under
Spanish rule, look upon Christmas as a great religious festival, and one
that requires very special attention. On Christmas eve the churches are
open, and the coming of the great day is celebrated by a mass at
midnight; and during all of Christmas day mass is held every hour, so
that every one may have an opportunity to attend. Even the popular
Christmas customs among the people are nearly all of a religious
character, for most of them consist of little plays or dramas founded
upon the life of the Saviour.

These plays are called _pastures_, and are performed by bands of young
men and women, and sometimes mere boys and girls, who go about from
village to village and present their simple little plays to expectant
audiences at every stopping-place. The visit of the wise men, the flight
into Egypt--these and many other incidents as related in the Scriptures
are acted in these _pastores_.

=New Year's Day=

_January 1_

The custom of celebrating the first day of the year is a very ancient
one. The exchange of gifts, the paying of calls, the making of good
resolutions for the new year and feasting often characterize the day.
The custom of ringing the church bells is of the widest extent.

The old-world custom of sitting up on New Year's eve to see the old year
out is still very common.

=EXTRACT FROM "SOCIAL LIFE IN THE COLONIES"=

_The Century Magazine, July 1885_

BY EDWARD EGGLESTON

New Year's Day was celebrated among the New York Dutch by the calls of
the gentlemen on their lady friends; it is perhaps the only distinctly
Dutch custom that afterward came into widespread use in the United
States. New Year's Day, and the church festivals kept alike by the Dutch
and English, brought an intermission of labor to the New York slaves,
who gathered in throngs to devote themselves to wild frolics. The
Brooklyn fields were crowded with them on New Year's Day, at Easter, at
Whitsuntide, or "Prixter," as the Dutch called it, and on "San Claus
Day"--the feast of St. Nicholas.

=A CHINESE NEW YEAR'S IN CALIFORNIA=

BY H.H.

The Chinese in California have a week of holiday at their New Year's in
February, just as we do between the twenty-fifth of December and the
first of January.

In the cities they make a fine display of fire-works. They use barrels
full o