DEMOREST’S FAMILY MAGAZINE. No. CCCXLII. DECEMBER, 1891. Vol. XXVIII., No. 2. Silent night, holy night! Across the midnight sky The sign is given, Heaven is riven, Glory flames on high In starry fires. While, angel choirs Sing: " Glory to God on high ! And peace on earth, to-night.” Silent night, holy night! In Bethlehem’s manger laid, Earth’s Saviour holy Is cradled lowly. Sweet Mary, mother-maid, Bends gently o’er him, Wise men adore him. Let earth be undismayed, God’s Son is born to-night. Silent night, holy night ! Christ’s glorious natal star No more beams o’er us., Nor angel chorus Re-echoes from afar, Though still it thrills us, Deep joy fills us. His worshipers we are Whose birth we sing to-night. 6 6 DEMOREST'S FAMILY MAGAZINE. W HEN th e first Christian preachers came to northern Europe to tell barbarous kings and chieftains about the Christ-child, they found that our British a n d German forefathers, rides higher in the heavens than he did on the noon heathen though they were, used to hold a great fes­ preceding, every day is a little longer than the day tival at Christmas-tide. It was the rejoicing of before, and though according to the old adage the cold has the people because sunshine and summer were com­ begun to strengthen, June and warmth and gladness are on ing back. their way to us once more. They knew nothing of equinoxes nor of solstices, but they The coming of spring is a joy to us who pass the winter had noticed that every day all through latter summer and in weather-tight autumn the sun rises later and sets earlier than on the day houses, curtained, preceding, and that every noon his blazing disk hangs farther carpeted, warm, and away towards the south. They knew that every night is brilliant in the long, longer and darker than the last till the twenty-first (some­ bleak evenings with times, astronomers say, the twenty-second) of December. lights and fire. Then sunshine begins to come back to the northern world. What must it have Every noon after the twenty-first of December the sun been, then, to people scantily clothed and primitively housed, to whom cold and stormy weather meant t h e utmost physical suffering and discomfort ? So they rejoiced over the coming of spring “ when it was yet a great way off,” and toward the end of December the people of northern A BOAR S HEAD DECKED FOR CHRISTMAS. A CHRISTMAS PROCESSION IN OLDEN TIMES. DEMOREST’S FAMILY MAGAZINE 67 the twenty-fifth of December cannot be the date of the Nativity, for that is the height of the rainy season in Ju- dea, and shepherds could not then watch their flocks in the open fields. But what matters the exact date so lo n g as the spirit o f Christmas is among us? “ Peace and g o o d -w ill” are equally sweet and equally attainable at any season. So thought th e first preachers who carried the gospel into Europe. They found it impossible to induce their wild parishioners to give up t h e dear old Y u le-tid e fe a s t: the Britons and Norse­ men would sooner have given up their n ew Christianity. So the missionaries kept the festival, but purified it, and at­ tached to the old observances holy and sub­ lime teachings. The great Yule-tide fires were kindled still in token of rejoicing, but the joy was because a Saviour had been given to men. And so, until Puritanism put an end to all Christmas jollifications, the lighting of a great fire on Christmas Eve was an essential CHRISTMAS IN OLD ENGLAND. part of the season’s observances. When Puritanism lost its power in this country Europe kindled great fires in honor of the sun-god, and held we had entered upon the era of the stoves and furnaces, the great Yule-feast because he had yuled— or wheeled, or which save the present generation from so many chilblains, turned—in his journey, and begun to travel northward. Some of our Christmas sports may be traced back to this feast of the Yule, which was kept with so much enthusiasm by Celts, Germans, and Norsemen ; some may be traced further back, to the ancient Roman feast of the Saturnalia ; some belong to St. Nicholas’ Day, and some to St. Stephen’s Day, which falls on the twenty-sixth of December: but all are bound together and glorified in the great feast of the birthday of Jesus. In England, Christmas has always been a merry-making as well as a religious festival. The revels used to begin on Christmas Eve, every day being a holiday till Twelfth-night (Jan. 6). At the houses of the nobles the tenants and retainers were entertained, and everything encouraged that was con­ ducive to mirth. A glowing fire, made of great logs, the largest of which was called the “ Yule-log” or “ Christmas block,” was a typical feature ; and the favorite and first dish on Christmas Day was a soused boar’s head, which was borne to the principal table with great state and solemnity, decked with greens, and on a silver platter. The first Christians were quite unable to agree as to the date of Christ’s birth : some kept Christmas in April or May, others kept it in January. It is almost certain that A BRANCH OF HOLLY. 6 8 DEMOREST’S FAM ILY M AGAZINE and drive so much pictur- esqueness and poetry out of our homes. How can Santa Claus get down the contracted modern chim- ney ? How can we per­ suade the wide-awake mod- ern child to believe in such an evident impossibility ? Stoves and furnaces find little favor " over the water," and the Yule-fire burns still on many an English hearth. As the flames spring crackling up the wide chimney, Christ­ mas greens are brought in and the walls are hung with ivy and laurel, holly and mistletoe. This pleas - ant custom is older than Christmas itself. Our heathen forefathers used houses is a piece to hang up green boughs of natural piety at Yule-tide to testify their as well as beau­ faith that the sun was ty, and w ill en- coming back to clothe the able you to earth again with green. relish the green Afterwards another reason world of which was assigned for the use OUR HEATHEN ANCESTORS HANGING UP GREEN BOUGHS AT YULE-TIDE. you show your­ of Christmas greenery. selves not for­ The legend was thus told by an English getful." Thus taught gypsy : an ancient divine in one “ The ivy, and holly, and pine tree never of his Christmas ser­ told a word where our Saviour was hiding him­ mons; and another : “ So self, and so they keep alive all winter, and look our churches and our green all the year. But the ash, like the oak, houses, decked with bayes and rose­ told of him when he was hiding, so they have mary, holly and ivy, and other plants to remain dead through the which are always green, winter and winter. And so we g y p s i e s summer, signify and put us in mind of burn an ash fire every Great His deity; that the Child who was bom Day." was God and Man, who should spring This tradition up like a tender plant, should always may be alluded to be green, and flourish and live in Sidney Lanier's forevermore. ” lovely verses begin­ In old church calendars Christ- ning, mas Eve is marked Templa exor- “ When into the woods nantur (the temples are adorned). the Master came.” Holly, ivy, rosemary, bay, and laurel furnished the The holly's spiky favorite trimmings leaves suggested to from the earliest devout fancy times. Christ's crown of A carol of so remote thorns, and the red a date as the reign of berries, h is blood Henry V I., preserved From these compar­ in the Harleian M SS., isons, and from its quaintly relates t h e, frequent use in respective claims of; church decoration, holly and ivy to pop­ the plant has gained ular regard. The its name holly, or first two stanzas run holy, tree. v t h u s : A YULE-TIDE FIRE. It has also been familiarly called “ Nay, Ivy ! nay, it shall not be, I wys ; Let Holy hafe the maystry, as the manner ys. “ Christmas,” be­ “ Holy stond in the halle, fayre to behold, cause of the peculiar veneration accorded Ivy stond without the dore; she ys full sore a-cold." it at that season. “ Every holly bough and This would indicate that holly was used for interior deco- lump of berries with which you adorn your rations, while ivy was employed for the exterior. DEMOREST'S F A M I L Y M A G A Z I N E 69 The picturesque forms of its dark, glossy leaves, and the brilliant clusters of rich red berries make THE GYPSIES' ASH FIRE. holly the popular favorite for Christinas decorations, irre­ spective of its religious significance. There is no religious symbolism connected with mistletoe, which is an altogether unworthy vegetable, as we shall see. Yet it has been reverenced by heathen nations, time out of mind. It was used by the Romans in temple ceremonies, and the Druids, the priests'of heathen Britain, held the mis­ tletoe of the oak in the utmost veneration.