Project Gutenberg's Myths and Legends of Christmastide, by Bertha F. Herrick

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Title: Myths and Legends of Christmastide

Author: Bertha F. Herrick

Release Date: December 26, 2007 [EBook #24044]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CHRISTMASTIDE

BY

BERTHA F. HERRICK

[Illustration]

SAN FRANCISCO

PRINTED BY THE STANLEY-TAYLOR COMPANY

1901

The following article originally appeared in one of the
Christmas editions of the _San Francisco Chronicle_ and is
now reprinted by permission from that journal.

MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF CHRISTMASTIDE

"Lo! now is come our joyful'st feast,
Let every man be jolly.
Each room with ivy leaves is drest,
And every post with holly.
Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning;
Their ovens they with bak't meats choke,
And all their spits are turning."

The celebration of Christmas, which was considered by the Puritans to
be idolatrous, has for many centuries been so universal that it may
prove of interest to contrast the rites, ceremonies and quaint beliefs
of foreign lands with those of matter-of-fact America.

Many curious customs live only in tradition; but it is surprising to
find what singular superstitions still exist among credulous classes,
even in the light of the twentieth century.

In certain parts of England the peasantry formerly asserted that, on
the anniversary of the Nativity, oxen knelt in their stalls at
midnight,--the supposed hour of Christ's birth; while in other
localities bees were said to sing in their hives and subterranean
bells to ring a merry peal.

According to legends of an