Re: Country Related: Christmas

Raimundus A. Brown scripsit:

> The 2nd February is still
> known as 'Candlemas' (Candle festival) among us Catholics in the UK (and is
> a Quarter Day in Scotland) - it's the 40th day after Christmas and
> commemorates Mary & Joseph's bringing of Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem
> to offer him to God according to Mosaic law and redeeming him by offering
> two turtle doves.
Among us Americans, of course, it commemorates the refusal (or otherwise)
of Punxsutawney Phil to come out of his groundhog burrow.

> [...] and those people who still have large open hearths will burn a 'Yule
> log' on the 25th - it's never called a *Christmas log.
As one of those Yule log burners, I must put in my views.  In my family,
the term "Yule" and the Yule log (which, BTW, is lit with a chip from
last year's Yule log carefully preserved, symbolizing the continuity
of the years) is firmly associated, not with Christmas Day nor with
Midwinter, but with New Year's Eve.

There is evidence that this is the original position.  The pre-Christian
names of December and January were Foreyule and Afteryule (modernizations
courtesy J.R.R.T.), and a Christmas carol preserved on both
sides of the Sundering Sea says:

        See the blazing Yule before us/Fal la la la etc.

meaning the log, obviously; and then in the next verse

        Fast away the old year passes/Fal la etc.
        Hail the new, ye lads and lasses/Fal la etc.

Now the Old Year passes into the New Year on New Years Eve, palpably,
so this is a Yule (= New Year's Eve) song rather than a Christmas one.

This and other carols can be found at the (U.K.) site
http://www.drumkit.demon.co.uk/christmas/songs/ ; I only regret
the offensive header on each one.

Does anyone have the Welsh words, plus a literal translation, handy?

On a related note, when did the British punt their traditional
merry Christmas (still preserved over here) in favor of a happy one?
This is now a marked difference between the dialects.  Again,
a carol preserves the old form:

        Good tidings we bring/To you and your kin
        We wish you a merry Christmas/And a happy New Year.

And so I do.

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)