506 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. N" 104., Dec. 26. '57. 



shaved for the first time. Nero, in institutinn; his 

 festival, shaved off his beard, and enclosing it in a 

 box, consecrated it to Jupiter Capitolinus. Tacitus 

 animadverts upon this festival with more than his 

 usual sarcasm and severity, on account of its dis- 

 gusting licence and debauchery. (Annul, xiy. 

 c. 15.) There seems to be a doubt whether the 

 Juvenales were celebrated on the 2oth December 

 or the 1st of January. In either case, it seems 

 evident that the primitive church, in selecting 

 those days for commemorating the Nativity and 

 the Circumcision, intended to purify and sanctify 

 a pagan festival.* 



Of course, as boxes, perhaps with a slit at the 

 top, were used to collect such presents of coin 

 in England, the term Christmas-box explains it- 

 self — although subsequently applied to the coin 

 itself, — just as the word charity is applied to the 

 acts or gifts which it bestows, or rather induces us 

 to bestow. 



Gay says : 



"When time comes round, a Christmas-box they bear, 

 And one day makes them rich for all the year." 



And it is certain that before the late check to the 

 practice, the Christmas-box intensified the horrors 

 of Christmas-bills. Nevertheless it still thrives 

 to a great extent. Tradesmen, in order to retain 

 their "customers," are compelled to "box" the 

 servants — especially housekeepers — very libe- 

 rally. Now, as a tradesman must, in self-defence, 



• On the other hand it has been observed that a striking 

 astrological order is manifest in the daj-s appointed for 

 various festivals. The Annunciation or Lady Day is on 

 the day -when the Sun enters Aries ; that of John the 

 Baptist on entering Cancer, that of Michael on enter- 

 ing Libra, and the Nativity or Christmas, on entering 

 Capricorn, — these being the four cardinal points. St. Paul 

 on entering Aquai-ius, Matthew on entering Pisces, Mark 

 on entering Taurus, Corpus Christi on entering Gemini, 

 St. James on entering Leo, St. Bartholomew on entering 

 Virgo, Simon and Jude on entering Scorpio. The days 

 correspond, allowing for the precession of the equinoxes. 

 In spite of this obvious coincidence, the 25th of December 

 is stated to have been the precise day of the Divine Birth, 

 handed down by Tradition — Nattts nutem traditur octavo 

 Kalendas Jan. — S. Aug. de Trin. quoted bj' Honore de Ste 

 Marie in Animad. in liegulas, &c., ii. lib. iii. dissert. 2., 

 where will "be found some curious matter touching the 

 festival. Christmas was celebrated by the Eastern 

 Churches in April or Ma}'. See also Notes and Queries, l'*' 

 S. iii. 249. No astrologer could use language more tech- 

 nically correct than that of the Jesuit Hardouin, touch- 

 ing the Incarnation : — "On the 24th of March was the 

 mean conjunction of the luminaries under the meridian 

 of Jerusalem, 1 h. 30' p.m., on a Thursday : (on such a 

 da}', Thursday likewise, about 4003 years before, God made 

 the Sun and Moon, 7h. 40' 39" p. bi.) So it was the first 

 day of the first month, or Nisan, in Galilee, where Christ 

 was conceived. Therefore, from the Incarnation of our 

 Saviour, which happened next daj', from the first daj' of 

 Nisan, in the kingdom of Judea, the new astronomical 

 Epoch commenced — novus scecloriim nascitur ordo, on 

 account of Him who is called Tlie everlasting Father. Isai. 

 ix.6."— CAron. Vet. Test. Op. Select. 624. a. 



provide in his charges against all contingencies, it 

 is evident that the happy individual Paterfamilias 

 enjoying his Christmas pie, actually makes his 

 tradesmen his almoners to his well-paid house- 

 hold.* 



The gathering of the Mistletoe was an important 

 ceremony with the ancient Druids, accompanied 

 by the people. It took place at the end of the 

 year, and the parasite was distributed to the peo- 

 ple on the first day of the new year. As it was 

 supposed to possess the mystic virtue of giving 

 fertility and a power to preserve from poison, the 

 pleasant ceremony of " Kissing under the Mistle- 

 toe " may have some reference to this original be- 

 lief ; and there seems to be a coincidence in this 

 assemblage of the Druids and people under the 

 Oak with the legend concerning Tatius. We have 

 thus a choic.e as to which shall have originated our 

 Christmas "Tree and its pleasant ceremony. It is 

 obvious, howevei*, that our green-bush decoration 

 — our " Christmas " at the present season — may 

 be traced to the original branches of vervain 

 amongst the Romans. 



By the Romans and our own Druids the Ver- 

 vain was held a panacea for every ill that flesh is 

 heir to; and by it they confidently wished for 

 what they ardently desired — just as we do (with 

 amiable and pardonable superstition now) at the 

 sight of our "Christmas" — prickly holly though 

 it be: but, above all, they believed that it "co7i- 

 ciliated hearts which were at variance." And how 

 the heart grows tender, even in the presence of a 

 wrong that has festered, — at the return of the 

 time when Forgiveness comes " with healing on 

 its wing!" 



Brady insists that the first Christians, who, 

 he says, were all converts from the Hebrews, 

 solemnised the Nativity on January I ; and that 

 they ornamented their churches v/ith green 

 boughs, as a memorial that Christ was actually 

 born at that time ; in like manner as the ancient 

 Jews erected booths or tents, which they inhabited 

 at this season — their Feast of Tabernacles. Now, 

 in the first place, it is not clear that the first con- 

 verts were Hebrews or Jews in the true sense of 

 the word ; secondly, they could have no churches 

 to decorate at that period ; and, lastly, the Jews 

 or Hebrews having been out of favour, out of 

 savour from time immemorial, long before the rise 

 of Christianity, they could have no influence to 

 originate customs which were redolent of Boar's 

 Head, Yule Log (doubtless connected with the 

 worship of Mithras originally), and the ^Vassail 



* "The butcher and the. baker sent their journeymen 

 and apprentices to levy contributions on their customers, 

 who were paid back again in fees to the servants of the 

 different families. TJie tradesman had, in consequence, a 

 pretence to lengthen out his bill, and the master and 

 mistress to lower the wages on account of the vails." — 

 Brand, Pop. Antiq., 384. 



