People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 27-25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1896 — Old World Christmas Proverbs. [ARTICLE]

Old World Christmas Proverbs.

Every one in America knows the old world proverb, “A green Christmas makes a fat graveyard,” but few others of the old world Christmas saws are current here. Some of these saws are exceedingly interesting and not less instructive as showing the changes that time and location have made in the proverbs of the country people. Here are a few: i “A warm Christams, a cold Easter.” “A light Christmas, a heavy sheaf.” “A green Christmas, a white Easter. ” “If there Ts a wind on Christmas day, trees will bear much fruit.” “If ice will bear a man before Christmas, it will not afterward. ” “The shepherd would rather see his wife enter the stable on Christmas day than to see the sun shine in at the stable door. ” “If the sun shines through the apple tree on Christmas day, there will be an abundant crop the following year.” The meaning of all these is clear enough, but there is one that is not so clear: “If Christmas finds a bridge, he’ll break it; if he finds none, he’ll make one. ’ ’