Chapter III

CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES.

Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan
superstition denounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule.
Commencement of the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles.
Old style yet in use in Lancashire. Clerical denunciation of New
Year's gifts. Curious gifts on New Year's Day in Elizabeth's reign.
The wassail bowl. The Saxon "wacht heil" and "drinc heil." Singular
New Year's day superstitions. Meat, drink, money, and candles
interred with the dead. No fire-light or business credit given on
New Year's day. Recent instances in Lancashire. Divination at
Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on New Year's morn.
Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecasting the
weather. Twelve days' sleep of the Vedic Ribhus in the house of the
sun-god Savitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the
lightning. The oak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the _ficus
religiosa_, of the Aryan mythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil
or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians. Merlin's tree that covers Great
Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk. Thorns blossoming on
old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. The boar's head. The
boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning. Popular
belief that pigs can see the wind. Page 53

CHAPTER IV.

EASTER SUPERSTITIONS AND CEREMONIES.

Sun dancing on Easter morn. Etymology of the word Easter. Original or
need-fire. Easter eggs. The red or golden egg an Aryan sun-type.
Easter eggs protection against fire. Hand-ball playing by the
clergy. Easter mysteries, moralities, or miracle plays. Paschal or
"pace" eggs. Lancashire "pace-egging." Lifting of women on Easter
Monday, and of men on the following day, a custom still practised
in Lancashire. Cross-buns at Easter. Thor's hammer. Ancient
marriage oaks. Mid-lent or "mothering" Sunday. Simnel cakes.
Curious customs in Lancashire and Shropshire. Etymology of the word
"simnel." Braggat Sunday and Braggat ales. Lenten fare. Beans and
peas. Curious ancient and modern superstitions connected therewith.
Touching for the king's evil. Divine right of kings. Page 70