The Festival of Christmas by Laurence Whistler

Author:Laurence Whistler [Whistler, Laurence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: history, Europe, Great Britain, General, Social Science, Customs & Traditions
ISBN: 9781910570289
Google: Jx6bCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2015-10-05T23:23:32.066970+00:00

CHRISTMAS DAY

DECEMBER 25TH

Some say that ever ’gainst that season comes

Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated

The bird of dawning singeth all night long,

And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,

The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE—Hamlet

For full members of the Church the day begins at dawn or midnight with the sacrament. The midnight mass wins favour from two causes, it would seem, characteristic of the period we live in: a new taste for the dramatic in worship; and, more humbly, domestic convenience; for where there are children and no servants, husband and wife may be unable to communicate at any other time. The hour was first chosen at Rome in the fifth century to symbolise the idea that Christ is born at midnight—a mystical idea in no way affected by historical evidence, or rather, by the lack of it; for neither the hour nor the day of the event is known. At first there was some variety of opinion among the Churches, and it was only in the fourth century that Western Europe as a whole adopted December 25th.

For children the day begins with a weight on the toes, long, angular, and many-faceted as a leg by Picasso. The stocking should be opened by candlelight: no other light is resonant at that high frequency of excitement. To be decently traditional it should contain, at the top, an apple; at the toe an orange; and somewhere in between, among the many objects done up in foil or coloured paper, a new silver sixpence. The cornucopia spills slowly, and yet before long will be rousing the house to a thin music of whistles and trumpetings.

But these are the merest hors d’oeuvres. The real presents have yet to be given, and in our country there has never been general agreement on the hour for this. One can only say that for nearly a century they have not been given by hand, but wrapped in gay paper, inscribed and arranged in a heap for each member of the household, and none should be absent when the moment comes to undo them.

Wherever the open fireplace exists—and there will always be some who prefer the living flame to a meaningless panel in the wall—the Christmas log might be remembered, not because of its antiquity (many ancient customs are quite unfitted for survival) but because it demonstrates in a particular way that time progresses in a twelve-month spiral, with the Christmas before and the Christmas to follow as the points in the spiral immediately below and above us.

The log will be chosen and cut beforehand. Ash is the proper tree: ash that burns green, and was therefore sacred to the sun on whose birthday nature was reborn: ash that is said in Devon to have warmed the Child Jesus at his earliest bath: ash that was believed in Scandinavia to be the wood of the world-tree, Yggdrasil, with its roots knotted in Hell and its boughs supporting Heaven.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.