Lizzie B. Kinzer
Published: 2018-01-18
Total Pages: 88
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Excerpt from The Guidon, Vol. 2: December, 1905 Another old custom, but now obsolete, was, to go on Christ mas night, in the morning twilight, into a wood or forest, without uttering a word or letting a sound be heard, without looking around, without eating or drinking, or seeing any fire, or hearing a cock crow. If any one so qualified goes on the path leading to the church as the sun is rising, he will see as many funerals as will 'pass that way during the ensuing year, and see how the produce will be in the meadows and pastures, and whether any fires will break out, within the same period. Nothing that is sown on Christmas eve perishes, though it be sown on the snow. On Christmas night, at twelve o'clock, all the cattle rise up and continue standing for some time and then again lie down. The hog of propitiation offered to the god Frey was a solemn sacrifice in the north; and in Sweden, down to modern times, the custom has been preserved of baking on every Christmas eve a loaf or a cake in the form of a hog. It is related that the Swedish peasants dry the baked Yule-hog, and preserve it till Spring; then having pounded a part of it in the vessel out of which the seed is to be scattered, they give it mixed with barley to the plough-horses, leaving the other part to be eaten by the Servants that hold the plough, in the hope of having a plentiful harvest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.