CHRISTMAS.
Since no festival of any interest takes place between summer and this season, it is already time to conclude these notes with the expiring year.
It was the custom, thirty or forty years since, among families of fortune, to prepare, for an almost public exhibition, one or two rooms of the house, where, upon a clumsy imitation of rocks and mountains, a great number of baby-houses and clay figures, representing the commonest actions of life, were placed amidst a multitude of lamps and tapers. A half ruined stable, surrounded by sheep and cattle, was seen in the front of the room, with the figures of Joseph, Mary, and some shepherds, kneeling in adoration of the child in the manger—an act which an ass and an ox imitated with the greatest composure. This collection of puppets, called Nacimiento, is still, though seldom intended for show, set up in many houses, both for the amusement and the religious gratification of the family and their more intimate friends.
At the period which I have just mentioned, the Nacimientos were made a pretext for collecting a large party, and passing several nights in dancing, and some of the national amusements described in the article of Carnival. The rooms being illuminated after sunset, not only the friends of the family were entitled to enjoy the festivities of the evening, but any gentleman giving his name at the door, might introduce one or more ladies, who, if but known by sight to the master of the house, would be requested to join in the amusements which followed. These were singing, dancing, and not unfrequently, speeches, taken from the old Spanish plays, and known by the name of Relaciones. Recitation was considered till lately as an accomplishment both in males and females; and persons who were known to be skilled in that art, stood up at the request of the company to deliver a speech with all the gesticulation of our old school of acting, just as others gratified their friends by performing upon an instrument. A slight refreshment of the Christmas cakes, called Oxaldres, and sweet wines or home-made liqueurs, was enough to free the house from the imputation of meanness: thus mirth and society were obtained at a moderate expense. But the present Nacimientos seldom afford amusement to strangers; and with the exception of singing carols to the sound of the zambomba, little remains of the old festivities.
I must not, however, omit a description of the noisy instrument whose no less sounding name I have just mentioned. It is general in most parts of Spain at this season, though never used at any other. A slender shoot of reed (Arundo Donax) is fixed in the centre of a piece of parchment, without perforating the skin, which, softened by moisture, is tied, like a drum-head, round the mouth of a large earthen jar. The parchment, when dry, acquires a great tension, and the reed being slightly covered with wax, allows the clenched hand to glide up and down, producing a deep hollow sound of the same kind as that which proceeds from the tambourine when rubbed with the middle finger.
The church service on Christmas Eve begins at ten in the night, and lasts till five in the morning. This custom is observed at every church in the town; nor does their number, or the unseasonableness of the hour, leave the service unattended in any. The music at the Cathedral is excellent. It is at present confined to part of the Latin prayers, but was, till within a few years, used in a species of dramatic interludes in the vulgar tongue, which were sung, not acted, at certain intervals of the service. These pieces had the name of Villancicos, from Villano, a clown; shepherds and shepherdesses being the interlocutors in these pastorals. The words, printed at the expense of the Chapter, were distributed to the public, who still regret the loss of the wit and humour of the Swains of Bethlehem.
The custom of the country requires a formal call between Christmas and Twelfth-day, on all one’s acquaintance; and tables are placed in the house squares, or Patios, to receive the cards of the visiters. Presents of sweetmeats are common between friends; and patients send to their medical attendants the established acknowledgment of a turkey; so that Doctors in great practice open a kind of public market for the disposal of their poultry. These turkeys are driven in flocks by gipseys, who patiently walk in the rear of the ungovernable phalanxes, from several parts of Old Castile, and chiefly from Salamanca. The march which they perform is of no less than four hundred miles, and lasts about one half of the year. The turkeys, which are bought from the farmers mere chickens, acquire their full growth, like your fashionables, in travelling, and seeing the world.