“HEIGH-HO! THE HOLLY ”

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 40043, 24 December 1929, Page 4

“HEIGH-HO! THE HOLLY ”

• CTosely identified with the Christmas festival, for the adornment of homes, is the holly, which poets have been wont to associate with jollity. Yet it was held to symbolise a crown of thoirns in its prickly leaves, drop of Passion blood in its red berries, and immortality in its ever-greenness. Hence the “Holy” as well as the “Holly” tree. If you would ensure a prosperous year for yon(r family, say the superstitious, you' must use in your Christraastide decorations three kinds of holly—the prickly, the non-prickly, and the variegated. In Derbyshire, if not in other parts of the country, they say that, according as the holly employed in the decorations is prickly or smooth, the master of the household during the year following will be the husband or the wife! There is another holly superstition—that it is unlucky to have holly in the house before Christmas Eve. It is at that time that, if you- desire to know what the future has in store for you, you should consult the holly leaves. Place on the surface of water in a tub or a basin holly leaves on which are .small bits of lighted candle. If the desire of your heart is to be fulfilled in love the leaves will swim; if you are to be unlucky indove they will sink. Should you be /'unwed, place three holly leaves beneath your pillow, giving to each the name of a possible husband or wife. The leaf which by morning has turned will reveal your fate, So say the superstitious. But what they do not tell us is what will be the fate of the one who finds his or her three leaves turned!