STORIES OF CHRISTMAS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3416, 6 January 1912, Page 3

STORIES OF CHRISTMAS.

ODD SUPERSTITIONS REGARDING THE SEASON.

There is a legend in Germany that when Eve plucked the fatal apple the leaves of the tree immediately shriveled into needle points and its bright green turned dark. The anture of tlie tree changed and it became an evergreen, in all seasons preaching the story of man’s fall through that first act of disobedience. Only on Christmas does it bloom brightly with lights and becomes beautiful with love gifts. The curse is turned into a blessing by the coming of the Christ child, and thus we have our Christmas tree. The visits of St. Nicholas to the homes of the people on Christmas eve as an annual custom grew out of a festival in honor of Hert-ha, a Norse goddess. At this festival the house was decorated with evergreens and an altar of stone was set up at the end of the hall where the family assembled. From Hert-ha. stone we get our word “hearth stone.” On the stones so set up were heaped fir branches, which were set on fire, and through the smoke and flame Hert-ha was supposed to descend and influence the direction of the flames, from which were predicted the fortunes of those present-. WHEN THE ANIMALS KNEEL.

Among the illiterate classes in certain sections of tlie United States, as well as in England and some other European countries, the superstition is still prevalent that at 12 o’clock on the night before Christmas all the fourfooted animals, wild or domestic, assume a kneeling posture, expressive of devotion and adoration. Animals, however, do not reconcile themselves to changes as readily as do human beings, hence it is only the eve of the old-time Christmas day that they may be observed in this attitude. In some of tlie rural districts old men and women will assure you that they have been eye witnesses to this ceremony of the quadrupeds. Invariably they silence all argument to the effect that many have watched in vain by stating that the performance is visible onlv to the pure in heart and the Good Book speaks of those who have eves but see not. . . ' Brand in bis “Popular Antiquities, wrote that on October 28, 1790, an honest countryman, living in the edge of St. Stephen’s Down, near Launceton, Cornwall, England, informed him that ho, with others, had at the proper time watched some oxen in their stalls. At midnight they observed the two eldest oxen only fall upon their knees arid heard them “make a cruel moaning like Christian creatures.” The origin of this legend is traceable to the graphic representation in some of the old prints of the Nativity, where oxen in the stable near the Yirgin and Child are pictured upon their knees, as in a suppliant posture.