Category Archives: New Year

Jan 01 2014
3 Comments
Christmas, New Year, Solstice

Wes Hel

New Year

SEVENTH DAY of CHRISTMAS:
New Year’s Day

Ring out the old,
Ring in the new,
Ring out the false,
Ring in the true.

The old year has passed and we awake hopeful for what the new year will bring. Good health is often at the top of the list, and this first day of the year, as the Seventh Day of Christmas, also happens to be a traditional wassailing day. Wassail, derived from the Old English toast Wes Hel: “Be of good health!”

The wassailing tradition is from Britain but is also practiced in many parts of the United States. Ale or beer or hard cider is warmed together with sugar, spices, apples and fruit juices, usually orange or pineapple. Lamb’s wool––whipped cream, essentially––is often floated on the top of the brew. The large wassail bowl is taken out to the orchard, where the custom is to wassail the oldest and largest tree in the grove. The ceremony, which usually takes place around midday, involves pouring wassail on the roots of the tree and hanging toasted bread soaked in wassail on its branches. The wassail bowl is, of course, passed around the company gathered, and all partake, along with great shouts of celebration (the word Huzzah seems particularly essential) and with songs, along the lines of this one from England:

Here’s to thee, old apple tree
Whence thou may’st bud and
whence thou may’st blow,
And whence thou may’st
bear apples enow.

Hats full, Caps full, Bushel,
bushel sacks full,
And my pockets full, too!
Huzzah!

Don’t have an apple tree to wassail? We don’t have them here in Lake Worth. Here, we grow oranges and grapefruits and mangoes and cocoanuts. You can wassail any tree, and why not? Trees that bear fruit are perhaps the most worthy of wassailing, but in the absence of one, I’d encourage you to wassail any tree that is your favorite.

Mumming and guising are also important customs on New Year’s Day. It’s a tradition known well in Philadelphia, where the annual Mummer’s Day Parade takes place each First of January as it has been since around the turn of the last century. The practice of mumming and guising, however, goes back much further than that. Mummer’s plays are another of the British Christmas traditions with pagan roots. The plays, typically performed by roving troupes, usually include characters like St. George and the Turkish Knight, dragons, and, of course, Father Christmas. Enter the players:

In comes I, Old Father Christmas,
Welcome or welcome not,
I hope Old Father Christmas
Will never be forgot.
If you don’t believe what I do say
Enter St. George and clear the way.

In come I, St. George,
A man of courage bold
With sword and spear all by my side,
Hoping to gain a crown of gold.
‘Twas I that slew the dragon,
and brought him to the slaughter,
And by those means I hope
To gain the King of Egypt’s daughter.

The plays are quick and typically involve the death of one character by the sword of another… but always a doctor is called in and the dead man is brought back to life. All of which echoes the death of the old year and its rebirth as the new, or the death of the sun at the solstice and its rebirth as the days begin to lengthen once more. The circle––or the ever expanding spiral––goes on and on, without end.

 

 

Dec 31 2013
1 Comment
Christmas, New Year

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Janus

SIXTH DAY of CHRISTMAS:
New Year’s Eve, Hogmanay, First Footing

Just as the Roman god Janus looks back on the old year and forward to the new, so do these Twelve Days of Christmas, half of which fall in the old year and half in the new.  The month of January is named for Janus, a fitting tribute, for Janus does what we do as we cross that threshold, laying to rest the old year that has died, rejoicing in the new year now born.

Most all of us have traditions we follow at this threshold. Visit the grocery stores here in Lake Worth and the first thing you’ll see upon entering are black eyed peas and fresh collard greens, and not too far from them, champagne and grapes. Champagne at midnight on New Year’s Eve is, I think, pretty universal. The peas and greens are traditional New Year foods here in the South. As for the grapes, well, one old Italian tradition in my family is to eat twelve grapes at midnight, which we rarely do, but my sister has already bought the grapes and so this year, we are. On my dad’s side, Grandma Cutrone used to make sure everyone had a spoonful of lentils at the stroke of midnight.

In fact, the humble earthy lentil, cooked in various savory dishes, is very big throughout Italy for Capo d’Anno, the New Year. Lentils symbolize riches (think of each lentil as a coin, and you’d have quite a stash in each bowl). “Out with the old” is also very big in Italy for New Year’s Eve, and Italians traditionally make a clean sweep of things at midnight, opening the windows and tossing old useless possessions out onto the streets, no matter from what height (and with great gusto, no less). It can be a dangerous night for a walk about! The act is rich in symbolism, though: this is a night to shed what is unwanted, to dispel bad energy, to clear the way for good things to come.

In Scotland, New Year is perhaps the height of the Christmastide celebration. The New Year’s feast takes the name Hogmanay, which is thought to be a corruption of the French au gui menez, “lead to the mistletoe,” which calls to mind the Celtic druids of yore, for whom the mistletoe was sacred: the druids would climb the highest oaks with a golden sickle to cut the mistletoe that grew in its upper branches and bring it down (from the heavens) for the people.

Hogmanay has been celebrated in Scotland with great enthusiasm for centuries. As the bells tolled midnight, all of the doors and windows were flung open to let the old year out and to welcome in the new. This would be accompanied by exuberant banging of pots and pans, to scare off any vestiges of the old year that might remain.

One of the most important aspects of the Hogmanay celebration is known as First Footing: the first person after midnight to step across the threshold of the doorway is the person who brings fortune to the whole household. It should be the right kind of person, too, and so often families will make arrangements with a friend or acquaintance to make sure that happens, for the wrong kind of First Footer could bring bad luck for the year. The best of the First Footers, according to the custom, would be a red- or dark-haired man, and he would enter the home carrying a gift of whisky or mistletoe or else coal, bread, and salt. He would place the bread and salt on the table and the coal upon the fire. He would kiss all the women and shake hands with all the men twice: once upon entering, and once more after his gifts were given.

Here in South Florida, one of the most culturally diverse regions of the world, there are all kinds of customs for bringing in the new year. Fireworks go off at midnight. One friend of ours, who is from Honduras, gathers with his family and they all take turns running around the house with luggage. This, I think, ensures travels in the coming year. Another friend, who is also from Latin America, has a custom where everyone in attendance runs around the house at midnight donning underwear on top of their regular clothing. I have no idea what that ensures, but it’s quite a sight, I’m sure.

New Year’s Eve traditions all seem to have one thing in common: the universal wish for good things in the new year. And this is our wish, as well. Happy New Year.

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