Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1877 — New-Year’s Eve Customs. [ARTICLE]

New-Year’s Eve Customs.

Previous to the spread of Christianity we find very little, comparatively, recorded of the observance of the coming of the new year, and nothing specially in regard to the evening preceding the day upon which it was ushered in; but, among the early Christians, the observance of New-Year’s eve partook so directly of the ceremonials of Christmas that it may be considered a projection on the same plane. New-Year’s eve was a period of feasting and merry-making, although Bacchanalian in character, and involving as much fun and frolic as could be manufactured out of resources at hand, or tolerated license. An ancient ana peculiar custom on this evening in England was for young women to go from door to door with a wassail bowl of spiced ale, singing songs suited to the day and their expedition; and, for this congratulatory exercise, which was accepted as a wish for the health, happiness and prosperity of those they delighted to honor, they were accorded douceurs in proportion to the estimate of the pleasure received or the health of the recipients. In allusion to this custom, in Herrick’s “ Hesperides,” we read: Of Christmas sports, the Wassell Boule, That tost up after Fox-i-the-hole; Of blind-man-buffe, and of the care That young men have to shoe the mare ; Of ash-heapes, in the which ye use Husbands and wives by streaks to chuse; Of crackling laurels, which, foresounds A plenteous harvest to your grounds; indicating certain games that were entered into on the occasion, with the good wishes for the future year understood. The wassail bowl, or cup, indeed, of New-Year’s eve was considered the health bowl; and in the drink con tained there were exchanged pledges, such as are now exchanged in glasses of wine at convivial dinners—the word wassail being derived from the ancient Anglo Saxon, ivaes hael, which means “be in health;” and this the same as the “Gossip’s Bowl” of Shakspeare’s “ Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the composition of which was all with sugar, toast and roasted crab or other apples, seasoned highly with nutmeg—a mixed beverage not unlike the apple-toddy of our present festivities. It was not unusual in those times that the wassail bowl or cup, borne around by the young maidens, was adorned with ribbons and garlanded with flowers and golden apples, derived doubtless from the old pagan fashion of the wine-cup. Apple-bowling, or wassailing the apple orchards, a practice that for many years obtained generally in England, is still said to be customary in Sussex, Devon, and elsewhere in that country. This is accomplished by a troop of boys, who visit the orchards of their neighbors, and, encircling the apple trees, repeat the following words, as given by Herrick:

Stand fast root, bear well top, Pray God send us a Rood howling crop ; Every twig, apples big; Every bough, apples enow; Hats full, caps full, Full quarter-sacks full. The following superstitious indications from the wind on New-Year’s eve are still accredited in the highlands of Scotland : If New-Year’s eve night-wind blow south, It betokeneth warmth and growth; If west, much milk, and fish in the sea; If north, much cola and storms there will be ; If east, the trees will bear much fruit; If southeast, flee it man and brute. The custom of watching the old year out and the new year in seems peculiarly a practice of Christians, and is most specially observed by tbe Methodists. The hours devoted to this exercise are generally employed in prayer, singing and exhortation, chiefly in a review of life in the past and resolves for greater purity of heart and manner in the future. Watch-night, on New-Year’s eve, is still observed by the more rigorous of Methodists, both in England and this country, though as a religious exercise among this sect of Christians it is far from being universal, and is generally growing more and more in disuse.