BOOK
II.

monies, and opinions of this period shall be buried in oblivion. 66 Shakspeare," Mr. Hunt beautifully remarks,* Christmas. "has touched upon Christmas Eve, with a reverential tenderness, sweet as if he had spoken it hushingly :”

Cock Crow

"Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes

Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long :
And then, they say, no sprite dares stir abroad;

The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm;
So hallowed and so gracious is the time."

Prudentius, early in the fourth century, noticed the terror with which the voice of the cock inspired the wandering spirits of the night with terror:

"Ferunt vagantes daemonas

Laetas tenebris noctium

Gallo canente, exterritos,
Sparsim timere et credere."t

It has been supposed that the song of the cock is heard on Christmas Eve in celebration of the divine ascent from hell, which the Christians in the time of Prudentius believed to have taken place during the tranquillity of the night, when no sound was heard but that of the rejoicing bird:

·

Quod omnes credimus,

Illo quietis tempore,

Quo gallus exsultans canit,

Christum rediisse ex inferis."

The ghost of Helgi Hundingsbana (the slayer of Hunding), in the Scandinavian Edda, collected in the eleventh century, assigns the crowing of the cock as the reason for his return to the hall of Odin, or the sun :

* Lond. Journ., Vol. I., p. 305.

+ Hymn I. Ad Galli Cantum, v. 37, Edit. Parmæ, 1788.
Ibid., v. 65.

""Tis time now to ride

To the reddening road,
To let my pale steed
Tread the air-path.

O'er the bridges of heaven,*

The sky must I reach
Ere the cock of the hall
Wake the heroes up."+

And Bürger's demon horseman, in correspondence with this notion, appropriately finds that he and his infernal steed must, like "the buried majesty of Denmark," speedily depart, because the cock is heard to crow :

"Rapp'! Rapp'! Mich dunkt der Hahn schon rufft.
Bald wird der Sand verinnen."

sun, was

sacred to

Nergal,

This widely spread superstition is, in all probability, a misunderstood tradition of some Sabæan fable. The cock, which seems by its early voice to call forth the esteemed a sacred solar bird; hence it was also Mercury, one of the personifications of the sun. the idol of the Cuthites, considered by Selden to be a symbol of the sun, was worshipped under the form of a cock. The anecdote of Socrates, which the elder Racine has so well explained,|| has rendered it sufficiently notorious that the cock was sacred to Esculapius, whom we have shown to be a solar incarnation; and the story of the metamorphosis of Alectryon, by Lucian, equally proves its intimate connection with this luminary in mythology.

The ceremonies which take place in some countries, and which were formerly general on this day, Dr. Forster observes, are of the most pleasing character, and serve to amuse in this dreary season. The houses and churches bedecked with evergreens and their beautiful berries, the merry carols sung about the villages, the waits or night musie, and the cheerful bells, which commence their music

BOOK

II.

Christmas.

The Cock sacred to

the sun.

• Bifröst, the rainbow.

+ Knight, Tales and Popular Fictions, p. 278. Lenore, stanza 27.

De Diis Syris, Syntagm. II., cap. 8.

Mem. de Racine, Tom. II., p. 404.

BOOK
II.

at midnight, are naturally calculated to elevate joyously the imagination; an effect not a little enhanced by the various Christmas. early recollections of childhood, with which Christmas and its festivities are in the minds of most connected.

Dinner hour..

One of the most remarkable of the events of this season is its feasting. "The plum-puddings, mince pies, and a thousand made dishes of exquisite sorts, such as people in common have but once a year, used to be, and still are in some places, brought on the jovial board of hospitality. The Christmas dinner usually took place after mass and before vespers, and afterwards in the evening the wassail bowl, christmas carols, and merry songs, with various pastimes, jokes, Christmas games and drolleries, made up the evening's entertainment, which was heightened by the merry ringing of the bells, and the mixture of music, played both in the streets and houses."* The Christmas dinner was probably eaten at the same hour as other dinners were, that is about mid-day, which has long been called, with little regard to verbal accuracy, noon,† which was originally the ninth hour counted from sunrise, and consequently answered to our three o'clock. Julius Cæsar, Bulenger, Pancirol, and his commentator Salmuth, have shown that the Romans took breakfast at the third hour from sunrise, and dinner at the ninth hour, called nona, or noon. The γευμα of the Greeks was about the same time as the prandium, or dinner of the Romans, that is, about our three o'clock.§ This division of the day, as well as the names of the hours, was followed by the ecclesiastics until an arrangement in the court of Charlemagne in the time of Lent, by advancing the canonical hours, caused 12 o'clock, the ancient sixth hour, to bear the name of the ninth hour. Before the ninth century, when this change was made,

Dr. Forster, Peren. Calend., p. 172.

+ See Gloss. Art. Nona.

De Conviviis, Lib. I., cap. 23.

De Rebus Memor. et Deperd., Par. I., p. 239, 244.

BOOK

II.

This Christmas.

abstinence from food at particular parts of the day was
rigidly observed. At first, the fast of Lent consisted in
taking only one repast in the evening after
vespers. This
being inconvenient, supper was advanced to the hour of
none, or 3 o'clock, when it was customary to ring to divine
service; thus, in the book of ecclesiastical laws, in the time
of Ethelred, it is observed, that many people have a custom,
when they ought to fast, of running to their meat as soon
as they hear the noon bell.* After the noon service, mass
was celebrated, and after mass, vespers, when the more
rigid allowed themselves to eat; but those who had not
leisure or devotion for these offices, took the bell for service
for the bell of repast. The emperor Charlemagne caused
mass to be celebrated in his palace during Lent at 2 o'clock
in the afternoon; mass was followed by vespers, after which
he sat at table about 3 o'clock, observing the custom of not
eating till after vespers. His motive for it was that his
officers should not be detained too long without food; for
at this period, he was served at table by the monarchs and
princes of the people whom he had subdued; the kings and
dukes then sate at table, and were served by counts; the
counts sat after them and were served by other officers, the
next in rank below them; so that the last officers did not
sit at table until midnight, which would have been still
later, if the emperor had not advanced the hour of vespers.
We have just seen that this custom of eating at noon soon
afterwards found its way into England; in the tenth cen-
tury it was received throughout Italy; but it was not till
after vespers; for they began the noon service, or office of
none, a little after mid-day, and then said mass and vespers.
In the twelfth century, noon and mid-day seem to have
been synonymous in England. The Saxon annalist says,

* Monegra monna gepuna ir ponne he færten rceolan. rona rpa hig þa non-bellan zehýɲað hiz to mere poð.-Lib. Leg. Eccles., cap. 39.

BOOK
II.

that on March 21, 1140, a total eclipse of the sun occurred about noon-tide when men eat, and the day was so dark Christmas. that they lighted candles to eat by. This was the established dinner hour in the reign of Edward I.; Robert of Brunne says :

"To morn on the none-tide whan thei were at the mete."+ It is, therefore, with reason that Strutt supposes that our ancestors dined about 12 or 1 o'clock; but in France this change did not take place until 1200. Afterwards, the repast was insensibly advanced till mid-day, which happened in 1500, and then vespers were said before 12 o'clock.§

Froissart, quoted by Hume, mentions waiting on the duke of Lancaster at five o'clock in the afternoon, when he had supped. This was in the reign of Edward the Third, or Richard the Second; and by way of proving that, although nona is properly the ninth hour, or our three o'clock, it was employed by our ancestors in the same sense that we use it, there is this passage in a proclamation of the reign of Edward the Fourth, "and the hour of xii. commonly called the howre of none." But a distinction. seems to be made in a curious clause in a statute of Henry the Seventh, between the dinner and the noon meal of our working people:-" Divers artificers and laborers reteyned to werke and serve, waste werke moch part of the day, and deserve not ther wagis; sume tyme in late comyng vnto ther werke, erly departing therefro, longe sitting at ther brekfast, at ther dyner, and nonemete, and long tyme of

* Den efren in þe Lengten þerrrede pe runne. te dæ abuton non-tid dæier da men eten þei men lihtede candler ro æren bi and þer par xiii. kl. April.

+ Chron., p. 276.

Horda Angel-Cynna, Vol. III., p. 146.

§ Moreri, Tom. VII., C. p. 150.

Hist. Engl., Vol. IV., note §.
Rot. Parl., Tom. VI., p. 23.