Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/180

 172 of which the description speaks, the Christmas-tree was unknown. The oldest record we have of a Christmas-tree dates from 1604, in Strasburg, in Alsace. It is a description, by a citizen of that town, of all the peculiar customs prevalent there at that time, to which he gave the title of Memorabilia quaedam Argentorati observata. After describing how the church-service is conducted, he gives an account of a children's festival: "At Christmas-time each child is taught a hymn or a verse from the Bible, which the boys have to say on Christmas Day, and the girls on New Year's Day, after saying which each child receives one, two, three, or four farthings, and sometimes a small book. As a contrast to this, the writer later on describes the Christmas in the house of the citizen:

"At Christmas, a fir-tree is put into the room, on which are hung roses made of coloured paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, sweetmeats, etc. Usually a square frame is made around it." It is impossible to decipher the writing after this, as the paper is quite torn.

So in 1604 the Christmas-tree (but without candles) was already quite common in Strasburg. The next mention we find of the subject comes from the same place. In the years 1642-1646, Professor Dannhauer, D.D., in Strasburg, wrote a very learned book, entitled Catechismusmilch (The Milk of the Catechism). The professor was an orthodox Protestant; the Church was to him everything, secular life nothing. He was indignant that the people of Strasburg celebrated Christmas in their home, instead of devoting all their time to religious rites, and so he says: "Among other trifles with which they commemorate Christmas-time often more than with the word of God, is the Christmas, or fir-tree, which is erected at home. It is hung with dolls and sweetmeats, and afterwards shaken and plundered. Whence this custom came I do not know; it is child's-play. It would be much better to direct the children towards the spiritual tree of Jesus Christ."

To all appearances the Christmas-tree was still a local