to Naples and Rome, saluting the shrines of the Virgin Mother with their wild music, under the poetical notion of cheering her until the birth time of her infant at the approaching Christmas. In a picture of the nativity by Raphael he has introduced a shepherd at the door playing on a sort of bagpipe. Preparatory to Christmas the bells are rung at dead midnight throughout England and the continent; and after the solemn celebration of the mass, for which the churches in France and Italy are magnificently adorned, it is usual for the revellers to partake of a collation (réveillon), that they may be better able to sustain the fatigues of the night. Among the revels of the Christmas season were the so-called feasts of fools and of asses, grotesque saturnalia, which were sometimes termed “December liberties,” in which everything serious was burlesqued, inferiors personifying their superiors, great men becoming frolicsome, and all illustrating the proneness of man to occasionally reverse the order of society and ridicule its decencies. In the Protestant districts of Germany and the north of Europe, Christmas is often called the “children's festival,” and Christmas eve is devoted to giving presents, especially between parents and children, and brothers and sisters, by means of the so-called Christmas tree. A large yew bough is erected in one of the parlors, lighted with tapers, and hung with manifold gifts, sweetmeats, apples, nuts, playthings, and ornaments. Each of these is marked with the name of the person for whom it is intended, but not with the name of the donor, and when the whole family party is assembled, the presents are distributed around the room according to their labels, amid joyful acclamations and congratulations. A more sober scene succeeds, for the mother takes this occasion to say privately to the daughters, and the father to the sons, what has been observed most praiseworthy and what most faulty in their conduct. Formerly, and still in some of the smaller villages of North Germany, the presents made by all the parents were sent to some one person, who, in high buskins, a white robe, a mask, and an enormous flax wig, becoming the bugbear of children known as Knecht Rupert, goes from house to house, is received by the parents with great pomp and reverence, calls for the children, and bestows the intended gifts upon them according to the character which he hears from the parents after severe inquiries. A beautiful poem of Hebel, Christ-Baum, celebrates the German ceremonies on Christmas eve.—It is an old Swedish tradition, preserved in the history of Olaus, archbishop of Upsal, that at the festival of Christmas the men living in the cold northern parts are suddenly and strangely metamorphosed into wolves; and that a huge multitude of them meet together at an appointed place during the night, and rage so fiercely against mankind and other creatures not fierce by nature, that the inhabitants of that country suffer more from their attacks than ever they do from natural wolves.—Christmas has always been at once a religious, domestic, and merry-making festival in England, equally for every rank and every age. The revels used to begin on Christmas eve, and continued often till Candlemas (Feb. 2), every day being a holiday till twelfth-night (Jan. 6). In the houses of the nobles a “lord of misrule” or “abbot of unreason” was appointed, whose office was “to make the rarest pastimes, to delight the beholder,” and whose dominion lasted from “All-hallow eve” (Oct. 31) till Candlemas day. The larder was filled with capons, hens, turkeys, geese, ducks, beef, mutton, pork, pies, puddings, nuts, plums, sugar, and honey. The Italians have the following proverb: “He has more business than English ovens at Christmas.” The tenants were entertained at the hall; and the lord of the manor and his family encouraged every art conducive to mirth.
| On Christmas eve the bells were rung; |
| On Christmas eve the mass was sung; |
| That only night, in all the year, |
| Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear. |
| Then opened wide the baron's hall, |
| To vassal, tenant, serf, and all; |
| Power laid his rod of rule aside, |
| And ceremony doffed his pride. |
| The heir, with roses in his shoes, |
| That night might village partner choose. |
| All hailed, with uncontrolled delight |
| And general voice, the happy night |
| That to the cottage, as the crown, |
| Brought tidings of salvation down. |
| England was merry England when |
| Old Christmas brought his sports again. |
| 'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale; |
| 'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale; |
| A Christmas gambol oft would cheer |
| A poor man's heart through half the year. |
A glowing fire, made of great logs, the principal of which was termed the yule log or Christmas block, which might be burned till Candlemas eve, kept out the severity of the weather; and the abundance was shared amid music, conjuring, riddles, hot cockles, fool-plough, snap-dragon, jokes, laughter, repartees, forfeits, and dances. The generous wassail bowls and bowls of punch never failed to bring tumultuous joys. The favorite and first dish on Christmas day was a soused boar's head, which was borne to the principal table with great state and solemnity, “upon a silver platter, with minstralsye.” The common custom of decking the houses and churches at Christmas with evergreens is derived from ancient druid practiced. It was an old belief that sylvan spirits might flock to the evergreens, and remain unnipped by frost till a milder season. The holly, ivy, rosemary, bay, laurel, and mistletoe furnished the favorite trimmings, which were not removed till Candlemas. In old church calendars Christmas eve is marked, Templa exornantur (the temples are adorned). Holly and ivy still remain in England the most esteemed Christmas evergreens, though at the two universities the windows of the college chapels are decked with laurel. It was an old English superstition that on Christmas eve the oxen were
