Myths and Legends
of Christmastide
BY
San Francisco
Printed by the Stanley-Taylor Company
1901
The following article originally appearedin one of the Christmas editions of theSan Francisco Chronicle and is now reprintedby permission from that journal.
Myths and Legends of[3]
Christmastide
Let every man be jolly.
Each room with ivy leaves is drest,
And every post with holly.
Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning;
Their ovens they with bak't meats choke,
And all their spits are turning.”
The celebration of Christmas, which was consideredby the Puritans to be idolatrous, has for manycenturies been so universal that it may prove of interestto contrast the rites, ceremonies and quaint beliefsof foreign lands with those of matter-of-fact America.
Many curious customs live only in tradition; but itis surprising to find what singular superstitions stillexist among credulous classes, even in the light of thetwentieth century.
In certain parts of England the peasantry formerlyasserted that, on the anniversary of the Nativity, oxenknelt in their stalls at midnight,—the supposed hourof Christ's birth; while in other localities bees weresaid to sing in their hives and subterranean bells toring a merry peal.[4]
According to legends of ancient Britain cockscrew lustily all night on December 24th to scareaway witches and evil spirits, and in Bavaria some ofthe countrymen made frequent and apparently aimlesstrips in their sledges to cause the hemp to grow thickand tall.
In many lands there is still expressed the beautifulsentiment that the gates of heaven stand wideopen on Christmas Eve, and that he whose soultakes flight during its hallowed hours arrives straightwayat the throne of grace.
A time-honored custom in Norway and Swedenis that of fastening a sheaf of wheat to a long pole onthe barn or house-top, for the wild birds' holidaycheer; and in Holland the young men of the townssometimes bear a large silver star through the snowystreets, collecting alms from pedestrians for the helplessor the aged sick.
Russia has no Santa Claus or Christmas tree,although the festival is celebrated by church servicesand by ceremonies similar to those of our Hallowe'en.
In some of the villages in Wales a Christmaspudding is boiled for each of the disciples, with theexception of Judas, and in the rural districts ofScotland bread baked on Christmas Eve is said toindefinitely retain its freshness.[5]
“The Fatherland” is the home of the Christmastree, which is thought to be symbolical of the “Treeof the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” in the Garden ofEden; and candles were first used to typify the powerof Christianity over the darkness of paganism, beingsometimes arranged in triangular form to representthe Trinity.
Pines and firs being unattainable in the tropicalislands of the Pa