Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan Part 20

ST. CATHERINE'S DAY.

November 25 is St. Catherine's Day, and at Woolwich a.r.s.enal a similar ceremony was then performed: a man was dressed in female attire, with a large wheel by his side to represent the saint, and was taken round the town{8} in a wooden chair. At Chatham there was a torchlight procession on St. Catherine's Day, and a woman in white muslin with a gilt crown was carried about in a chair. She was said to represent not the saint, but Queen Catherine.{9}

213 St. Catherine's Day was formerly a festival for the lacemakers of Northamptons.h.i.+re, Buckinghams.h.i.+re, and Bedfords.h.i.+re. She was the patroness of spinsters in the literal as well as the modern sense of the word, and at Peterborough the workhouse girls used to go in procession round the city on her day, dressed in white with coloured ribbons; the tallest was chosen as Queen and bore a crown and sceptre. As they went to beg money of the chief inhabitants they sang a quaint ballad which begins thus:--

"Here comes Queen Catherine, as fine as any queen, With a coach and six horses a-coming to be seen, And a-spinning we will go, will go, will go, And a-spinning we will go."{10}

We may perhaps see in this Saint or Queen Catherine a female counterpart of the Boy Bishop, who began his career on St. Nicholas's Day. Catherine, it must be remembered, is the patron saint of girls as Nicholas is of boys. In Belgium her day is still a festival for the "young person" both in schools and in families.{11} Even in modern Paris the dressmaker-girls celebrate it, and in a very charming way, too.

"At midday the girls of every workroom present little mob-caps trimmed with yellow ribbons to those of their number who are over twenty-five and still unmarried. Then they themselves put on becoming little caps with yellow flowers and yellow ribbons and a sprig of orange blossom on them, and out they go arm-in-arm to parade the streets and collect a tribute of flowers from every man they meet.... Instead of working all the afternoon, the midinettes entertain all their friends (no men admitted, though, for it is the day of St. Catherine) to concerts and even to dramatic performances in the workrooms, where the work-tables are turned into stages, and the employers provide supper."{12}

ST. ANDREW'S DAY.

The last day of November is the feast of St. Andrew. Of English customs on this day the most interesting perhaps are those connected with the "Tander" or "Tandrew" merrymakings 214 of the Northamptons.h.i.+re lacemakers. A day of general licence used to end in masquerading. Women went about in male attire and men and boys in female dress.{13} In Kent and Suss.e.x squirrel-hunting was practised on this day{14}--a survival apparently of some old sacrificial custom comparable with the hunting of the wren at Christmas (see Chapter XII.).

In Germany St. Andrew's Eve is a great occasion for prognostications of the future. Indeed, like Hallowe'en in Great Britain, _Andreasabend_ in Germany seems to have preserved the customs of augury connected with the old November New Year festival.{15} To a large extent the practices are performed by girls anxious to know what sort of husband they will get.

Many and various are the methods.

Sometimes it suffices to repeat some such rhyme as the following before going to sleep, and the future husband will appear in a dream:--

"St. Andrew's Eve is to-day, Sleep all people, Sleep all children of men, Who are between heaven and earth, Except this only man, Who may be mine in marriage."{16}

Again, at nightfall let a girl shut herself up naked in her bedroom, take two beakers, and into one pour clear water, into the other wine. These let her place on the table, which is to be covered with white, and let the following words be said:--

"My dear St. Andrew!

Let now appear before me My heart's most dearly beloved.

If he shall be rich, He will pour a cup of wine; If he is to be poor, Let him pour a cup of water."

This done, the form of the future husband will enter and drink 215 of one of the cups. If he is poor, he will take the water; if rich, the wine.{17}

One of the most common practices is to pour molten lead or tin through a key into cold water, and to discover the calling of the future husband by the form it takes, which will represent the tools of his trade. The white of an egg is sometimes used for the same purpose.{18} Another very widespread custom is to put nutsh.e.l.ls to float on water with little candles burning in them. There are twice as many sh.e.l.ls as there are girls present; each girl has her sh.e.l.l, and to the others the names of possible suitors are given. The man and the girl whose sh.e.l.ls come together will marry one another. Sometimes the same method is practised with little cups of silver foil.{19}

On the border of Saxony and Bohemia, a maiden who wishes to know the bodily build of her future husband goes in the darkness to a stack of wood and draws out a piece. If the wood is smooth and straight the man will be slim and well built; if it is crooked, or knotted, he will be ill-developed or even a hunchback.{20}

These are but a few of the many ways in which girls seek to peer into the future and learn something about the most important event in their lives.

Far less numerous, but not altogether absent on this night, are other kinds of prognostication. A person, for instance, who wishes to know whether he will die in the coming year, must on St. Andrew's Eve before going to bed make on the table a little pointed heap of flour. If by the morning it has fallen asunder, the maker will die.{21}

The a.s.sociation of St. Andrew's Eve with the foreseeing of the future is not confined to the German race; it is found also on Slavonic and Roumanian ground. In Croatia he who fasts then will behold his future wife in a dream,{22} and among the Roumanians mothers anxious about their children's luck break small sprays from fruit-trees, bind them together in bunches, one for each child, and put them in a gla.s.s of water. The branch of the lucky one will blossom.{23}

In Roumania St. Andrew's Eve is a creepy time, for on it vampires are supposed to rise from their graves, and with coffins 216 on their heads walk about the houses in which they once lived. Before nightfall every woman takes some garlic and anoints with it the door locks and window cas.e.m.e.nts; this will keep away the vampires. At the cross-roads there is a great fight of these loathsome beings until the first c.o.c.k crows; and not only the dead take part in this, but also some living men who are vampires from their birth. Sometimes it is only the souls of these living vampires that join in the fight; the soul comes out through the mouth in the form of a bluish flame, takes the shape of an animal, and runs to the crossway. If the body meanwhile is moved from its place the person dies, for the soul cannot find its way back.{24}

St. Andrew's Day is sometimes the last, sometimes the first important festival of the western Church's year. It is regarded in parts of Germany as the beginning of winter, as witness the saying:--

"Sunten-Dres-Misse, es de Winter gewisse."[93]{25}

The nights are now almost at their longest, and as November pa.s.ses away, giving place to the last month of the year, Christmas is felt to be near at hand.

In northern Bohemia it is customary for peasant girls to keep for themselves all the yarn they spin on St. Andrew's Eve, and the _Hausfrau_ gives them also some flax and a little money. With this they buy coffee and other refreshments for the lads who come to visit the parlours where in the long winter evenings the women sit spinning. These evenings, when many gather together in a brightly lighted room and sing songs and tell stories while they spin, are cheerful enough, and spice is added by the visits of the village lads, who in some places come to see the girls home.{26}

THE KLoPFELNaCHTE.

On the Thursday nights in Advent it is customary in southern Germany for children or grown-up people to go from house 217 to house, singing hymns and knocking on the doors with rods or little hammers, or throwing peas, lentils, and the like against the windows. Hence these evenings have gained the name of _Klopfel_ or _Knopflinsnachte_ (Knocking Nights).{27} The practice is described by Naogeorgus in the sixteenth century:--

"Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lord of Grace, And on the Thursdaye Boyes and Girles do runne in every place, And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and l.u.s.tie snaps, And crie, the Advent of the Lorde not borne as yet perhaps.

And wis.h.i.+ng to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell, A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well: Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, ech man gives willinglee, For these three nightes are alwayes thought, unfortunate to bee; Wherein they are afrayde of sprites and cankred witches' spight, And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might."{28}

With it may be compared the Macedonian custom for village boys to go in parties at nightfall on Christmas Eve, knocking at the cottage doors with sticks, shouting _Kolianda! Kolianda!_ and receiving presents,{29} and also one in vogue in Holland between Christmas and the Epiphany. There "the children go out in couples, each boy carrying an earthenware pot, over which a bladder is stretched, with a piece of stick tied in the middle. When this stick is twirled about, a not very melodious grumbling sound proceeds from the contrivance, which is known by the name of 'Rommelpot.' By going about in this manner the children are able to collect some few pence."{30}

Can such practices have originated in attempts to drive out evil spirits from the houses by noise? Similar methods are used for that purpose by various European and other peoples.{31} Anyhow something mysterious hangs about the _Klopfelnachte_. They are occasions for girls to learn about their future husbands, and upon them in Swabia goes about Pelzmarte, whom we already know.{32}

218 In Tyrol curious mummeries are then performed. At Pillersee in the Lower Innthal two youths combine to form a mimic a.s.s, upon which a third rides, and they are followed by a motley train. The a.s.s falls sick and has to be cured by a "vet," and all kinds of satirical jokes are made about things that have happened in the parish during the year. Elsewhere two men dress up in straw as husband and wife, and go out with a masked company. The pair wrangle with one another and carry on a play of wits with the peasants whose house they are visiting. Sometimes the satire is so cutting that permanent enmities ensue, and for this reason the practice is gradually being dropped.{33}

ST. NICHOLAS'S DAY.

On December 6 we reach the most distinctive children's festival of the whole year, St. Nicholas's Day. In England it has gone out of mind, and in the flat north of Germany Protestantism has largely rooted it out, as savouring too much of saint-wors.h.i.+p, and transferred its festivities to the more Evangelical season of Christmas.{34} In western and southern Germany, however, and in Austria, Switzerland, and the Low Countries, it is still a day of joy for children, though in some regions even there its radiance tends to pale before the greater glory of the Christmas-tree.

It is not easy either to get at the historic facts about St. Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, or to ascertain why he became the patron saint of boys. The legends of his infant piety and his later wondrous works for the benefit of young people may either have given rise, or be themselves due to, his connection with children.{35} In eastern Europe and southern Italy he is above all things the saint of seafaring men, and among the Greeks his cult has perhaps replaced that of Artemis as a sea divinity.{36} This aspect of him does not, however, appear in the German festival customs with which we are here chiefly concerned.

It has already been hinted that in some respects St. Nicholas is a duplicate of St. Martin. His feast, indeed, is probably a later beginning-of-winter festival, dating from the period when 219 improved methods of agriculture and other causes made early December, rather than mid-November, the time for the great annual slaughter and its attendant rejoicings. Like St. Martin he brings sweet things for the good children and rods for the bad.

St. Nicholas's Eve is a time of festive stir in Holland and Belgium; the shops are full of pleasant little gifts: many-shaped biscuits, gilt gingerbreads, sometimes representing the saint, sugar images, toys, and other trifles. In many places, when evening comes on, people dress up as St. Nicholas, with mitre and pastoral staff, enquire about the behaviour of the children, and if it has been good p.r.o.nounce a benediction and promise them a reward next morning. Before they go to bed the children put out their shoes, with hay, straw, or a carrot in them for the saint's white horse or a.s.s. When they wake in the morning, if they have been "good" the fodder is gone and sweet things or toys are in its place; if they have misbehaved themselves the provender is untouched and no gift but a rod is there.{37}

In various parts of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria St. Nicholas is mimed by a man dressed up as a bishop.{38} In Tyrol children pray to the saint on his Eve and leave out hay for his white horse and a gla.s.s of _schnaps_ for his servant. And he comes in all the splendour of a church-image, a reverend grey-haired figure with flowing beard, gold-broidered cope, glittering mitre, and pastoral staff. Children who know their catechism are rewarded with sweet things out of the basket carried by his servant; those who cannot answer are reproved, and St.

Nicholas points to a terrible form that stands behind him with a rod--the hideous Klaubauf, a s.h.a.ggy monster with horns, black face, fiery eyes, long red tongue, and chains that clank as he moves.{39}

In Lower Austria the saint is followed by a similar figure called Krampus or Grampus;{40} in Styria this horrible attendant is named Bartel;{41} all are no doubt related to such monsters as the _Klapperbock_ (see Chapter VII.). Their heathen origin is evident though it is difficult to trace their exact pedigree. Sometimes St. Nicholas himself appears in a non-churchly form like Pelzmarte, with a bell,{42} or with a sack of ashes which gains him the name of Aschenklas.{43}

220 Not only by hideous figures is St. Nicholas attended. Sometimes, as at Warnsdorf near Rumburg, there come with him the forms of Christ Himself, St. Peter, an angel, and the famous Knecht Ruprecht, whom we shall meet again on Christmas Eve. They are represented by children, and a little drama is performed, one personage coming in after the other and calling for the next in the manner of the English mummers' play. St.

Nicholas, St. Peter, and Ruprecht accuse the children of all kinds of naughtiness, the "Heiliger Christ" intercedes and at last throws nuts down and receives money from the parents.{44} In Tyrol there are St.

Nicholas plays of a more comic nature, performed publicly by large companies of players and introducing a number of humorous characters and much rude popular wit.{45}

Sometimes a female bogey used to appear: Budelfrau in Lower Austria, Berchtel in Swabia, Buzebergt in the neighbourhood of Augsburg.{46} The last two are plainly variants of Berchte, who is specially connected with the Epiphany. Berchtel used to punish the naughty children with a rod, and reward the good with nuts and apples; Buzebergt wore black rags, had her face blackened and her hair hanging unkempt, and carried a pot of starch which she smeared upon people's faces.{47}

As Santa Klaus St. Nicholas is of course known to every English child, but rather as a sort of incarnation of Christmas than as a saint with a day of his own. Santa Klaus, probably, has come to us _via_ the United States, whither the Dutch took him, and where he has still immense popularity.

In the Middle Ages in England as elsewhere the Eve of St. Nicholas was a day of great excitement for boys. It was then that the small choristers and servers in cathedral and other churches generally elected their "Boy Bishop" or "Nicholas."{48} He had in some places to officiate at First Vespers and at the services on the festival itself. As a rule, however, the feast of the Holy Innocents, December 28, was probably the most important day in the Boy Bishop's career, and we may therefore postpone our consideration of him. We will here only note his connection with the festival of the patron saint of boys, a connection perhaps implying a common origin for him and 221 for the St. Nicholases who in bishops'

vestments make their present-giving rounds.

The festival of St. Nicholas is naturally celebrated with most splendour at the place where his body lies, the seaport of Bari in south-eastern Italy. The holy bones are preserved in a sepulchre beneath a crypt of rich Saracenic architecture, above which rises a magnificent church.

Legend relates that in the eleventh century they were stolen by certain merchants of Bari from the saint's own cathedral at Myra in Asia Minor.

The tomb of St. Nicholas is a famous centre for pilgrimages, and on the 6th of December many thousands of the faithful, bearing staves bound with olive and pine, visit it. An interesting ceremony on the festival is the taking of the saint's image out to sea by the sailors of the port. They return with it at nightfall, and a great procession escorts it back to the cathedral with torches and fireworks and chanting.{49} Here may be seen the other, the seafaring, aspect of St. Nicholas; by this mariners'

cult we are taken far away from the present-giving saint who delights the small children of the North.

ST. LUCIA'S DAY.