Speaker 1: Folklore of Christmas Tide, collected by A f Chamberlain. Scottish
folklore has it that Christ was born at the hour
of midnight on Christmas Eve, and that the miracle of
turning water into wine was performed by him at the
same hour. There is a belief current in some parts
of Germany that between eleven and twelve of the night
before Christmas water turns to wine. In other districts, as
at Bielerfeldt, it is on Christmas Night that this change
is thought to take place. This hour is also auspicious
for many actions, and in some sections of Germany it
was thought that if one would go to the crossroads
between eleven and twelve on Christmas Day and listen, he
would hear what most concerns him in the coming year.
Another belief is that if one walks into the winter
corn on Holy Christmas Eve, he will hear all that
will happen in the village that year. Christmas Eve or
Christmas is the time when the oracles of the folk
are in the best working order, especially the many processes
by which maidens are wont to discover the color of
their lover's hair, the beauty of his face, and form,
his trade and occupation, whether they shall marry or not,
and the like. The same season is most auspicious for
certain ceremonies and practices transferred to it from the heathen
antiquity of the peasantry of Europe. In relation to agriculture
and allied industries. Among those noted by Grimm are the following.
On Christmas Eve, crash the garden with a flail with
only your shirt on, and the grass will grow well
next year. Tie wet straw bands around the orchard trees
on Christmas Eve and it will make them fruitful. On
Christmas Eve, put a stone on every tree, and they
will bear the more beat the trees on Christmas Night,
and they will bear more fruit. In Herefordshire, Devonshire, and
Cornwall in England, the farmers and peasantry salute the apple
trees on Christmas Eve. And in Sussex they used to whirzle,
that is, wassail the apple trees and chant verses to
them in somewhat of the primitive fashion. Some other curious
items of Christmas folklore are the following current, chiefly in Germany.
If after a Christmas dinner you shake out the tablecloth
over the bare ground under the open sky, crumbwork will
grow on the spot. If on Christmas Day or Christmas
Eve you hung a wash clout on a hedge and
then groom the horses with it, they will grow fat.
As often as the cock crows on Christmas Eve, the
quarter of corn will be as deer. If a dog
howls the night before Christmas, it will go mad within
the year. If the light is let go out on
Christmas Eve, someone in the house will die. When lights
are brought in on Christmas Eve. If any one's shadow
has no head, he will die within a year. If
half a head in the second half year. If a
hoop comes off a cask on Christmas Eve, some one
in the house will die that year. If on Christmas
Eve you make a little heap of salt on the
table and it melts over night, you will die the
next year. If in the morning it remain undiminished, you
will live. If you wear something sowed with thread spun
on Christmas Eve, no vermin will stick to you. If
a shirt be spun, woven, and sowed by a pure
chaste maiden on Christmas Day, it will be proof against
lead or steal. If you are born at sermon time
on Christmas morning, you can see spirits. If you burn
elder on Christmas Eve, you will have revealed to you
all the witches and sorcerers of the neighborhood. If you
steal hay the night before Christmas and give the cattle some,
they thrive and you are not caught in any future thefts.
If you steal anything at Christmas without being caught, you
can steal safely for a year. If you eat no
beans on Christmas Eve, you will become an ass. If
you eat a raw egg fasting on Christmas morning, you
can carry heavy weights. The crumbs saved up on three
Christmas Eves are good to give us physic to one
who is disappointed. It is unlucky to carry anything forth
from the house on Christmas morning until something has been
brought in. It is unlucky to give a neighbor a
live coal to kindle a fire with on Christmas morning.
If the fire burns brightly on Christmas morning, it betokens
prosperity during the year. If it smolders adversity. These and
many other practices ceremonies, beliefs, and superstitions, which may be
read in grimm Gregor Henderson, the gubernatis aught, Vine Tilta,
and others who have written of Christmas show the importance
attached in the folk mind to the time of the
birth of Christ, and how around it as a center
have fixed themselves hundreds of the rites and solemnities of
passing Heathendom, with its recognition of the kinship of all nature,
out of which grew astrology, magic and other pseudo sciences.
End of Folklore of Christmas Tide, collected by A. F
Chamberlain