NGLE

CLARA A. URANN

* * * * *

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. YULE-TIDE OF THE ANCIENTS

II. YULE-TIDE IN ENGLAND

III. YULE-TIDE IN GERMANY

IV. YULE-TIDE IN SCANDINAVIA

V. YULE-TIDE IN RUSSIA

VI. YULE-TIDE IN FRANCE

VII. YULE-TIDE IN ITALY

VIII. YULE-TIDE IN SPAIN

IX. YULE-TIDE IN AMERICA

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

Christmas in Naples. An Italian _Presepio_
_Frontispiece_

King Olaf's Christmas

Serenaded by the Waits

Toy-Making in Germany

Decorating the Christmas Tree

On the Way to Christmas Eve Service in Norway

A Christmas Bonfire in Russia

A Christmas Tree in Paris

A Game of Loto on Christmas Evening in Naples

Christmas Festivity in Seville

Lighting the Yule-Log in Colonial Days

Children of Many Nationalities at Christmas Celebration in a New York
School

CHAPTER I.

[Illustration]

YULE-TIDE OF THE ANCIENTS

"There in the Temple, carved in wood,
The image of great Odin stood,
And other gods, with Thor supreme among them."

As early as two thousand years before Christ Yule-tide was celebrated
by the Aryans. They were sun-worshipers and believed the sun was born
each morning, rode across the upper world, and sank into his grave at
night.

Day after day, as the sun's power diminished, these primitive people
feared that he would eventually be overcome by darkness and forced to
remain in the under world.

When, therefore, after many months, he apparently wheeled about and
grew stronger and stronger, they felt that he had been born again. So
it came about that at _Hweolor-tid_, "the turning-time,"[1] there was
great rejoicing at the annual re-birth of the sun.

In the myths and legends of these, our Indo-European ancestors, we
find the origin of many of the Yule-tide customs now in vogue.

[Footnote 1: Yule-tide]

According to the Younger Edda, Wodin or Odin, the pioneer of the
North, a descendant of Saturn, fled out of Asia. Going through Russia
to Saxland (Germany), he conquered that country and left one of his
sons as ruler. Then he visited Frankland, Jutland, Sweden, and Norway
and established each one of his many sons on a throne.

This pioneer traveler figures under nearly two hundred different
names, and so it is difficult to follow him in his wanderings. As
Wodin, he established throughout the northern nations many of