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Christmas legends more than 'superstition and ignorance'By Gary Carden |
Gary Carden |
When I was a child, I used to go with my grandparents to visit relatives in exotic places like Big Ridge up near Glenville and Leatherman Gap on the backside of Cowee. There were occasional trips to other places, too, with wonderful names like Alarka, Winding Stairs and Blaze Creek.
In every place there were people who liked to talk, and I spent hours listening to Aunt Elsie or Uncle Ardell, Cousin Fred or Great-grandmother Babby talk about strange and wondrous events in their childhood. Many of them had to do with Christmas. "Used to build fires," said Uncle Pratt. "Big brush fires that would burn all night on ridge tops. We would get out and walk from one fire to another, 'n we would carry torches, burning pine-knots." "Why?" said a 10-year-old me. "I don't know," he said. "It was just something that we always done on the long nights between Christmas and New Years. My granddaddy did it, too. Sometimes, we would dress up 'n put soot on our faces and go 'serenading.' Don't know why it was called that since it didn't have much to do with singing." |
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"What do you mean, 'dress up?' Like Sunday clothes?"
"Law, no. The boys would wear dresses and the girls would wear overalls. Sometimes, we would knock on doors and ask for food." "Why would you want to do a thing like that?" I asked. "Don't know," said Uncle Pratt. Seemed to be a lot of fun at the time. We would holler and yell, beat on tubs and fire guns." "Ain't you getting Christmas mixed up with Halloween?" "Nope," said Uncle Pratt. "We did a lot of things at Christmas and New Years that sounds like Halloween. Told ghost stories, too." "At Christmas? That don't seem right." "Well, we did. I still remember this old lady telling this story called 'Mr. Fox' on Christmas Eve. Scared me half to death." "There used to be an old Scottish farmer up in the cove that believed that the dead came home for Christmas," said Aunt Elsie. "He used to leave an empty chair in front of the fireplace and a big plate of shuckie beans and cornbread on the table for his dead mother." "Did she ever show up?" "Not so as I remember." "You know about the animals kneeling down in the barn on Christmas Eve?" said Aunt Elsie. "Some folks say that cows and pigs can talk on that night." "But if you hear them speak, you will die within a year," said Babby. "And if you go out to the bee gum at midnight on Christmas Eve, the bees will be humming the 100th Psalm," said Uncle Ardell. "I don't believe that," I said. "Did you ever hear them bees?" "I can't recollect that I did," said Ardell. "I know some folks that did though. Said they had good three-part harmony." "If you put a holly leaf under your pillow on Christmas Eve night, you will dream about the man you are going to marry," said Cousin Irene. "Big deal." I wasn't particularly interested in that kind of stuff. "What else?" "Don't loan fire on Christmas," said Babby. "That don't mean nothing to you, I guess, but when I was a girl, you was in trouble if you let the fire in the fireplace go out and there were no matches in the house. You had to borrow fire from a neighbor. It was bad luck to loan fire for the 12 days after Christmas." "I remember this farmer down in Alarka that used to toast his orchard. I mean, he would put little pieces of wine-soaked bread on the bare limbs and set them on fire and quote a Bible verse. He believed that this made the trees bear fruit," said Cousin Fred. "Some folks used to save the ashes from the yule log," said Aunt Elsie. "Good for the garden." "Bread baked on Christmas Day would cure the croup." "Then, there were the 'first footers,' the first people to enter your house on Christmas morning or New Years. They could influence the future of your whole family. Like, if the first person was a redheaded woman, you were going to have a very bad year." On and on they would go for hours and hours, talking of witches, dumb-suppers, ghost dogs and old murders. When I grew up, I often heard people speak disparagingly of these old beliefs. "Superstitious nonsense," they said. "It grew out of ignorance and backwardness." Maybe so, but I am fascinated by the fact that 1,000 years ago in Ireland, people built fires on mountain tops as a ritual to hasten the return of the sun and spring. Due to a series of bloody wars, the people of Scotland tended to view red-headed Irish folks as "bad luck." "Serenading" was a common practice on Christmas Eve in England and Ireland and was based on an old tradition that celebrated "The Day of Misrule," when the world was turned upside down. On this single day, servants, the poor and children could visit the homes of their more prosperous neighbors, merchants and farmers and request food. Then, too, they had soot on their faces and dressed in outlandish fashion. There are still households on the Isle of Man that extends hospitality to the dead on Christmas Eve. The ancient fairy tales of Germany are filled with stories about people who let the fire go out on a cold winter solstice night. Also, the "Mr. Fox" story that frightened Uncle Pratt is the Appalachian version of "The Robber Bridegroom" in the Grimm Brothers collection. It can still make you lie awake in the dark. So, it is possible to perceive all of this as "ignorance and superstition." However, it also suggests something else. It suggests that the people who live in this region are the products of a tradition that can be traced to ancient rituals, fires on mountain-tops in Ireland, and serenading in the streets of London. It suggests that we have a rich cultural heritage. I guess I like the sense of pride such knowledge gives me. Sylva native and resident Carden is a lecturer, author, playwright and storyteller. He can be reached at 236 Cherry Street, Sylva, N.C. 28779. |
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