Page:Our American Holidays - Christmas.djvu/19



“ Merrie old England,” writes Walsh, “ was the soil in which Merrie Christmas took its firmest root.” Even in Anglo-Saxon days we hear of Alfred holding high revelry in December, 878, so that he allowed the Danes to surprise him, cut his army to pieces and send him a fugitive. The court revelries increased in splendor after the conquest. Christmas, it must be remembered was not then a single day of sport. It had the preliminary novena which began December 16, and it ended on January 6, or Twelfth Night. All this period was devoted to holiday making.

It was a democratic festival. All classes