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Article OLDEN HOLIDAY CUSTOMS. Page 1 of 11 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Olden Holiday Customs.
OLDEN HOLIDAY CUSTOMS .
" I tell of festivals , and fairs , and plays , Of merriment , and mirth , and bonfire blaze ; I tell of Christmas mummings , new year ' s day , Of twelfth-night king and queen , and children ' s play , I tell of Valentines , and true love ' s knots , Of omenscunning menand drawing lots
, , . I tell of maypoles , hock-carts , wassail , wakes , Of bridegrooms , brides , and of then- bridal cakes . " HEEEICK . " Invenies illic et festa domestica vobis P" —OVID .
THERE are few men so determinedly utilitarian as not to meditate with interest upon their time-honoured national observances ; whether they regard them as living memorials of generations long since swept away , or in a more homely point of view , as habitudes imbibed from infancy , forming part and parcel of our mundane existenceand cherished for their power
, of alike recalling and preserving wholesome and humanising associations . But there are also few so mediaeval , or so poetically antiquarian , as to desire their restitution ancl continuation . We do not desire now to discuss ( far less with a VIBAV to its decision ) the question as to the retention of old customs , since it appears to be one of opinion merely , and to depend upon the view taken
of the ground , upon which retention or rejection is to be made . If that ground be the origin and intent of an individual custom , the matter may be readily decided ; and it was guided by this
view that the Puritans in their hot ranaticism attempted to abolish such popular amusements as exhibited traces of a Pagan or Romish origin . But although these amusements might , among our Romish forefathers , have been a means of transmitting religious error to succeeding ages , there can be little hesitation in admitting that modern holiday observances have no
influence upon the popular faith , and are perpetuated without any connection with matters of doctrine . We find from history , moreover , that observances strong in the affections of the people , were ever with difficulty rooted out by force of argument concerning their origin . The causes which have been , and are , chiefly instrumental in bringing them into desuetude , are radical changes in the tendencies of the people , and the requirements of general convenience . Thus , the most practical man of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Olden Holiday Customs.
OLDEN HOLIDAY CUSTOMS .
" I tell of festivals , and fairs , and plays , Of merriment , and mirth , and bonfire blaze ; I tell of Christmas mummings , new year ' s day , Of twelfth-night king and queen , and children ' s play , I tell of Valentines , and true love ' s knots , Of omenscunning menand drawing lots
, , . I tell of maypoles , hock-carts , wassail , wakes , Of bridegrooms , brides , and of then- bridal cakes . " HEEEICK . " Invenies illic et festa domestica vobis P" —OVID .
THERE are few men so determinedly utilitarian as not to meditate with interest upon their time-honoured national observances ; whether they regard them as living memorials of generations long since swept away , or in a more homely point of view , as habitudes imbibed from infancy , forming part and parcel of our mundane existenceand cherished for their power
, of alike recalling and preserving wholesome and humanising associations . But there are also few so mediaeval , or so poetically antiquarian , as to desire their restitution ancl continuation . We do not desire now to discuss ( far less with a VIBAV to its decision ) the question as to the retention of old customs , since it appears to be one of opinion merely , and to depend upon the view taken
of the ground , upon which retention or rejection is to be made . If that ground be the origin and intent of an individual custom , the matter may be readily decided ; and it was guided by this
view that the Puritans in their hot ranaticism attempted to abolish such popular amusements as exhibited traces of a Pagan or Romish origin . But although these amusements might , among our Romish forefathers , have been a means of transmitting religious error to succeeding ages , there can be little hesitation in admitting that modern holiday observances have no
influence upon the popular faith , and are perpetuated without any connection with matters of doctrine . We find from history , moreover , that observances strong in the affections of the people , were ever with difficulty rooted out by force of argument concerning their origin . The causes which have been , and are , chiefly instrumental in bringing them into desuetude , are radical changes in the tendencies of the people , and the requirements of general convenience . Thus , the most practical man of the