KEY TO THE CALENDAR. 



JANUARY. 



TANUARY and February are said to have 

 been added to the list of months by the 

 second Roman king, Numa Pompilius, in the 

 year before Christ 672. The name of the former 

 month is unquestionably from Janus, the god of 

 the year in the Roman mythology, to whom the 

 first day was sacred, and in whose honour it was 

 celebrated with riotous feastings and givings of 

 presents. We learn from Ovid's Fasti that a 

 Roman workman did not spend the Calends or 

 ist of January entirely in debauchery : he wrought 

 a little at his trade, for the sake of good-luck 

 throughout the year. 



i. Circumcision. A festival of the Romish 

 Church, from about the year 487, and of the 

 Church of England since 1550, in honour of the 

 circumcision of Christ. The banks and public 

 offices are shut on this day. As the first day of 

 the year, it is celebrated throughout the modern 

 Christian world with festive rejoicings, too often 

 approaching or exceeding the bounds of propriety. 

 In England, till a period not very remote, it was 

 customary to usher in the year by drinking spiced 

 liquor from the Wassail Bowl, so called from the 

 Anglo-Saxon Waes-hael (Be healthy), the toast 

 used on the occasion. The custom without the 

 name still exists in Scotland. It was also custom- 

 ary on this day to give and receive gifts, originally 

 with the superstitious design of securing good- 

 fortune for the year, and afterwards for affection 

 and to promote good neighbourhood. Even the 

 kings of England accepted presents from their 

 courtiers on this morning. The ist of January, 

 under the name of Le Jour de fan, continues in 

 France to be distinguished by a universal system 

 of present-giving. It has been calculated that 

 sweetmeats to the value of ^20,000 are sold in 

 Paris on this day. 



6. The Epiphany, a festival in honour of the 

 manifestation of the infant Jesus to the three wise 

 men of the East, who came to worship him. It 

 began to be celebrated in 813. This continues 

 to be observed as a festival in the English Church, 

 and is marked by the shutting of many of the 

 public offices. The popular name for the festival 

 is Twelfth-day, with reference to its occurring 

 twelve days after Christmas. Twelfth-day, and 

 more particularly Twelfth-night, are distinguished 

 by joyful observances. It is a tradition of the 

 Romish Church that the three wise men were 

 kings, and many sets of names have been furnished 

 for them Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar being 

 the set best known ; their remains were said to 

 have been recovered in the fourth century by 

 the Empress Helena, and the skulls are still 

 shewn, under circumstances of great pomp and 

 ceremony, in the great church at Cologne. Per- 

 haps it is owing to this idea of the regal rank 

 of the wise men, that a custom has existed from 

 early ages throughout Europe of choosing a person 

 81 



to act as king on Epiphany. In England, this 

 custom has blossomed out a little. Both a king 

 and queen were chosen. It was done by placing 

 beans on a large cake. The cake was divided 

 among the company, and whoever of the male sex 

 got a bean was king ; whoever of the female sex, 

 queen. The Twelfth-night cake continues to be 

 eaten by merry companies, and the characters of 

 king, queen, &c. being drawn in that manner, 

 are supported amidst much jocularity till mid- 

 night. 



Shakspeare has shewn the respect in which 

 the observances of Twelfth-night were held in the 

 Elizabethan age, by applying it as a title to one 

 of his most delightful dramas, although he does 

 not appear to have introduced any of the festivities 

 peculiarly appropriate to that season, with the 

 exception, perhaps, of the gross orgies of Sir Toby 

 Belch and his boon-companions. 



The day after Twelfth-day was a popular rustic 

 festival, under the mock-name of St Distaff's or 

 Rock Day. (Rock is the appellation given to a 

 quantity of lint put upon a distaff.) It seems to 

 have been a sort of farewell to the festivities of 

 Christmas. 



1 8. Septuagesima Sunday. [It is necessary 

 here to mention that the Movable Feasts and 

 Holidays of the Church are nearly all regulated 

 by Easter that is, so long before or after Easter. 

 Easter, the great festival of the Church, is itself 

 movable. According to canonical regulations, 

 Easter-day is always the first Sunday after the 

 full moon which happens upon, or next after, the 

 2 ist day of March ; and if the full moon happens 

 upon a Sunday, Easter Sunday is the Sunday after. 

 The first of these movable feasts is Septuagesima 

 Sunday, which occurs on January i8th, when 

 Easter Sunday is on March 22d. In this place 

 we propose setting down the movable feasts on 

 the earliest days on which they ever occur ; and 

 Septuagesima Sunday is therefore put under 

 January i8th. All the rest will follow in order, 

 as in the calendar for a year on which they occur 

 on the earliest possible day.] Quadragesima is 

 an ancient name of Lent, as meaning the forty 

 days' fast. The first Sunday in Lent hence 

 received the name of Quadragesima. Early in 

 the seventh century, Pope Gregory appointed 

 three Sundays of preparation for Lent, and, assum- 

 ing a decimal reckoning for convenience, they 

 were respectively called, reckoning backwards, 

 Quinquagesima, Sexagesima, and Septuagesima. 



21. St Agnes 's Day, a festival of the Church of 

 Rome. The annals of canonisation present no 

 image of greater sweetness and purity than St 

 Agnes. She is described as a very young and 

 spotless maid, who suffered martyrdom in the 

 tenth persecution under Diocletian, in the year 

 305. A few days after her death, her parents, 

 going to make the offerings of affection at her 

 tomb, beheld a vision of angels, amidst which 

 stood their daughter, with a snow-white lamb by 

 her side. She is therefore usually represented 



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