nearer the earth; they sparkled like diamonds. Going outside the town, he sat on a hilltop and watched the stars as they looked down on Bethlehem. On the hilltop the inspiration came to him to write “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”

Well Known Songs. From Italy we have the song “Adeste Fideles,” “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” a seventeenth-century hymn. ‘Away in a Manger,” written by Martin Luther in 1524, is Germany’s Christmas song.