Correspondence. 1 07
Christmas-Block. These were to illuminate the House and turn the Night, which Custom, in some Measure, is still kept up in the Northern Parts."
The candle, a tall wax candle, half a yard in length, is usually a gift from the grocer to his customers. It is placed on the table at supper-time on Christmas Eve, and lighted when the whole family have assembled. It would be very unlucky to light it sooner, or to snuff it or move it till supper is ended, and a piece of it must be kept till next year for luck. See Young's History of Whitby, 1817, ii. 879; History of Richmond, 1814, p. 294; Shaw, Our Filey Fishermen, p. 9 ; Wilson (John), Verses and Notes, 1887, p. 181; Dickenson's Cumberland Glossary, p. 17; and Gent. Mag. 1832, vol. ii. p. 191.
In Cornwall "candles painted by some member of the family were often lighted at the same time" as the Christmas block ; and Miss Courtney tells us that " in a few remote districts of the coast children may be, after nightfall, occasionally (but rarely) found dancing round painted lighted candles placed in a box of sand. This custom was very general fifty years ago. The church towers, too, are sometimes illuminated" {Cornish Feasts and Feasten Customs, p. 7). Near Oswestry, in Shropshire, on the borders of Wales, the colliers carry round a cake of clay stuck with lighted candles, on a board, and show it, expecting money.
Irish observances are noted in Folk-Lore, vol. xxvii. pp. 265, 276. The last-mentioned, a contemporary case, in which the master of the household himself lit tivo candles — one in the dining-room, the other in the kitchen for the servants — comes very near to Mr. Blanchard's experience, about which we should like to hear more details. How far back can he trace the family custom, and in what part of the country?
As to the significance of the custom, it is difficult to go beyond the observation of Brand (ed. 1777) that ^'•Lights indeed seem to have been used on all festive Occasions : — Thus our own Illumina- tions, Fireworks, &c., on the News of Victories." They would be especially appropriate at a festival held in the darkest season of the year, and (in Christian times) in honour of the advent of Christ, the Light of the World.— Ed.]
