Chapter VIII
.). In Tyrol these nights are Christmas, New Year's, and Epiphany Eves. When night falls the Tyrolese peasant goes with all his household through each room and outhouse, his wife bearing the holy water vessel and the censer. Every corner of the buildings, every animal, |328| every human being is purified with the sacred smoke and the holy sprinkling, and even the Christmas pie must be hallowed in this way. In Orthodox Greek countries something of the same kind takes place, as we shall see, at the Epiphany. To drive away evil spirits is no doubt the object of all these rites.{30}
The most interesting of Scottish New Year customs, considered as religious survivals, is a practice found in the Highlands on New Year's Eve, and evidently of sacrificial origin. It has been described by several writers, and has various forms. According to one account the hide of the mart or winter cow was wrapped round the head of one of a company of men, who all made off belabouring the hide with switches. The disorderly procession went three times _deiseal_ (according to the course of the sun) round each house in the village, striking the walls and shouting on coming to a door a rhyme demanding admission. On entering, each member of the party was offered refreshments, and their leader gave to the goodman of the house the "breast-stripe" of a sheep, deer, or goat, wrapped round the point of a shinty stick.{31}
We have here another survival of that oft-noted custom of skin-wearing, which, as has been seen, originated apparently in a desire for contact with the sanctity of the sacrificed victim. Further, the "breast-stripe" given to the goodman of each house is evidently meant to convey the hallowed influences to each family. It is an oval strip, and no knife may be used in removing it from the flesh. The head of the house sets fire to it, and it is given to each person in turn to smell. The inhaling of its fumes is a talisman against fairies, witches, and demons. In the island of South Uist, according to a quite recent account, each person seizes hold of it as it burns, making the sign of the cross, if he be a Catholic, in the name of the Trinity, and it is put thrice sun-wise about the heads of those present. If it should be extinguished it is a bad omen for the New Year.{32}
The writer of the last account speaks of the "breast-strip" as the "Hogmanay," and it is just possible that the well-known Hogmanay processions of children on New Year's Eve (in Scotland and elsewhere) may have some connection with the ritual above described. It is customary for the poorer children to |329| swaddle themselves in a great sheet, doubled up in front so as to form a vast pocket, and then go along the streets in little bands, calling out "Hogmanay" at the doors of the wealthier classes, and expecting a dole of oaten bread. Each child gets a quadrant of oat-cake (sometimes with cheese), and this is called the "Hogmanay." Here is one of the rhymes they sing:--
"Get up, goodwife, and shake your feathers, And dinna think that we are beggars; For we are bairns come out to play, Get up and gie's our hogmanay!"{33}
The word _Hogmanay_--it is found in various forms in the northern English counties as well as in Scotland--has been a puzzle to etymologists. It is used both for the last day of the year and for the gift of the oaten cake or the like; and, as we have seen, it is shouted by the children in their quest. Exactly corresponding to it in sense and use is the French word _aguillanneuf_, from which it appears to be derived. Although the phonetic difference between this and the Scottish word is great, the Norman form _hoguinané_ is much closer. There is, moreover, a Spanish word _aguinaldo_ (formerly _aguilando_) = Christmas-box. The popular explanation of the French term as _au-guy-l'an-neuf_ (to the mistletoe the New Year) is now rejected by scholars, and it seems likely that the word is a corruption of the Latin _Kalendae_.{34}
A few instances of _aguillanneuf_ customs may be given. Here are specimens of rhymes sung by the New Year _quêteurs_:--
"Si vous veniez à la dépense, À la dépense de chez nous, Vous mangeriez de bons choux, On vous servirait du rost. Hoguinano.
Donnez-moi mes hoguignettes Dans un panier que voicy. Je l'achetai samedy D'un bon homme de dehors; Mais il est encore à payer. Hoguinano."{35}
|330| Formerly at Matignon and Ploubalay in Brittany on Christmas Eve the boys used to get together, carry big sticks and wallets, and knock at farmhouse doors. When the inmates called out, "Who's there?" they would answer, "The _hoguihanneu_," and after singing something they were given a piece of lard. This was put on a pointed stick carried by one of the boys, and was kept for a feast called the _bouriho_.{36} Elsewhere in Brittany poor children went round crying "_au guyané_," and were given pieces of lard or salt beef, which they stuck on a long spit.{37} In Guernsey the children's quest at the New Year was called _oguinane_. They chanted the following rhyme:--
"Oguinâni! Oguinâno! Ouvre ta pouque, et pis la recclios."[115]{38}
Similar processions are common in eastern Europe at the New Year. In some parts of Macedonia on New Year's Eve men or boys go about making a noise with bells. In other districts, early on New Year's morning, lads run about with sticks or clubs, knock people up, cry out good wishes, and expect to be rewarded with something to eat. Elsewhere again they carry green olive- or cornel-boughs, and touch with them everyone they meet.{39} We have already considered various similar customs, the noise and knocking being apparently intended to drive away evil spirits, and the green boughs to bring folks into contact with the spirit of growth therein immanent.
In Roumania on New Year's Eve there is a custom known as the "little plough." Boys and men go about after dark from house to house, with long greetings, ringing of bells, and cracking of whips. On New Year's morning Roumanians throw handfuls of corn at one another with some appropriate greeting, such as:--
"May you live, May you flourish Like apple-trees, |331| Like pear-trees In springtime, Like wealthy autumn, Of all things plentiful."
Generally this greeting is from the young to the old or from the poor to the rich, and a present in return is expected.{40}
In Athens models of war-ships are carried round by waits, who make a collection of money in them. "St. Basil's ships" they are called, and they are supposed to represent the vessel on which St. Basil, whose feast is kept on January 1, sailed from Caesarea.{41} It is probable that this is but a Christian gloss on a pagan custom. Possibly there may be here a survival of an old Greek practice of bearing a ship in procession in honour of Dionysus,{42} but it is to be noted that similar observances are found at various seasons in countries like Germany and Belgium where no Greek influence can be traced. The custom is widespread, and it has been suggested by Mannhardt that it was originally intended either to promote the success of navigation or to carry evil spirits out to sea.{43}
It is interesting, lastly, to read a mediaeval account of a New Year _quête_ in Rome. "The following," says the writer, "are common Roman sports at the Kalends of January. On the Eve of the Kalends at a late hour boys arise and carry a shield. One of them wears a mask; they whistle and beat a drum, they go round to the houses, they surround the shield, the drum sounds, and the masked figure whistles. This playing ended, they receive a present from the master of the house, whatever he thinks fit to give. So they do at every house. On that day they eat all kinds of vegetables. And in the morning two of the boys arise, take olive-branches and salt, enter into the houses, and salute the master with the words, 'Joy and gladness be in the house, so many sons, so many little pigs, so many lambs,' and they wish him all good things. And before the sun rises they eat either a piece of honeycomb or something sweet, that the whole year may pass sweetly, without strife and great trouble."{44}
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Various methods of peering into the future, more or less like |332| those described at earlier festivals, are practised at the New Year. Especially popular at German New Year's Eve parties is the custom of _bleigiessen_. "This ceremony consists of boiling specially prepared pieces of lead in a spoon over a candle; each guest takes his spoonful and throws it quickly into the basin of water which is held ready. According to the form which the lead takes so will his future be in the coming year ... ships (which indicate a journey), or hearts (which have, of course, only one meaning), or some other equally significant shape is usually discerned."{45}
In Macedonia St. Basil's Eve (December 31) is a common time for divination: a favourite method is to lay on the hot cinders a pair of wild-olive-leaves to represent a youth and a maid. If the leaves crumple up and draw near each other, it is concluded that the young people love one another dearly, but if they recoil apart the opposite is the case. If they flare up and burn, it is a sign of excessive passion.{46}
In Lithuania on New Year's Eve nine sorts of things--money, cradle, bread, ring, death's head, old man, old woman, ladder, and key--are baked of dough, and laid under nine plates, and every one has three grabs at them. What he gets will fall to his lot during the year.{47}
Lastly, in Brittany it is supposed that the wind which prevails on the first twelve days of the year will blow during each of the twelve months, the first day corresponding to January, the second to February, and so on.{48} Similar ideas of the prophetic character of Christmastide weather are common in our own and other countries.
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Practically all the customs discussed in this chapter have been of the nature of charms; one or two more, practised on New Year's Day or Eve, may be mentioned in conclusion.
There are curious superstitions about New Year water. At Bromyard in Herefordshire it was the custom, at midnight on New Year's Eve, to rush to the nearest spring to snatch the "cream of the well"--the first pitcherful of water--and with it the prospect of the best luck.{49} A Highland practice was to send |333| some one on the last night of the year to draw a pitcherful of water in silence, and without the vessel touching the ground. The water was drunk on New Year's morning as a charm against witchcraft and the evil eye.{50} A similar belief about the luckiness of "new water" exists at Canzano Peligno in the Abruzzi. "On New Year's Eve, the fountain is decked with leaves and bits of coloured stuff, and fires are kindled round it. As soon as it is light, the girls come as usual with their copper pots on their head; but the youths are on this morning guardians of the well, and sell the 'new water' for nuts and fruits--and other sweet things."{51}
In some of the Aegean islands when the family return from church on New Year's Day, the father picks up a stone and leaves it in the yard, with the wish that the New Year may bring with it "as much gold as is the weight of the stone."{52} Finally, in Little Russia "corn sheaves are piled upon a table, and in the midst of them is set a large pie. The father of the family takes his seat behind them, and asks his children if they can see him. 'We cannot see you,' they reply. On which he proceeds to express what seems to be a hope that the corn will grow so high in his fields that he may be invisible to his children when he walks there at harvest-time."{53}
With a curious and beautiful old carol from South Wales I must bring this chapter to a close. It was formerly sung before dawn on New Year's Day by poor children who carried about a jug of water drawn that morning from the well. With a sprig of box or other evergreen they would sprinkle those they met, wishing them the compliments of the season. To pay their respects to those not abroad at so early an hour, they would serenade them with the following lines, which, while connected with the "new water" tradition, contain much that is of doubtful interpretation, and are a fascinating puzzle for folk-lorists:--
"Here we bring new water From the well so clear, For to worship God with, This happy New Year. |334| Sing levy-dew, sing levy-dew, The water and the wine; The seven bright gold wires And the bugles they do shine.
Sing reign of Fair Maid, With gold upon her toe,-- Open you the West Door, And turn the Old Year go: Sing reign of Fair Maid, With gold upon her chin,-- Open you the East Door, And let the New Year in."{54}
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