COLONIAL HERESY.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 39, 22 December 1894, Page 16

COLONIAL HERESY.

“ Now customs, Though they be never so ridiculous. Nay, let ’em be unmanly, yet are followed.” That’s what Shakespeare says about new customs, but I think many of us know of old customs, too, that would be “ more honoured in the breach than the observance.” The one that suggests itself to me just now is the very ridiculous one which induces us to eat hot dinners on Christmas Day. We try to keep up this old custom in spite of the fact that Christmas Day is midsummer here and mid-winter in the Old Country, where the custom originated. A Christmas dinner, in the ordinary acceptance of the term, means several courses of viands, most of them steaming hot, and, as if to increase the heat, the plum pudding is set on fire. All this would be delightfully warm and comforting in the depth of winter, with several inches of snow on the ground, and a keen frosty air to sharpen our appetites, but it is really one of the most ridiculous things in the world for ns to prepare, and try to eat, an ideal midwinter dinner in the height of summer. Surely it would be more sensible for us to adapt ourselves to circumstances, and, as it is impossible for us to change the seasons, to prepare more suitable dinners. The very thought of Christmas dinner as it is makes me hot, and we Southlanders are not accustomed to heat—it makes us cross and disagreeable, and when added to worry it engenders feelings which, especially at this season, we should be particularly anxious to avoid. I feel sure that many of my readers will agree with me, but whether they do or not, I hope that to one and all of them next Tuesday will he the very brightest and happiest of Christmas Days.