The high spirits of the Temple Sparks occasionally led them to licence, as the author of The Reign of King Charles (1655) tells us was the case in 1627. That Christmas the Temple S...
The day on which Jesus Christ died is plainly distinguishable, but the day of His birth is open to very much question, and, literally, is only conjectural; so that the 25th Decembe...
New Year's eve is variously kept--by some in harmless mirth, by others in religious exercises. Many churches in England have late services, which close at midnight with a carol or...
Paddington Charity (Bread and Cheese Lands) Until Christmas eve there is nothing remarkable about this Novena of Christ-tide, excepting a curious charitable custom which used to ob...
Before the advent of Christmas the Bellman, or Watchman, left at each house a copy of verses ostensibly breathing good-will and a happy Christmas to the occupants, but in reality a...
Christmas is my name, far have I gone, Without regard; without regard. Whereas great men by flocks there be flown, To London-ward--to London Ward. There they in pomp and pleasure d...
Bishop Jeremy Taylor very appropriately said that the first Christmas carol was sung by the angels at the Nativity of our Saviour--GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST, AND ON EARTH PEACE,...
This is rather sorry stuff; but then in purely rural places, untouched by that great civiliser, the railroad, a little wit goes a great way, as we may see by the following story to...
Only one is noted in the reign of Edward VI., that of 1551, of which Holinshed writes, Wherefore, as well to remove fond talke out of men's mouths, as also to recreat and refresh t...
We have seen in the account of historic Christ-tides how a Lord of Misrule was nominated to amuse Edward VI., and with what honour he was received at the Mansion house. The popular...
Time's Telescope (1824, p. 297) notes that in Cumberland, and in all the great towns in the north of England, about a week before Christmas, what are called Honey fairs were held,...
The high spirits of the Temple Sparks occasionally led them to licence, as the author of The Reign of King Charles (1655) tells us was the case in 1627. That Christmas the Temple S...
As soon as the Puritans became at all powerful, their iconoclastic zeal naturally attacked Christmas, and the Scotchmen, such as Baillie, Rutherford, Gillespie, and Henderson, in t...
On the day succeeding Christmas day the Church commemorates the death of the proto-martyr Stephen, and in honour of this festival the following carol is sung:-- In friendly Love an...
The singing of carols is now confined to Christmas day; but it was not always so, appropriate carols being sung during the Christ-tide preceding the day of the Nativity--such, for...
The literature specially designed nowadays for Christmas reading is certainly not of a high order, whether we take books--which are issued at this time by the hundred--or the speci...
As these old customs are fast dying out, and should be chronicled, I must be pardoned if I give another and very similar illustration of how Christmas eve was spent in North Notts...
All the festivals of the Church are preceded by a vigil, or eve, and, considering the magnitude of the festival of Christmas, it is no wonder that the ceremonial attaching to the e...
The presentation of gifts on Christmas day was an English custom of very great antiquity; so great that, in 1419, the practice had become much corrupted, and the abuse had to be st...
We take it for granted that in the old times, when Christ-tide was considered so great a festival as to be accorded a Novena--that it began on the 16th December, when, according to...
In 1570 was published The Popish Kingdome, or, Reigne of Antichrist, written in Latin Verse by Thomas Naogeorgus (Kirchmayer) and englished by Barnabe Googe, and in it we have some...
The day on which Jesus Christ died is plainly distinguishable, but the day of His birth is open to very much question, and, literally, is only conjectural; so that the 25th Decembe...
Christmas Eve is especially the time for decorating houses and churches with evergreens, a custom which seems to have come from heathen times; at least, no one seems to know when i...
The 5th of January is the eve of the Epiphany, and the Vigil of Twelfth day, which used to be celebrated by the liberal use of the customary wassail bowl. In the Gentleman's Magazi...
It would indeed be singular if an event of such importance as the birth, as man, of the Son of God had not been specially marked out by signs and wonders, and that many legends con...
There is a peculiar feeling of satisfaction that comes over us with the advent of the New Year. The Old Year, with its joys and sorrows, its gains and disappointments, is irrevocab...
These Christmas revelries were sometimes carried to excess, and needed curbing with the strong hand of the law, an early instance of which we find in Letter Book I. of the Corporat...
If any exception can be taken to Christ-tide in England, it is to the enormous amount of flesh, fowl, etc., consumed. To a sensitive mind, the butchers' shops, gorged with the fles...
Here Christ-tide ought to end, and men and women should have returned to their ordinary avocations, but the long holiday demoralised them; and although the women were supposed to s...
The 27th December is set apart by the Church to commemorate St. John the Evangelist. Googe, in his translation of Naogeorgus, says:-- Next John the sonne of Zebedee hath his appoyn...