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The Peaceful Way
►
By John Thorpe
Twas Sunday's ove and brooding
deep
I fared a silent way.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1932.
Let's Be Kids Again!
IT'S TURKEY
TIME!
How To Select
Your Bird
No feathered friend called mate caterpillar from the South Pole, the hot' plum pudding's coming in the country and raised their own
or brood,
"
When grandmothers lived chiefly. turkoja it was a widespread tradi tion for all the branches of a family to gather at the old home to share the Christmas feasts, praise the cook, and exchange news..
Christmas In
Many Lands
YULETIDE IS THE SEASON OF LUCK BRINGING AND FESTIVAL: ANCIENT CUSTOMS THAT HAVE SURVIVED THROUGHOUT THE AGES
Christmas is magic. It's hard to Didn't we have fun then? And sayhowlmt_starts it the strings of why, in the name of all that's ridi- spiky, silvery stuff hung up in culous and glorious, can't we have the shops, and looking like hairy fun now seeing it's Christmas and etherialised and indefinitely pro triumphantly into the hot dining lenged; the bits of Christmas Bush room decorated with those endless And cheerless was the day.
in people's buttonholes, the Decem- silvery" *** caterpillars **** and the Then as the sun sank sullenly,
bor racket of the cicadas, the Monsoundless chimes of red and yellow
Time loaves the essential Christ" Black-robed and downenat syed, day morning sun burns, or little Christmas bells 1
mas-spirit untouched. The tendency Beside a rugged bridle path
Willie chasing a blow-fly out of the
Forget all about the late thirties Modern conditions make it more in England this year is to accentu Three uns walked side by side.kitchen-with shouts of joy,
and the carly forties (or the higher convenient at times for both the ate the clieery nature of the winter I saw their lips move, as they
But Christmas is magic, and we numbers, that, anyhow, are only younger, and the older generation to festival, increase the number and passed,
do thing at that time that at any taking us back towards our discontinue those very large old importance of the gilts exchanged. other souson would land us in what and south"); forget the doc fashioned Christinas gatherings. and add still more to the attrac Americans call the nut factory." tors, the dentists, the plumbers, the One reason for the change is the tions of the season for young and We eat int, hot plum-pudding when radio-license inspector, the lay-byes, fact that fine turkeys are now old. The more crowded and strenu the thermometer's up in the nine- and the bill from the garage; forget available in almost every market ous, the life of the day the mora ties and the perspiration's running the arguments, and the forgotten throughout the winter, as well as ralint is sought in the abandonment us a half-periny worth of harm). We give each other cards with robin. red-breasts and holly, on them,! though most of us wouldn't really know what these things were it we were introduced to them.
Perhaps they prayed for me, They may have said old words I,
hoard
Beside my Mother's knee. And tho my way is not their way
(Their creed is none" of mine)
The sunset seemed to turnt to gold, down our brows (and it doesn't do anniversaries, and each other's re-at the holiday season. So they are of work and the enjoyment of pleas
latives-just forget to remember loss of a novelty in themselves, sure,
and other conditions lead the
And twilight was divine.
•
had been sad and iil at rest, "And sore was I at heart, But as they passed I felt peace
come
Aid grief and dread depart. The day itself seemed holier,
And all this is very well, for to And blest the ground they trodny way of thinking sanity is largely insanity, and insanity the raw mate And I felt as a sinner might
Whe'd made his peace with God.rial of songs, and prophecies, and,
true dream, and love,
I watched them walking silenty
Far in the fading light, Till up a hill, and down a hill, And they wore out of sight. Through door and pane of wayside']
homes,
Pale lights were burning low, And yet it seemed a bright light,
shone,
The way
I saw them go.
then,
Anyway, they're not real not as real as play, and poems, and a little kiss in the pantry passage, and a laugh at the kitchen and a, sigh for the baby.
Christinas Lay Falling on a Sun modern young housewife to try her day, the public has looked to the hand at cooking them rather than Government, to declare the Tues- to look for an invitation to the old day after Christmas Day a public home.
holiday. Whether this is done or The less, experienced housekoop-not, the majority of English people er, however, is apt to besitate be will extend their lief from work (Don't you believe me? Then fore the problem of selecting, the to the Tuesday, and from one end read the scientific text books and royal bird the turkeys on the re- of England to the other will spend find out how unreal most so-called tail market generally fall under both Monday and Tuesday in open- "real" things are; things like one of three groups: "Prime," air sports and games and in visiting
choice," and "medium." The their friends far and near. tables, and stoves, and funeral principal difference is in the amount monuments. They're just vibrating
of fleshing and the occurrence of centres of electric energy, as un-
defects due to dressing Prime that aubstantial-or sa substantial-ne a
turkeys are full-fleshed, choice are well-Beshed, and medium are fairly well-fleshed. A turkey that bears ons of these grades carries its own assurance of tenderness and palat ability it properly cooked.
Granted then that we're splendid ly insane at Christmas-let's be a little more so, let's all we double-
people-pretent harnessed we're just High School age again, giving cach
conversation lollies with "I love you" on them, and playing kiss-in-the-ring and i postman's knock!
other
thought. In a thousand years are where are they! But a song or a inve-story is still travelling on with
women, making thei men and tender and-glad).
For the Sportsman's
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suggestions.
Christmas.
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Of course the housewife must go to market with some idea of the weight of bird she will need. If only four people are to enjoy the dinner, An eight-pound turkey will be ample; in fact, it would serve six or eight if necessary. Perhaps & ten-pound bird would be a better; choice for eight persons, and so on, correspondingly, with an increased aumber.
(says J. C. Griffith-Jones); It wo do not believe in fairies any more, we conjure up whimsical spirits in song and story, and in cottage and farmhouse and botel this season there will be revels and a great com ing together,
and movement at Christmas with golf hunting and Ane walking country at the door.
In the "real!'' Irish-parts of the country, where the ancient langu age is still spokon along with Eng- lish, that is in Donegal, parts of Connemara, Kerry and Cork," and in a few other places, one will see the old setting for Christmas UN- changed. On Christmas night a Hghted candle will, burn in every window of the white-washed farm- houses The farmer's children will. be trying to count how, many candle. lights they can scs-from their own home. A larger candle will be set in a sod of turf or turnip for holder. This will be the Christ-- 'mas candle, to burn every night until the New Year, Cups and saucers will be upon, the table, be- tween meals, for wandering souls from Purvatory who may revisit." their old homes.
All of this older life of Ireland, co-existing in the midst of and with the new modern life, is one of the delightful discoveries for the Christ- mas visitor who moves a little out of the beaten tracks.
Scandinavia.
If there is anything "new" in the English Christmas, it lies in the inoronse of Christmas sport and Christmas travel. The latter is to day an essential feature of the
The Keltic year of our ancestors holiday, and it is of such dimen sinus that the whole country may began on November 1, and this day he said to be "on the move." It is named in Welsh; Calan Gaeaf- is not so long since, and certainly pronounced Kalion Guyaff, meaning within the memory of all who have Winter Kalend. Long ago the night reached. middle age, when Christ- was marked by kelebrations and mas travel was a weariness and a feasting, and even now special fairs vexation. Trains were few, slow are held in country districts follow- and uncertain, the roads were deed by bonfires on the hillsides, serted. To-day all that is changed. Children spend days collecting mate The railways are alive and busy, the, rial to feed the great blaze, and roads are filled with cars
there is laughter and music in Always delightful in summer, the thousand towns had villages. beauty spota of Britain have, an When I was a boy no one spoke austore charm in winter, that has One must know, too, whether the appealed to centuries of great pain of Guy Fawkes, but we worn all wants to cook a young or an older ters. To those who love to trans-xcited about the winter bonfires turkey, the latter requiring longer, port themselves into the past the over a period of several weeks and which were conveniently staged slower cooking. Age is distinguish winter view of England brings a ed, as with other poultry, by the keener sense of the conditions under weather is kind this practice is still extended into December. If the flexibility of the tip of the breast which these great castles and carried out in certain districts of A supper is served at long tables, bone, which bends easily in young; abbeys, those black and white and North Wales, and is regarded as a half-timbered farms, these thatched kind of lighting up of winter cottagea were built and lived in revelry.
Gay boliday amusements will be
-
Yule is the only word all over Scandinavia for the great fer- tivity of Christmas, And it is Christmas, and not Christmas Day, that takes the preference in the cole- brations in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The rallying points are the churches, where in the. Hall is Tree bedagged generally placed a huge Christmas and bedecked. Everyone is welcomed, but no one should come without bringing the value of which is inconsider Christmas present (jul-klapp "),
able.
་
decorated with candles and tulips,
and the fare is a reminder of by-
gone days,"" when "food was much
simpler and cruder. One dish is
.birds.
Flashing is the principal com sideration in selecting a turkey. An exceptionally fine bird will have found at hotels in London, and the I have met old people who can a broad full-fleshed breast, and the tesorts. The place of the hotel in recall the picturesque ceremonial codfish, treated in an emulsion of back, hips, and pin bones will be the life of England is becoming more attached to these blazings half a wood ashes and anit, which ip eaten fully covered with fat. Young birds important each wear. The hotels century or more ago.
Farze and like plum pudding, whether the
to be preferred.
Afterwards," "the' parcels, which have been pooled, are distributed, and festivities continue until mid- night, And next morning the churches are packed to capacity the services
At
are softer, meated than older ones, of London, in their cuisine and up-taggots were resential, and persons diner likes it or not. Then fol which have coarser flesh and require, pointments, are the equal of any in ran back and fore through the low porridge, made of rice, best- longer cooking, by
the world. They are the meeting amoke and the fire. Boys would rewn with cinnamon, and in it is A good turkey should also be well place of those who, on account of unwise round the great blaze, one sweet almond, which brings bled, welfaressed-and-free-from-changed conditions, no longer enter drawing-neares with each tun, and luck, or marriage, to the one who pin feathers. The crop should contain in their own homes. At Christ those who dared ran through the | gets it," tain no feed. There should be no inas and the New Year the hotels asher, at its adga Those who Besh bruises and vany few skin vie with one another in decoration, caused the sparks to fly were con abrasions. A dry-picked turkey is dance, dinner, cabaret, and the presidered brave and would be in luck
sents they give to their guests. for a whole year,
For the masses Christmas holi People threw stones, which they Boasting the Turkey.. tlays will bring football matches, had marked, into the heart of the Prepare the dressing the day, be for the golfer special tournaments, bonfire, returning next day to seek In London, there is a Swedish fore but do not stuff the bird until-for the country squire and the hunt them. To find your own stone was colony calling themselves the Ber- just ready to road. Start in a hot ing townsmen the pleasures of the lucky, to fail to find it meant mis
serks and Vikings;”, who, in addi- oven; lower the flames in about half Meet on Boxing Day, for the fortune and in some cases was retion, celebrate the old Taleod an hour, after the turkey has athlete cross-country runs, for the garded na a death omen,
December 13, from the day when browned slightly. Cover and roast, hiker and rambler the joys of a
When the fire died down those the Swedish calendar, was moved basting every Afteen minutes, until tramp across the downs and hills was a general scamper, for home for eleven days. Many old-fashioned shout half an hour before the bird... in the keen December air.
fear of the Black Bow without a customs-still-prevail-at-their-meet- in finished. Remove the cover and Wherever he may be, the trail Tail. They mag as they fed inge. One is the dipping by allow the turkey to brown the re- tional pleasures of a well-stocked mainder of the roasting period, Christmas table will not be neglect "Home, home, let each try to be
The giblets, which have been cd. The delights of roast turkey, cooked previously, should be chop plum pudding and mince pies are ped and added to the gravy,
not to be denied. The brandy must blaze, the cracker must he pulled, and time-honoured toasts must be drunk,
Fruit Cup..
first
everyone present of a place of speel- al bread in a huge saucepan, con- And may the tail-ices Black Bowtaining a liquor in which cuts from
take the hindmost↑ "
a pig and special sausages have been- prepared. It is said to be Christmas has its round of com- the merriest Scandinavian gather petitive festivals of song and poetrying during the year but, alas for The children start their carol sing poor Eve is exclusively attended ing early-weeks before the feast by men T and on Christmas Eve and Christ- There was a time when Christmas mas morning choirs of trained passed almost unnoticed in Scot singers roam the countryside herald. Special Sweet Potatoes.
fand, the mid-winter festivities taking the Nativity with real Welsh Boil six medium-sized sweeting place at New Year. Old aus fervour.
Che grapefruit in halves and re move inner fibre. Sweeten and fill· with slices of orange and banana, Top with a cherry and serve either pas a cocktail or a dessert.
Scotland.
Hungary.
Christmas is a quiet day for
potatoes with the skins on until toms die hard, and the New Year in North and, South Wales, the anYear's Eve' is the real time of en- In many Churches, both Hungarians Christmas Day brings the decorated 'free, but the New tender. Remove the skin, add one still brought in with rejoicing, cient custom of holding a dawn or tablespoonful of butter, three table which is a revelation to the visiting cock crow service continues. Lasi tertainment. On that night the spoonfuls of sweet milk, sugar to stranger who has hitherto regarded Christmas in the Cardiganshire hill national dishes and music are often suit the taste and mash well to the Scottish people as staid, steady country. I attended a service at 5 followed by two "luck-bringing " stther. Add one cupful of raisins going and somewhat "dour New .m and the congregation which customs. As the clock strikes, a that have been soaked overnight. Year's Day is a public holiday had come on foot and horseback chimney sweep enters the room, and Put into a baking dish and place throughout the land, but, unlike from a radius of ten miles sang gives everyone present a chance to marshmallows around the top, England, Scotland has no holiday on empty and sad prayers and listenerfed throughout the year thin will take a bristle from his brush. –Car Brown in the oven. This makes.
the day after Christmas Boxing with rapt attention to a sermon bring good fortune to the owner. delicions dish to serve with game at Day: Boxing Day, it is well-known, until the dawn broke. dinner.
Delightful Confection: Made of
Pared Pumpkin,
is the day when, “Uhristmas
Philippine Islandă,
Boxes are distributed by house In the southern Industrial country Another custom bringe into the holders to those who bato served of Glamorgan' a picturesque custom room New Year sucking pigs, and them throughout the year, to the called Mari Lwyd has survived. A to touch them gives an added chance A delightful confection may be postman, messenger boys and the youth-wearing a painted horse of happiness mude of one-inch squares of pared like. A similar custom exista in head and dressed in a white sheet is pupku. To a pound of these Scotland, but instead of being call accompanied by others in the parts pieces, three-quarter pound of sugared a Christmas Box the present of a Merry Man (wit &ddle), a The religious aspect of the Na is added, and allowed to stand is known as a Neerday (New sergeant, a corporal and Punch and tivity, is ongly stressed in the overnight. In the morning the syrup Year Day), and is usually given on Judy, and they go from door islands of the Philippines more may be drained off and cooked until Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) or loor. They sing demanding entry especially on the Christmas Eve it costs the spoon, after which the during the week hetween Christmas to the hour and the householder. When darkness falls, and the lights. pumpkin, one lemon, and a table, and New Year, en sings in return denying admittance flickers up in the open- windo spoonful of preserved ginger are Scottish customs and habits on At last the door is opened, and the houses ander, the cocoanit trees, added, and boiled until the pumpkin. Christmas Day differ in no wise there is more long-the mummer soft-footed procession maker, its is cleared. The pumpkin should be from those of England - on which, ing, for their supper, and then reway from door to door, simmered until the avrunai absorb indeed they are founded On the farn thanks ɔn song, tổời
hymns and sacred ed, and then lifted but sad drained; other hand, the celebration of New first on plates, then on sereen! Xoar is rich in habits and customs Dovered with cloth. When it is no peculiar to Scotland The younger longer sticky, it is rolled in gran and more exuberant member of the Ulated sugar and packed in gisas, community gather in the open piti jara
in streets and squares, to swait, the coming of the New Year, and, ing
Ireland.
For the visitor there are LWA WAYU
* not akin to the Old
(as they do not
with good fort for Chr
wid
It is Faustomary, on
of spending Christmas in Island lone or as one of a ergyd. AB one in search of areas can find
·Variation Givan to Potatoes and the bells ring out, all join hands beech, a lake or a mountain val. power Other Grops: ----- at and sing the song to which Bootsley to which he will be the only Increased interest is being shown men the world over tar in sont visitor. But he will not be lonely in the Jerusalem artichoke both mental moods Auld Lang Syner in Ireland, the strangen, if Mayong Paso, To As a human food and as a forage It is an amazing scene, Respected companionable, is adopted by the small gifts to all who have crop. "As a human food it gives a citizens may be any shaking hands people and made free of their plesed services to the household pleasant variation to potatoes and with down and out strangers Home, garden root It has long been to whom the past year has brought known that the Toraselain artichoke tragedy and grief, are "weeping stores Highcarbohydrates), malin All are looking forward to your Einstead of starch, and it is claimed which will be better thân thể lást,
that it may be used? by diabotica d persona "tó, á. muchk greaten mitent = than foods containing an equivalent Keltie magic still exercises its amount of starch;
sway over Wales at Christmas tima
sant society at once, "For those who the year. But so strict are prefer to be in the midst of typical dictates of hospitality in Christmas. enjoyment, in the best parts the interior that moderny hotel spirit Bundoran in ho Donegal, Dan Laoghaire (Kange town) in Dublin, Hosalar, Harbour m in Wexford, Glengariff in: Killarney in Kerry, are some: place where there is plenty of life