Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/562

482 TRANSLATION.

It is indispensable to kill a pig shortly before Christmas, as roast pork and sausage must not be wanting at the festal board. At Hennstedt, in Ditmarsh, a special swine market is held December 6.

In every house, special bread and cake are baked the week before Christmas. The productions of the bakers are more elaborate. They make what is called Kienjeestüg, that is, human or animal shapes painted in loud colors or covered with gold leaf.

The custom of giving presents to the poor is quite common. The threshers in Ditmarsh get a loaf of bread, and the letter-carriers often carry loads of them home.

It is customary to eat but little during the day preceding Christmas eve in order to have a big appetite for the great feast in the evening. On this occasion the cattle in the barn even receive an extra allowance of fodder, and cats and dogs get better meals. At times, the cattle are admitted to the higher joys to the extent that a candle is placed above the trough from which they feed, just as each member of the family used to have his own candle, which he made himself, when tallow was universally used. These candles must be made heavy and big, for he whose candle goes out first will die first.

After the great dinner the dishes must not be washed at once in the usual fashion. They are left until about ten minutes before midnight, when the young folks take them out to a well and wash them there, for in the water they can, at midnight, see the faces of their future lovers and sweethearts.

Every one must eat heartily, for he whose appetite gives out first will die first. As a consequence of this hearty