December 27. St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. St. Theodorus Grapt, ▲. D. 822. St. John. This festival of St. John is observed by the church of England, and consequently his name is in the church calendar and the almanacs. The church of Rome, from whence the celebration is derived, also keeps another festival to St. John on the 6th of May, concerning which, and the evangelist, there are particulars at p. 617. Mr. Audley says of him, “Tradition reports, that when he was a very old man, be used to be carried into the church at Ephesus, and say, little children, love nne another. He returned from his banishment, and lived till the third or fourth year of Trajan; so that he must have been nearly a hundred years of age when he died. The appellation of divine given to St. John is not canonical; but was first angled to him by Eusebius, on account of those mysterious and sublime mounts of datzby, with the knowledge of what he seems to have been favoured ahove his fellow apostles. Perhaps this min extÜLT the etymology of the word dine, as apposed to christian ministers." Barnaby Googe, from the Latin of Naogeorges, thus introduces the day : Nexze John the sonne of Zebedee hath his appoynted day, Who once by cruell tyraunts will, constrayned was they say Strong poyson up to drinke, therefore the papistes doe beleeve That whoso puts their trust in him, no poyson them can greeve. The wine beside that halowed is in worship of his name, The priestes doe give the people that bring money for the same. And after with the selfe same wine are little manchets made, Against the boystrous winter stormies, and sundrie such like trade. The men upon this solemne day, do take this holy wine : To make them strong, so do the maydes to make them faire and fine. FLORAL DIRECTORY. Fame Heath. Erica flammea Dedicated to St. John. December 28. The Holy Innocents. St. Theodorus, Abbot of Tabenna, ▲. v. 367. Innocents. This is another Romish celebration preserved in the church of England calendar and the almanacs. It has another name Childermas-Day. rived from the masses said for the souls This is conjectured to have been deof the Innocents who suffered from Herod's cruelty. It is to commemorate their slaughter that Innocents or Childermasday is appropriated, and hence the name it bears, It was formerly a custom to whip up the children on Innocent's day morning, in order "that the memorial of Herod's murder of the Innocents might stick the closer, and so, in a moderate proportion to act over the crueltie again in kinde." The day itself was deemed of especial ill omen, and hence the superstitious never married on Childermas-day. Neither upon this day was it "lucky" to put on new clothes, or pare the nails, or begin any thing of moment. In the play of" Sir John Oldcastle" the prevalence of this belief is instanced by an objection urged to an expedition proposed on a Friday," Friday, quoth'a, a dismal day; Candlemas-day this year was Friday." This vulgar superstition reached the throne; the coronation of king Edward IV. was put off till the Monday, because the preceding Sunday was Childermas-day. Lastly, a mother in the Spectator" is made to say, at that time, "No, child, if it please God, you shail not go into join-hand on Childermasday." The old artists often painted the flight of the holy family from Herod's cruel purpose:-" Behold the angel of the lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod." In some pictures an angel is painted accompanying them on the way, although on no scriptural authority. In a painting by "Lucca Giordano" Acts ii. 13-15. they are represented in a boat with the ass, whereon the virgin had rode, held by an angel, who is thus degraded to the condition of a stable boy; while cherubs company them in the sky: the picture being curious, an engraving from it is placed in this article. Lucca Giordano. The artist of the picture mentioned was born at Naples, about 1629: he studied under Spagnoletto, and afterwards under Pietra da Cortona. He is likewise called Luca fa Presto, from a phrase used by his father. Though his son painted with amazing facility, from designs of the great masters, while he pursued his studies, and ན ནག་ Companicos A. D. 304. St. Anysia, THE SEASON. The earth, as it appears in England at this pered, is well represented in the Mirror of the Months," the plea sunt reflex of the year referred to in November. - The meadows are still green-almost as green as in the spring w the late-spected grass that the astra as have ca ed up since it has been ked of, and the cattle called home to enxy Derr water fodder. The corn-felds, toe, are bright with their delicate sprinkung of young autumn-sown wheat; the ground about the hedge-rows, and in thei young eceses, 3 st pleasant to lock upon, from the sobered green of the hardy prinse and violet, whose clumps of unfading leaves brave the utinest rigour of the season: and every here and there a bush of bel y darts up its pyramid of shining leaves and brant berries, from amidst the Lite wild and wardening, but new faded and feriem eompany of woodbizes and eglantines, which have all the rest of the year been exuiting over and inest iding it with ther quick-growing branches, and faunting fowers. The evergreens, too, that assist in forming the home enclosures, have altogether lost that At the istribution of medis by sur Thomas Lawrence to students at the Revik Anteny, in the month of Desembre hue which they have until lately cember, 1925, Mr. John Gaucher and Mr. Crostiatine Panerne, natives of the sister cy, recurred the two meda's for seu ptir. It is a baper agury for the Roy Duben Society that these young men were the first lady dra's sent ther worn-sembre in comparison with the bright freshness of spring, and the splendid varety of autumn; and now, that not a leaf is left around them, they look as zay by the contrast as they lately loos.a New Year's Eve. To end the old year merrily, and begin the new one well, and in friendship, were popular objects in the celebration of this festival. It was spent among our labouring ancestors in festivity and frolic by the men; and the young women of the village carried from door to door, a bowl of spiced ale, the wassail bowl, which they offered to the inhabitants of every house they stopped at, singing rude congratulatory verses, and hoping for small presents. Young men and women also exchanged clothes, which was termed Mumming, or Disguising; and when thus dressed in each other's garments, they went from one neighbour's cottage to another, singing, dancing, and partaking of good cheer t The anticipated pleasure of the coming year, accompanied by regret at parting with the present old year, is naturally expressed by a writer already cited. "After Christmas-day comes the last day of the year; and I confess I wish the bells would not ring so merrily on the next. I have not become used enough to the loss of the old year to like so triumphant a welcome to the new. I am certain of the pleasures I have had during the twelvemonth: I have become used to the pains. In a few days, especially by the help of Twelfthnight, I shall become reconciled to the writing 6 instead of 5 in the date of the year. Then welcome new hopes and new endeavours. But at the moment-at the Mr. Audley's Companion to Almanac. Dr. Drake's Shakspeare and his Times. turn-I hate to bid adieu to my old acquaintance.' ELIA, in a delightful paper on the "Eve of New Year's-day, 1821, among the other delightful essays of his volume, entitled "ELIA"-a little book, whereof to say that it is of more gracious feeling and truer beauty than any of our century, is poor praise-Elia says, "while that turncoat bell, that just now mournfully chanted the obsequies of the year departed, with changed notes lustily rings in a successor, let us attune to its peal the song made on a like occasion, by hearty, cheerful Mr. Cotton." Turn, gentle reader, to the first page of the first sheet, which this hand presented to you, and you will find the first two and twenty lines of ELIA'S "6 song." They tell us, that, of the two faces of Janus, that which this way looks is clear, Why should we then suspect or fear New Monthly Magazine, Dec 18. sound of "the merry, merry bells," breaks out: "How say you reader-do not these verses smack of the rough magnanimity of the old English vein? Do they not fortify like a cordial; enlarging the heart, and productive of sweet blood, and generous spirits in the concoction?-Another cup of the generous! and a merry New Year, and many of them, to you all, my masters !" The same to you, ELIA,-and "to you all my masters!"- Ladies! think not yourselves neglected, who are chief among my masters"-you are the kindest, and therefore the most masterful, and most worshipful of "my masters!" Under the female form the ancients worshipped the Earth. They called her "Bona Dea," or the "Good Goddess," by way of excellency, and that, for the best reason in the world, because "there is no beingthat does men more good." In respect to her chastity, all men were forbidden to be present at her worship; the high priest himself, in whose house it was performed, aud who was the chief minister in all others, not excepted. Cicero imputed to Clodius as a crime that he had entered the sacred fane in disguise, and by his presence polluted the mysteries of the Good Goddess. The Roman ladies offered sacrifices to her through the wife of the high priest, and virgins consecrated to the purpose. The Earth, Bona Dea, or the "Good Goddess," was represented under the form of a matron with her right hand opened, as if tendering assistance to the helpless, and holding a loaf in her left hand. She was also venerated under the name of Ops, and other denominations, but with the highest attributes; and when so designated, she was worshipped by men and boys, as well as women and virgins; and priests ministered to her in dances with brazen cymbals. These motions signified that the Earth only imparted blessings upon being constantly moved; and as brass was discovered before iron, the cymbals were composed of that metal to indicate her antiquity. The worshippers seated themselves on the ground, and the posture of devotion was bending forward, and touching the ground with the right hand. On the head of the goddess was placed a crown of towers, denoting strength, and that they were to be worn by those who persevered. To all of the earth" not wholly "earthy," the Earth seemed a fit subject to picture under its ancient symbol; and, in a robe of arable and foliage, set in a goodly frame of the celestial signs, with the seasons" as they roll," it will be offered as a frontispiece to the present volume, and accompany the title-page with the indexes in the next sheet. It must have been obvious to every reader of the Every-Day Book, as it has been to me, of which there have been several indications for some time past, that the plan of the work could not be execu ted within the year; and I am glad to find from numerous quarters that its continuance is approved and even required. So far as it has proceeded I have done my utmost to render it useful. My endeavours to render it agreeable may occasion "close" readers to object, that it was more discursive than they expected. I am afraid I can only answer that I cannot unmake my making-up; and plead guilty to the fact, that, knowing the wants of many, through my own deficiencies, I have tried to aid them in the way that appeared most likely to effect the object, with the greater number of those for whom the work was designed. Nor do I hesi tate also to acknowledge, that in gathering for others, I have in no small degree been teaching myself. For it is of the nature of such an undertaking to constrain him who executes it, to tasks of thought, and exercises of judgment, unseen by those who are satisfied when they enjoy what is before them, and care not by what ventures it was obtained. My chief anxiety has been to provide a wholesome sufficiency for all, and not to offer any thing that should be hurtful or objectionable. I hope I have succeeded. I respectfully desire to express my grateful sense of the extensive favour wherein the conduct of the publication is held. And I part from my readers on New Year's-eve, with kind regards till we meet in the new volume of the Every Day Book on New Year's day-to-mor W. HONL row. 45, Ludgate-hill 1825 END OF VOL. I |
