My Kessamas box.
Gentle and simple herald Christmas morn[4] with kindly greetings, ‘A merry Christmas to you,’ as they pass. And oh the parties, night after night, the games, postman’s knock, hunting the slipper, spinning the trencher, cushion dance, forfeits, &c.! Aye, but we knew how to enjoy ourselves when I was a lad, and in many of our dales to-day Christmas is Christmas still, with all the old observances treasured; aye, and the old old games too. Amidst such scenes one is apt to forget that the hair is turning grey at the sides, and easy to brush on the crown.
The Christmas dinner with its sirloin, turkey, or goose, followed by the rich plum-pudding and mince-pies, in a greater or less degree, is indulged in by all. Go where you may on and after Christmas Day, either plum or pepper cake (a rich kind of gingerbread), or spice-cake (a cheaper form of plum-cake) and cheese, will be found upon the sideboard or table. ‘Ya mun ’ev a bit o’ keeak an’ cheese, hooivver,’ say the country folk almost before you are seated. And be it remembered, for every cake and cheese you taste one more happy month is added to your life.
On St. Stephen’s Eve maybe some will pay a visit to the ’coo byre’ in the hope of seeing the oxen kneel, for the quaint notion still lives that on this eve the oxen kneel in their stalls in commemoration of the martyr’s death.
On New Year’s Eve it is customary to eat the remains of the frumenty left from Christmas Eve. This being finished, none other will be made until the festive season comes round again. The older people always watch the old year out and the new year in, which is made known by the ringing of the church bells, and the loud knocking at your door of the ‘first foot or lucky bird.’ This happens immediately on the last stroke of twelve. This first foot to cross your threshold—for none must go out until the first foot has come in—must be a man or boy with dark hair. Such only can bring luck to the household; for should he have light hair, he would not be admitted, for he could only bring dire and disastrous results.
The same clamorous singing as on Christmas Day commences just as early on New Year’s morn, greetings for the new year are as freely given, and the festive season itself lasts pretty well on towards the middle of the month.
The dumb-cake is yet made—of which more hereafter—whilst other rites, ceremonies, and charms are still indulged in by the buxom lasses of the riding.
By due observance of certain ritual performed on the eve of St. Agnes, a maiden might have a vision of her future spouse.
Very often, however, difficulties of no light kind had to be overcome, before the ritual could be carried out in its entirety. And in some cases, to my thinking, the maiden would need nerves of iron, and the supple limbs of an acrobat, before she would be able to accomplish the demands made upon her.
Take for example the following, which was given to me by an old lady in Rosedale:—At midnight on the eve of St. Agnes, a maiden must pluck from the grave of a bachelor a blade of grass, walk backward from the grave to the church gate, and then hurry to her bed-chamber. Safely there, she had to lock her door, hanging the key on a nail outside the window, then undress herself; but—and here comes the difficulty—her various garments had to be removed in the same order as they had been put on, that is, that which she had donned first must be taken off first. This must have been a feat requiring great agility and no little patience, exceeding by a long way the task of skinning an eel in the dark. No doubt everything would be worn very loosely that day, and any undue exertion must have rendered such a maid liable any moment to assume the condition of a statue. Of one thing I am absolutely certain: did the maid accomplish the feat so far as her skirts and other items of her apparel are concerned, she would have to sleep with her boots on, for her stockings would present a problem which jeers at the senile efforts of the Sphinx. But, having performed the said ritual so far, it only remained for her to wrap the blade of grass in a clean sheet of paper, place it under her pillow, leave a burning candle near the window, and retire to rest, when presently she would see the man who was to be her husband open the window, look in, throw the key into the room, close the window, and depart. Where the chamber was on the ground floor, or ladders were handy, I can well understand this ritual would often succeed.