Walk At Christmas
LEGENDS' BEHIND THE FESTIVE SCENE
By
J. FORREST
bogan,
millies delighted
· proug: bird, ousted
and
'mistletoe bears magic ho coloured lights, bring joy, kites and spinning topa,' Jòlntė: Europeanded the Old World; persfully of wila
moro.
from
"Thousands of extra postmen starred. Baroness Lehren dromod, wholesome foods, the turkey
employed in all Christian them for her. So, as the royal" king of the board. vountries to help deliver; the tile princess commanded, she Yuletide" mails A
was attended by, a dazzling
hend, BETOY Tracing back toys and their singers, ballerinas and great favourite Christmas diahoa : of links is not so dames, all of whom she could curllerges And more be bliss kiss, a token of joy, fir twigs, stuck in pots, Christmas
easy. Again'a prehistoric father's transform at will..
hai, driven them into oblivion... however, momentary To the Christmas tree has uncouth effort in wood, carved
can never seò hini, lying well- extract full worth, however, grown, into a universal de nha fint knize, no doub
Anyone, troubling to explore stuffed and basted, without remember to pluck one of coration. Eta presence brought into bolhy some crude the cavalcade of Christmas toe recalling those Elizabethan on
fellow captains, the fruits each time you kiss blesses the poorest homes, shape for the amusement of his down the ages, must be struck ruke und Hawkins, who anfled. with by their sense of pleality una under the bough. And, Or it enchants tens of thou cave children.
While the fury of the to South America and brought don't forget that when all sands, when glant speci Then long before, Western reality.
Chinese French Revolution still thunder back with them, os afferings to the fruits are gone,
the mens, aglitter with rainbow. civilisation
in their ed; toy.
especially turkeys us well as 'gold, and Then little sliver in their holds. to city squares.
dolla appeared in Egypt at least those in France. Now, the lack of a tree 1,000 years before the birth of girls, as befiting good Ite
publicans, had great fun (we Spanish navigator, Peiro Nino, is now belloved thầy the The Yule log, crackling
even just a branch upon Chrit.!
believe),
ins striking off the before the hearth, possibly which candles flicker Later, In the 14th century, heads of their doll aristocrates the arst European to, dll- cover the trievo Hainchieved owes its inception to camp seema allen to the Christ French costumiers used dolls m fires with skin-clad cave- mas spirit itself.
Today's In 1301, *
nursery wonders, this distinction when, in 1499, I know fashion models,
courier dwellers gathered round a old age pensioners,
France range from cats which pure to he landed on the cust with royal
Venezucia. Father Christmus himself.
Here he bought a number of roaring blaze after winter's children and grandchildren livered an exciting parcel to the latest sciener marvels, real Cumano, north of the Pere Nod of the French,
We know, however, that Shakespeare dismissed snow enclosed the land.
long vanished overseas,
straggly-legged wdid fowls from the rod wielding (naughty-
Indians at the price of four he was well established in mistletoe as "baleful." And,
And did
lazy beads' boys-only chastised)
bird). Next year the fantastic who year by year decorate Medieval Mummery, the at different periods, all
expedklon salted' back to Weihnachtsmann of the
forerunner of the drama in kinds of properties were enticing figures, wrought by their little tree. their silver Gormans,
They spread the
Spain. Records of the voynew, flames, create San
the Britain. So. already 000 attached to the "golden the
tinsel over and Grandpa,
preserved in the Royal Pale Nicolaas เฟ the Dutch,
for n it desire believed
decorativo
with a word or two of grRCO
at Madrid, dó, nótæppeity years back, he wore a snow- bough." began as a myth. But Q
blurred look in his
whether he brought back fact he remains to the de- white beard and acted the could ward off sorcery and centrepiece for the Christ- and a
Was this wrinkled eyes carries a' taper in
specimens with Blit, role of Lorti Bountiful, black magic, exercise spirits, mas festivities? light of countless millions
small battery of candles. Then of children and parents.
although in truth he did not cure warts and epilepsy, ex- the forerunner of the Christ- his shaking hand to the tree's
mas tree? even enter his nursery kingdom tinguish fires, and
the golden memories of the old folks begin to glow. iJs the English-speaking deflect lightning and thun- The benevolent old fellow world until the Victorian era, derbolts. Many communities
be unthinkable without the had his beginnings before Then, through the sprawling exalted it as an object of
Christmas card. But hero the Christian era, stemming genius of Dickens and the fetish worship, a touchstone
never know, there's no claim to prehistoric And this teken of from Odin, the Norsemen'a serenity of that age which of fertility, capable of curing
inspiration. Personally, I believe that
this conscience salve for god. Odin drove his reindeer gave men time to occupy barren mothers or precious the Christmas tree, though joy.
poor letter writers has today sledge with thunderous fury, themselves with kindly dis- stock seemingly unable to attributed in Britain to untold millions of devotees. his whip cracking lightning tractions, his appearance at bear progeny. from the clouds. By some Yuletide quickly won him freak of association, this complete ascendancy pagan bollef became linked the children's hearts. with Nicholas, Bishop of
2123]
Myra, during the hey-day of
the
over
Mistletoe's place at
Mon
THE
mistletoe clusters,
#
***
WE shal!
Queen Victoria's husband, the German-born Prince Albert, is rooted in more ancient times.
But few
Again
our
·
celebrations would
YET, curiously, even the card
six cen-
The Mistletoe - Kies
BUT the turkey appeared, soon
afterwards in the Old World. The bird's conquesta: in Europe. proved royal and rapid. ArchbishopCramber, in 1841 recpntaryturkey as jonej "the greater fowl Respectful of its succulence, the mernly fosbad 1, coolesiastics to have more than "ono in a dishe” **King » Jernes 1 of England, keeps trust with its begin-
dolesting pork—the mere l'aight will
of boat's head sickened him--- dispute
nings. For the legend born by
Wecorded tire bird full lignours, Roman Emperor Christmas stemmed from most esteemed by the the German claim as the the first Christmas card, still re- the English queen. Opening it, and imaginary From Flying
further back Druids, were cut with their tree's first modern patrons mains
A supreme. Diocletian (A. D. 284-305). origins even
*space sho discovered a selection of SaucCTS,
ships and And within a few ginirations, fathers in the Eastern counties The gracious bishop, Saint in prehistoric times.
The sucred knifes from oak in Europe.
down Sentimental, year-old engravers app turned dolls wearing the latest modos "atomic distintegrators,"
not broed, and fetten William Maw Egley Nicholas, became immortal mistletoe kiss (80 pleasing a treca. For the oak to be home and family-loving,
of the gay capital. over his memories of Christmas
hydraulic petrol pumps, in-
Remands on the for his charity. Children welcome today) once signi- mistletoe's host added to they delighted in the ever pleas
And, as pleasures in 1842.
Somo nursery
"market. Great droves, late-comers, spection. lets and grapes with loved him because, while fled the kiss of death. For, specimen's rarity and, no green spirit brought by reflected he drew and designed
card
1815... Then,
favourites for wath-downs What next. 800 to 1,500 strong, were driven although firm they slept, he filled their as
distinguished doubt, to its magic proper- little fir tree into their a
Londonwards ä ten-wond shoes and stockings with anthropologist, Sir James ties. For mistletoe, as
groeting, years must be noted. The the wondering parents.. A homea. Decorated, too, It added gifts. So Santa Claus had a Fraser, notes in his "Golden bird-borne parasite, seldom added to their sense of conceiving the immortal Christ. golllwog, as far as is known, how that today's surprise, wijt
mas message "A Merry Christ- did not appear until 1895. Then be cast aside as commonplace feeding on Bough,"
mistletoe served attaches itself to oaks. It well-being. With presents mas and a Happy New Year fo.he war brought to life as the tomorrow. And now Chriskaj our ancient forebears during grows more easily on soft piled around its stem, the Yo"
hero of a book, on "Dutch, mas, faro priestly rites. It was in barked trees like birches, children found Its shin-
He printed and sent off 100 dolls Teddy Bears even
So, by the more popular, are, younger sifil. Christmas, of course, styg evidence when, on stone apples and willows,
ing, sparkling magic irre of these cards
chance Initiative of a boy. living
many To us, 'an. altars, under the open skies,
sistible.
m a London garret, a mightily Queen Victorino a Uny to for overeating. It is a bean finely-built young men and Yet, how strange a trans-
world-wide avalanche' was, set in thID (6,3 ming the lucky, good foods, vintage: than sacrificed to formation:
So, in litle more to turn the
priceles doll stilit Hõiteurs cha Brom In motion-an avalanche which owner or
And, of the century, kiss of death into à Yuletide a
few bears
on the 132 specimens in bill. The cigars:Hall aill
worthy ancestry.
cannot decide just when he women reached England.
SCHOLARS still
the
were
tribal gods,
from B
in
heavily
he
the
00 such workaday' devices for grough to meet the
cachautum, stubbles as they
tube out of
nên có chen too
Norwich, all imed with well-
Bul
wai