12/21/10
One Solitary Life - Bing Crosby
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
Then, for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never had a family or owned a home.
He never set foot inside a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
He never held and office or did any of the things that usually accompany greatness.
While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him.
His friends deserted Him.
He was turned over to his enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had-His coat.
When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave.
Two thousand years have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever sailed and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this “One Solitary Life".
by Dr. James Allen Francis
12/16/10
Christmas Is
Christmas is more than trees and twinkling lights, more than toys and gifts and baubles of a hundred varieties.
It is love. It is the love of the Son of God for all mankind. It reaches out beyond our power to comprehend. It is magnificent and beautiful.
It is peace. It is the peace which comforts, which sustains, which blesses all who accept it.
It is faith. It is faith in God and His Eternal Son. It is faith in His wondrous ways and message. It is faith in Him as our Redeemer and our Lord. We testify of His living reality.
We testify of the divinity of His nature. In our times of grateful meditation, we acknowledge His priceless gift to us and pledge our love and faith.
This is what Christmas is really about.
- Gordon B. Hinckley
12/15/10
12/14/10
12/13/10
Handel's "Messiah"
One of the greatest works of Christmas music ever written was the celebration of our Savior in Handel's "Messiah". We all have heard the "Hallelujah Chorus", but the oratorio it comes from has so much more great music. Here's some background on the composer and his work:
Excerpt from "Handel and the Gift of Messiah", by Spencer J. Condie
George Frideric Handel seemed to have been born a musician. As a young lad in Germany, he became proficient on both the violin and the organ. After composing his first opera in Germany, he moved to Italy, the operatic center of the world, to try his hand at musical composition in the Italian style. There he achieved some success in composing operas and chamber music.
In 1711, at age 26, Handel decided to move to England, where his operas and oratorios initially gained acceptance. By the late 1730s, however, British audiences had become less enthusiastic about operas sung in German or Italian; instead, they favored comedic performances such as The Beggar’s Opera. Thus, for several years Handel struggled to keep the wolves—his creditors—away from the door.
In 1737, after pushing himself to his physical limits by composing four operas within 12 months, the 52-year-old composer suffered a stroke, leaving his right arm temporarily paralyzed. A doctor told Handel’s faithful secretary: “We may save the man—but the musician is lost forever. It seems to me that his brain has been permanently injured.”
The composer defied the diagnosis. Over time his body responded to treatment in the thermal springs at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen, Germany), and he recovered his physical strength. After testing his ability to play the organ at a nearby cathedral, he jubilantly proclaimed, “I have come back from Hades.”
When he returned to London and resumed composing operas, his work was not well received, and creditors began to hound him again. In the depths of despondency, he began to wonder, “Why did God permit my resurrection, only to allow my fellow-men to bury me again?” In April 1741 Handel held what he assumed would be a farewell concert. His creativity was spent. A biographer wrote: “There was nothing to begin or to finish. Handel was faced with emptiness.”
Late one August afternoon that same year, Handel returned from a long and tiring walk to find that a poet and previous collaborator, Charles Jennens, had left him a manuscript. This libretto quoted liberally from the scriptures, particularly the words of Isaiah, foretelling the birth of Jesus Christ and describing His ministry, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. The work was to be an oratorio. Given his previous failures, Handel was apprehensive as he began to read through the text.
“Comfort Ye,” the first words of the manuscript, seemed to leap from the page. They dissipated dark clouds that had been pressing upon Handel for so long. His depression waned and his emotions warmed from interest to excitement as he continued to read of angelic proclamations of the Savior’s birth and of Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah, who would come to earth to be born as other mortal infants. A familiar melody Handel had composed earlier flooded into his mind as he read “For unto Us a Child Is Born.”
The notes distilled upon his mind faster than he could put pencil to paper as he captured the image of the loving Good Shepherd in the aria titled “He Shall Feed His Flock.” Then came the overpowering exultation reflected in the “Hallelujah Chorus,” followed by the soft, supernal testimony of “I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.” The work came to its majestic conclusion with “Worthy Is the Lamb.”
After all the music he had composed throughout his lifetime, Handel would eventually beknown worldwide for this singular work, Messiah, largely composed in just three weeks during the late summer of 1741. Upon completing his composition, he humbly acknowledged, “God has visited me.” Those who feel the touch of the Holy Spirit as they experience the overpowering testimony of Handel’s Messiah would agree.
12/8/10
List of Christmas Carols
There are so many new and lesser known carols that are not listed here, but I have attempted to create a fairly comprehensive listing of the better known and favorite Christmas Carols, including some lesser known. Please comment if you have some to add.For histories on some of these carols, check out the posting dated 12/12/08.
All I Want for Christmas
Angels We Have Heard On High
Are My Ears on Straight?
Ave Maria
Away in a Manger
Believe
Blue Christmas
Breath of Heaven
Bring the Torch Jeanette, Isabella
Candlelight Carol
Carol of the Bells
C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S
Christmas Bells Are Ringing
Christmas at Our House
Christmas in Killarney
Christmas Time is Here
Christmas Is
Christmas Is Coming
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Coventry Carol
Cover Him, Joseph
Deck the Halls
Ding Dong Merrily on High
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Far, Far Away on Judeas Plain
Feliz Navidad
First Christmas Morning
Frosty the Snowman
From Our House to Yours
Gesu Bambino
Go Tell It On The Mountain
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Good King Wenceslaus
Good Christian Men Rejoice
Grown Up Christmas List
Hallelujah Chorus
Happy Holiday
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
He’ll Be Coming Down the Chimney, Down
Here We Come A-Caroling
Here Comes Santa Claus
Hey Santa
Holly Jolly Christmas
Home for the Holidays
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
I Saw Three Ships
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
I Wonder As I Wander
Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant (French)
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
It Must Have Been Old Santa Claus
It Must Have Been the Mistletoe
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bell Rock
Jolly Old St. Nicholas
Joseph Dear, Joseph Mine
Joy to the World
Let it Snow
Little Drummer Boy
Lo, How A Rose E’er Blooming
Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child
Marshmallow World
Mary Did You Know?
Mary's Little Boy Child
Mary’s Lullaby
Masters in This Hall
Mele Kalikimaka
Merry Christmas Darling
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
O Little Town of Bethlehem
O Holy Night
O Tannenbaum (Christmas Tree)
O Come All Ye Faithful
Once in Royal David's City
Our First Christmas
Pat a Pan
Pine Cones and Holly Berries
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Santa Baby
Santa Bring My Baby Home
Silent Night
Silver Bells
Sing We Now of Christmas
Sleigh Ride
Still, Still, Still
That Christmas Feeling
The Best Gift
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)
The Christmas Waltz
The First Noel
The First Snowfall of the Year
The Gift
The Holly and the Ivy
The Most Wonderful Time of The Year
The Star Carol
The Twelve Days of Christmas
This Time of Year
Twas the Night Before Christmas
Up on the Housetop
We Three Kings
We Need A Little Christmas
We Are Santa’s Elves
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?
What Child is This?
Where Are You Christmas?
Wexford Carol
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night
White Christmas
Winter Wonderland
With Wondering Awe
12/6/10
Christmas in Sweden
God Jul och Gott Nytt År!
(Good Yule and Good New Year!)
Christmas in Sweden is a culturally strong event. The season of Christmas lasts a month, starting with the celebration, or procession, of Sankta Lucia on December 13th, and ending the season with "Twentieth Canute", or 20 days after Christmas on January 13th, in a final celebration.
(See previous posting on the celebration of Sankta Lucia.)
Preparations
The julgrann, or Christmas tree, is often set up and decorated following the Santa Lucia celebration. Swedish Christmas trees are often decorated with candles, apples, Swedish flags, small gnomes and straw ornaments. If the room is big enough, the tree will be set in the middle and everyone joins in a circle around it to dance and sing favorite Christmas carols.
The house may be filled with the smell of favorite yuletide baking, including pepparkakor, or gingerbread cookies, shaped round or as a heart, star, or goat and saffron breads and sweet rolls. A lighted star or candle will often be placed in the windows of Swedish homes. The advent candles, lit on the four Sundays prior to Christmas Eve, are also common in many homes.
Christmas Eve
Julafton, or Christmas Eve, is the pinnacle of the Swedish yuletide celebrations. Stores close early and families come together to celebrate. The Christmas Eve dinner is usually a smorgasbord, or buffet with julskinka, or Christmas ham, lutfisk, or dried codfish, and ptoatoes and many vegetables. Dessert involves many different kinds of sweets, including risgryngrot, a special rice porridge with an almond hidden in it. Tradition has it that the person who finds the almond in his or her bowl will marry in the coming year. Yuletide drinks include glogg, a hot and spicy wine, and julmust, a soft-drink somewhat similar to root-beer.
After Christmas Eve dinner, a friend or family member dresses up as Jul Tomten or Christmas gnome. Swedish legend says that Tomten rides through the countryside with his julklappar, or gifts, on a sled which is pulled by a goat. Tomten, wearing a white beard and dressed in furry robes, enters the home after knocking on the door and distributes gifts from his sack. Sometimes the gifts are given with a funny rhyme that hints at the contents.
Christmas Day and 2nd Day Christmas
Since the gifts were received and opened the night before, many Swedes will attend Jullotta, a special Christmas church service, held early Christmas morning. The nativity story is told and favorite hymns and carols are sung. The rest of the day is spent in celebration with the family by eating, playing games, etc. Since this is so enjoyable, Swedes have chosen to do it all over again in the celebration of 2nd Day Christmas, also an official holiday.
The Twentieth Day of Christmas
On the 13th of January, which is 20 days after Christmas Eve and one month after the Feast of St. Lucia, was designated by King Canute to be celebrated as the yuletide finale. January 13th is known as Canute's Day, or Twentieth Canute. On this day, the tree will have its final moments of glory, as everyone comes together again to dance and sing around it. Afterwards a feast or party, the tree is taken down and the holidays are officially over.
See also these posts on Swedish Christmas traditions:
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-swedish-christmas.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-around-world-sweden.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/night-time-walks-heavily-round-farm-and.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-santa-lucia-sweden.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/vitae-lux-light-of-life-lux-aurumque.html
12/5/10
Sankta Lucia: A Swedish Christmas Tradition
Imagine this - You're in a small town in Sweden. It is early in the morning of December 13th and darkness prevails. The streets are quiet and deserted, the houses covered in a thick layer of sparkling white snow. The wind is still, but the cold is numbing your frozen feet and fingers. There is no sign of life anywhere. Then suddenly... in the distance, the faint sounds of singing voices. As they grow louder, a shimmering of light moves between the houses.
Then the procession arrives, led by Sankta Lucia, a young woman in a white dress with a red sash. She wears a crown of lingonberry twigs and blazing candles in her long, blonde hair. Lucia is followed by her attendants, girls in white dresses holding lit candles, and the star boys in white robes and star speckled cone hats holding star wands. Everyone joins in singing the Sankta Lucia anthem:
Hark! through the darksome night sounds come a winging:
Lo! 'tis the Queen of Light joyfully singing.
Clad in her garment white, wearing her crown of light,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!
Deep in the northern sky bright stars are beaming;
Christmas is drawing nigh, candles are gleaming.
Welcome thou vision rare, lights glowing in thy hair,
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia!
Lucia and the attendants sing favorite Christmas carols, often inviting family and friends to join in the singing. Lucia then gives freely of her Christmas treats: lussekatter or sweet rolls, pepparkakor or gingerbread cookies, juice and hot drinks. Lucia and her attendants will also visit places like schools, hospitals, offices and churches.
On this dark and cold winter day, Lucia, the Queen of Light, has brought the promise that light and warmth will return to the land; a celebration of light in the middle of the deep winter darkness. The hope for light and warmth returning with the sun may be more significant in northern lands where daylight at this time of the year only lasts for a few hours around noon. A deeper religious significance of Sankta Lucia can be drawn with the promise of the greater light and hope that will return with the Son of God, whose birth is celebrated in Sweden beginning with the Sankta Lucia procession.
The Swedish Christmas season has now officially begun.
The Sankta Lucia celebration is a tradition that has been practiced in Sweden for over 400 years, originating from the story of the Italian virgin saint who was martyred. The Swedish version goes that during the early days of Christian persecution, St. Lucia risked her life to bring food to fellow Christians in hiding in unlit tunnels. She would light the way with a wreath that she wore on her head containing lit candles.
A thousand years ago, Sweden’s King Canute declared that Christmas would last an entire month beginning on December 13th, the Feast of St. Lucia to January 13th, St. Canute’s Day.
Sankta Lucia lyrics, Swedish text:
Natten går tunga fjätt, runt gård och stuva
Kring jord som soln förlätt, skuggorna ruva
Då i vårt mörka hus, stiger med tända ljus
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Natten är stor och stum, ny hör det svingar
I alla tysta rum, sus som av vingar
Se, på vår tröskel står, vitklädd, med ljus i hår
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Mörkret skall flykta snart ur jordens dalar
Så hon ett underbart ord till oss talar
Dagen skall åter ny stiga ur rosig sky
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
English translation of the Swedish text:
Night time walks heavily, ‘round farm and cottage
On earth that sun forgot, shadows are falling
Our dark house then grows bright, she comes with candle light
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Though night is vast and still, hear now a new sound
In all the silent rooms, like wings are rustling
At door and dressed in white, with crown of candle light
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
Darkness will soon take flight, from all the earth
These words she speaks to us, wonderful tidings
Daytime will come again, rise in a rosy sky
Sankta Lucia, Sankta Lucia
The following photos and videos are from the Young Family Christmas Eve Sankta Lucia, 2007:
See also these posts on Sankta Lucia and Swedish Christmas traditions:
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-santa-lucia-sweden.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-swedish-christmas.html
http://joychristmas.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-in-sweden.html
12/4/10
Christmas Prose
Let not the useless sorrow
Pursue you night and morrow:
If e’er you hoped, hope now;
Take heart,—uncloud your faces,
And join in our embraces
Under the Holly Bough.
by Charles Mackay
Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall;
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.
by William Robert Spencer
Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
She yet were far too poor to be,
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
by Martin Luther
We honor on His day of birth,
The Child born to bring peace on earth.
The God who was born in a stable.
from The Lord of Misrule by Norah Lofts
What can I give Him, Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part
Yet what can I give Him?
Give my heart.
by Christina Rossetti
O Father, may that holy Star grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beam afar to fill the world with light.
by William Cullen Bryant
Let's dance and sing, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year!
- from an old ballad
Pursue you night and morrow:
If e’er you hoped, hope now;
Take heart,—uncloud your faces,
And join in our embraces
Under the Holly Bough.
by Charles Mackay
Be merry all, be merry all,
With holly dress the festive hall;
Prepare the song, the feast, the ball,
To welcome merry Christmas.
by William Robert Spencer
Were earth a thousand times as fair,
Beset with gold and jewels rare,
She yet were far too poor to be,
A narrow cradle, Lord, for Thee.
by Martin Luther
We honor on His day of birth,
The Child born to bring peace on earth.
The God who was born in a stable.
from The Lord of Misrule by Norah Lofts
What can I give Him, Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man I would do my part
Yet what can I give Him?
Give my heart.
by Christina Rossetti
O Father, may that holy Star grow every year more bright,
And send its glorious beam afar to fill the world with light.
by William Cullen Bryant
Let's dance and sing, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year!
- from an old ballad
12/2/10
Christmas Dinner at Bracebridge Hall
PART 3: Excerpts from "Keeping Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" by Washington Irving
Written in 1820 as a “series of sketches of rural England...with descriptions of rustic customs, and above all of the hearty keeping of Christmas in an old country house...in which the author introduces his readers in so charming a way to the old Yorkshire Hall and his imaginary Christmas visit there.”
The dinner was served up in the great hall, where the squire always held his Christmas banquet. A blazing crackling fire of logs had been heaped on to warm the spacious apartment, and the flame went sparkling and wreathing up the wide-mouthed chimney. ...[there] stood the two Yule candles, beaming like two stars of the first magnitude ; other lights were distributed in branches, and the whole array glittered like a firmament of silver.
We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound of minstrelsy, the old harper being seated on a stool beside the fireplace, and twanging his instrument with a vast deal more power than melody. Never did Christmas board display a more goodly and gracious assemblage of countenances...
The parson said grace, which was not a short familiar one, such as is commonly addressed to the Deity in these unceremonious days; but a long, courtly, well-worded one of the ancient school.
There was now a pause, as if something was expected; when suddenly the butler entered the hall with some degree of bustle: he was attended by a servant on
each side with a large wax-light, and bore a silver dish, on which was an enormous pig’s head, decorated with rosemary, with a lemon in its mouth, which was placed with great formality at the head of the table.
The moment this pageant made its appearance, the harper struck up a flourish; at the conclusion of which the young Oxonian, on receiving a hint from the squire, gave, with an air of the most comic gravity, an old carol, the first verse of which was as follows:
The boar’s head in hand bring I,
With garlands gay and rosemary,
I pray you all synge merily
I confess, the parade with which so odd a dish was introduced somewhat perplexed me, until I gathered from the conversation of the squire and the parson, that it was meant to represent the bringing in of the boar’s head; a dish formerly served up with much ceremony and the sound of minstrelsy and song, at great tables, on Christmas day.
The table was literally loaded with good cheer, and presented an epitome of country abundance, in this season of overflowing larders. There were several dishes quaintly decorated, and which had evidently something traditional in their embellishments...a pie, magnificently decorated with peacock’s feathers, in imitation of the tail of that bird, which overshadowed a considerable tract of the table.
(Footnote: The peacock was anciently in great demand for stately entertainments. Sometimes it was made into a pie, at one end of which the head appeared above the crust, in all its plumage, with the beak richly gilt: at the other end the tail was displayed. Such pies were served up at the solemn banquets of chivalry, when knights-errant pledged themselves to under take any perilous enterprise; whence came the ancient oath, used by Justice Shallow, "by cock and pie."
The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast; and Massinger, in his City Madam, gives some idea of the extravagance with which this, as well as other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeous revels of the olden times:
"Men may talk of country Christmasses:
Their thirty pound butter’d eggs their pies of carps tongues:
Their pheasants drench’d with ambergris; the carcases of three fat
wethers bruited for gravy to make sauce for a single peacock!")
When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a huge silver vessel of rare and curious workmanship, which he placed before the squire. Its appearance was hailed with acclamation; being the Wassail Bowl, so renowned in Christmas festivity...being composed of the richest and raciest wines, highly spiced and sweetened, with roasted apples bobbing about the surface.
(Footnote: The Wassail Bowl was sometimes composed of ale instead of wine; with nutmeg, sugar, toast, ginger, and roasted crabs; in this way the nut-brown beverage is still prepared in some old families, and round the hearths of substantial farmers at Christmas. It is also called Lamb’s Wool, and is celebrated by Herrick in his Twelfth Night.
"Next crowne the bowle full
With gentle Lamb’s Wool;
Add sugar, nutmeg, and ginger,
With store of ale too;
And thus ye must doe
To make the Wassaile a swinger.")
The old gentleman s whole countenance beamed with a serene look of indwelling delight, as he stirred this mighty bowl. Having raised it to his lips, with a hearty wish of a merry Christmas to all present, he sent it brimming round the board, for every one to follow his example, according to the primitive style; pronouncing it "the ancient fountain of good-feeling, where all hearts met together."
There was much laughing and rallying as the honest emblem of Christmas joviality circulated, and was kissed rather coyly by the ladies. When it reached Master Simon, he raised it in both hands, and with the air of a boon companion struck up an old Wassail chanson:
The brown bowle,
The merry brown bowle,
As it goes round-about-a,
Fill
Still,
Let the world say what it will,
And drink your fill all out-a.
The deep canne,
The merry deep canne,
As thou dost freely quaff-a
Sing
Fling,
Be as merry as a king,
And sound a lusty laugh-a.
(Footnote: The custom of drinking out of the same cup gave place to each having his cup. When the steward came to the doore with the Wassel, he was to cry three times, ffassel, Wauel, Wassel, and then the chappell(chaplein) was to answer with a song. ARCHEOLOGIA. 3 From Poor Robin’s Almanac.)
I found the tide of wine and wassail fast gaining on the dry land of sober judgment. The company grew merrier and louder as their jokes grew duller.
After the dinner-table was removed, the hall was given up to the younger members of the family, who, prompted to all kind of noisy mirth by the Oxonian and Master Simon, made its old walls ring with their merriment, as they played at romping games. I delight in witnessing the gambols of children, and particularly at this happy holiday season, and could not help stealing out of the drawing-room on hearing one of their peals of laughter.
I found them at the game of blind-man’s-buff. Master Simon, who was the leader of their revels, and seemed on all occasions to fulfil the office of that ancient potentate, the Lord of Misrule, was blinded in the midst of the hall. The little beings were as busy about him as the mock fairies about Falstaff ; pinching him, plucking at the skirts of his coat, and tickling him with straws.
(Footnote: At Christmasse there was in the Kinge’s house, wheresoever hee was lodged, a lorde of misrule, or mayster of merie disportes, and the like had ye in the house of every nobleman of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall. STOWE.)
Whilst we were all attention to the parson s stories, our ears were suddenly assailed by a burst of heterogeneous sounds from the hall, in which were mingled something like the clang of rude minstrelsy, with the uproar of many small voices and girlish laughter. The door suddenly flew open, and a train came trooping into the room, that might almost have been mistaken for the breaking-up of the court of Fairy. That indefatigable spirit, Master Simon, in the faithful discharge of his duties as Lord of Misrule, had conceived the idea of a Christmas mummery or masking...
(Footnote: Maskings or mummeries were favourite sports at Christmas in old times: and the wardrobes at halls and manor-houses were often laid under contribution to furnish dresses and fantastic disguisings.)
He was accompanied by the blue-eyed romp, dished up as "Dame Mince Pie," in the venerable magnificence of a faded brocade, long stomacher, peaked hat, and high-heeled shoes. The young officer appeared as Robin Hood, in a sporting dress of Kendal green, and a foraging cap with a gold tassel...The fair Julia hung on his arm in a pretty rustic dress, as "Maid Marian." The rest of the train had been metamorphosed in various ways; the girls trussed up in the finery of the ancient belles of the Bracebridge line, and the striplings bewhiskered with burnt cork, and gravely clad in broad skirts, hanging sleeves, and full-bottomed wigs, to represent the character of Roast Beef, Plum Pudding, and other worthies celebrated in ancient maskings. The whole was under the control of the Oxonian, in the appropriate character of Misrule; and I observed that he exercised rather a mischievous sway with his wand over the smaller personages of the pageant.
The irruption of this motley crew, with beat of drum, according to ancient custom, was the consummation of uproar and merriment. Master Simon covered himself with glory by the stateliness with which, as Ancient Christmas, he walked a minuet with the peerless, though giggling, Dame Mince Pie.
It was followed by a dance of all the characters, which, from its medley of costumes, seemed as though the old family portraits had skipped down from their frames to join in the sport.
The worthy squire contemplated these fantastic sports, and this resurrection of his old wardrobe, with the simple relish of childish delight. He stood chuckling and rubbing his hands, and scarcely hearing a word the parson said, notwithstanding that the latter was discoursing most authentically on the ancient and stately dance at the Paon, or peacock, from which he conceived the minuet to be derived.
(Footnote: Sir John Hawkins, speaking of the dance called the Pavon, from pavo, a peacock, says, "It is a grave and majestic dance ; the method of dancing it anciently was by gentlemen dressed with caps and swords, by those of the long robe in their gowns, by the peers in their mantles, and by the ladies in gowns with long trains, the motion whereof, in dancing, resembled that of a peacock." HISTORY OF Music.)
...this was, perhaps, the only family in England in which the whole of [the old English holiday customs] were still punctiliously observed. There was a quaintness, too, mingled with all this revelry, that gave it a peculiar zest: it was suited to the time and place ; and as the old manor-house almost reeled with mirth and wassail, it seemed echoing back the joviality of long-departed years.
Christmas Day at Bracebridge Hall
PART 2: Excerpts from "Keeping Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" by Washington Irving
Written in 1820 as a “series of sketches of rural England...with descriptions of rustic customs, and above all of the hearty keeping of Christmas in an old country house...in which the author introduces his readers in so charming a way to the old Yorkshire Hall and his imaginary Christmas visit there.”
When I woke the next morning...I heard the sound of little feet pattering outside of the door, and a whispering consultation. Presently a choir of small voices chanted forth an old Christmas carol, the burden of which was:
Rejoice, our Saviour he was born
On Christmas day in the morning.
I rose softly, slipped on my clothes, opened the door suddenly, and beheld one of the most beautiful little fairy groups that a painter could imagine. It consisted of a boy and two girls, the eldest not more than six, and lovely as seraphs. They were going the rounds of the house, and singing at every chamber door...
The house was surrounded with evergreens, according to the English custom, which would have given almost an appearance of summer; but the morning was extremely frosty; the light vapour of the preceding evening had been precipitated by the cold, and covered all the trees and every blade of grass with its fine crystallisations.
I had scarcely dressed myself, when a servant appeared to invite me to family prayers. He showed me the way to a small chapel in the old wing of the House. The service was followed by a Christmas carol, which Mr Bracebridge himself had constructed from a poem of his favourite author, Herrick ; and it had been adapted to an old church melody by Master Simon.
Our breakfast consisted of what the squire denominated true old English fare...some tea and toast...though he admitted them to his table to suit the palates of his guests, yet there was a brave display of cold meats, wine, and ale on the sideboard.
...We heard the distant toll of the village bell, and I was told that the squire was a little particular in having his household at church on a Christmas morning; considering it a day of pouring out of thanks and rejoicing ; for, as old Tusser observed,
"At Christmas be merry, and thankful withal
And feast thy poor neighbours, the great with the small."
The parson gave us a most erudite sermon on the rites and ceremonies of Christmas, and the propriety of observing it not merely as a day of thanksgiving, but of rejoicing;...having, in the course of his researches on the subject of Christmas, got completely embroiled in the sectarian controversies of the Revolution, when the Puritans made such a fierce assault upon the ceremonies of the church, and poor old Christmas was driven out of the land by proclamation of Parliament.
He forgot that nearly two centuries had elapsed since the fiery persecution of poor mince-pie throughout the land; when plum porridge was denounced as "mere poppery," and roast-beef as anti-Christian; and that Christmas had been brought in again triumphantly with the merry court of King Charles at the Restoration... and concluded by urging his hearers, in the most solemn and affecting manner, to stand to the traditional customs of their fathers, and feast and make merry on this joyful anniversary of the church.
(Footnote: From the Flying Eagle, a small Gazette, published December 24th, 1652 "The House spent much time this day about the business of the Navy, for settling the affairs at sea, and before they rose, were presented with a terrible remonstrance against Christmas day, grounded upon divine Scriptures, 2 Cor. v. 16 ; i Cor. xv. 14, 17 ; and in honour of the Lord s day, grounded upon these Scriptures : John xx. i ; Rev. i. 10 ; Psalms cxviii. 24; Lev. xxiii. 7, 1 1 ; Mark xv. 8; Psalms Ixxxiv. 10 ; in which Christmas is called Anti-Christ s masse, and those Masse-mongers and Papists who observe it, &c. In consequence of which Parliament spent some time in consultation about the abolition of Christmas day, passed orders to that effect, and resolved to sit on the following day, which was commonly called Christmas day.")
I have seldom known a sermon attended apparently with more immediate effects; for on leaving the church the congregation seemed one and all possessed with the gaiety of spirit so earnestly enjoined by their pastor.
The villagers doffed their hats to the squire as he passed, giving him the good wishes of the season with every appearance of heartfelt sincerity, and were invited by him to the hall, to take something to keep out the cold of the weather; and I heard blessings uttered by several of the poor, which convinced me that, in the midst of his enjoyments, the worthy old cavalier had not forgotten the true Christmas virtue of charity.
On our way homeward his heart seemed overflowed with generous and happy feelings. As we passed over a rising ground which commanded something of a prospect, the sounds of rustic merriment now and then reached our ears...There was something truly cheering in this triumph of warmth and verdure over the frosty thraldom of winter; it was, as the squire observed, an emblem of Christmas hospitality, breaking through the chills of ceremony and selfishness, and thawing every heart into a flow.
He pointed with pleasure to the indications of good cheer reeking from the the chimneys of the comfortable farm-houses, and low thatched cottages. I love, said he, "to see this day well kept by rich and poor; it is a great thing to have one day in the year, at least, when you are sure of being welcome wherever you go, and of having, as it were, the world all thrown open to you...
The squire went on to lament the deplorable decay of the games and amusements which were once prevalent at this season among the lower orders, and countenanced by the higher; when the old halls of castles and manor-houses were thrown open at daylight; when the tables were covered with brawn, and beef, and humming ale; when the harp and the curious carol resounded all day long, and when rich and poor were alike welcome to enter and make merry. 1"Our old games and local customs," said he, " had a great effect in making the peasant fond of his home, and the promotion of them by the gentry made him fond of his lord. They made the times merrier, and kinder, and better...
"An English gentleman, at the opening of the great day (i.e. on Christmas day in the morning), had all his tenants and neighbours enter his hall by daybreak. The strong beer was broached, and the black jacks went plentifully about with toast, sugar, and nutmeg, and good Cheshire cheese. The Hackin (the great sausage) must be boiled by daybreak, or else two young men must take the maiden (i.e. the cook) by the arms, and run her round the market-place till the it shamed of her laziness."
We had not been long home when the sound of music was heard from a distance. A band of country lads, without coats, their shirt sleeves fancifully tied with ribands, their hats decorated with greens, and clubs in their hands, were seen advancing up the avenue, followed by a large number of villagers and peasantry. They stopped before the hall door, where the music struck up a peculiar air, and the lads per formed a curious and intricate dance, advancing, retreating, and striking their clubs together, keeping exact time to the music...
After the dance was concluded, the whole party was entertained with brawn and beef, and stout home brewed...The bashfulness of the guests soon gave way before good cheer and affability... The whole house, indeed, seemed abandoned to merriment...
Lo! now is come our joyful feast!
Let every man be jolly;
Eache roome with yvie leaves is drest,
And every post with holly,
Now all our neighbours chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning
Their ovens they with bakt meats choke,
And all their spits are turning.
Without the door let sorrow lie,
And if, for cold, it hap to die,
We’ll bury it in a Christmas pye,
And evermore be merry.
11/30/10
Christmas Eve at Bracebridge Hall
PART 1: Excerpts from "Keeping Christmas at Bracebridge Hall" by Washington Irving
Written in 1820 as a “series of sketches of rural England...with descriptions of rustic customs, and above all of the hearty keeping of Christmas in an old country house...in which the author introduces his readers in so charming a way to the old Yorkshire Hall and his imaginary Christmas visit there.”
Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a more than usual animation to the country, for it seemed to me as if everybody was in good looks and good spirits. Game, poultry, and other luxuries of the table, were in brisk circulation in the villages; the grocers, butchers, and fruiterers shops were thronged with customers. The housewives were stirring briskly about, putting their dwellings in order; and the glossy branches of holly, with their bright red berries, began to appear at the windows.
The scene brought to mind an old writer's account of Christmas preparations:
“Now capons and hens, besides turkeys geese, and ducks, with beef and mutton must all die for in twelve days a multitude of people will not be fed with a little. Now plums and spice, sugar and honey, square it among pies and broth. Now or never must music be in tune, for the youth must dance and sing to get them a heat, while the aged sit by the fire. The country maid leaves half her market, and must be sent again, if she forgets a pack of cards on Christmas eve. Great is the contention of holly and ivy, whether master or dame wears the breeches. Dice and cards benefit the butler; and if the cook do not lack wit, he will sweetly lick his fingers.”
As we approached the house, we heard the sound of music, and now and then a burst of laughter, from one end of the building. This, Bracebridge said, must proceed from the servants hall, where a great deal of revelry was permitted, and even encouraged, by the squire, throughout the twelve days of Christmas, provided everything was done conformably to ancient usage. Here were kept up the old games of hoodman blind, shoe the wild mare, hot cockles, steal the white loaf, bob apple, and snap dragon: the Yule clog and Christmas candle were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe, with its white berries, hung up, to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.
(Footnote: The mistletoe is still hung up in farmhouses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked, the privilege ceases.)
The family meeting was warm and affectionate: as the evening was far advanced, the squire would not permit us to change our travelling dresses, but ushered us at once to the company, which was assembled in a large old-fashioned hall. It was composed of different branches of a numerous family connection, where there were the usual proportion of old uncles and aunts, comfortable married dames, superannuated spinsters, blooming country cousins, half-fledged striplings, and bright-eyed boarding-school hoydens. They were variously occupied; some at a round game of cards; others conversing around the fireplace ; at one end of the hall was a group of the young folks, some nearly grown up, others of a more tender and budding age, fully engrossed by a merry game; and a profusion of wooden horses, penny trumpets, and tattered dolls, about the floor, showed traces of a troup of little fairy beings, who, having frolicked through a happy day, had been carried off to slumber
through a peaceful night.
The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelming fireplace, to make way for a fire of wood, in the midst of which was an enormous log glowing and blazing, and sending forth a vast volume of light and heat; this I understood was the Yule clog, which the squire was particular in having brought in and illumined on a Christmas eve, according to ancient custom.
(Footnote: The Yule clog is a great log of wood, sometimes the root of a tree, brought into the house with great ceremony, on Christmas eve, laid in the fire place, and lighted with the brand of last year s clog. While it lasted, there was great drinking, singing, and telling of tales. Sometimes it was accompanied by Christmas candles ; but in the cottages the only light was from the ruddy blaze of the great wood fire. The Yule clog was to burn all night; if it went out, it was considered a sign of ill luck. The Yule clog is still burnt in many farmhouses and kitchens in England, particularly in the north, and there are several superstitions connected with it among the peasantry. If a squinting person come to the house while it is burning, or a person barefooted, it is considered an ill omen. The brand remaining from the Yule clog is carefully put away to light the next year’s Christmas fire.)
Herrick mentions it in one of his songs:
Come, bring with a noise,
My merrie, merrie boyes,
The Christmas log to the firing;
While my good dame, she
Bids ye all be free,
And drink to your hearts desiring.
Supper was announced shortly after our arrival. It was served up in a spacious oaken chamber, the panels of whjch shone with wax, and around which were several family portraits decorated with holly and ivy. Besides the accustomed lights, two great wax tapers, called Christmas candles, wreathed with greens, were placed on a highly-polished beaufet among the family plate. The table was abundantly spread with substantial fare; but the squire made his supper of frumenty, a dish made of wheat cakes boiled in milk, with rich spices, being a standing dish in old times for Christmas eve. I was happy to find my old friend, minced pie, in the retinue of the feast; and finding him to be perfectly orthodox, and that I need not be ashamed of my predilection, I greeted him with all the warmth wherewith we usually greet an old and very genteel acquaintance.
The mirth of the company was greatly promoted by the humours of an eccentric personage whom Mr. Bracebridge always addressed with the quaint appellation of Master Simon...no sooner was supper removed, and spiced wines and other beverages peculiar to the season introduced, than Master Simon was called on for a good old Christmas song. He bethought himself for a moment, and then, with a sparkle of the eye, and a voice that was by no means bad, excepting that it ran occasionally into a falsetto, like the notes of a split reed, he quavered forth a quaint old ditty.
Now Christmas is come,
Let us beat up the drum,
And call all our neighbours together,
And when they appear,
Let us make them such cheer,
As will keep out the wind and the weather,
The supper had disposed every one to gaiety, and an old harper was summoned from the servants hall, where he had been strumming all the evening, and to all appearance comforting himself with some of the squire’s home-brewed.
The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one ; some of the older folks joined in it, and the squire himself figured down several couple with a partner, with whom he affirmed he had danced at every Christmas for nearly half a century. Master Simon, who seemed to be a kind of connecting link between the old times and the new, and to be withal a little antiquated in the taste of his accomplishments, evidently piqued himself on his dancing, and was endeavouring to gain credit by the heel and toe, rigadoon, and other graces of the ancient school; but he had unluckily assorted himself with a little romping girl from boarding-school, who, by her wild vivacity, kept him continually on the stretch, and defeated all his sober attempts at elegance.
The young Oxonian, on the contrary, had led out one of his maiden aunts, on whom the rogue played a thousand little knaveries with impunity; he was full of practical jokes, and his delight was to tease his aunts and cousins; yet, like all madcap youngsters, he was a universal favourite among the women.
The most interesting couple in the dance was the young officer and a ward of the squire’s, a beautiful blushing girl of seventeen. From several shy glances which I had noticed in the course of the evening, I suspected there was a little kindness growing up between them; and, indeed, the young soldier was just the hero to captivate a romantic girl. He was tall, slender, and handsome, and like most young British officers of late years, had picked up various small accomplishments
on the Continent he could talk French and Italian draw landscapes, sing very tolerably dance divinely; but, above all, he had been wounded at Waterloo: what girl of seventeen, well read in poetry and romance, could resist such a mirror of chivalry and perfection!
The moment the dance was over, he caught up a guitar, and lolling against the old marble fireplace, in an attitude which I am half inclined to suspect was studied, began the little French air of the Troubadour. The squire, however, exclaimed against having anything on Christmas eve but good old English; upon which the young minstrel, casting up his eye for a moment, as if in an effort of memory, struck into another strain, and, with a charming air of gallantry, gave Herrick’s “Night-Piece to Julia”.
The party now broke up for the night with the kind-hearted old custom of shaking hands. As I passed through the hall, on my way to my chamber, the dying embers of the Yule clog still sent forth a dusky glow, and had it not been the season when “no spirit dares stir abroad”, I should have been half tempted to steal from my room at midnight, and peep whether the fairies might not be at their revels about the hearth.
11/29/10
A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Nephew Wishes A Merry Christmas
An Excerpt from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
(for more excerpts, see below)
"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.
"Bah!" said Scrooge, "Humbug!"
He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.
"Christmas a humbug, uncle!" said Scrooge's nephew. "You don't mean that, I am sure."
"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You're poor enough."
"Come, then," returned the nephew gaily. "What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You're rich enough."
Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said "Bah!" again; and followed it up with "Humbug."
"Don't be cross, uncle!" said the nephew.
"What else can I be," returned the uncle, "when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"
"Uncle!" pleaded the nephew.
"Nephew!" returned the uncle, sternly, "keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."
"Keep it!" repeated Scrooge's nephew. "But you don't keep it."
"Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. "Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!"
"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew. "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"
The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded: becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever.
"Let me hear another sound from you," said Scrooge, "and you'll keep your Christmas by losing your situation. You're quite a powerful speaker, sir," he added, turning to his nephew. "I wonder you don't go into Parliament."
"Don't be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow."
Scrooge said that he would see him -- yes, indeed he did. He went the whole length of the expression, and said that he would see him in that extremity first.
"But why?" cried Scrooge's nephew. "Why?"
"Why did you get married?" said Scrooge.
"Because I fell in love."
"Because you fell in love!" growled Scrooge, as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry Christmas. "Good afternoon!"
"Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now?"
"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
"I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?"
"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
"I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I'll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, uncle!"
"Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
"And A Happy New Year!"
------
For more excerpts from "A Christmas Carol", see also:
A Christmas Carol: The Visit of Marleys Ghost
A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Past
A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Redemption
A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Redemption
An Excerpt from "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens
Stave 5: The End of It
(for more excerpts, see below)
"Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in!
"I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!" Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. "The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this. I say it on my knees, old Jacob, on my knees!"
He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.
"They are not torn down!" cried Scrooge, folding one of his bed-curtains in his arms, "they are not torn down, rings and all. They are here -- I am here -- the shadows of the things that would have been, may be dispelled. They will be! I know they will."
His hands were busy with his garments all this time; turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing them, mislaying them, making them parties to every kind of extravagance.
"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoon of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"
He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing there: perfectly winded.
"There's the saucepan that the gruel was in!" cried Scrooge, starting off again, and frisking round the fireplace. "There's the door, by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley entered. There's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas Present, sat. There's the window where I saw the wandering Spirits. It's all right, it's all true, it all happened. Ha ha ha!"
Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs.
"I don't know what day of the month it is," said Scrooge. "I don't know how long I've been among the Spirits. I don't know anything. I'm quite a baby. Never mind. I don't care. I'd rather be a baby. Hallo! Whoop! Hallo here!"
He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clang, hammer; ding, dong, bell! Bell, dong, ding; hammer, clang, clash! Oh, glorious, glorious!
Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his head. No fog, no mist; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold; cold, piping for the blood to dance to; Golden sunlight; Heavenly sky; sweet fresh air; merry bells. Oh, glorious. Glorious!
"What's to-day?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes, who perhaps had loitered in to look about him.
"Eh?" returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.
"What's to-day, my fine fellow?" said Scrooge.
"To-day?" replied the boy. "Why, Christmas Day."
"It's Christmas Day!" said Scrooge to himself. "I haven't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night. They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of course they can. Hallo, my fine fellow!"
"Hallo!" returned the boy.
"Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one, at the corner?" Scrooge inquired.
"I should hope I did," replied the lad.
"An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable boy! Do you know whether they"ve sold the prize Turkey that was hanging up there -- Not the little prize Turkey: the big one?"
"What, the one as big as me?" returned the boy.
"What a delightful boy!" said Scrooge. "It's a pleasure to talk to him. Yes, my buck."
"It's hanging there now," replied the boy.
"Is it?" said Scrooge. "Go and buy it."
"Walk-er!" exclaimed the boy.
"No, no," said Scrooge, "I am in earnest. Go and buy it, and tell them to bring it here, that I may give them the direction where to take it. Come back with the man, and I'll give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than five minutes and I'll give you half-a-crown."
The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so fast.
"I'll send it to Bon Cratchit's!" whispered Scrooge, rubbing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. "He shan't know who sends it. It's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will be!"
The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady one, but write it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to open the street door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's man. As he stood there, waiting his arrival, the knocker caught his eye.
"I shall love it, as long as I live!" cried Scrooge, patting it with his hand. "I scarcely ever looked at it before. What an honest expression it has in its face. It's a wonderful knocker. -- Here's the Turkey. Hallo! Whoop! How are you? Merry Christmas!"
It was a Turkey! He never could have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped them short off in a minute, like sticks of sealing-wax.
"Why, it's impossible to carry that to Camden Town," said Scrooge. "You must have a cab."
The chuckle with which he said this, and the chuckle with which he paid for the Turkey, and the chuckle with which he paid for the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with which he sat down breathless in his chair again, and chuckled till he cried.
Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to shake very much; and shaving requires attention, even when you don't dance while you are at it. But if he had cut the end of his nose off, he would have put a piece of sticking-plaister over it, and been quite satisfied.
He dressed himself all in his best, and at last got out into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth, as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present; and walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, "Good morning, sir. A merry Christmas to you." And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
He had not gone far, when coming on towards him he beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his counting-house the day before, and said, "Scrooge and Marley's, I believe." It sent a pang across his heart to think how this old gentleman would look upon him when they met; but he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it.
"My dear sir," said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and taking the old gentleman by both his hands. "How do you do. I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of you. A merry Christmas to you, sir!"
"Mr Scrooge?"
"Yes," said Scrooge. "That is my name, and I fear it may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask your pardon. And will you have the goodness" -- here Scrooge whispered in his ear.
"Lord bless me!" cried the gentleman, as if his breath were taken away. "My dear Mr Scrooge, are you serious?"
"If you please," said Scrooge. "Not a farthing less. A great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you. Will you do me that favour?"
"My dear sir," said the other, shaking hands with him. "I don't know what to say to such munificence."
"Don't say anything please," retorted Scrooge. "Come and see me. Will you come and see me?"
"I will!" cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he meant to do it.
"Thank you," said Scrooge. "I am much obliged to you. I thank you fifty times. Bless you!"
He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had never dreamed that any walk -- that anything -- could give him so much happiness. In the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house.
He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash, and did it:
"Is your master at home, my dear?" said Scrooge to the girl. Nice girl. Very.
"Yes, sir."
"Where is he, my love?" said Scrooge.
"He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress. I'll show you up-stairs, if you please."
"Thank you. He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand already on the dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear."
He turned it gently, and sidled his face in, round the door. They were looking at the table (which was spread out in great array); for these young housekeepers are always nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is right.
"Fred!" said Scrooge.
Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started. Scrooge had forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in the corner with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done it, on any account.
"Why bless my soul!" cried Fred," who's that?"
"It's I. Your uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in, Fred?"
Let him in! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off. He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier. His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when he came. So did the plump sister when she came. So did every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness!
But he was early at the office next morning. Oh he was early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob Cratchit coming late! That was the thing he had set his heart upon.
And he did it; yes, he did. The clock struck nine. No Bob. A quarter past. No Bob. He was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank.
His hat was off, before he opened the door; his comforter too. He was on his stool in a jiffy; driving away with his pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.
"Hallo," growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice, as near as he could feign it. "What do you mean by coming here at this time of day?"
"I'm very sorry, sir," said Bob. "I am behind my time."
"You are?" repeated Scrooge. "Yes. I think you are. Step this way, if you please."
"It's only once a year, sir," pleaded Bob, appearing from the Tank. "It shall not be repeated. I was making rather merry yesterday, sir."
"Now, I'll tell you what, my friend," said Scrooge, "I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And therefore," he continued, leaping from his stool, and giving Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the Tank again; "and therefore I am about to raise your salary."
Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it, holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait-waistcoat.
"A merry Christmas, Bob," said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year. I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob. Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!"
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!"
------
For more excerpts from "A Christmas Carol", see also:
A Christmas Carol: Scrooge's Nephew Wishes Merry Christmas
A Christmas Carol: The Visit of Marley's Ghost
A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Past
A Christmas Carol:The Ghost of Christmas Present
A Christmas Carol: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come
11/24/10
Charles Dickens' Thoughts on Christmas
An excerpt from "The Pickwick Papers" by Charles Dickens
"Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away.
Gay and merry was the time; and right gay and merry were at least four of the numerous hearts that were gladdened by its coming.
And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Christmas brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment. How many families, whose members have been dispersed and scattered far and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then reunited, and meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual goodwill, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight; and one so incompatible with the cares and sorrows of the world, that the religious belief of the most civilised nations, and the rude traditions of the roughest savages, alike number it among the first joys of a future condition of existence, provided for the blessed and happy!
How many old recollections, and how many dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken!
We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous circle. Many of the hearts that throbbed so gaily then, have ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then, have ceased to glow; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave; and yet the old house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest, the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstances connected with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but yesterday!
Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home!"
Mr. Pickwick's Christmas by Charles Dickens
An excerpt from "The Pickwick Papers" by Charles Dickens
A wonderful example of a 19th Century English Christmas celebration
This story takes place at the Wardle home where Mr. Pickwick was a Christmas guest, in "the large kitchen, in which the family were by this time assembled, according to annual custom on Christmas Eve, observed by old Wardle's forefathers from time immemorial.
From the centre of the ceiling of this kitchen, old Wardle had just suspended, with his own hands, a huge branch of mistletoe, and this same branch of mistletoe instantaneously gave rise to a scene of general and most delightful struggling and confusion; in the midst of which, Mr. Pickwick, with a gallantry that would have done honour to a descendant of Lady Tollimglower herself, took the old lady by the hand, led her beneath the mystic branch, and saluted her in all courtesy and decorum.
The old lady submitted to this piece of practical politeness with all the dignity which befitted so important and serious a solemnity, but the younger ladies, not being so thoroughly imbued with a superstitious veneration for the custom, or imagining that the value of a salute is very much enhanced if it cost a little trouble to obtain it, screamed and struggled, and ran into corners, and threatened and remonstrated, and did everything but leave the room, until some of the less adventurous gentlemen were on the point of desisting, when they all at once found it useless to resist any longer, and submitted to be kissed with a good grace.
Mr. Winkle kissed the young lady with the black eyes, and Mr. Snodgrass kissed Emily; and Mr. Weller, not being particular about the form of being under the mistletoe, kissed Emma and the other female servants, just as he caught them. As to the poor relations, they kissed everybody, not even excepting the plainer portions of
the young lady visitors, who, in their excessive confusion, ran right under the mistletoe, as soon as it was hung up, without knowing it!
Wardle stood with his back to the fire, surveying the whole scene, with the utmost satisfaction; and the fat boy took the opportunity of appropriating to his own use, and summarily devouring, a particularly fine mince-pie,that had been carefully put by, for somebody else.
Now, the screaming had subsided, and faces were in a glow, and curls in a tangle, and Mr. Pickwick, after kissing the old lady as before mentioned, was standing under the mistletoe, looking with a very pleased countenance on all that was passing around him, when the young lady with the black eyes, after a little whispering with the other young ladies, made a sudden dart forward, and, putting her arm round Mr. Pickwick's neck,saluted him affectionately on the left cheek; and before Mr. Pickwick distinctly knew what was the matter, he was surrounded by the whole body, and kissed by every one of them.
It was a pleasant thing to see Mr. Pickwick in the centre of the group, now pulled this way, and then that, and first kissed on the chin, and then on the nose, and then on the spectacles, and to hear the peals of laughter which were raised on every side; but it was a still more pleasant thing to see Mr. Pickwick, blinded shortly afterwards with a silk handkerchief, falling up against the wall, and scrambling into corners, and going through all the mysteries of blind-man's buff, with the utmost relish for the game, until at last he caught one of the poor relations, and then had to evade the blind-man himself, which he did with a nimbleness and agility that elicited the admiration and applause of all beholders. The poor relations caught the people who they thought would like it, and, when the game flagged, got caughtthemselves.
When they all tired of blind-man's buff, there was a great game at snap-dragon, and when fingers enough were burned with that, and all the raisins were gone, they sat down by the huge fire of blazing logs to a substantial supper, and a mighty bowl of wassail, something smaller than an ordinary wash-house copper, in which the hot apples were hissing and bubbling with a rich look, and a jolly sound, that were perfectly irresistible.
'This,' said Mr. Pickwick, looking round him, 'this is, indeed, comfort.'
'Our invariable custom,' replied Mr. Wardle. 'Everybody sits down with us on Christmas Eve, as you see them now--servants and all; and here we wait, until the clock strikes twelve, to usher Christmas in, and beguile the time with forfeits and old stories. Trundle, my boy, rake up the fire.'
Up flew the bright sparks in myriads as the logs were stirred. The deep red blaze sent forth a rich glow, that penetrated into the farthest corner of the room, and cast its cheerful tint on every face.
'Come,' said Wardle, 'a song--a Christmas song! I'll give you one, in default of a better.'
'Bravo!' said Mr. Pickwick.
'Fill up,' cried Wardle. 'It will be two hours, good, before you see the bottom of the bowl through the deep rich colour of the wassail; fill up all round, and now for the song.'
Thus saying, the merry old gentleman, in a good, round, sturdy voice, commenced without more ado--
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
'I care not for Spring; on his fickle wing
Let the blossoms and buds be borne;
He woos them amain with his treacherous rain,
And he scatters them ere the morn.
An inconstant elf, he knows not himself,
Nor his own changing mind an hour,
He'll smile in your face, and, with wry grimace,
He'll wither your youngest flower.
'Let the Summer sun to his bright home run,
He shall never be sought by me;
When he's dimmed by a cloud I can laugh aloud
And care not how sulky he be!
For his darling child is the madness wild
That sports in fierce fever's train;
And when love is too strong, it don't last long,
As many have found to their pain.
'A mild harvest night, by the tranquil light
Of the modest and gentle moon,
Has a far sweeter sheen for me, I ween,
Than the broad and unblushing noon.
But every leaf awakens my grief,
As it lieth beneath the tree;
So let Autumn air be never so fair,
It by no means agrees with me.
'But my song I troll out, for CHRISTMAS Stout,
The hearty, the true, and the bold;
A bumper I drain, and with might and main
Give three cheers for this Christmas old!
We'll usher him in with a merry din
That shall gladden his joyous heart,
And we'll keep him up, while there's bite or sup,
And in fellowship good, we'll part.
'In his fine honest pride, he scorns to hide
One jot of his hard-weather scars;
They're no disgrace, for there's much the same trace
On the cheeks of our bravest tars.
Then again I sing till the roof doth ring
And it echoes from wall to wall--
To the stout old wight, fair welcome to-night,
As the King of the Seasons all!'
This song was tumultuously applauded--for friends and dependents make a capital audience--and the poor relations, especially, were in perfect ecstasies of rapture. Again was the fire replenished, and again went the wassail round."
11/11/10
CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD: Asia
Japan
Only 1 per cent of Japanese people believe in Christ. Even so, most Japanese people decorate their stores and homes with evergreens during Christmas.
They enjoy giving each other gifts, and this is the part they celebrate.
They have a Buddhist monk called Hotei-osho who acts like Santa Claus. He brings presents to each house and leaves them for the children. Some think he has eyes in the back of his head, so children try to behave like he is nearby.
Among the Christian Japanese Christmas is not a day for the family. They do not have turkey or plum pudding, rather than that the day is spent doing nice things for others especially those who are sick in hospitals.
Christmas for those in Sunday schools is the happiest day of the year. On Christmas Eve or Christmas night, the children put on programs that last for hours, they sing, they recite and they put on a drama of the day Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Most children may not like Hotei-osho so they may receive their presents from Santa who goes around with a red-nosed reindeer.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the only Asian nation in which Christianity is the religion chosen by the people, celebrations start nine days before Christmas with a mass known as Misa de Gallo(Mass of the Cock). At this mass the story behind the birth of Christ is read from the Bible.
The Panunuluyan pageant is held each evening. A couple is chosen to reenact Joseph and Mary's search for shelter.
On Christmas Eve, Filipinos parade through the streets carrying colorful star-shaped lanterns called parols. These lanterns are also displayed in the windows of most homes.
Mass is held hourly on Christmas Day so that everyone can attend. Religious services include pastore, or play, based on myth of the birth of the Christ Child. The pastore closes with a star from the upper part of the church sliding down a wire and coming to rest over the church's Nativity scene.
Christmas celebrations may have evolved from old tribal customs mixed with other influences. Serenading cumbancheros, or strolling minstrels, end their performances by singing Maligayang Pasko to the tune of "Happy Birthday".
China
The Christian children of China decorate trees with colorful ornaments. These ornaments are made from paper in the shapes of flowers, chains and lanterns. They also hang muslin stockings hoping that Christmas Old Man will fill them with gifts and treats.
The Chinese Christmas trees are called "Trees of Light." Santa Claus is called Dun Che Lao Ren which means "Christmas Old Man.".
The non-Christian Chinese call this season the Spring Festival and celebrate with many festivities that include delicious meals and pay respects to their ancestors. The children are the main focus of these celebrations, they receive new clothes and toys, eat delectable food and watch firecrackers displays.
Vietnam
Traditional Vietnamese religions are Buddhism and the Chinese philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism. However, during French rule, many people became Christians.
Christmas is one of the four most important festivals of the Vietnamese year, they being the birthday of Buddha, the New Year and the mid-autumn festival. Although the Christians observed the religious rituals of Christmas.
On Christmas Eve the Christians would attend a midnight Mass. After Church people would return to their homes for the most important meal the Christmas supper. The dinner usually consisted of chicken soup, and wealthier people ate turkey and Christmas Pudding.
The European customs of Santa Claus and the Christmas tree were popular and children would leave their shoes out on Christmas Eve.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh formerly known as East Pakistan, the Christian village men would cut down scores of banana trees and replant them in pairs along the paths to churches and outside their homes. They would then bend over the huge leaves of the banana trees to form an arch, they would then make small holes in the bamboo poles, fill them with oil and tie them across the arches. When the oil is lit, the way to the church is lit up bright enough for all to see.
India
Christians in India decorate banana or mango trees. They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas decorations and fill their churches with red flowers.
They give presents to family members and baksheesh, or charity, to the poor people.
In India, the poinsettia is in flower and so the churches are decorated with this brilliant bloom for the Christmas Midnight Mass.
In South India, Christians put small clay lamps on the rooftops and walls of their houses at Christmas, just as the Hindus do during their festival called Diwali.
Only 1 per cent of Japanese people believe in Christ. Even so, most Japanese people decorate their stores and homes with evergreens during Christmas.
They enjoy giving each other gifts, and this is the part they celebrate.
They have a Buddhist monk called Hotei-osho who acts like Santa Claus. He brings presents to each house and leaves them for the children. Some think he has eyes in the back of his head, so children try to behave like he is nearby.
Among the Christian Japanese Christmas is not a day for the family. They do not have turkey or plum pudding, rather than that the day is spent doing nice things for others especially those who are sick in hospitals.
Christmas for those in Sunday schools is the happiest day of the year. On Christmas Eve or Christmas night, the children put on programs that last for hours, they sing, they recite and they put on a drama of the day Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Most children may not like Hotei-osho so they may receive their presents from Santa who goes around with a red-nosed reindeer.
Philippines
In the Philippines, the only Asian nation in which Christianity is the religion chosen by the people, celebrations start nine days before Christmas with a mass known as Misa de Gallo(Mass of the Cock). At this mass the story behind the birth of Christ is read from the Bible.
The Panunuluyan pageant is held each evening. A couple is chosen to reenact Joseph and Mary's search for shelter.
On Christmas Eve, Filipinos parade through the streets carrying colorful star-shaped lanterns called parols. These lanterns are also displayed in the windows of most homes.
Mass is held hourly on Christmas Day so that everyone can attend. Religious services include pastore, or play, based on myth of the birth of the Christ Child. The pastore closes with a star from the upper part of the church sliding down a wire and coming to rest over the church's Nativity scene.
Christmas celebrations may have evolved from old tribal customs mixed with other influences. Serenading cumbancheros, or strolling minstrels, end their performances by singing Maligayang Pasko to the tune of "Happy Birthday".
China
The Christian children of China decorate trees with colorful ornaments. These ornaments are made from paper in the shapes of flowers, chains and lanterns. They also hang muslin stockings hoping that Christmas Old Man will fill them with gifts and treats.
The Chinese Christmas trees are called "Trees of Light." Santa Claus is called Dun Che Lao Ren which means "Christmas Old Man.".
The non-Christian Chinese call this season the Spring Festival and celebrate with many festivities that include delicious meals and pay respects to their ancestors. The children are the main focus of these celebrations, they receive new clothes and toys, eat delectable food and watch firecrackers displays.
Vietnam
Traditional Vietnamese religions are Buddhism and the Chinese philosophies of Taoism and Confucianism. However, during French rule, many people became Christians.
Christmas is one of the four most important festivals of the Vietnamese year, they being the birthday of Buddha, the New Year and the mid-autumn festival. Although the Christians observed the religious rituals of Christmas.
On Christmas Eve the Christians would attend a midnight Mass. After Church people would return to their homes for the most important meal the Christmas supper. The dinner usually consisted of chicken soup, and wealthier people ate turkey and Christmas Pudding.
The European customs of Santa Claus and the Christmas tree were popular and children would leave their shoes out on Christmas Eve.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh formerly known as East Pakistan, the Christian village men would cut down scores of banana trees and replant them in pairs along the paths to churches and outside their homes. They would then bend over the huge leaves of the banana trees to form an arch, they would then make small holes in the bamboo poles, fill them with oil and tie them across the arches. When the oil is lit, the way to the church is lit up bright enough for all to see.
India
Christians in India decorate banana or mango trees. They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas decorations and fill their churches with red flowers.
They give presents to family members and baksheesh, or charity, to the poor people.
In India, the poinsettia is in flower and so the churches are decorated with this brilliant bloom for the Christmas Midnight Mass.
In South India, Christians put small clay lamps on the rooftops and walls of their houses at Christmas, just as the Hindus do during their festival called Diwali.
CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD: Africa
Congo
Preparation for Christmas in the Congo begins when some group is designated to prepare the annual Christmas pageant.
Christmas day begins with groups of carolers walking to and fro through the village, along the roadway, by the houses of the missionaries, singing the lovely carols known the world around. Often people may be awakened by a group of carolers beginning to converge on the house of worship. They return home to make final preparation as to the clothes one must wear and also as to his offering for the Christmas service.
The most important part of their Christmas worship service is the love offering, this is the gift in honor of Jesus. Then at about 8 or 9 o'clock everyone makes their way to the celebration of the birthday of Jesus.
Everyone who attends the service goes forward to lay down their gift upon the raised platform near the Communion table. Not one person will attend the service without giving a gift.
Now people have Christmas dinners after the service, preparing tables out in front of their home and inviting many of their intimate friends to share.
Ethiopia
The Ethiopian Christmas known as Ganna is celebrated on January 7th. This celebration takes place in ancient churches carved from solid volcanic rock and also in modern churches that are designed in three concentric circles. Men and boys sit separately from girls and women. Also the choir sings from the outside circle.
People receive candles as they enter the church. After lighting the candles everyone walks around the church three times, then stands throughout the mass, which may last up to three hours.
Food served at Christmas usually includes injera, a sourdough pancake like bread. Injera serves as both plate and fork. Doro wat, a spicy chicken stew might be the main meal. A piece of the injera is used to scoop up the wat. Baskets decorated beautifully are used to serve the wat.
Gift giving is a very small part of Christmas celebration. Children usually receive very simple presents such as clothing.
In Ethiopia Christmas day is January 7, so on Christmas Eve the city is crowded with pilgrims from all parts of the country. They remain outdoors all night, praying and chanting. In the morning, a colorful procession makes its way to a nearby hilltop where a service is held. Three young men march at the head of the crowd, lashing whips from left to right to keep the people in line. Those who worship are fed with bread and wine that has been blessed by priests. After the service is over the rest of the day is spent dancing, playing sport and feasting.
Ghana
In Ghana, on Africa's west coast, most churches herald the coming of Christmas by decorating the church and homes beginning with the first week in Advent, four weeks before Christmas. This season happens to coincide with the cocoa harvest, so it is a time of wealth. Everyone returns home from wherever they might be such as farms or mines.
On the eve of Christmas, children march up and down the streets singing Christmas Carols and shouting "Christ is coming, Christ is coming! He is near!" in their language. In the evening, people flock to churches which have been decorated with Christmas evergreens or palm trees massed with candles. Hymns are sung and Nativity plays are presented.
On Christmas Day, children and older people, representing the angels in the fields outside Bethlehem, go from house to house singing. Another church service is held where they dress in their native attire or Western costumes. Later on there is a feast of rice and yam paste called fufu with stew or okra soup, porridge and meats. Families eat together or with close neighbors, and presents are given.
Liberia
On the west coast of Africa, in Liberia, most homes have an oil palm for a Christmas tree, which is decorated with bells. On Christmas morning, people are woken up by carols. Presents such as cotton cloth, soap, sweets, pencils, and books are exchanged. Also in the morning a church service is held in which the Christmas scene is enacted and hymns and carols are sung. Dinner is eaten outdoors with everyone sitting in a circle to share the meal of rice, beef and biscuits. Games are played in the afternoon, and at night fireworks light up the sky.
Nigeria
Christmas Day is a public holiday in Nigeria which is marked by the emptying of towns and cities as Nigerians that have been successful returning to their ancestral villages to be with family and to bless those less fortunate. As the towns and cities empty, people jam the West African markets to buy and transport live chickens, goats and cows that will be needed for the Christmas meals.
On Christmas Eve, traditional meals are prepared according to the traditions of each region. Rather than having sweets and cakes, Nigerians as a whole tend to prepare various meats in large quantities. In the south, a dish called Jollof rice is served with stews of various meats along with boiled beans and fried plantains; in the north, a tuwo, a rice pudding served with various meat stews, is preferred. An alternative in both regions (but more favored in the south) is a pepper soup with fish, goat, or beef which may also be served with Fufu (pounded yam). Served with this food are an array of mainly alcoholic drinks such as the traditional palm wine or various local and imported beers and wines; children and women may be served locally made soft-drink equivalents instead.
Gift giving in Nigeria often involves money and the flow of gifts from the more fortunate to the less so. After the "successful" visitors have come from their towns, cities, and even overseas, they are given time to settle in. Afterwards, local relatives begin approaching them asking for assistance of some kind, whether financial or not. Financial donations and elaborately wrapped gifts may be given out at lavish parties, weddings, and ceremonies; sometimes the money is scattered in the air to be grabbed by the others or stuck on to the sweaty foreheads of those dancing.
South Africa
Christmas in South Africa is a summer holiday. In December, the southern summer brings glorious days of sunshine that carry an irresistible invitation to the beaches, the rivers, and the shaded mountain slopes. Then the South African holiday season reaches its height. Schools are closed, and camping is the order of the day. In South Africa there is no snow, but it has many flowers, many beautiful varieties of cultivated and wild flowers being in their full pride.
In the cities and towns carolers make their rounds on Christmas Eve. Church services are held on Christmas morning. Christmas Eve celebrations in larger centers include "Carols by Candlelight" and special screen and floor shows.
Homes are decorated with pine branches, and all have the decorated Christmas fir in a corner, with presents for the children around. At bedtime on Christmas Eve, children may also hang up their stockings for presents from Father Christmas.
Many South Africans have a Christmas dinner in the open-air lunch. For many more, it is the traditional dinner of either turkey, roast beef, mince pies, or suckling pig, yellow rice with raisins, vegetables, and plum pudding, crackers, paper hats, and all. In the afternoon, families go out into the country and usually there are games or bathing in the warm sunshine, and then home in the cool of the evening. Boxing Day is also a proclaimed public holiday usually spent in the open air. It falls on December 26 and is a day of real relaxation.
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