A MERRIE CHRYSTEMASSE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 52, 27 December 1900, Page 17

A MERRIE CHRYSTEMASSE.

HRISTMAS is once more upon vs — the last Nativity Feast of the swiftly passing century. Grifts are exchanged ; good wishes flit back and forth ; and ' A Merry Christmas ' resounds from many millions of lips. A thousand innocent joys are associated with this sweetest feast of all the year. And so intimately has it entered into our social life and domestic usages that few of the bands of merrymakers can realise that at one period all observances of the Christ-Child Festival were placed under the ban of law in England, Scotland, and the Puritan colonies of North America. The customary greeting that now passes between friend and friend is but the revival of the old * Merrie Chrystemasse ' of the Catholic England of the Middle Age. England was * Merry England ' then. And people flung themselves with the fresn abandon of schoolboys into joyous celebrations in memory of all that was brought to our race on the first Christmas Day by the Divine Babe of Bethlehem. Sir Walter Scott says in his Mannion .- — England was merry England, when Old Christmas brought his sports again. 'Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale ; 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale ; A Christmas gambol oft could cheer The poor man's heart through half a year. • • • The Scottish poet and novelist tells us how, When the year its course had rolled And brought blithe Christmas back again, With all hia hospitable train, the baron's hall was opened wide to ' vassal, tenant, serf and all'; and how ' * Power laid hid rod of rule aside, And Ceremony doffed his pride. A bright log lire 'went roaring up the chimney »vide.' It was a time of quaint old ceremonies, of feasting, of festive gambols, and of childlike and generally innocent merriment. This was the light and airy side of the Christmas festival of the far-off olden time. But deep beneath the rippling, sunlit mirth of those picturesque old celebrations of the Nativity there lay the ever-present consciousness of ite spiritual side. This was evidenced in the Advent fasting preceding it ; in the midnight Mass ; in the prayers ;in the solemn Mystery Plays ; and in the quaint carols that sang of the miraculous coming of the new-born King. • • • In England and Scotland the religious observance of the Christmas festival was swept away by the KefQrmation. But many of the old social and domestic usages long survived — shorn of their meaning and deprived of their religious setting. By the time of Charles I. the Christmas festivities hnd degenerated into mere disorderly revels. In Cromwell's time the day was ordered to be observed* as a day of solemn fast. Then arose a loud and angry protest throughout the land. Serious riots broke out and raged sporadically here and" there, and excited mobs led the military a merry dance. Parliament met to transact business on the festival. Business people were ordered to open their shops. The ringing of chimes was forbidden. Preaching and the holding of religious services of any kind were visited with penalties of a very convincing character. But in England, nevertheless, the Puritan Parliament failed to quite suppress Christmas observances. In Scotland the

course of legislation was more drastic ; its administration more searching and successful. Christmas games and shows were forbidden. Actors of mysteries and other plays were fined, imprisoned, or publicly whipped at the cart's tail. Women and girls were forced to spin in the open, under the public eye. Mulcts were imposed on all who rested from work or otherwise attempted to sanctify that sacred day. Laws of a similar import were passed by the legislature of Massachusetts. The anti-Christmas legislation died in England with th.3 Commonwealth, in 1660. In his Social Life lit, EiujlaacT, CoiiKOR Sydney -writes as follows of the period between the Restoration and the Revolution : — ' The festive season of Christmas was kept in regal style throughout the country. Distinction, for once in the year, lowered its crest. The host and his tenants met on terms of perfect equality. There were great mirth and ceremony almost everywhere. . . . The exhilirating wassail-bowl and the boar's head, crowned with garlands gay and rosemary, were not wanting. The yule-log crackled on the hearth. The sirloins of beef, the minced pies, the plum porridge, the capons, the turkeys, and the geese, smoked upon the hospitable board. The wandering minstrels patrolled the streets blithely, singing their ancient carols, and countless forms of amusement were provided for all.' But the spiritual meaning of the Christmas festivities was to a great extent lost in England, and was not recovered till the days of the Oxford movement. • # # The old days of the anti-Christmas crusades arc dead, and buried full many a fathom deep. Christmas celebrations have already secured the force of custom in most Anglican churches. Certain other denominations show Bigns of following the lead thus given. And we may hope in time to see many of our separated brethren adopt in part or in whole the Catholic conception of the spiritual significance of this great festival. Our age may be as material as you please. But the non-Catholic world cannot permanently, nor even for long, forget the one day in all the year that is a day of pure joy, the heirloom of the best joy of more than eighteen centuries. Of that sacred joy we wish all our readers a full and flowing measure.