IN the December days preceding Christmas there have always been celebrations of a very mixed kind. They range from the customs practised on Old Christmas Day (Dec 6), by way of the Halcyon Days that bring a patch of milder weather to the celebrations of St Lucy’s Day (Dec 13), the feast of St Thomas which is today (Dec 20), and then tomorrow we remember that it is the shortest day of the year which is also known as Candle Auction Day, Gooding Day and more formally as the Feast of St Thomas the Apostle, who is often known as Doubting Thomas.

Nowadays, we ignore or forget most of these because Christmas has now developed a cult of its own. Today it is dominated by the need to visit umpteen shops, always bearing in mind the festivities that will surely follow.

We give presents to all manner of people, including some we do not know or care about, and we send cards by the score to folks near and dear to us, but also to others we met on holiday and have never seen since. Many of us will decorate our homes with pagan greenery and lights, whilst a few others might even go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We eat and drink far too much and we also shall sing carols.

I don’t think any of us doubt that the emphasis upon Christmas has irrevocably changed in recent years. It has been transformed from a religious festival with roots in ancient times to become a frantic commercial event of unparalleled magnitude. It is fair to say that the original purpose of Christmas has been lost, perhaps for ever.

To be honest, it is not easy to determine precisely the original purpose of Christmas – the festival has emerged from ancient practices within different religions.

If that thought causes dismay in many of us, it is perhaps prudent to consider some of the earlier customs that dominated this time of year and to discover how they have also disappeared without a murmur.

Many are gone and forgotten and who cares about them now? Is our modern Christmas heading in that direction, soon to be forgotten and replaced with yet more modern practices?

Will our current concept of Christmas become little more than a distant memory commemorated by an entry in a reference book that records our former customs and traditions?

With that prospect in mind, I thought I would mention a few customs that were undoubtedly enjoyed by our ancestors, but which have now faded in our memories or vanished completely. We might ask: who remembers them now?

Old Christmas Day arrived on what is now December 6 which is also the Feast of St Nicholas from whose name “Santa Claus” is derived. It is called Old Christmas Day because Christmas Day was celebrated then in the Julian calendar. This changed when Pope Gregory XIII corrected the faults that had gradually developed in the calendar over the centuries, as a consequence of which from 1582 Christmas was celebrated on the day we know as December 25. In some parts of Europe, Christmas continues to be celebrated on December 6 but is this one day that is now forgotten or ignored in this country?

The Halcyon Days begin on December 11 and are said to continue for 14 days when we can expect mild, calm and pleasant weather, in addition to great happiness and prosperity. The period includes the feast day of St Lucy (Dec 13) which, in the Julian calendar, was the shortest day of the year. Her name means light, and candles were lit in celebration of her feast day whilst this verse was chanted: Lucy light, Lucy night, Shortest day and longest night.

I don’t think we celebrate this day any more – it’s another one we’ve forgotten.

Today, December 20 is the Eve of St Thomas when lovesick girls in Yorkshire would try to establish the identity of their future husband.

They did so before going to bed on this night, when they had to peel a large red onion and stick nine pins into it. One pin was in the centre with the others around it. As the girl pressed in the pins, she had to sing this verse: Good St Thomas, do me right Send my true love to me tonight, In his clothes and his array Which he wearest every day.

That I may see him in the face And in my arms may him embrace.

Having done this, she had to go to bed and place the onion, complete with pins, beneath her pillow. She then hoped she would dream about her future husband.

And one other thing for today – the Eve of St Thomas has long been the official start of the carol singing season. Not many people know that, but how many adhere to this date?

The feast day of St Thomas follows tomorrow, December 21, which is also the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. One of the popular customs for boys on the North York Moors was to go A-Thomassing. This involved visiting outlying houses to ask for St Thomas gifts which were usually a piece of ginger cake with cheese, or a pepper cake. In some areas of Yorkshire, poor women would tour the factories and mills to beg portions of wheat which were ground into flour free of charge so that they could make their Christmas cakes.

In return, they gave gifts of holly and this custom was known as A-Gooding.

Another custom for December 21 was to plant onions and shallots, and it was also reckoned to be a good day for planting broad beans. In some districts, candles were auctioned as a preparation for the worst of the winter weather, and in Yorkshire’s Richmond the Mayor’s Audit Money was distributed to the poor, with them visiting the Town Hall to collect the money.

The custom, introduced by Queen Elizabeth I in 1576 for the benefit of poor indigenous tradesmen and decayed housekeepers is still practised, but changed to include any resident of Richmond, man or woman, who is over 60 years of age. Fortunately, this is one Christmas custom that has not disappeared.

Among the surviving beliefs for Christmas Eve is that the cattle, horses and sheep sink to their knees at midnight in honour of the birth of Christ, and a corresponding tradition is that the bees in their hives hum the psalms.

One tradition that does continue in some areas is to bring in the Yule Log on Christmas Eve. This is a large piece of long-lasting wood that was lit on Christmas Eve and expected to smoulder until Christmas Day or perhaps longer. A piece of it was then extinguished and put away until the following year, when it was used to ignite the new Yule Log. If the log stopped burning before Christmas Day, it was considered bad luck, and some country houses kept their logs burning for the entire 12 Days.

I wish a Happy Christmas to all readers.