Supernatural Truce on Christmas Eve December 24, 2015
Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern , trackback
This is a beautiful idea, but evidence for it is difficult to find. Essentially all supernatural beings agree not to haunt or terrify humans on Christmas eve. Can anyone supply any other evidence? drbeachcombing At yahoo DOT com Beach has got it back to the 1880s. Enjoy the beautiful late Victorian writing…
We remember now to have heard it said that this night is exempt from fairy frolic and witches’ spite, and moreover that the elfin troop are for once pinioned in the thickest and darkest shades of the woods, and that the touch of the enchanter and the glance of the witch are powerless the upper world. The rule of Oberon is suspended at the setting of the sun on Chrismas Eve. What cessation from the nightly pranks, the fun and mischief, the spite and evil-doing of the invisible creatures, this must entail! Many tale crowds upon the memory; of the hill side Borough Hill Frensham, Surrey. There no fairy music will be heard, nor will the farmer, if he tap at the borrowing stone which lies on the hill, be answered by any fairy willing to lend him oxen or money or whatever he chooses to ask for. Then into Hampshire on the forest side at the lono farmhouse, Hodge will not be troubled by the Pixies nor his corn lying ready on the threshing floor, be turned topsy turvy by elfin thieves. No need for him to watch and see his grain taken, straw by straw, through the keyhole, and for him to burst in upon them crying ‘The devil sweat ye.’ Away north, to tho Yorkshire moorland country where the Boggarts are so persistent in their attentions that they even flit with a family who remove to another house to get rid of them. The honest Yorkshire people will have no fear of their porringers of bread and milk being seized by an invisible hand, and they will be able to sleep this night without the curtains of their beds being shaken backwards and forwards. Still further north we travel into Northumberland, where the winter is bitter and the folk gather close around the fireside, and the elfins too know that it is cold, for they harbour in the chimney, and when all is quiet descend and play with the children as with old acquaintances. They will miss their playmates. Then we think of Hedley and Ebchester, where the bogie ends his frolics with a laugh heard far and wide, and in the form of a straw shuffles in front of the dame gathering sticks, shuffling and laughing and shouting. They must have rare times here and in the adjoining villages, for no matter whether lovers’ trysting-place or farmyard, field, river or marsh there may the elfin ha ha be heard. The agricultural bogie in Northamptonshire will hold no dispute with the crafty farmer, nor on the borders of the Tamar and the Tavy will the huntsman hunt on headless horse, and the hunted hare assume the form of witch nor at Cheadle will the old lady turn the people’s marketing into things which they do not want. (Rather an awkward affair if she were allowed to do so at Christmas time). Now into the Welsh marches, to Marton Pool; where, if one rows across the lake midnight the voices of the submerged village come up from the depths beneath, mingling with the rippling of the waters on that sandy margin and the moaning of the west wind as it blows off the flanks of the Corndon Mountain. To the heart of England, the woods of Arden, and on to Sherwood Forest. There the dancing rings will be forsaken, and into the fen country where the marsh light will not misguide the benighted traveller. Turning back we face the west countrie, to Devon and Cornwall, the very home of legendary lore, and of the south-west wind. Tregeagle is the enchained spirit of that great gale, and his voice is heard louder at the Land’s End and on those rocky coasts than any other place. But he will not be heard there tonight, for at St. Breock’s Church chants and prayers are offered to secure his unresting spirit, nor will the fisherman hear his voice passing over the bottomless Dosmery Pool on the dark moors, nor the rocks at Roughton and on the sandy shores Padstow, whose sands as a punishment were to be made by him into ropes, and were broken as fast as made, nor on the bar at Helston the seaport, and the tide swept Trowame Head, the Lizard and the granite headlands of Porthcarnow cove, where the sands were to be swept clear away as another infliction and which were brought back by each succeeding tide, at none of these places will Tregeagle moan and labour in vain. On Christmas Eve all places should be tranquil and all people untroubled, for ‘When that season comes wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrate, the bird of dawning singeth all night long; then they say no sprite dares stir abroad, the nights are wholesome, then no fairy takes nor witch hath power charm, so hallow’d and so gracious is the time. Anon, ‘A Suspended Rule: Christmas Eve’, Sussex Agricultural Express (23 Dec 1893), 6
Happy Christmas to all readers!
24 Dec, 2015: A couple of interesting posts here. First we have Jim from Hypnogoria.
I’ve been digging into this myself (for a podcast for next Christmas) and I’ve found the supernatural Christmas truce is mentioned in Hamlet!
“Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,”
Next Invisible: Your Christmas truce post was practically a concise gazetteer of fairy belief in Britain! Brilliant! Although Dickens obviously did not share this view:
It is required of every man,” the Ghost returned, “that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide; and if that spirit goes not forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is doomed to wander through the world—oh, woe is me !—and witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth, and turned to happiness!”
While Christmas eve is not specified, the air is full of wandering spirits on that night, so perhaps Dickens did not know of the Christmas truce?
Finally Southern Man: I haven’t heard of the Christmas Truce but I can tell you that lots of ghosts, particularly in the English Midlands, only appear at Christmas. So that would be quite the opposite!
Thanks Jim, Invisible and SM!
