Christmas in France

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 1, 3 January 1907, Page 20D (Supplement)

Christmas in France

As we moved along the road on Christmas eve, in the fearful silence of night in the country (says a writer in an American magazine), the church bell was sounding, and we stepped , rather gingerly passing into the churchyard among the graves, half-exp>ecting wraiths to aiisc from the sod and join vs — a straggling quiet' few who were coming, some Co. worship, others merely curious, to woirder why we worship Christ at the birth of Christmas Day. '

Monsieur anif^ Madame X. had bidden almost everybody in'attendance upon ihe midnight Mass to partake of their hospitality. What an ' awakening ' it was ! Entering the door, we found ourselves in - the great room which, combination dining-room and living-room, tonight " was occupied from end to end by the long table that was gay with -.candles and holly and loaded with, good things to eat— the most exquisitely browned baked ham, roast chickens— unlike any ever seen in the United States,— ci'isp salads ""as beautiful as toothsome, cake; fruit, bonbons, wine. At each plate was an . original menu card and some dainty small gift— nothing of value to make- one groan under an obligation, but an offering pure and simple of good-will.

After much gaiety expressed over our gifts and the personal references which each card bore, we were placed at table. ' At the head sat the host and -hostess, side by side, and at the opposite end the two' children of the family, a boy aged twelve and a girl ten. " The cure was there, v beaming "with satisfaction. The Mayor was present, wearing the insignia- of . his office, a red, white and blue scarf about his waist, as he does upon all possible 1 occasions,, at once to honor ,the' occasion and define the honor due to him. After supper we all went up-s lairs to the studio— our host -is also an artist-painter — and there we drank coffee .about a Christmas tree which, brilliantly lighted, was not to be huug with gifts till a day -later in the week. All the xlays of -the time between Christmas' and the Feast of the Epiphany are equally days foi" Christmas trees and gift-giving among the French.

* The publication of an advertisement in a Catholicpaper shows that the advertiser not. only desires . the patronage of Catholics, but pays theni the compliment of seeking it through -the. medium of their own religious journal.' So says an esteemed and wide-awake American.; contemporary. A word to the wise is sufficient....