[821] Preller, ii. 410; Gibbon, ii. 446.

[822] On Mithraicism, cf. F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra (1896-9); also the art. by the same writer in Roscher’s Lexicon, ii. 3028, and A. Gasquet, Le Culte de Mithra (Revue des Deux Mondes for April 1, 1899); J. Réville, La Religion à Rome sous les Sévères, 77; Wissowa, 307; Preller, ii. 410; A. Gardner, Julian the Apostate, 175; P. Allard, Julien l’Apostat, i. 18; ii. 232; G. Zippel, Le Taurobolium, in Festschrift f. L. Friedländer (1895), 498. Mithra was originally a form of the Aryan Sun-god, who though subordinated in the Mazdean system to Ahoura Mazda continued to be worshipped by the Persian folk. His cult made its appearance in Rome about 70 B.C., and was developed during the third and fourth centuries A.D. under philosophic influences. Mithra was regarded as the fount of all life, and the yearly obscuration of the sun’s forces in winter became a hint and promise of immortality to his worshippers: cf. Carm. adv. paganos, 47 ‘qui hibernum docuit sub terra quaerere solem.’ Mithraic votive stones have been found in all parts of the empire, Britain included. They are inscribed ‘Soli Invicto,’ ‘Deo Soli Invicto Mithrae,’ ‘Numini Invicto Soli Mithrae,’ and the like.

[823] Cumont, Textes et Mon. i. 325; ii. 66, and in Roscher’s Lexicon, ii. 3065; Lichtenberger, Encycl. des Sciences religieuses, s. v. Mithra.

[824] Preller, R. M. ii. 15; Mommsen, in C. I. L. i². 337; Marquardt and Mommsen, Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer, vi. 562; Dict. of Cl. A. s. v. Saturnalia; Tille, Y. and C. 85; Frazer, iii. 138; W. W. Fowler, 268; C. Dezobry, Rome au Siècle d’Auguste (ed. 4, 1875), iii. 140.

[825] Horace, Satires, ii. 7. 4:

[826] The democratic character of the feast is brought out in the νόμοι put by Lucian (Luc. Opp. ed. Jacobitz, iii. 307; Saturnalia, p. 393) in the mouth of the divinely instructed νομοθέτης, Chronosolon, and in the ‘Letters of Saturn’ that follow.

[827] According to Tacitus, Ann. xiii. 15, Nero was king of the Saturnalia at the time of the murder of Britannicus. On the nature of this sovereignty, cf. Arrian, Epictetus, i. 25; Martial, xi. 6:

Lucian, Saturnalia, p. 385, introduces a dialogue between Saturn and his priests. Saturn says ἑπτὰ μὲν ἡμερῶν ἡ πᾶσα βασιλεία, καὶ ἢν ἐκπρόθεσμος τούτων γένωμαι, ἰδιώτης εὐθύς εἰμι, καὶ τοῦ πολλοῦ δήμου εἷσ· ἐν αὐταῖς δέ ταῖς ἑπτὰ σπουδαῖον μὲν οὐδὲν οὐδὲ ἀγοραῖον διοικήσασθαί μοι συγκεχώρηται, πίνειν δὲ καὶ μεθύειν καὶ βοᾶν καὶ παίζειν καὶ κυβεύειν καὶ ἄρχοντας καθίσταναι καὶ τοὺς οἰκέτας εὐωχεῖν καὶ γυμνὸν ἄδειν καὶ κροτεῖν ὑποτρέμοντα, ἐνίοτε δὲ καὶ ἐς ὕδωρ ψυχρὸν ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν ὠθεῖσθαι ἀσβόλῳ κεχρισμένον τὸ πρόσωπον, ταῦτα ἐφεῖταί μοι ποιεῖν; and again: εὐωχώμεθα δὲ ἤδη καὶ κροτῶμεν καὶ ἐπὶ τῆ ἑορτῆ ἐλευθεριάζωμεν, εἲτα πεττεύωμεν ἐς τὸ ἀρχαῖον ἐπὶ καρύων καὶ βασιλέας χειροτονῶμεν καὶ πειθαρχῶμεν αὐτοῖσ· οὕτω γὰρ ἂν τὴν παροιμίαν ἐπαληθεύσαιμι, ἥ φησι, παλίμπαιδας τοὺς γέροντας γίγνεσθαι. The ducking is curiously suggestive of western festival customs, but I do not feel sure whether it was the image of Saturn that was ducked or the rex with whom he appears to half, and only half, identify himself. Frazer, iii. 140, lays stress on the primitive sacrificial character of the ‘rex,’ who is said still to have been annually slain in Lower Moesia at the beginning of the fourth century A.D.; cf. Acta S. Dasii, in Acta Bollandiana, xvi. (1897), 5; Parmentier et Cumont, Le Roi des Saturnales, in R. de Philologie, xxi (1897), 143.

[828] Frazer, iii. 144, suggests that the Saturnalia may once have been in February, and have left a trace of themselves in the similar festival of the female slaves, the Matronalia, on March 1, which, like the winter feasts, came in for Christian censure; cf. Appendix N. No. (i).

[829] Preller, R. M. i. 64, 178; ii. 13; C. Dezobry, Rome au Siècle d’Auguste (ed. 4, 1875), ii. 169; Mommsen and Marquardt, vi. 545; vii. 245; Roscher, Lexicon, ii. 37; W. W. Fowler, 278; Tille, Y. and C. 84; M. Lipenius, Strenarum Historia in J. G. Graevius, Thesaurus Antiq. Rom. (1699), xii. 409. The last-named treatise contains a quantity of information set out with some obsolete learning. The most important contemporary account is that of Libanius (314-†95) in his είς τὰς καλάνδας and his καλανδῶν ἔκφρασις (ed. Reiske, i. 256; iv. 1053; cf. Sievers, Das Leben der Libanius, 170, 204). In the former speech he says ταύτην τὴν ἑορτὴν εὔροι τ’ ἂν τεταμένην ἐφ’ ἅπαν, ὅσον ἡ Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴ τέταται, in the latter, μίαν δὲ οἶδα κοινὴν ἁπάντων ὁπόσοι ζῶσιν ὑπὸ τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχήν. Under the emperors, who made much of the strenae and vota, the importance of the Kalends grew, probably at the expense of the Saturnalia; cf. Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 2. 1 ‘adsunt feriae quas indulget magna pars mensis Iano dicati.’

[830] Preller, i. 180; Mommsen and Marquardt, vi. 14; vii. 245; W. W. Fowler, 278; Tille, Y. and C. 84, 104. Strenia was interpreted in the sense of ‘strenuous’; cf. Symmachus, Epist. x. 15 ‘ab exortu paene urbis Martiae strenarum usus adolevit auctore Tatio rege, qui verbenas felicis arboris ex luco Streniae anni novi auspices primus accepit.... Nomen indicio est viris strenuis haec convenire virtute.’ Preller calls Strenia a Sabine Segensgöttin.

[831] Mommsen and Marquardt, vii. 245; Lipenius, 489. The gifts were often inscribed ‘anno novo faustum felix tibi.’ It is probable that the sweet cakes and the lamps like the verbenae had originally a closer connexion with the rites of the feast than that of mere omens. The emperors expected liberal strenae, and from them the custom passed into mediaeval and Renaissance courts. Queen Elizabeth received sumptuous new year gifts from her subjects. For a money payment the later empire used the term καλανδικόν or kalendaticum. Strenae survives in the French étrennes (Müller, 150, 504).

[832] Appendix N, Nos. (i), (ii).

[833] The most recent authorities are Tille, Y. and C. 119; H. Usener, Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen, i, Das Weihnachtsfest (1889); L. Duchesne, Origines du Culte chrétien (ed. 2, 1898), 247, and in Bulletin critique (1890), 41; F. C. Conybeare, The History of Christmas, in American Journal of Theology (1899), iii. 1, and Introduction to The Key of Truth (1898); F. Cumont, Textes et Monuments mithraïques, i (1899), 342, 355. I have not been able to see an article praised by Mr. Conybeare, in P. de Lagarde, Mittheilungen (1890), iv. 241.

[834] Conybeare, Am. J. Th. iii. 7, cites, without giving exact references, two ‘north Italian homilies’ of the fourth century, which seem to show this.

[835] Sermo ccii (P. L. xxxviii. 1033).

[836] The depositio martyrum, attached to the Fasti of Philocalus drawn up in 354, opens with the entry ‘viii kl. ianu. natus Christus in Bethleem Iudeae.’ December 25 was therefore kept as the birthday at least as early as 353. Usener, i. 267, argued that the change must have taken place in this very year, because Liberius, while veiling Marcellina, the sister of St. Ambrose, on the Epiphany, spoke of the day as ‘natalem Sponsi tui’ (de Virginibus, iii. 1, in P. L. xvi. 219). But it is not proved either that this event took place in 363, or that it was on Epiphany rather than Christmas day. Liberius refers to the Marriage at Cana and the Feeding of the Five Thousand. But the first allusion is directly led up to by the sponsalia of Marcellina, and both events, although at a later date commemorated at Epiphany, may have belonged to Christmas at Rome, before Epiphany made its appearance (Duchesne, Bulletin critique (1890), 41). Usener adds that Liberius built the Basilica Liberii, also known as Sta. Maria ad Praesepe or Sta. Maria Maggiore, which is still a great station for the Christmas ceremonies, in honour of the new feast. But Duchesne shows that the dedication to St. Mary only dates from a rebuilding in the fifth century, that the praesepe cannot be traced there before the seventh, and that the original Christmas statio was at St. Peter’s.

[837] Duchesne, Bulletin critique (1890), 44. This document also belongs to the collection of Philocalus.

[838] Conybeare, Key of Truth, clii-clvii, quoting an Armenian bishop Hippolytus in Bodl. Armen. Marsh 467, f. 338^a, ‘as many as were disobedient have divided the two feasts.’ According to the Catechism of the Syrian Doctors in the same MS., Sahak asked Afrem why the churches feast Dec. 25: the teacher replied, ‘The Roman world does so from idolatry, because of the worship of the Sun. And on the 25th of Dec., which is the first of Qanûn; when the day made a beginning out of the darkness they feasted the Sun with great joy, and declared that day to be the nuptials [? ‘natals,’ but cf. p. 241, n. 1] of the Sun. However, when the Son of God was born of the Virgin, they celebrated the same feast, although they had turned from their idols to God. And when their bishops (or primates) saw this, they proceeded to take the Feast of the Birth of Christ, which was on the sixth of January, and placed it there (viz. on Dec. 25). And they abrogated the feast of the Sun, because it (the Sun) was nothing, as we said before.’ Mommsen, C. I. L. i². 338, quotes to the same effect another Scriptor Syrus (in Assemanus, Bibl. Orient. ii. 164): cf. p. 235. The early apologists (Tertullian, Apol. 16; ad Nationes, i. 13; Origen, contra Celsum, viii. 67) defend Christianity against pagan charges of Sun-worship.

[839] Conybeare, J. Am. Th. iii. 8.

[840] Most of these dates were in the spring (Duchesne, 247). As late as †243 the Pseudo-Cyprianic de Pascha computus gives March 28. On the other hand, December 25 is given early in the third century by Hippolytus, Comm. super Danielem, iv. 23 (p. 243, ed. Bonwetsch, 1897), although the text has been suspected of interpolation (Hilgenfeld, in Berlin. phil. Wochenschrift, 1897, p. 1324, s.). Ananias of Shirak (†600-50), Hom. de Nat. (transl. in Expositor, Nov. 1890), says that the followers of Cerinthus first separated the birth and baptism: cf. Conybeare, Key of Truth, cliv. This is further explained by Paul of Taron (ob. 1123), adv. Theopistum, 222 (quoted Conybeare, clvi), who says that Artemon calculated the dates of the Annunciation as March 25 and the Birth as December 25, ‘the birth, not however of the Divine Being, but only of the mere man.’ Both Cerinthus (end of 1st cent.) and Artemon (†202-17) appear to have held Adoptionist tenets: cf. Schaff, iv. 465, 574. Paul adds that Artemon calculated the dates from those for the conception and nativity of John the Baptist. This implies that St. John Baptist’s day was already June 24 by †200. It was traditional on that day by St. Augustine’s time, ‘Hoc maiorum traditione suscepimus’ (Sermo ccxcii. 1, in Migne, P. L. xxxviii. 1320). The six months’ interval between the two nativities may be inferred from St. Luke i. 26. St. Augustine refers to the symbolism of their relation to each other, and quotes with regard to their position on the solstices the words ascribed to the Baptist in St. John iii. 30 ‘illum oportet crescere, me autem minui’ (Sermo cxciv. 2; cclxxxvii. 3; cclxxxviii. 5; Migne, P. L. xxxviii. 1016, 1302, 1306). Duchesne, 250, conjectures that the varying dates of West (Dec. 25) and East (Jan. 6) depended on a similar variation in the date assigned to the Passion, it being assumed in each case that the life of Christ must have been a complete circle, and that therefore he must have died on the anniversary of his conception in the womb. Thus St. Augustine (in Heptat. ii. 90) upbraids the Jews, ‘non coques agnum in lacte matris suae.’ March 25 was widely accepted for the Passion from Tertullian onwards, and certain Montanists held to the date of April 6. Astronomy makes it impossible that March 25 can be historically correct, and therefore the whole calculation, if Duchesne is right, probably started from an arbitrary identification of a Christian date with the spring equinox, just as, if Ananias of Shirak is right, it started from a similar identification of another such date with the summer solstice. But it seems just as likely that the birth was fixed first, and the Annunciation and St. John Baptist’s day calculated back from that. If the Passion had been the starting-point, would not the feast of Christmas, as distinct from the traditional date for the event, have become a movable one?

[841] The Armenian criticism just quoted only re-echoes that put by St. Augustine in the mouth of the Manichaeans in Contra Faustum, xx. 4 (Corp. Script. Eccl. xxv) ‘Faustus dixit ... solemnes gentium dies cum ipsis celebratis ut Kalendas et solstitia.’ Augustine answers other criticisms of the same order in the course of the book, but he does not take up this one.

[842] Augustine, in his sermons, uses a solar symbolism in two ways, besides drawing the parallel with St. John already quoted. Christ is lux e tenebris: ‘quoniam ipsa infidelitas quae totum mundum vice noctis obtexerat, minuenda fuerat fide crescente; ideo die Natalis Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et nox incipit perpeti detrimenta, et dies sumere augmenta’ (Sermo cxc. 1 in P. L. xxxviii. 1007). He is also sponsus procedens de thalamo suo (Sermo cxcii. 3; cxcv. 3, in P. L. xxxviii. 1013, 1018). Following this Caesarius or another calls Christmas the dies nuptialis Christi, on which ‘sponsae suae Ecclesiae adiunctus est’ (Serm. Pseudo-Aug. cxvi. 2, in P. L. xxxix. 1975). Cumont, i. 355, gives other examples of Le Soleil Symbole du Christ from an early date, and especially of the use of the phrase Sol Iustitiae from Malachi, iv. 2.

[843] Pseudo-Chrysostom (Italian, 4th cent.), de solstitiis et aequinoctiis (Op. Chrys. ed. 1588, ii. 118) ‘Sed et dominus nascitur mense Decembri, hiemis tempore, viii kal. Ianuarias.... Sed et invicti natalem appellant. Quis utique tam invictus nisi dominus noster qui Mortem subactam devicit? vel quod dicant Solis esse natalem, ipse est Sol iustitiae de quo Malachias propheta dixit’; St. Augustine, Sermo cxc. 1 (P. L. xxxviii. 1007) ‘habeamus, igitur, fratres, solemnem istum diem; non sicut infideles propter hunc solem, sed propter eum qui fecit hunc solem’; Tract. in Iohann. xxxiv. 2 (P. L. xxxv. 1652) ‘numquid forte Dominus Christus est Sol iste qui ortu et occasu peragit diem? Non enim defuerunt heretici qui ita senserunt ... (c. 4) ne quis carnaliter sapiens solem istum intelligendum putaret’; Pseudo-Ambrose (perhaps Maximus of Turin, †412-65), Sermo vi. (P. L. xvii. 614) ‘bene quodammodo sanctum hunc diem natalis Domini solem novum vulgus appellat ... quod libenter nobis amplectendum est; quia oriente Salvatore non solum humani generis salus, sed etiam solis ipsius claritas innovatur’; Leo Magnus, Sermo xxii, in Nativ. Dom. (P. L. liv. 198) ‘Ne idem ille tentator, cuius iam a vobis dominationem Christus exclusit, aliquibus vos iterum seducat insidiis, et haec ipsa praesentis diei gaudia suae fallaciae arte corrumpat, illudens simplicioribus animis de quorumdam persuasione pestifera, quibus haec dies solemnitatis nostrae non tam de nativitate Christi quam de novi, ut dicunt, solis ortu honorabilis videatur’; Sermo xxvii, in Nat. Dom. (P. L. liv. 218) ‘De talibus institutis etiam illa generatur impietas ut sol in inchoatione diurnae lucis exsurgens a quibusdam insipientioribus de locis eminentioribus adoretur; quod nonnulli etiam Christiani adeo se religiose facere putant, ut priusquam ad B. Petri apostoli basilicam, quae uni Deo vivo et vero est dedicata, perveniant, superatis gradibus quibus ad suggestum areae superioris ascenditur, converso corpore ad nascentem se solem reflectant, et curvatis cervicibus, in honorem se splendidi orbis inclinent. Quod fieri partim ignorantiae vitio, partim paganitatis spiritu, multum tabescimus et dolemus.’ Eusebius, Sermo xxii. περὶ ἀστρονόμων (P. G. lxxxvi. 453), also refers to the adoration of the sun by professing Christians. The ‘tentator’ of Leo and the ‘heretici’ of Augustine are probably Manichaeus and his followers, against whose sun-worship Augustine argues at length in Contra Faustum, xx (Corp. Script. Eccl. xxv).

[844] Duchesne, 248.

[845] Cf. p. 14.

[846] C. Agathense, c. 21 (Mansi, viii. 328) ‘Pascha vero, natale domini, epiphania, ascensionem domini, pentecostem, et natalem S. Ioannis Baptistae, vel si qui maximi dies in festivitatibus habentur, non nisi in civitatibus aut in parochiis teneant.’

[847] Conc. Bracarense (†560), Prop. 4 (Mansi, ix. 775) ‘Si quis natalem Christi secundum carnem non bene honorat, sed honorare se simulat, ieiunans in eodem die, et in dominico; quia Christum in vera hominis natura natum esse non credit, sicut Cerdon, Marcion, Manichaeus, et Priscillianus, anathema sit.’ A similar prohibition is given by Gregory II (†725), Capitulare, c. 10 (P. L. lxxxix. 534). To failings in the opposite direction the Church was more tender: cf. Penitentiale Theodori (Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 177), de Crapula et Ebrietate ‘Si vero pro infirmitate aut quia longo tempore se abstinuerit, et in consuetudine non erit ei multum bibere vel manducare, aut pro gaudio in Natale Domini aut in Pascha aut pro alicuius Sanctorum commemoratione faciebat, et tunc plus non accipit quam decretum est a senioribus, nihil nocet. Si episcopus iuberit, non nocet illi, nisi ipse similiter faciat.’

[848] Tille, Y. and C. 122.

[849] Cf. Appendix N, No. xxii.

[850] Epist. Gregorii ad Eulogium (Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 12).

[851] Epist. Bedae ad Egbertum (Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 323).

[852] Leges Ethelredi (Thorpe, Ancient Laws, i. 309) ‘Ordâl and âdhar sindon tocweden ... fram Adventum Domini odh octavas Epiphanie.... And beo tham hâlgum tîdan eal swa hit riht is, eallum cristenum mannum sib and sôm gemæne, and ælc sacu getwæmed.’ Cf. Leges Edwardi (Thorpe, i. 443).

[853] C. Moguntiacum, c. 36 (Mansi, xiv. 73) ‘In natali Domini dies quatuor, octavas Domini, epiphaniam Domini.’

[854] Tille, Y. and C. 203.

[855] Cf. the collection of prohibitions in Appendix N.

[856] C. of Tours, c. 18 (Appendix N, No. xxii).

[857] R. Sinker, in D. C. A. s. v. Circumcision.

[858] On this difficult subject see Tille, Y. and C. 134; H. Grotefend, Taschenbuch der Zeitrechnung (1898), 11; F. Ruhl, Chronologie des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (1897), 23; C. Plummer, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ii. cxxix; R. L. Poole, in Eng. Hist. Review (1901), 719.

[859] The position of Christmas would have made it natural that it should attract observances from the spring festivals also, and, in fact, it did attract the Mummers’ play: cf. p. 226. It cannot of course be positively said whether the Epiphany fires and some of the other agricultural rites to be presently mentioned (ch. xii) came from the November or the ploughing festival.

[860] C. of Auxerre (573-603), c. 11 (Appendix N. No. xxv).

[861] In the south of France Christmas is Chalendes, in Provence Calendas or Calenos. The log is calignau, chalendau, chalendal, calignaon, or culenos, and the peasants sang round it ‘Calène vient’ (Tille, D. W. 286; Müller, 475, 478). Thiers, i. 264, speaks of ‘le pain de Calende.’ Christmas songs used to be known in Silesia as Kolendelieder (Tille, D. W. 287). The Lithuanian term for Christmas is Kalledos and the Czechic Koleda (Polish Kolenda, Russian Koljada). A verb colendisare appears as a Bohemian law term (Tille, Y. and C. 84); while in the fourteenth century the Christmas quête at Prague was known as the Koledasammeln (Tille, D. W. 112). The Bohemian Christmas procession described by Alsso (cf. ch. xii) was called Calendizatio, and according to tradition St. Adalbert (tenth century) transferred it from the Kalends to Christmas, and called it colendizatio ‘a colendo.’

[862] C. of Auxerre (573-603), c. 5 (Appendix N, No. xxv). Pfannenschmidt, 498, has collected a number of notices of Martinalia from the tenth century onwards.

[863] Pfannenschmidt, 279; Dyer, 386, describe the ‘Horn Fair’ at Charlton, Kent, on St. Luke’s Day, Oct. 18. A king and queen were chosen, who went in procession to the church, wearing horns. The visitors wore masks or women’s clothes, and played practical jokes with water. Rams’ horns were sold at the fair, which lasted three days, and the gilt on the gingerbread took the same shape. It will be remembered that the symbol of St. Luke in Christian art is a horned ox.

[864] Cf. p. 114. According to Spence, 196, the Shetland Christmas begins on St. Thomas’s Day and ends on Jan. 18, known as ‘Four and Twenty Day.’ Candlemas (Feb. 2) is also often regarded as the end of the Christmas season. The Anglo-Saxon Christmas feast lasted to the Octave of Epiphany (Tille, Y. and C. 165).

[865] Dyer, 451; Ashton, 118, where the custom is said to have been ‘started by the Rev. J. Kenworthy, Rector of Ackworth, in Yorkshire, ... for the special benefit of the birds.’

[866] Frazer, i. 177, ii. 172, 286; Grimm, iv. 1783; Tille, D. W. 50, 178; Alsso, in Usener, ii. 61, 65.

[867] Lipenius, 423; cf. Appendix N, Nos. i, vi, xiii, xxiv.

[868] Tille, Y. and C. 103, 174; Philpot, 164; Jackson and Burne, 397; Dyer, 457; Stow, Survey of London (ed. 1618), 149 ‘Against the feast of Christmas, euery mans house, as also their parish Churches, were decked with Holm, Iuy, Bayes, and whatsoever the season of the yeere aforded to be greene. The Conduits and Standards in the streetes were, likewise, garnished.’ He gives an example from 1444.

[869] Burne-Jackson, 245, 397, 411; Ashton, 95. Customs vary: here the evergreens must be burnt; there given to the cattle. They should not touch the ground (Grimm, iii. 1207). With this taboo compare that described by ancient writers, probably on the authority of Posidonius, as existing in a cult of a god identified with Dionysus amongst the Namnites on the west coast of Gaul. A temple on an island was unroofed and reroofed by the priestesses annually. Did one of them drop her materials on the ground, she was torn to pieces by her companions (Rhys, C. H. 196). They are replaced on Candlemas by snowdrops, or, according to Herrick, ‘the greener box.’ In Shropshire a garland made of blackthorn is left hanging from New Year to New Year, and then burnt in a festival fire (F. L. x. 489; xii. 349).

[870] The Christmas, rivalry between holly and ivy is the subject of carols, some dating from the fifteenth century; cf. Ashton, 92; Burne-Jackson, 245.

[871] Grimm, iii. 1205.

[872] Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxi. 95.

[873] Ashton, 81, 92; Ditchfield, 18; Brand, i. 285; Dyer, 458; Philpot, 164. Mistletoe is the chief ingredient of the ‘kissing-bunch,’ sometimes a very elaborate affair, with apples and dolls hung in it. The ecclesiastical taboo is not universal; in York Minster, e.g., mistletoe was laid on the altar.

[874] Tille, Y. and C. 174; D. W. 256, and in F. L. iii. 166; Philpot, 164; Ashton, 189; Kempe, Loseley MSS. 75. The earliest English mention is in 1789.

[875] Tille, Y. and C. 170.

[876] Ibid. 172; Ashton, 105, quoting Aubrey, Natural Hist. of Wilts, ‘Mr. Anthony Hinton, one of the officers of the Earle of Pembroke, did inoculate, not long before the late civill warres (ten yeares or more), a bud of Glastonbury Thorne, on a thorne, at his farm house, at Wilton, which blossoms at Christmas, as the other did. My mother has had branches of them for a flower-pott, several Christmasses, which I have seen. Elias Ashmole, Esq., in his notes upon Theatrum Chymicum, saies that in the churchyard at Glastonbury grew a walnutt tree, that did putt out young leaves at Christmas, as doth the King’s Oake in the New Forest. In Parham Park, in Suffolk (Mr. Boutele’s), is a pretty ancient thorne, that blossomes like that at Glastonbury; the people flock hither to see it on Christmas day. But in the rode that leades from Worcester to Droitwiche is a black thorne hedge at Clayes, half a mile long or more, that blossoms about Christmas-day for a week or more together. Dr. Ezerel Tong sayd that about Rumly-Marsh in Kent, are thornes naturally like that near Glastonbury. The Soldiers did cutt downe that near Glastonbury: the stump remaines.’ Specimens are still found about Glastonbury of Crataegus oxyacantha praecox, a winter-flowering variety of hawthorn: some of the alleged slips from the Glastonbury thorn appear, however, to be Prunus communis, or blackthorn. A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1753 reports that the opponents of the ‘New Style’ introduced in 1752 were encouraged by the refusal of the thorns at Glastonbury and Quainton in Buckinghamshire to flower before Old Christmas day. A Somerset woman told a writer in 3 N. Q. ix. 33 that the buds of the thorns burst into flower at midnight on Christmas Eve, ‘As they comed out, you could hear ‘um haffer.’

[877] Tille, Y. and C. 175.

[878] Usener, ii. 61. Alsso says that St. Adalbert substituted a crucifix for the idol, and the cry of ‘Vele, Vele,’ for that of ‘Bely, Bely.’

[879] Ashton, 244; Dyer, 483; Ditchfield, 15. The dolls sometimes represent the Virgin and Child. ‘Wesley-bob’ and the alternative ‘vessel-cup’ appear to be corruptions of ‘wassail.’

[880] Cf., however, the Burghead ceremony (p. 256).

[881] Brand, i. 217; Burne-Jackson, 381; Dyer, 405; Ditchfield, 25, 161; Northall, 216; Henderson, 66; Haddon, 476; Pfannenschmidt, 206. The N. E. D. plausibly explains ‘gooding,’ which seems to be used of any of these quêtes as ‘wishing good,’ and ‘hooding’ may be a corruption of this.

[882] Brand, i. 1; Dyer, 501; Ditchfield, 42; Northall, 183. Skeat derives wassail, M.E. wasseyl, ‘a health-drinking,’ from N.E. wæs hǽl, A.-S. wes hál, ‘be whole.’

[883] Ducange, Gloss, s. v. Kalendae Ianuarii, quoting Cerem. Rom. ad calcem Cod. MS. eccl. Camerac. ‘Hii sunt ludi Romani communes in Kalendis Ianuarii. In vigilia Kalendarum in sero surgunt pueri, et portant scutum. Quidam eorum est larvatus cum maza in collo; sibilando sonant timpanum, eunt per domos, circumdant scutum, timpanum sonat, larva sibilat. Quo ludo finito, accipiunt munus a domino domus, secundum quod placet ei. Sic faciunt per unamquamque domum. Eo die de omnibus leguminibus comedunt. Mane autem surgunt duo pueri ex illis, accipiunt ramos olivae et sal, et intrant per domos, salutant domum: Gaudium et laetitia sit in hac domo; tot filii, tot porcelli, tot agni, et de omnibus bonis optant, et antequam sol oriatur, comedunt vel favum mellis, vel aliquid dulce, ut totus annus procedat eis dulcis, sine lite et labore magno.’

[884] Du Tilliot, 67, quoting J. B. Thiers, Traité des jeux et des divertissemens, 452; Müller, 103. There are some Guillaneu songs in Bujeaud, ii. 153. The quête was prohibited by two synods of Angers in 1595 and 1668.

[885] Brand, i. 247; Dyer, 505; Ditchfield, 44; Ashton, 217; Northall, 181; Henderson, 76; Tille, Y. and C. 204; Nicholson, Golspie, 100; Rhys, in F. L. ii. 308. Properly speaking, ‘Hogmanay’ is the gift of an oaten farl asked for in the quête. It is also applied to the day on which the quête takes place, which is in Scotland generally New Year’s Eve. Besides the quête, Hogmanay night, like Halloween elsewhere, is the night for horse-play and practical joking. The name appears in many forms, ‘Hogmana,’ ‘Hogomanay,’ ‘Nog-money’ (Scotland), ‘Hogmina’ (Cumberland), ‘Hagmena’ (Northumberland), ‘Hagman heigh!’ ‘Hagman ha!’ (Yorkshire), ‘Agganow’ (Lancashire), ‘Hob dy naa,’ ‘Hob ju naa’ (Isle of Man). It is generally accepted as equivalent to the French aguilanneuf, aguilanleu, guillaneu, hagui men lo, hoquinano, &c., ad infin., the earliest form being auguilanleu (1353). With the Scotch

may be compared the French,

On no word has amateur philology been more riotous. It has been derived from ‘au gui menez,’ ‘à gui l’an neuf,’ ‘au gueux menez,’ ‘Hálig monath,’ ἁγία μήνη, ‘Homme est né,’ and the like. Tille thinks that the whole of December was formerly Hogmanay, and derives from monâth and either *hoggva, ‘hew,’ hag, ‘witch,’ or hog, ‘pig.’ Nicholson tries the other end, and traces auguilanleu to the Spanish aguinaldo or aguilando, ‘a New Year’s gift.’ This in turn he makes the gerund of *aguilar, an assumed corruption of alquilar, ‘to hire oneself out.’ Hogmanay will thus mean properly ‘handsel’ or hiring-money,’ and the first Monday in the New Year is actually called in Scotland ‘Handsel Monday.’ This is plausible, but, although no philologist, I think a case might be made out for regarding the terms as corruptions of the Celtic Nos Galan-gaeaf, ‘the night of the winter Calends’ (Rhys, 514). This is All Saints’ eve, while the Manx ‘Hob dy naa’ quête is on Hollantide (November 12; cf. p. 230).

[886] A Gloucestershire wassail song in Dixon, Ancient Poems, 199, ends,

[887] In Herefordshire and the south of Scotland it is lucky to draw ‘the cream of the well’ or ‘the flower of the well,’ i. e. the first pail of water after midnight on New Year’s eve (Dyer, 7, 17). In Germany Heilwag similarly drawn at Christmas is medicinal (Grimm, iv. 1810). Pembroke folk sprinkle each other on New Year’s Day (F. L. iii. 263). St. Martin of Braga condemns amongst Kalends customs ‘panem in fontem mittere (Appendix N, No. xxiii), and this form of well-cult survives at Christmas in the Tyrol (Jahn, 283) and in France (Müller, 500). Tertullian chaffs the custom of early bathing at the Saturnalia (Appendix N, No. ii). Gervase of Tilbury (ed. Liebrecht, ii. 12) mentions an English belief (†1200) in a wonder-working Christmas dew. This Tille (Y. and C. 168) thinks an outgrowth from the Advent chant Rorate coeli, but it seems closely parallel to the folk belief in May-dew.

[888] Burne-Jackson, 388; Simpson, 202; F. L. v. 38; Dyer, 410. The festival in its present form can only date from the reign of James I, but the Pope used to be burned in bonfires as early as 1570 upon the accession day of Elizabeth, Nov. 17 (Dyer, 422).

[889] Dyer, 389 (Sussex).

[890] Brand, i. 210, 215 (Buchan, Perthshire, Aberdeenshire, North Wales).

[891] Pfannenschmidt, 207; Jahn, 240.

[892] Ashton, 47 (Isle of Man, where the day is called ‘Fingan’s Eve’).

[893] Jahn, 253.