POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



style, and the end of the century, there were, however, 18 years 

 in which harmony must have been re-established between the 

 partisans of the new style and those who reverenced tradition, for 

 in these years it chanced that the moveable feasts, according to 

 both styles, fell upon the same days. " This," observes Professor 

 De Morgan, " happens still occasionally, and will do so, though 

 less and less frequently, until 2698 A.D., when it will happen for 

 the last time." 



Even still, after the lapse of more than a century, the Christmas 

 Day of the old style is celebrated under the name of Twelfth 

 Day, and the name of " Old Christmas Day" is still given to it in 

 the calendar. It falls on the Feast of Epiphany. 



111. Before the change of style, a popular belief prevailed in 

 England, that at the moment of the midnight with which Christ- 

 mas Day began, the cattle always fell on their knees in their 

 stalls. Now when the change of style took place, it could scarcely 



. have been expected that the arbitrary will of the legislature would 

 be respected by these dumb animals, and it was accordingly found 

 that they continued to perform the act of reverence, not on the 

 Christmas Day of the law, but on that of the old style ! The best 

 of this joke was, however, that the Christmas Day of the law was 

 a Popish institution, forced upon England by circumstances, 

 and it was maintained that these Protestant cattle were all the 

 more obstinate in their dumb protestation against the Romish 

 innovation. 



It appears, nevertheless, that in Catholic countries which 

 acknowledged the authority of the See of Rome, in changing the 

 style in 1582, inanimate things, not to say cattle, acknowledged 

 the validity of the decree ; for we have the high authority of the 

 truly learned Riccioli, to whose astronomical works the scientific 

 world is so largely indebted, to assure us that the blood of St. 

 Januarius, which previously used to liquefy punctually on the 

 19th September, immediately changed the day of its miraculous 

 liquefaction to the 19th September of the new style, which was 

 the 9th September of the old style. Like the day of the nominal 

 equinox, that of the miracle was accordingly put back ten days, 

 in obedience to the papal bull. ' 



Riccioli also mentions the case of a certain supernatural twig, 

 which had been accustomed to put forth miraculous buds on 

 Christmas Day. This Romish twig, unlike the Protestant cattle, 

 as the astronomer assures us, was found to bud on the new 

 Christmas Days which followed the publication of the Papal 

 bull. 



112. Of all Christian States, Russia alone still insists on 

 adhering to the Julian calendar, and accordingly, by the further 



173 



