Celebrating the New Year

 Named for the Roman god Janus who wore two faces—one looking backward and one forward—the month known as Januarius is a time to reflect on what has gone before as well as to contemplate the future. For most of recorded history the new year occurred around the spring equinox, when life returned to the land. With the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1792, however, January 1^st became the day upon which Britain’s new legal year as well as the secular one began. (It’s interesting to note that James VI reconciled the two for Scotland in 1600.)

Until the 18^th century, gift giving in the British Isles occurred on New Year’s Day not Christmas. This custom evolved from the Roman practice of bestowing strenae on that day. In 747 B.C., Tatius entered Rome in triumph on New Year’s Day and was given branches of vervain—the herb of grace—cut from the goddess Strenia's sacred grove. He declared that, henceforth, Jan 1^st would be celebrated with the exchange of gifts.

When the Romans occupied Britain, they brought this tradition with them. Over time, however, the practice became an exercise in bribery. Henry III was said to routinely extort gifts from his nobles. In 1249, the royal coffers were empty and Parliament refused to grant him any aid. He solicited “loans” from every person who came before him.

On New Year’s Day in 1561, Elizabeth I received more than £1262 in cash which she spent on clothing and jewels. In 1578, she received silver plate weighing a total of 5882 ounces. (An ounce of silver was worth about 5 shillings during her reign. If melted down, the plate would have fetched at least £1470.)

While British monarchs and their nobles exchanged New Year’s gifts, servants received food, clothing and money from their masters. In return, they gave the lord of the manor a capon. Wives received money for their personal use. When pins were invented in the 16^th century, the new technology became an instant hit with the ladies. Money given by husbands for the purchase of them was called “pin money.” The term eventually came to mean any disposable cash.

Gloves were another popular gift. “Glove money” became synonymous with bribery after Sir Thomas More received a pair with gold coins tucked inside from a Mrs. Croaker. Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor had found in her favor in a chancery case. More kept the gloves but returned the money. “It would be against good manners to forsake a gentlewoman’s new-years-gift,” he wrote, “and I accept the gloves; their lining you will be pleased otherwise to bestow.”

In Scotland, the festival celebrating the new year is called Hogmanay – a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon Haleg Monath (Holy Month), and the Gaelic, oge maiden (new morning). On New Year’s Eve, the Scots and folks of northern England practiced a tradition called "first-footing." The nature of the first visitor to set foot across the threshold after midnight, December 31^st was believed to affect the family's fortunes. A tall, handsome dark-haired male stranger was preferred, and the shape of the fellow's feet was important. High-insteps were ideal so that "water will run under" -- a euphemism for bad luck flowing past. A flat-footed fellow was thought to bring bad luck.

An empty-handed "first footer" was a bad omen, no doubt a hold-over from Roman times. In the old days, the “first footer’s” usual gifts were a piece of coal (to ensure the house was always warm), bread (so the occupants never went hungry), and a bottle of whisky. The "first footer" entered by the front door, and no one spoke until he wished the occupants a happy new year. When he left by the back door, he took with him all the old year's troubles and sorrows.

"Creaming the well" was another new year's tradition practiced in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. "Cream" was the first water drawn from a well or spring in the new year, and was believed to possess curative properties. In Scotland, farmers sometimes washed the udders of cows with it. And young women raced to be the first to draw the "cream" because possession meant marriage within the coming year.

In all these cases, New Year’s Day was considered significant with regard to predicting good fortune. One unusual custom was to hook a flat cake (pancake) on the horns of a cow and sing:

Here’s a health to thee, Brownie,

And to thy white horn,

God send thy master a good crop of corn.

Thee eat thy cake and I’ll drink my beer,

God send thy master a happy New Year.

If the flat cake fell off in front of the cow, it meant good luck for her owner. If it fell behind, bad luck.

In Hertfordshire, farmers followed a custom thought to be rooted in the votive offerings by Romans to Ceres, the goddess of grain. At dawn on New Year's Day, a hawthorn bush was burned n the fields to ensure good luck and bountiful crops. Pieces of hawthorn were woven into crowns and hung in the house.

Christmas Gift-Giving

The custom of giving gifts this time of year was established long before Christians appropriated December 25^th as Christ’s birthday. The Romans exchanged presents during Saturnalia (Dec. 17^th-23^rd). They gave clay figures and candles to friends and loved ones in celebration of the return of the sun. Fruits and sweet cakes ensured a prosperous year. The gift of copper coins bearing the image of Janus brought good luck. (Janus was the two-faced new year god who looked forward and backward at the same time.) Holly twigs with sweets attached were especially popular gifts.

It’s believed the tradition of giving holly during Saturnalia grew out of the Roman practice of bestowing strenae on New Years. This custom dates from 747 B.C. when Tatius entered Rome in triumph on New Years Day and was given branches of vervain— the herb of grace—cut from the goddess Strenia’s sacred grove. Tatius declared that, henceforth, Jan 1^st would be celebrated with the exchange of gifts. This Roman custom degenerated over time in Britain until it became one of handing out bribes to officials. It was abolished there in 1290 A.D.

Pagans

During the twelve-day winter solstice celebration, pagans decorated trees with food and symbols to entice the return of the tree spirits. Food and milk were set out as a thank you to the land spirits for the gift of life they bestowed. Vikings offered presents to their chieftains during Yule. Chieftains exchanged elaborately ornamented weapons and parcels of land.

Christians

Until the rise in popularity of St. Nicholas, Christians exchanged gifts on Epiphany. The observance of Epiphany—when the wise men presented gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus--dates from the 3^rd century while Christ Mass (Christmas) dates from the 4^th century.

a’Thomasing/Gooding Day

Since the 12^th century, the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle--patron saint of architects and builders—has been celebrated on December 21^st. The story goes that, while traveling in India, St. Thomas encountered King Gundoforus who asked him to build a palace. St. Thomas accepted and the king went away. Instead of constructing the edifice with the money the king left him, however, St. Thomas gave it to the poor.

When Gundoforus wrote to ask how the palace was progressing, St. Thomas sent a message back telling him it was ready to be roofed. The king sent more money and, as before, St. Thomas gave it to the poor. Eventually the king returned, only to discover there was no palace. When he demanded to know why, St. Thomas said Gundoforus couldn’t see his palace because it had been built in heaven.

For this reason, St. Thomas Day became associated with charitable giving in Britain. Wheat was cooked and distributed to the poor so they could make frumenty—a kind of porridge from which plum pudding evolved. Widows and other destitute women known as “mumpers” went begging with two-handled pots into which they received the wheat. (According to Franicis Grose’s 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, a mumper was a genteel beggar.) This custom became known as “going a’Thomasing.” It also was called “going a’gooding” since grateful recipients wished their benefactors all the goodness of the season.

According to Robert Chamber’s Book of Days (1862), a’Thomasing still existed in 1857. Poor women would call at the principle houses in the parish and collect pennies or provisions toward Christmas dinner for their families. In exchange, they gave sprigs of holly, mistletoe, or handspun yarn.

Decking the Halls

Evergreens were powerful pagan symbols because, at a time of year when most plants were dead, they remained green and even bore fruit. Nevertheless, it was considered bad luck to bring evergreens into the house, or to decorate, before Christmas Eve. Furthermore, Christmas greenery had to be taken down on Twelfth Night (Epiphany) Jan 6^th. There is some dispute, however, about disposal. In some regions of Britain, the evergreens were fed to cattle because it was considered unlucky to throw Christmas greenery on the refuse heap or burn it. In others, unmarried women supervised the burning. A steady flame meant a steady husband in their future; a sputtering fire portended an ill-tempered mate.

Fir Branches

During the Middle Ages, Europeans hung fir treetops upside down in their homes to symbolize the Holy Trinity and evoke a blessing on the house. Brits followed a different tradition. They wove hoops of ash, willow or hazel and placed figurines of the Holy Family in the center. These “sacrementals” were then blessed by a priest and hung up. Visitors would embrace their host/hostess beneath the wreath as a demonstration of goodwill.

After the Reformation, sacrementals were abandoned and plain old evergreens branches were hung instead. It may have been around this time that the pagan symbol of peace—mistletoe—was added. Thus was born the kissing bough.

Kissing Bough

To the Romans, a kiss beneath the mistletoe ensured a couple’s fertility. The custom of the man plucking a white berry with each kiss and giving it to the woman is thought to have been a symbolic promise of him giving her a child. Mistletoe berries were carried by ladies who wished to conceive. Unmarried women slept with mistletoe beneath their pillow so they could dream about their future husbands.

Before the advent of the Christmas tree, kissing boughs were central to holiday decorating. During the Regency they were simple structures, nothing more than a branch of mistletoe tied up with ribbon and hung from the ceiling or doorway. Not until the mid-19^th century did the kissing bough become an elaborately decorated ball.

Nativity Scene

St. Francis of Assisi was the first to create a three-dimensional nativity scene. In 1220, he set up a straw-filled manger between a live donkey and ox. Three years later, he commissioned an inanimate nativity and had it erected in a cave near Greccio, Italy where he held Christmas Eve mass.

How popular crèches were during the Regency is difficult to ascertain. Like so many traditions banned during the Reformation, nativity scenes no doubt fell out of popularity until the Christmas revival of the Victorian Era.

Yule log

The custom of burning the massive trunk of an oak tree this time of year predates the birth of Christ. The tradition came to Britain with the Vikings, to whom the burning of the Yule log was a symbol of the sun’s rebirth. When the church established Christmas in the 4^th century, however, fire came to represent the Son of God.

Nevertheless, superstitions about the burning of the Yule log persisted. A piece of the previous year’s log had to be used to kindle the new one. Ashes from the Yule log were mixed into livestock feed to make the animals fertile, dropped down wells to assure good water, scattered over fields and the roots of fruit trees to assure a bountiful harvest. If the Yule fire went out before it’s time, bad luck would be visited upon the house. A headless shadow cast by the Yule fire meant that person would die in the new year.

Jane Austen never referred to a Yule log in any of her books, but she and other Regency writers did wax enthusiastic about a great blazing “Christmas fire.” At a time when coal was the popular fuel and there was no central heating, this extravagant expenditure of resources likely gave everyone a great deal of "comfort and joy."

Christmas/Yule candle

Fire represented the rebirth of the sun to pagans. The Romans decorated their Saturnalia holly wreaths with clay figurines and candles. They lit tall waxed papers as votive offerings to Saturn. For the Vikings and the Celts, the winter solstice was a fire festival. They burned great bonfires on the hills to drive away the darkness.

With the advent of Christianity, people placed candles in the window at Christmas time to light the Christ Child’s way to their home. A single large Yule candle came to represent Christ himself as the light of the world.

In 1817, it was customary to place the eighteen-inch Yule candle on the dinner table Christmas Eve. The head of the household would light it after dusk and, once lit, it couldn’t be moved. When the time came to extinguish the candle, it had to be snuffed, not blown out. The Yule candle was lit every day during the Twelve Days of Christmas. Like the Yule log, a piece was saved to light the Yule candle the following year.

Sacred Evergreens

For pagans, the winter solstice was a frightening time. The sun seemed to abandon the earth to perpetual darkness. In an effort to reassure themselves of the sun’s return in the spring, the Celts brought evergreen sprigs and boughs indoors. Chief among the plants were holly, ivy and mistletoe.

Roman
During Saturnalia, the Roman winter solstice celebration, they honored the god Saturn by decorating their homes and businesses with sacred holly garlands and wreaths. They also gave their friends holly wreaths festooned with candles, clay figures and sweets.

Mistletoe—the magical “golden bough” carried by Aeneas and adorning Diana’s sanctuary at Nemi—also figured heavily in these celebrations. No Saturnalia was complete without a kiss beneath the mistletoe to aid fertility. Romans drank it as an aphrodisiac, and used mistletoe to cure cancer and tumors.

Ivy was sacred to Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry. Romans painted his likeness and carved him with a crown of ivy on his head. Bacchus played an integral role in Saturnalia festivities.

Norse
The Vikings believed the sun was reborn at the winter solstice. They celebrated with a twelve-day Yuletide festival throughout which they burned the massive truck of an oak tree. But Norsemen particularly revered the mistletoe that grew on that mighty oak. According to their mythology, mistletoe could resurrect the dead. It also was a symbol of peace. To encounter an enemy beneath a tree upon which mistletoe grew was the equivalent of meeting under a white flag.

Celt

The Sacred Grove was at the center of the Celts’ spiritual world. They believed their race sprang from it. And at the center of the Grove stood the oak tree, which represented the cyclical nature of life. The oak ruled the portion of the year when the sun shone the longest, while holly ruled the darker side. It was considered bad luck to cut down a holly tree, or to burn its green branches. The Druids advised people to take holly into their home during the winter as shelter for fairies and elves. But it had to be removed by Imbolc in February or the homeowner risked misfortune. The Celts believed holly had protective qualities against poison and ghosts. If one threw a stick of holly at a wild animal, it would become docile. To hang a branch outside the house protected the dwelling from lightning.

Mistletoe was particular sacred to them. Five days after the new moon following the Winter Solstice—roughly New Year’s Eve/Day—the Druids brought two white bulls to an oak tree in the Sacred Grove. A priest in a white robe climbed the tree and, using a golden knife, cut mistletoe from it. The sprigs were not allowed to touch the ground because, by its very nature, mistletoe was neither of heaven or earth. The bulls were then sacrificed and the mistletoe distributed. The sprigs were taken home and hung over the door as protection against thunder and lightning, and to ensure the fertility of crops and animals in the new year.

Mistletoe was the symbol of the Oak King and believed by the Celts to magically grow from the excrement of the thrush which ate it. (Mistel is the Anglo-Saxon word for dung, and tan is the word for twig—dung on a twig.) Pagans took mistletoe as a ritual drink. Its pollen was found in the stomach of an Iron Age cadaver excavated from a peat bog at Lindow Moss in 1984.

Oaks are not the only home for mistletoe. It attaches to fruit trees, particular the apple, and can be found around York on lime, poplar and hawthorn trees. Until the 18th century, York Cathedral conducted a Mistletoe Service on Christmas Eve that granted universal pardon to anyone who attended.

Irrespective of York’s Mistletoe Service, the evergreen was banned from churches as a pagan symbol. Christians believed Christ’s cross was fashioned from a mistletoe tree and that God’s revenge was to turn it into a parasitic plant. Nevertheless, mistletoe continued to be used as a secular holiday decoration, particularly in the kissing bough.

The Holly and the Ivy – ancient battle of the sexes

Where holly protected against witches and ghosts, ivy drew bad luck. It wasn’t allowed indoors except around Christmas, and then only if accompanied by holly. The word holly is an adulteration of the word holy. Christians believed holly’s prickly spines symbolized Christ’s crown of thorns, its red berries His drops of blood. During Henry VI’s reign, every house was decked with holly and ivy in the winter, especially at Christmas.

The Contest of the Holly and the Ivy, a carol from that period, came to exemplify long-held beliefs that holly was a masculine plant and ivy a feminine one. In the holly and ivy carol, holly is depicted as a virile hunter, while ivy is the archetypal female—submissive and shy as she “stands without the door.”

holly and his merry men they dance and they sing
Ivy and her maidens they weep and they wring…

The nature of the holly brought into a house at Christmas was believed to determine who held sway in the new year. Holly with really prickly spines meant the man of the house would dominate. Smoother holly meant the woman of the house would have her way.