1928-12-15 — Page 31

16

CHINA MAIL CHRISTMAS SUPPLEMENT,

1928.

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS OF THE PAST.

By W. H. MCNAMARA, F.R.HIST.S.

THE

THE dominant note in the celebration of eral rule, however, was that the household the Christmas festival in the olden days gave themselves up to feasting and jollity. was that of jollity, and the records show Our busier and more economical age has con- that at the eagerly anticipated season hos-centrated in Christmas Day itself the rites pitality was profusely dispensed. As a pene. and festivities which in Former centuries cx- trative modern writer expressively puts it, tended to Twelfth-day of Epiphany (January the beat thing about the month of December 6). in those far-off times was that it contained Christmas, when the house was decked with holly and ivy and there was Good bread and good drinke, a good fier in

the hall, brawne, pudding and sowse, and good

mustard with all. Beef, mutton and porke, shred. pies of the

best,

pig, veale, goose and capon, and turkey

well drest; Cheese, apples and nuts, joly carols to heare, as then in the countrie is counted good

cheare,

That glorification of the good things of this life is matched by the lines of another poet who talks glowingly of

Hogsheads of honey, kilderkins o. mustard, Mutton and fatted beeves, and bacon

swine;

Herons and hitterns, pheasants, swan and

bustard,

Teal, millard, pigeons, widgeon, and in

fine,

Plum pudding, pancakes, apple pics and cus-

tard,

An excellent book on life in England in Tudor times reminds us that our ancestors, like the Scots and French, made less of Christmas Day than of

Nowyçares day, whercon to every frende They costly presents in do inring, and New-

years giftes do sende. These gutes the husband gives his wife, and

father eke the childe, And maister on his men bestowes the like,

with favour milde.

Their tables do they furnish out with all

the meat they can; With marchpaynes, turtes and custards

great they drink with staring eyes, They rowte and revell, feede and feast, as

merry-all as pyes.

The revellers in the bygone centuries were well aware that the festival recurred. only at lengthy intervals, and they made the most ample use of their opportunities of enjoying themselves. Who can blame them? Life must have been deadly dull in those times, and we can well imagine the delight which was created when "Old Christmas brought his sports again." The burthen of their Christmas moral, to adopt Geoffrey Smith's description, was:

Be ye merry and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year; Scrape the fiddle and beat. the drum, And bury the night ere morning come. We have in modern times transformed the festival, and the indiscriminate revelling. and abnormal consumption of food and drink no longer present the proportions of past in- dulgence. Even so, there is still room for 'mieth and jollity for, as Watts-Dunton charmingly says;

Life still hath one romance that naught can

:

vary.

Not Time himself, who coffins Life's

romances-

For still will Christmas gild the year's

mischances,

merry,

The presents given at that festive season were, we are reminded, similar in their variety to our modern Christmas gifts. Amongst those sent to Princess (afterwards Queen) Mary in 1544 were handkerchiefs. If Christmas comes, as here, to make him embroidered gloves, cushion covers, smocks, worked sleeves, brooches, books, an inkstand und sweets. On the other hand, the season- able fare does not seem to be included, as of right, turkeys, mince-pies, or plum pudding.. The night was dark, the path was rough, The coins and trinkets which now Jurk in thé and he was in a state of unsteadiness. But pudding were then represented by the silver he fought his way home bravely, clutching penny in the mighty cake made for Twelfth the turkey which his wife had commission- Night, and the lucky finder was hailed as ed him to buy. Now and again the bird drop- In the golden days of hospitality King and hoisted shoulder high to chalk ped from his grasp. Every time it fell he barons and knights open house dur-crosses on the beams, as a protection against | picked it up and struggled gamely on his ing the Christmas holidays, and for injuries "of cursed devils, sprites and bugges, way."

And wherewithal they drank good Gascon

wine; With mead and ale, 'and cider of our own,

For porter, punch and. negus were not

known.

:

A proud father was helping his children - in their game of "producing" a little Christ- mas picture-play at home. The simple plot, devoid of crime and "stunts," relied mainly on courtships and weddings for its thrills. During the progress of the play the father went behind the scenes, where he found his youngest offspring sitting quietly in a corner. *"Why, Marie," he asked, "have you been left out of the play?"

a fortnight or so revelry and feast of eonjurings and charms." On Twelfth "Have you brought the turkey ?" asked ing predominated. .Then

"ceremony Night also the boys and girls went a-wasgail- his wife, when he reached home at last. doffed his pride," as Scott puts it, and ing, singing outside their neighbours' houses The turkey?" he hiccoughed. "Yes-- everybody entered with the utmost hearti- for cakes and ale and money,

eleven of 'em!"" ness into the festivities, their, delight being During the Tudor period it was custom- "Nonsense! I only see one!" she snap- to obey the injunction of the poet; "Be yeary, it seems, to appoint at the Christmas ped. merry and make good cheer." Christmas season one of the household in the larger "That's funny!" he said. "I knew I Day was a veritable red-letter day for the houses as King of Christmas or Lord of Mis- picked up eleven!" poor, for they were so generously rule, and under him were presented masques treated then that the pleasant memory and mummeries. Scott gives us an excel- lingered with them throughout the lent description of the scene when year. It may be that there was too Then came the merry masquers in, much eating and too much drinking And carola roared with blithesome din; and too much everything, but thinking, to If unmelodious was the song, adopt Leigh Hunt's reflective wording; but It was a hearty note and, strong, the excuse for this indulgence must be that Who liste may in their mumming sea life was not especially bright in the social Traces of ancient mystery; sense in those days,"

White shirts supplied the masquerade, It need not be concealed that some of the And smutted cheeks the visors made... stricter sort resented what happened at thisIt is said that Henry VIII himself, in scuson of liberty and relaxation. "In Christ- his younger days, took part in many such mas tyme there is nothing els but cards, dice, masque with his nobles, having an evident tables, masking, mumming, bowling and such delight in dressing-up and disguises; but as like fooleries. And the reason is, they think they have a commission and prerogative that time to do what they lust and to follow what vanitic they will, Is it not Christmas? must we not be merry? Truth it is, we ought both then and at all tymes besides to be merrie in the Lord, but not otherwyse; not to swill and gull more that time than any other time, nor to lavish foorth more at that time than at another time." The gen-

"No," replied Marie. "I'm the baby waitin' to be born."

He had attained his twenty-first birth- time went on the entertainments grew more day; he was how a man. Bearing in mind formal and developed into theatrical dis- that his mother had promised him impor- plays, in which the courtiers were now too tant information when he reached manhood, dignified to take part. A similar change no he asked what it was she wished to impart doubt took place in the country houses, and to him. It was only after considerable per the mummeries took the form of those suasion that she agreed to tell him, a Christmas plays which lingered on in some "Well," she said, "what I wanted to tell districts almost to our own times. The you was that it isn't Santa Claus that puts story about Henry VIII can well be believed, the things in your stockings, it's your for he was very accessible to the people: father."