NEW YEAR'S DAY IN OLDEN TIME. 



" Salut, beau jour dore, Premier de l'an ! 

 Toujours, quand tu parais, dans un joyeux elan 



Nous saluons ta bienvenue ; 

 C'est toi qui viens sourire aux enfants si joyeux, 

 Qui viens mettre en secret, dans leurs berceaux soyeux 



Mille jouets de toute sorte ! 



" Les Qutbeccoises, W. Chapman." 



The (1) 1st of January, held in the Eoman Catholic 

 Church as a great festival, is also observed as a feast in 

 the Church of England. From time immemorial it has, 

 in Canada, meant a merry-meeting for all ; a special 

 gala day for the ladies to receive visitors ; a date pas- 

 sing dear to the young, in view of the gifts and pleasant 

 surprises it invariably had in store. 



In some provinces of old France it went under the 

 popular and appropriate name of Le Jour des Etrennes, 



(1) " Although there was a general popular regard to the 

 1st of January, as the beginning of the year, the ancient 

 Jewish year, which opened with the 2-3 th of March, continued 

 long to have a legal position in Christian countries. In Eng- 

 land, it was not till 1752 that the 1st of January became the 

 initial day of the legal, as it had long been of the popular, 

 year. Before that time it was customary to set down dates 

 between the 1st of January and the 24th of March inclusive, 

 thus : January 3uth, 1648-49 ; meaning, that popularly the 

 year was 1649, but legally 1648. In Scotland the desirable 

 change was made by a decree of James VI, in privy council, 

 in the year 1600. It was effected in France, in 1564; in Hol- 

 land, Protestant Germany and Russia, in 1700 ; and in Sweden, 

 in 1753" Book of Days. 



