CHRISTMAS GOSSIP

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 308, 24 December 1908, Page 3

CHRISTMAS GOSSIP

Christmas was not' oijseryed tjHAD 'M, and was hot adopted a'ud' re'eognised ■ by_ the Church "as i, '"jacred J^st,.iiutii -K«t only do' "uacssils,' -aim-cltib secretaries in"i'ndi|i"prder the t'hvutmtis pUiili jiuddiiig ir,o'm, but-|m" the "past few years .tfie prosper-: ons-half-oastes have loUowcd the .wjutu manVexil'mple." 4 ' '"' ' -'■■'A- c uTious Chrisfiiais kuow.u as "burning the faggot", is ,ob■sL'fved ilfifliiiiy iuirs'Tu'Soyicrsjji . „\"<heii laggdl'-t iii'iV'tlifowu o'n'the liry.'-iind ,as -suoic a'S" the 'bands "have* burs),, ,t,Uu, customers are 'allbived tolichi 'themselves )'}%:,f ':sw2 ffirmmiL. i* the ltndrord. ; ■Tlrt' gifeit'laiilt'of oljrsJwwada'ys' U that n'e gio»;u-up people are.not.childisJi cHOllgh. liierc is a vast amount.of stmplis auniseiiient waijjiug for .the man iiv w6inaii"with the courage to be reasonably ami wisely childish, uiic'e,i'(('. u .way, if iio'inbre'; and Cliristijius—or.; a da,y, of'two before it—is as goo.d a .tinie to ■ cililosc"as any' '" ' ' ■',' I ' 11 you have'read '.'si sixpenny 'handbook. Of scicntilic knowledge, and have learnt, that' nothing "exists ivhicji, yo.u cannot .weigh"ih a pair of scales,"then you .will not believe in Santa Claus.. But Santa Claii* is tiuer than we think, for. he !•' diil.v a'siinple'form and parable.of .the. Joy'r "\i-hieli' is, at the. heart of. things whicli'lias blessed us ail our days.. Cliwiima's is coming, 'and thcr.efore.it is a fitting time- to report on the aluioat coiiiplcte disappearance of the ghost from, current fiction. ' If g'no. wants a.good, u'oiiest, r..'sj ectable ghost it is necessary to'luiii u; ,i;i. old book." Why should lie' be' i'isciird'ed, from,th e , literary I'.pi'O:. pcr'ties" in this fashion'? there are still, young people in the .world./.

The London Chronicle, put ..oil record \vJhi't',it.tlibugjit'thc'shoi-t.estghost story ever "told. Two men '.travelled, from the. North in a Midland train, strangers, in opposite corners;' After three. hours the one thought he should say something, so he looked ove r his magazine anil said, "This is a jolty line, sir," .The,other replied, "Yes, 1 was killed on this line three years ago." , : . Although it may seem incredible, it is, a fact that not many years ago.Christinas was considered a superstitious festival, and was stopped from being held by the hand of the law. Holly and mistletoe were destroyed, and were called " the plants of the evil one." Cakes and wiae were considered impious by tho superstitious. When Oliver Cromwell was (Protector lie ordered all the more important towns in England not to observe Christmas, as he considered it to be- a hurtful custom.

The King put au end, says the World, to many of the 'highly expensive customs which Queen Victoria maintained. The great baron of beef is no longer cooked with such pomp jn the great roasting kitchen at Windsor Castle. It was, to say the truth, rather a useless and unwieldy dish. Nor does the King think it necessary to supply all Queen Victoria's descendants with plum puddings, as her late*-Majesty did. The wild boar's head is .superseded'' by the head of the ordinary farmyard swine, which experience proves 'to make a far more satisfactory dish, and it is "faked up" with false tusks, cochineal, and so forth. Christmas is the child's season. This Is a fact ignored by nil those writers who are agitating their various audiences with melancholy questions as to the fitness of the survival. "Can Christinas any longer be called merry?" they ask, "Are Christmas presents. *' form of blackmail! Is the turkey a tasteless bird? Does plum-pudding induce appendicitis ? Why scud Christmas I cards? Why, indeed? It doesn't really matter one way or the other how these questions are answered. H may .be—as tile riidy declares—that the average Englishman is erosser at Christmas than at any other season; and, th'' average cliihl has a will ol its own. And it plumps for Christmas, | Sceptical iis we u ll hiay be—and mostly arc—in talking about Christmasti.le , and the nuisance of entertaining' relatives and trying to be jolly, bluff and hearty and Dickensfau, most of us have a keen appreciation' of" the sentimental side of the season. It could hardly be otherwise. Not'many grown meii and women can look back on .their, youth w.'Miout finding some softening memory | .oi good times, of Christmas trees, and ■ gorgeous presents from relatives. Pre-1 senM are gorgeous in strict relativity I to the conditions of everyday life. Thus 1 a two penny rag doll may mean more than the |ialf-guinea motor car which will go three times round the room after winding. From the lowest to the . highest, children have, built up and arc building up precious memories Of .the Yuleti.de festival which serve afterwards to ameliorate the conditions of life. j

In Druidical times the mistletoewas treated as a sacred thing, and vvas cut from its foster-parent tree by priests, with much ceremony. Nowadays it is lopped by woodmen without any ceremony (mostly in France), bundled and crated, and shipped to England by the ton. From the early Norsemen our forbears borrowed the custom of kissing under it, another bit of our composite pagan Christinas. Antiquarians say that formerly it was never admitted into churches unless "by mistake or ignorance of sextons; for it was the heathenish and profane plant, as having been of such distinction in the pagan rites of Druidism, and it therefore had its place assigned it in kitchens, where it was hung up in great state with, its wild berries." "lioscmary, Hayes, Ivy and Yew" were used in ohftn times as well as Holly "hi Churches at Christmas," and "to 'decke up Houses," but holly was the favorite. This was probably on account of the suggestiveuess or its thorny foliage and red berries, which, toether with its use in churches, caused it to be considered peculiarly obnoxious to witches, and gave rise to the old idea that its name, was only another form of "holy"—the Holy Tree. The people of Denmark a nd Germany call it Christ's thorn. Holly that has been used to decorate churches at Christmas is much ] esteemed hi some parts of England, the possession of a small branch with berries being .supposed to bring a luck year. There is also an old Orman tradition that consecrated twigs of the plant hung over a door arc a protection against thunder. Christinas carols are. of very ancient origin. Durandus says that in the earlier ages of the Church Bishops used to sing them among their clergy on Christmas Day. A set of Christmas carols printed in 1521 "in the Fletestretc, at the sygne of the Sonne, by Wanklyn de Worde, were, says Warton, "festal chansous for enlivening the merriments of the Christmas celebrity; not religious songs, which were substituted by those -enemies of innocent and youthful mirth, the Puritans." The early Scotch writers did not scruple to set their "guid and godly ballates" to secular tunes. Thus, "Aue Sang of Hie Birth of Christ," in the first known impression of the Dundee Psalms (1578), is directed "to be sung with the tune of Balulalow"; and in a Presbyterian collection of "Sundry pleasant new Christmas carols" (1720), we find one "for Christmas Day, to the tune of Over Hills and High Mountains"; also one "for Twelfth Day to the tune of 0 Mother Roger." The Salvation Army practice in music, then, follows a ~espectable old precedent.