Yule-Tide in Many Lands

Yule-Tide in Many Lands, by

Mary P. Pringle and Clara A. Urann This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Yule-Tide in Many Lands
Author: Mary P. Pringle and Clara A. Urann
Illustrator: L. J. Bridgman
Release Date: June 12, 2006 [EBook #18570]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YULE-TIDE IN MANY LANDS ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Illustration: CHRISTMAS IN NAPLES. An Italian PRESIPIO.]
YULE-TIDE IN MANY LANDS
BY
MARY P. PRINGLE
Reference Librarian, Minnesota Public Library Commission
and
CLARA A. URANN

Illustrated
by
L.J. Bridgman
and from photographs

BOSTON
LOTHROP. LEE & SHEPARD CO.
1916

Copyright, 1916
BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
* * * * *
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfills Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
--Alfred Tennyson.
* * * * *

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks are due to the following publishers for permission to reprint poems: Houghton Mifflin Company for "King Olaf's Christmas" by H. W. Longfellow, "Night of Marvels" by Violante Do Ceo; Paul Elder & Company for "The Christmas Tree" by H. S. Russell, "At Christmas Time"; Edgar S. Werner & Company for "The Christmas Sheaf" by Mrs. A. M. Tomlinson; John Lane Company for "A Palm Branch from Palestine" by M. Y. Lermontov; American Ecclesiastical Review for "The Eve of Christmas" by Pope Leo XIII; E. P. Dutton & Company for "The Voice of the Christ-child" by Phillips Brooks.
MARY P. PRINGLE
CLARA A. URANN
* * * * *

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
YULE-TIDE OF THE ANCIENTS
II. YULE-TIDE IN ENGLAND
III. YULE-TIDE IN GERMANY
IV. YULE-TIDE IN SCANDINAVIA
V. YULE-TIDE IN RUSSIA
VI. YULE-TIDE IN FRANCE
VII. YULE-TIDE IN ITALY
VIII. YULE-TIDE IN SPAIN
IX. YULE-TIDE IN AMERICA
INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS
Christmas in Naples. An Italian Presepio Frontispiece
King Olaf's Christmas
Serenaded by the Waits
Toy-Making in Germany
Decorating the Christmas Tree
On the Way to Christmas Eve Service in Norway
A Christmas Bonfire in Russia
A Christmas Tree in Paris
A Game of Loto on Christmas Evening in Naples
Christmas Festivity in Seville
Lighting the Yule-Log in Colonial Days
Children of Many Nationalities at Christmas Celebration in a New York School
CHAPTER I.
[Illustration]
YULE-TIDE OF THE ANCIENTS
"There in the Temple, carved in wood, The image of great Odin stood, And other gods, with Thor supreme among them."
As early as two thousand years before Christ Yule-tide was celebrated by the Aryans. They were sun-worshipers and believed the sun was born each morning, rode across the upper world, and sank into his grave at night.
Day after day, as the sun's power diminished, these primitive people feared that he would eventually be overcome by darkness and forced to remain in the under world.
When, therefore, after many months, he apparently wheeled about and grew stronger and stronger, they felt that he had been born again. So it came about that at Hweolor-tid, "the turning-time,"[1] there was great rejoicing at the annual re-birth of the sun.
In the myths and legends of these, our Indo-European ancestors, we find the origin of many of the Yule-tide customs now in vogue.
[Footnote 1: Yule-tide]
According to the Younger Edda, Wodin or Odin, the pioneer of the North, a descendant of Saturn, fled out of Asia. Going through Russia to Saxland (Germany), he conquered that country and left one of his sons as ruler. Then he visited Frankland, Jutland, Sweden, and Norway and established each one of his many sons on a throne.
This pioneer traveler figures under nearly two hundred different names, and so it is difficult to follow him in his wanderings. As Wodin, he established throughout the northern nations many of the observances and customs common to the people of the Northland to-day.
The Edda gives an ancient account of Balder, the sun-god, who was slain because of the jealousy of Loki (fire). Loki knew that everything in nature except the mistletoe had promised not to injure the great god Balder. So he searched for the mistletoe until he found it growing on an oak-tree "on the eastern slope of Valhalla." He cut it off and returned to the place where the gods were amusing themselves by using Balder as a target, hurling stones and darts, and trying to strike him with their battle-axes. But all these weapons were harmless. Then Loki, giving the twig of mistletoe to the blind god, H?der, directed his hand and induced him to throw it. When the mistletoe struck Balder it pierced him through and through and he fell lifeless.
"So on the floor lay Balder dead; and round[2] Lay thickly strewn swords, axes, darts, and spears, Which all the Gods in sport had idly thrown At Balder, whom no weapon pierced or clove; But in his breast stood fixt the fatal bough Of mistletoe, which Lok the Accuser gave To H?der, and unwitting H?der threw-- 'Gainst that alone had Balder's life