HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1929-01-31, Page 7How They Meet the
Bright New Year
Various Customs in Cather
Lands on the Festival of
Birth of Another - Year
JOY THE RULE
l!'rauco meets 'the new years with a
mowing cup; to Scotland it brings in
the famous hagassis- to a bagpipe
tune; in Persia it signifies the rebirth
Of all life; China's new year sends an
s old household god to the land of spie-
ls while it establishes another deity
on the fancily hearth. In Canada,
accompanied by merrymaking or sole
enmity, as the temper of the company
demands, another leaf in the book of
life turns over. Varying calendars an -
Nance the new year at different tunes
of the year in different parts of the
world. but eveiywhere as the day rolls
around it is greeted with an outburst
of celebration.
St. Syivestro's Day is a saint's day
no one ignores in France. Saints come
and go throughout the year, observed
. with more or less devotion by pious
people of the nation, but when St.
Sylvestre's Eve conies en the last day
of the old year, families rich and poor
are prepared for its ritual. The stores
" teem with lovely things and toy shops
are crowded to the doors with dolls
and drumS, for St. Sylveatre's Day,
. rather than Christmas is the season
of giving in France.
Eight o'clock on St. Sylvestse's eve
take. • tthe people to mass for the solemn
dedicatory service for the corning year.
When the tnass is over gay' crowds
press homeward for the feast of the
evening.
A tremendous dinner is spread and
around it gather the head of the fain-
ily, his wife, their children, their chil-
dren's children and all the uncles,
aunts and cousins—the honor of en-
tertaining falling upon the oldest of
the family line. Mouton gigot is the
main ash of the dinner (since turkey
and chicken are little favored in
Prance), accompanied by glorified
string beans and truffle sauces, and
a finale of pataisseries and wine.
On the stroke of midnight, which ap-
preaches near the end of the dinner,
the city busts forth with all the din
. that whistles, drums, horns and shouts
can arouse, and everybody greets the
new year with a draught of chant-
pagne. . Wine may flow early in the
evening, but this king of beverages is
reserved until the new year actually
shows his face. Upon the streets hil-
arity reaches its height with the mid-
night bell, for then the ancient order
of kissing cones into its own.
As on old rtussisa Easter, nobody
stands on ceremony, for tradition gives
gives hint sanction to kiss the prettiest
girl in sight, whether he has ever seen
her before in his life—and right
heartily be does it. Dignity unbends
and beauty lays to its majesty for a
few rollicking moments.
Youngsters, long since in bed, have
left their shoes, big and little, upon.
the hearth, waiting for the giftgivers,
and before parents and relatives be-
take themselves to a late bed they fill
the shoes with the ;,ear's offerings of
toys, candies and fruits.
GERMANY OP YORE.
Germany, whose St. Nicholas is lov-
ed even more than our Santa Claus,
makes no great stir over New Year's
now, but there are many tales of sea-
sonal functions in the old days under
the monarchy.
There was a custom in the cities
during the youth of the former 1>:aiser
that a man appeared on the streets in
a tall silk hat on New Year's Eve at
his own peril. The idea probably grew
out of the hdstiiity of the lower classes
to the bourgeoisie, the silk hat being
a symbol of prosperity. Should a pro-
vincial, ignorant of the cnstoni, have
the ill fortune to stroll forth in fine
feathers on that ever sg in Berlin he
was almost at once greeted by . the
command to take oil' his hat, He, not
' believing the summons for hint, walk-
ed on with unruffled composure.
Shouting Mobs were around him in no
time, and he, too late, saw that he was
really meant to doff his hat, With
;rough blows the beautiful hat was
smashed over its.ewner's ears and en -
dimly demolished,"
A story, which may be three parts
fiction, say that William 'II. used to
love to dress as a member of the work-
Ing class and mingle with the crowd
incognito and join in the rough sport.
On one occasion he had the tnisfortune
to belabor seat old man who was. more
than prepared for the onslaught. The
old gentleman had' been attacked in
former times, and on this particular
year he had equipped himself with a
leather skull cap which he wore under
his hat; Set thickly in the leather
were sheep upstanding nails, lNhcn
the Emperor's fist camp down on that
feilow'e hat, it oncounte.cd more than
betvilclered'head, and the royal hand
was so severely injured as to require
a suri.reon's attention.
In Vrankfert-on-the-main the whole
city salutes itself at the moment of
midnight. ` 1 ntttilies and groups of
Meads together watch the old- year
out, and when the clock begins to
strike twelta, everywinder` in the
city flies open and the streets resound
with 'Posit .Nuojahr"—}}appy New
S.e it i 'Toasts aro drunktend good
w cvehauged,
nlr"< SCOTCH WAY.
"Gane Bras in ,Scotland when New
-y`ear`s far outa;.one Chrietni'as ixi lore
poi -Mecca and though the oeder is niow
rf r ss -ed, -many 'af the old Stipend -
tet zttake NOW "3L er ofte
Of f Cts IO t.4iintGs 400 .S,00tlitid
knows. It is a busy season for the
bakers who ere awaking their hard
loaves of rye bread and their fancy
tarts and short breads, Their windows:
are festive witL little oinoamented
cakes bearing iced sugar mottos'wish-
ing "A. Happy New 'Year" and "A
Merrie Auld Yule.'! A famous Scotch
hun made entirely of egg and chopped
fruit enclosed in n 'crust appears
bountifully during New Year week.
First footing has come from the nine-
teenth century with scarce abated
,vigor. This is the custom of visiting
,friends immediately after midnight.
Prudent people usually take care that
the first foot set inside their doors be-
longs to a,per'son of fait' c„..intenance
since the fair face brings good luck
for the entire year. A Clark face
brings bad luck, Ono might expect
all brunettes to remain at home under
the circumstances if another bait did
not draw them out. The first footer
is allowed to Ides the person who ans-
wers his knock, and many a swain
awakes his visit hoping the -favored.
daughter of the lzonse will open the
door,
Healthy are drunk with regular
Scotch whiskey, and when the party is
aseiabled, a piper in highland plaids
enters playing the hagassis tune on
his bagpipes. Immediately after him
comes the cook bearing th ; hagassis, a
huge boiled pudding of well establish-
ed reputation. It is to Scotland what
the plum pudding is to England, and
it isloudly welcomed.. On that night
no fire on the hearth goes out since
gray ashes on the grate on New Year
horning are a bad sign.
On New Year's Eve and late into
the night the children of the city and
the country go from door to door sing-
ing begging songs, Carrying enor-
mous turnips made into jack -o -lan-
terns, and muffled in sheets and
masks, just as Canadian children are
on x''allowe'en, the little beggars shout
their ditty until they are rewarded
with cheese and bread and with the
little New Year pitcaithy bannoeks
which have made the bake shop win-
dows alluring for a week.
IN 'PERSIA TOO.
Nowhere in the world, with the pos-
sible exception of China, does the New
Year bring such feasting as it does
in Persia. There the day and the
customs are those which survive from
the old Zoroastrian worship and tra-
ditions. Mahontmetanism has long
held nominal sway in Persia, and its
calendar is used to a great extent, but
the folk customs of the older religion
survive and occupy an incomparably
dear place in the life of the people.
That is why the New Year celebration,
surrounds March 21 rather than fol-
lows the day around the Mohainmetan
lunar calendar which makes the first
of the year fall at different times of
the sun calendar. •
Because it is spring, and all plant
and animal life is springing anew,
March seems an especially appropri-
ate time for New Year. On the clay
roofs a riot of color announces the
blooming of myriads of wild flowers
whose seeds of tho year before have
blown about on the wind and found
lodging in the straw and loose soil of
the housetops. No child dares pick
these New' Year flowers, just as he
dares not kill a bird or an animal,
since according to Zoroastrianism life
is sacred, and should any life be voil-
ently taken the spirit of it is doomed
to wander homeless forever.
In the houses all is hubbub, for
spring cleaning, the like of which no
western house has yet endured, is on
foot. The gorgeous ruge and mats
are packed on the backs of the beasts
of burden and taken utiles to the
streams to be washed in running
water; ,pots and pans are cleaned and
scoured; the cooking quarters are
humming with activity. The lady of
an establishment has her hands more
than full at Persia's New Year, be-
cause every member of her. household,
lowest servant to favorite wife, must
have new clothing from the roost in-
significant piece of underwear to the
fine gauzy silks Persian women wear
as outer wraps. Peddlers of baubles
and jewelry, merchants of brocades,
shawls and chintzes, call upon the
great of the land and sell enormous
quantities of their wares. Dress-
makers follow them and throw the
household into such an uproar that
the men sand boys might leave home
if any house in Persia offered a re,
treat.
Meanwhile culinary preparations go
on briskly. Both men and womenare
malting tho fatuous Persian sweet-
meats which belong almost exclusively
to tho Now Year, Adjil, a.niixture of
twenty- kinds of nuts, the seeds of
svat.ermolons and pumpkins, tiny peas,
quince seeds, salt and the juice of
limes has a delicate greenish color aid .
is the greatest favorite of all the deli-
cacies prepared It.ice flour is made
Tito fine little cakes and a rich dainty
thisich employs `pounded walnuts in
plate ofe ftour' ite ne of the :richest of
the New Tatar estlrs., Nuts, too, salt-
ed and swcaeiA eel, tiro prepared in
huge quantities,
Two thousand years age tho lovely
pi;actiee-of planting Wheat in bowls
had its, origin, Today it still flourish-
es, and by the dawn of No -Iter (Now
Year's Day) the plants, which were
nut into the bowls not quite a month
before, aro several incheshigli, so that
tho bowl makes at lovely delicate green
aentrepicea for the great ;foetal board.
MOTHER'S DAY;
New F'ear's Day is above atll others
dedicated to the mother of tho house-
hold, She ret the queen of the day,
and before the people sit down around
Ilia long White linen cloth which is
spread on the floor and covered with
the cookery of rtttuty prece'ling days, ?rilideas Marg. of England visiting the young Patient's in the Mansfield 'Oi,thopedi
they must;receive the hiessIng of the bedside of bur father, Ring George, to eerform a number of official acts,
What An Oil Fire Looks Like
FIRE WORKS D;SPLAY A SEVEN -DAYS' WONDER
Billowing clouds of black smoke coming from an oil fire in Beaumont, Texas, which
fore it was extinguished, at the cost of $100,000. _
burned for
even clays be -
another. She then invites theist to sit
down.
In souses where, European guests. of
some importaaice have been rsl ed to
dine, :soup may precede the male
course, but in most Persian menus
this westernism has not fund its way.
Pilau, which is to say, rice is piled
upon tremencl:,us trays not less than
two feet in dtrineter and served with
a savory sa"ace. Turkey, with its
sauces, follows, . and finally another
pilau, which is sweet. Almonds, pis-
tachios, fangs, raisins and walnuts
snake the sweet pilau one of the finest
things in all Persian cookery.
On that day the visiting start.:. No
polite- Persian nor foreign visite):
cares omit the courtesy of the visits,
though if his time is very precious he
may call and merely leave his card.
7wrenty and thirty visits a deur roust
be crowded into the schedule of people
of some public prominence. The streets
aro a carniv d of color; sriact wench
gowns are veiled with the to le scarfs
of the women, but the colors :f the
dresses are only enhanced by the flut-
tering outer garment. Out of the
windows; over balconies, hang the
rug. which have made' Persia $an.ons
—gorgeous banners of the lay's im-
portance. Tea drinking and sherbet
and sweetmeats arranged in exact de-
signs on trays in the gardens of
friends and acquaintances are the
orderof the sea
o son.
THE GIFT SEASON.
For twelve days the visting goes on
And gifts aro given among families
and friends; not gifts in our sense of
the word, but bright silver and gold
coins; and in seine cases fine old coins
whose value is far greater than their
face denomination, which are kept
years afterward for their beauty and
rarity.
Seezdeh-debar, (the thirteenth day
to the door of year) arrives on the
thirteenth day of the year and with it
the greatest celebration of all. Out of
the twelve gates of Teherc.n goes the
population of the city past the mote
that surrounds the ancient citadel and
over the artificial hill that hems it in.
Beside running streams shaded by
willows and poplars they spread the
picnic dinner, Such a dinner as: it is.
There is barbecued lamb, and rice and
tea from precious old samovars, and
an incredible amount of shirinee the”
sweets which have been made with so
much labor. All day long the picnic
lasts, with the people playing games
or sitting talking on the - rugs they
have brought out for the day. Seezdelt-
bedar over, the New Year celebration
is closed for the year.
Speeding around corners is a
straight road to the hospital.
The Yellow River
By Thomas Steep
The Hwang -ho, or Yellow River, to
which also is given the name "China's
Sorrow," Is of all rivers the wickedest.
It inundates homes by the thousands
and drowns people by the millions. It
assumes in the Chinese imagination
the character of a ruthlessly destruc-
tive dragon, -•hose tail is in the moue
tains of Tibet, whose body stretches
2,600 miles across Northern China, and
whose head is in the Gulf of Pechili:.
It is held accountable for the death by
drowning in the last three centuries of
10,000,000 people. It swamps areas
thirty miles wide, and in one instance
in a• single night destroyed 1,500 vil-
lages. It churns up millions of tons
of loose chalky earth, buries farm-
lands under mud up to the eaves of
the farmers' huts and yearly carries
out to sea enough sediment to build
up a solid, mountain on the floor of the
ocean. It shifts its mouth capriciously
from the coast of one province to the
coast of another province and leaves
in its wake famines and pestilences
more devastating than war.
Yet its influence on Chinese civiliza-
tion has been beneficient; its pictur-
esque gorges and torrents in the
Tibetan highlands hale for ages' been
lthe theme pf Chinese poetry, its shal-
low lower reaches bear a considerable
commerce, and its whole length marks
the pathway by which the pioneering
`forebears of the yellow race migrated
from the sterile uplands of Central
Asia to the fertile lowlands.
1 Rising in the high Kobo-nor plateau,
in Tibet, among a group of small
lakes called "the starry seas," the.
Hwang -ho tumbles through the rocky
mountain gorges in fresh, cool cas-
cades, which the Chinese poets com-
pare to the falling of liquid jade. The
falls at Lungmen (Dragon -gate), with
• its overhanging Drags and its sur-
rounding forests, vales, peaked pago-
das and huge buddhas carved in the
mountain sides, is held to be a glimpse
of paradise. Beyond the foothills the
river for 400 miles passes the base of
the Great Wail like a wide moat, loops
a thousand anises into Mongolia and
enters Honan Province, where it
washes up the loose yellow earth in
vast quanties and carries it swiftlyt
seaward. On the lower plains, where
it widene and tweets a more gradual
decline, the river slackens its speed
and permits the silt and coarser
detritus to sink, causing the river beet
to rise continuously.
Fey forty centuries the Chinese, to
prevent the river from becoming an
inland sea, have struggled to 'confine it
within embankments of earth, only to
see the embankments washed away
when the river bed., raised by the ac-
cumulated silt, lifts the waters over
them, "What,,' asks Dr. F. H. King in
his "Farmers of Forty Centuries,"
"must be said of the mental status
of a people who for forty centuries
have measured their strength against
such a Titan racing past their homes
Shove the level of their fields confined
only between walls of their own con-
struction?" Obviously, the Patience of
the Chinese is comparable to that of
ants which, finding their ramparts of
sand destroyed, laboriously build them
up again. The amount of mud the
river disperses is prodigious. It has
been estimated that the Hwang -he to-
gether with the Yangtse in 360 cen-
turies will fill up with solid land the
whole of the Yellow Sea.
As a bearer of freight the Hwang -ho
is incorribly batt; it not only because
of its shallowness refuses to carry any
but rafts and flatboats, but it strands
thein on its treacherous sandbars. The
craft, whose cargoes are chiefly lac-
quer juice, millet, rice, tobacco, gums
and oils, are built in the highlands,
where timber is plentiful, and disman-
tled and sold for lumber in the low-
laucls, where wood is scarce. So It
may be Said of the Hwang -ho, as of no
other river, that the ships sail down
it never sail up again.
The last time I crossed the Hwang -
ho I. was
Z passenger on the Peking-'
Hankow express. It was past midnight'
and the train moved over the desolate
plains of interior China with a mo-
notonous clickety-click, Inside the
coach the passengers, Europeans and
Chinese, slept soundly in grotesque
attitudes; outside in the moonlight the
landscape swept by ghostly; a solitary
farmhouse, a chump of gnarled and
ancient trees, it ruined temple inclosed
within a ruined wall. Tired old Chiba
slumbered, oblivious fo the passing
train.
Book -Salesman (to gentleman who
has purchased several new hooks)—
"There's nothing Iike buying one's
Christmas presents quite early, sir,
and thus avoiding the crowds." Thrifty
Gentleman ---"It isn't so much that,
mon, as that when ye leave books un -
the last minute there's no time to
read them before ye have to send
them off;"
"My dear," remarked• Jones, who
had just finished reading a book on
"The \Venders of Nature." "Nature is
marvellous! When'I read a book like
this it makes,.me think how puerile,
how insignificant is man." "Huh!"
said his wife. "A woman doesn't have
to wade through 400 pages to dis-
cover that."
Young British Cripples See Princess
ENGLAND'S MUCH LOVED PRINCESS VISITS SICK
hospi
al. She left ti
League of Nations,
Calendar Reform
Canadian Society Gave Eat',
Support to this Vital Re-
form Movement, Now
Assembly May Be
Called
Ottawa. ---An international coufer• .
enee on calendar reform may mate-
rialize as a result of ac=tion being
taken before the House of Representa-
tives of the '[;cited States in Wash-
ington, the League of Nations Society
in Canada, which has its headquarters
at Ottawa, has been advised. At the
instigation of Mr. George Eastman, the
well-knowu American financier, the
committee on foreign affairs at Wash-
ington leas under its eonsideratieu a
proposal that the .President of the
States be officially requested to call an
international meeting to look into trio
question of calendar simplification,
Various federal officials at Wash-
ington have been outspoken in their
support of the movement and at
present there seems every likelihood
that calendar reform, which is spon-
sored by the League of Nations, will
be thoroughly investigated. Opinion
both in Canada and the United States
is unanimous as to the need of this
although until suggestions have been
thoroughly threshed out there is and
will continue to be disagreement as to
the nature of the' remedy.
Students of calendar reform point
out many discrepancies in the present
system,—inequality in the length of
the months, the varying number of
weeks in the months, the lack of fixity
of the calendar, and so on --and state
that a readjustment would be bene-
ficial to every class of the community,
The thirteen twenty-eight day month
plan designed by Moses B. Cotswortb
is cited as a convenient solution to
the prob]em as there would always be
four weeks in each month, and each
week day would fall upon the same
date each mouth, and crop statistics,
records of all sorts, and accounting.
would benefit greatly, Mr, Cotswortb
did much of his early work In Canada
and many years ago read a paper be-
fore the Royal Society of Canada and
received the unqualified support of
that distinguished body.
As the Lilies
Of the Field
Lady Astor, Gorgeously Clad,
Moves House To
Enthusiasm
2 London—Lady Astor has started
another movement, this time a "brigh-
ter clothes" campaign for women.
Lady Astor appeared iu the House
of Commons clad In a gorgeous cerise
gown instead of the usual somber
blues and blacks worn by women in
Parliament. The fact that site bad
come direct from a tea party was not
mentioned In the enthusiastic com-
ment and cheers that greeted her ap-
pearance Caused other women parlia-
mentarians immediately to start won-
dering if they had fallen behind.
"Of course, we do not want women
to make a fashion parade of the
House of Commons, said Miss Ellen
'Wilkinson, one of the eight women in
the Rouse, "but it strikes me that it
is high time the House got over its
supposed prejudice against women
members wearing bright colors."
Miss Susan Lawrence, another
member, supported Miss Wilkinson's
attitude. "Quite right," she said. "It
Is my View that what clothes a par-
liamentarian wears Is entirely her
own affair."
Youth's Opportunity
"A symposium on the subject of suc-
cess in business has been compiled by
Mr. R. B. Dunwoody, Secretary of the
Association of British Chambers of
Commerce, and published under tate
title of Youth's Opportunity.
lire are a few sayings of some of
the contributors: ---
"Learn to say 'No' to yourself in
matters of pleasure,
"Start early at the bottom of the
ladder.
"The sten who 'live well,' but 'not
too well,' get on best all over the
world.
'The future may see hula going into
a factory for two years. then to a uni-
versity.
"Clrutnbllnc should be kept to owe
self.
"If a young man carie manage to
take as much interest in the business
ie has entered as he does ie. say,
ootball, cricket or motor car., there
s not touch ;tsar of his troubling
About whether the clot'. wit be in
reascd or diminished."No men win be a oueces in a c ali-
tag he di�,lik' .
"Thct uc;act crop of milliotwires tire
Itcking ntm-statup now."
ii]
4i
is
1
1'
QUITE TRUE
Carrot.: You needn't ho so bait
ty, -'we're both alike;
Diamond Ring: IHow sot
Carrot; Why welt Will enta
rot!