Christmas Customs and Traditions [Paperback]

Clement A. Miles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2011

Comprehensive, nonsectarian treasury details the origins and evolution of Christmas, and significance of religious and secular practices during the Yuletide. Includes caroling, gifts, Yule logs, much more. Scholarly, yet fascinating.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (November 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486233545
• ISBN-13: 978-0486233543
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,720 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth Reading, March 23, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Ashlynn's Grove) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Christmas Customs and Traditions (Paperback)

This book was originally published in 1912 under the title "Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan".

This Book not only covers Christmas, but Halloween and various Saint's Days.

Mr. Miles does an interesting job of exploring the lore behind Christmas breads and cakes, the Yule log, decorating, and the Christmas Dramas of Europe and the British Isles, earlier this century.

A quaint Northumberland ritual utilizing Holly leaves is presented from page 275 of this work:

"....Nine leaves are taken up and tied with nine knots into a
"handkerchief, and put under the pillow by a person who
"desires prophetic dreams.
"For this purpose smooth leaves (without prickles)
"must be employed...."
The next sentence informs us that "holly is hated by witches"....

A twist on the familiar "Kissing under the Mistletoe" is given on the previous page, and we are informed that after each kiss, the boy removes a berry from the bough, and "when the berries were all picked, the privilege ceased."

You will also find a scattering of black and white reproductions of paintings, a wonderfully etched reproduction of Albreht Durer's "Madonna and Child", as well as a bibliography, notes and an index.

This book is well worth it's modest price.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended, October 2, 2007

By 

Benjamin W. West - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christmas Customs and Traditions (Paperback)

You certainly won't find any fluff in this book. It is not, as suggested by another reviewer, written in early modern English, but in thoroughly modern English. The prose is a bit stiff and formal, almost academic (which is consistent with its publication date), but entirely readable. There are a few quotes and poems in original languages which are not translated.
These problems aside, for anyone truly interested in the origins of how we celebrate various "festivals" this time of year, this book is indispensable. I actually found the second part of the book, dealing with pagan rituals and festivals, to be the most interesting; it is fascinating to me how these practices, some thousands of years old, have survived to this day in various forms in different parts of the world.
The origins of Christmas are dealt with in a very straightforward, dispassionate way.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN OLDER, YET STILL EXTREMELY HELPFUL BOOK, December 24, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Christmas Customs and Traditions (Paperback)

This book was originally published in 1912. In the Preface, the author states, "In this volume I have tried to show how Christmas is or has been kept in various lands and ages, and to trace as far as possible the origin of the pagan elements that have mingled with the Church's feast of the Nativity... The book has been written primarily for the general reader, but I venture to hope that, with all its imperfections, it may be of some use to the more serious student, as a rough outline map of the field of Christmas customs, and as bringing together materials hitherto scattered through a multitude of volumes in various languages."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"The French Noel ... (is) obviously derived from the Latin natalis, and meaning 'birthday.' One naturally takes this as referring to the Birth of Christ..." (Pg. 22)
"Yule, the ordinary word for Christmas in the Scandinavian languages ... Its derivation has been widely discussed, but so far no satisfactory explanation of it has been found... Whatever its source may be, it is clearly the name of a Germanic season---probably a two-month tide covering the second half of November, the whole of December, and the first half of January." (Pg. 25)
"'(C)arol' had at first a secular or even pagan significance: in twelfth-century France it was used to describe the amorous song-dance which hailed the coming of spring... while by English writers from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century it was used chiefly of singing joined with dancing, and had no necessary connection with religion." (Pg. 47)
"The use of the 'crib' (French 'creche'...) at Christmas is now universally diffused in the Roman Church." (Pg. 105)
"Whatever the limits fixed for the beginning and end of the Christmas festival, its core is always the period between Christmas Eve and the Epiphany---the 'Twelve Days.' A cycle of feasts falls within this time, and the customs peculiar to each day will be created in calendarial order." (Pg. 238-239)
"The most widespread, and to children the most delightful, of all festal institutions is the Christmas-tree. Its picturesqueness and gay charm have made it spread rapidly all over Europe without roots in national tradition, for, as most people know, it is a German creation, and even in Germany it attained its present immense popularity only in the nineteenth century." (Pg. 263)