Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 30

In Macedonia St. Basil's Eve (December 31) is a common time for divination: a favourite method is to lay on the hot cinders a pair of wild-olive-leaves to represent a youth and a maid. If the leaves crumple up and draw near each other, it is concluded that the young people love one another dearly, but if they recoil apart the opposite is the case. If they flare up and burn, it is a sign of excessive pa.s.sion.{46}

In Lithuania on New Year's Eve nine sorts of things--money, cradle, bread, ring, death's head, old man, old woman, ladder, and key--are baked of dough, and laid under nine plates, and every one has three grabs at them. What he gets will fall to his lot during the year.{47}

Lastly, in Brittany it is supposed that the wind which prevails on the first twelve days of the year will blow during each of the twelve months, the first day corresponding to January, the second to February, and so on.{48} Similar ideas of the prophetic character of Christmastide weather are common in our own and other countries.

Practically all the customs discussed in this chapter have been of the nature of charms; one or two more, practised on New Year's Day or Eve, may be mentioned in conclusion.

There are curious superst.i.tions about New Year water. At Bromyard in Herefords.h.i.+re it was the custom, at midnight on New Year's Eve, to rush to the nearest spring to s.n.a.t.c.h the "cream of the well"--the first pitcherful of water--and with it the prospect of the best luck.{49} A Highland practice was to send 333 some one on the last night of the year to draw a pitcherful of water in silence, and without the vessel touching the ground. The water was drunk on New Year's morning as a charm against witchcraft and the evil eye.{50} A similar belief about the luckiness of "new water" exists at Canzano Peligno in the Abruzzi. "On New Year's Eve, the fountain is decked with leaves and bits of coloured stuff, and fires are kindled round it. As soon as it is light, the girls come as usual with their copper pots on their head; but the youths are on this morning guardians of the well, and sell the 'new water' for nuts and fruits--and other sweet things."{51}

In some of the Aegean islands when the family return from church on New Year's Day, the father picks up a stone and leaves it in the yard, with the wish that the New Year may bring with it "as much gold as is the weight of the stone."{52} Finally, in Little Russia "corn sheaves are piled upon a table, and in the midst of them is set a large pie. The father of the family takes his seat behind them, and asks his children if they can see him. 'We cannot see you,' they reply. On which he proceeds to express what seems to be a hope that the corn will grow so high in his fields that he may be invisible to his children when he walks there at harvest-time."{53}

With a curious and beautiful old carol from South Wales I must bring this chapter to a close. It was formerly sung before dawn on New Year's Day by poor children who carried about a jug of water drawn that morning from the well. With a sprig of box or other evergreen they would sprinkle those they met, wis.h.i.+ng them the compliments of the season. To pay their respects to those not abroad at so early an hour, they would serenade them with the following lines, which, while connected with the "new water" tradition, contain much that is of doubtful interpretation, and are a fascinating puzzle for folk-lorists:--

"Here we bring new water From the well so clear, For to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d with, This happy New Year. 334 Sing levy-dew, sing levy-dew, The water and the wine; The seven bright gold wires And the bugles they do s.h.i.+ne.

Sing reign of Fair Maid, With gold upon her toe,-- Open you the West Door, And turn the Old Year go: Sing reign of Fair Maid, With gold upon her chin,-- Open you the East Door, And let the New Year in."{54}

335 336 337

CHAPTER XVI

EPIPHANY TO CANDLEMAS

The Twelfth Cake and the "King of the Bean"--French Twelfth Night Customs--St. Basil's Cake in Macedonia--Epiphany and the Expulsion of Evils--The Befana in Italy--The Magi as Present-bringers--Greek Epiphany Customs--Wa.s.sailing Fruit-trees--Herefords.h.i.+re and Irish Twelfth Night Practices--The "Haxey Hood" and Christmas Football--St.

Knut's Day in Sweden--Rock Day--Plough Monday--Candlemas, its Ecclesiastical and Folk Ceremonies--Farewells to Christmas.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EPIPHANY IN FLORENCE.]

THE EPIPHANY.

Though the Epiphany has ceased to be a popular festival in England, it was once a very high day indeed, and in many parts of Europe it is still attended by folk-customs of great interest.[116] For the peasant of Tyrol, indeed, it is New Year's Day, the first of January being kept only by the townsfolk and modernized people.{1}

To Englishmen perhaps the best known feature of the secular festival is the Twelfth Cake. Some words of Leigh Hunt's will show what an important place this held in the mid-nineteenth century:--

"Christmas goes out in fine style,--with Twelfth Night. It is a finish worthy of the time. Christmas Day was the morning of the season; New Year's Day the middle of it, or noon; Twelfth Night is the night, brilliant with innumerable planets of Twelfth-cakes. The whole island keeps court; nay, all Christendom. All the world are 338 kings and queens. Everybody is somebody else, and learns at once to laugh at, and to tolerate, characters different from his own, by enacting them. Cakes, characters, forfeits, lights, theatres, merry rooms, little holiday-faces, and, last not least, the painted sugar on the cakes, so bad to eat but so fine to look at, useful because it is perfectly useless except for a sight and a moral--all conspire to throw a giddy splendour over the last night of the season, and to send it to bed in pomp and colours, like a Prince."{2}

For seventeenth-century banqueting customs and the connection of the cake with the "King of the Bean" Herrick may be quoted:--

"Now, now the mirth comes With the cake full of plums, Where bean's the king of the sport here; Besides we must know, The pea also Must revel as queen in the court here.

Begin then to choose This night as ye use, Who shall for the present delight here Be a king by the lot, And who shall not Be Twelfth-day queen for the night here

Which known, let us make Joy-sops with the cake; And let not a man then be seen here, Who unurg'd will not drink, To the base from the brink, A health to the king and the queen here."{3}

There are many English references to the custom of electing a Twelfth Day monarch by means of a bean or pea, and this "king" is mentioned in royal accounts as early as the reign of Edward II.{4} He appears, however, to have been even more popular in France than in England.

339 The method of choosing the Epiphany king is thus described by the sixteenth-century writer, etienne Pasquier:--

"When the cake has been cut into as many portions as there are guests, a small child is put under the table, and is interrogated by the master under the name of Phebe [Phoebus], as if he were a child who in the innocence of his age represented a kind of Apollo's oracle. To this questioning the child answers with a Latin word: _Domine_. Thereupon the master calls on him to say to whom he shall give the piece of cake which he has in his hand: the child names whoever comes into his head, without respect of persons, until the portion where the bean is given out. He who gets it is reckoned king of the company, although he may be a person of the least importance.

This done, everyone eats, drinks, and dances heartily."{5}

In Berry at the end of the festive repast a cake is brought before the head of the household, and divided into as many portions as there are guests, plus one. The youngest member of the family distributes them. The portion remaining is called _la part du bon Dieu_ and is given to the first person who asks for it. A band of children generally come to claim it, with a leader who sings a little song.{6} There was formerly a custom of dressing up a king in full robes. He had a fool to amuse him during the feast, and shots were fired when he drank.{7}

Here is a nineteenth-century account from Lorraine:--

"On the Vigil of the Epiphany all the family and the guests a.s.semble round the table, which is illuminated by a lamp hanging above its centre. Lots are cast for the king of the feast, and if the head of anyone present casts no shadow on the wall it is a sign that he will die during the year. Then the king chooses freely his queen: they have the place of honour, and each time they raise their gla.s.ses to their mouths cries of 'The king drinks, the queen drinks!' burst forth on all sides.... The next day an enormous cake, divided into equal portions, is distributed to the company by the youngest boy.

The first portion is always for _le bon Dieu_, the second for the Blessed Virgin (these two portions are always given to the first poor person who presents himself); then come those of relations, servants, and visitors. He who finds a bean in his portion is proclaimed king; if it is a lady she chooses her 340 king, and he invites the company to a banquet on the Sunday following, at which black kings are made by rubbing the face with a burnt cork."{8}

The use of the _gateau des Rois_ goes pretty far back. At the monastery of Mont-St.-Michel in the thirteenth century the Epiphany king was chosen from among the monks by means of a number of cakes in one of which a bean was placed. At Matins, High Ma.s.s, and Vespers he sat upon a special throne.{9}

It may be added that there is a quaint old story of a curate "who having taken his preparations over evening, when all men cry (as the manner is) _the king drinketh_, chanting his Ma.s.se the next morning, fell asleep in his Memento: and, when he awoke, added with a loud voice, _The king drinketh_."{10}

One more French "king" custom may be mentioned, though it relates to Christmas Day, not Epiphany. At Salers in the centre of France there were formerly a king and queen whose function was to preside over the festival, sit in a place of honour in church, and go first in the procession. The kings.h.i.+p was not elective, but was sold by auction at the church door, and it is said to have been so much coveted that worthy citizens would sell their heritage in order to purchase it.{11}

It may be remarked that Epiphany kings and cakes similar to the French can be traced in Holland and Germany,{12} and that the "King of the Bean" is known in modern Italy, though there he may be an importation from the north.{13}

How is this merry monarch to be accounted for? His resemblance to the king of the _Saturnalia_, who presided over the fun of the feast in the days of imperial Rome, is certainly striking, but it is impossible to say whether he derives directly from that personage. No doubt his a.s.sociation with the feast of the Three Kings has helped to maintain his rule. As for the bean, it appears to have been a sacred vegetable in ancient times.

There is a story about the philosopher Pythagoras, how, when flying before a host of rebels, he came upon a field of beans and refused to pa.s.s through it for fear of crus.h.i.+ng the plants, thus enabling his pursuers to overtake him. Moreover, the _flamen dialis_ in Rome was forbidden to eat or even name the vegetable, and the 341 name of the Fabii, a Roman _gens_, suggests a totem tribe of the bean.{14}

In eastern Europe, though I know of no election of a king, there are New Year customs with cakes, closely resembling some of the French practices described a page or two back. "St. Basil's Cake" on New Year's Eve in Macedonia is a kind of shortbread with a silver coin and a cross of green twigs in it. When all are seated round the table the father and mother take the cake, "and break it into two pieces, which are again subdivided by the head of the family into shares. The first portion is destined for St. Basil, the Holy Virgin, or the patron saint whose icon is in the house. The second stands for the house itself. The third for the cattle and domestic animals belonging thereto. The fourth for the inanimate property, and the rest for each member of the household according to age.

Each portion is successively dipped in a cup of wine." He who finds the cross or the coin in his share of the cake will prosper during the year.

The money is considered sacred and is used to buy a votive taper.{15}

In Macedonia when the New Year's supper is over, the table, with the remnants of the feast upon it, is removed to a corner of the room in order that St. Basil may come and partake of the food.{16} He appears to have been subst.i.tuted by the Church for the spirits of the departed, for whom, as we have seen, food is left in the West on All Souls' and Christmas Eves. Probably the Macedonian practice of setting aside a portion of the cake for a saint, and the pieces cut in France for _le bon Dieu_ and the Virgin or the three Magi, have a like origin. One may compare them with the Serbian breaking of the _kolatch_ cake in honour of Christ "the Patron Namegiver." Is it irrelevant, also, to mention here the Greek Church custom, at the preparation of the elements for the Eucharist, of breaking portions of the bread in memory of the Virgin and other saints?

In many countries the Epiphany is a special time for the expulsion of evils. At Brunnen in Switzerland boys go about in procession on Twelfth Night, with torches and lanterns, and make a great noise with horns, bells, whips, &c., in order to 342 frighten away two wood-spirits. In Labruguiere in southern France on the Eve of Twelfth Day the inhabitants rush through the streets, making discordant noises and a huge uproar, with the object of scaring away ghosts and devils.{17}

In parts of the eastern Alps there takes place what is called _Berchtenlaufen_. Lads, formerly to the number of two or three hundred, rush about in the strangest masks, with cowbells, whips, and all sorts of weapons, and shout wildly.{18} In Nuremberg up to the year 1616 on _Bergnacht_ or Epiphany Eve boys and girls used to run about the streets and knock loudly at the doors.{19} Such knocking, as we have seen, may well have been intended to drive away spirits from the houses.

At Eschenloh near Partenkirchen in Upper Bavaria three women used to _berchten_ on that evening. They all had linen bags over their heads, with holes for the mouth and eyes. One carried a chain, another a rake, and the third a broom. Going round to the houses, they knocked on the door with the chain, sc.r.a.ped the ground with the rake, and made a noise of sweeping with the broom.{20} The suggestion of a clearing away of evils is here very strong.

In connection with the _Kallikantzaroi_ mention has already been made of the purification of houses with holy water, performed by Greek priests on the Epiphany. In Roumania, where a similar sprinkling is performed, a curious piece of imitative magic is added--the priest is invited to sit upon the bed, in order that the brooding hen may sit upon her eggs.

Moreover there should be maize grains under the mattress; then the hen will lay eggs in abundance.{21}

We noted in an earlier chapter the name _Berchtentag_ applied in southern Germany and in Austria to the Epiphany, and we saw also how the mysterious Frau Berchta was specially connected with the day. On the Epiphany and its Eve in the Mollthal in Carinthia a female figure, "the Berchtel," goes the round of the houses. She is generally dressed in a hide, wears a hideous wooden mask, and hops wildly about, inquiring as to the behaviour of children, and demanding gifts.{22}