Traditions, Superstitions and Folk-lore (Chiefly Lancashire and the North of England:) Their Affinity to Others in Widely-Distributed Localities; Their Eastern Origin and Mythical Significance.

CHAPTER III.

Chapter 3210 wordsPublic domain

CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES.

Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan superstition denounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule. Commencement of the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles. Old style yet in use in Lancashire. Clerical denunciation of New Year's gifts. Curious gifts on New Year's Day in Elizabeth's reign. The wassail bowl. The Saxon "wacht heil" and "drinc heil." Singular New Year's day superstitions. Meat, drink, money, and candles interred with the dead. No fire-light or business credit given on New Year's day. Recent instances in Lancashire. Divination at Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on New Year's morn. Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecasting the weather. Twelve days' sleep of the Vedic Ribhus in the house of the sun-god Savitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the lightning. The oak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the _ficus religiosa_, of the Aryan mythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians. Merlin's tree that covers Great Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk. Thorns blossoming on old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. The boar's head. The boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning. Popular belief that pigs can see the wind. Page 53