NEW YEAR'S DAY IN OLDEN TIME. "Salut, beau jour doré, Premier de l'an! C'est toi qui viens sourire aux enfants si joyeux, "Les Québeccoises, W. CHAPMAN.” The (1) 1st of January, held in the Roman Catholic Church as a great festival, is also observed as a feast in the Church of England. From time immemorial it has, in Canada, meant a merry-meeting for all; a special gala day for the ladies to receive visitors; a date passing dear to the young, in view of the gifts and pleasant surprises it invariably had in store. In some provinces of old France it went under the popular and appropriate name of Le Jour des Etrennes, (1)" Although there was a general popular regard to the 1st of January, as the beginning of the year, the ancient Jewish year, which opened with the 25th of March, continued long to have a legal position in Christian countries. In England, it was not till 1752 that the 1st of January became the initial day of the legal, as it had long been of the popular, year. Before that time it was customary to set down dates between the 1st of January and the 24th of March inclusive, thus: January 30th, 1648-49; meaning, that popularly the year was 1649, but legally 1648. In Scotland the desirable change was made by a decree of James V1, in privy council, in the year 1600. It was effected in France, in 1564; in Holland, Protestant Germany and Russia, in 1700; and in Sweden, in 1753".-Book of Days. the Day of Gifts. Providence, in their eyes, seemed to have selected it, in bleak January, the severest month in the year, to bring to the domestic circle, with touching religious observance, a warm gleam of sunshine. "In the quaint drawings which illuminate the Catholic missals in the Middle Ages, January, says Brady, "is represented by the figure of a man clad in white, as the type of the snow usually on the ground at that season, and blowing on his fingers as descriptive of the cold; under his left arm he holds a billet of wood, and near him, stands the figure of the sign Aquarius, into which watery emblem in the zodiac the sun enters on the 19th of this month." It was Numa Pomphilius who named this month. Januarius, in honour of Janus, the Pagan deity supposed to preside over doors-typefying the opening and closing of the year. Janus could look into two directions at once; the double faced, typical old villain, honoured among the ancients, is not without his representatives among the moderns. Scanning through the weird gallery of the past, the Fasti, of our native city, give us back the quaint figures of our Gallic ancestors, as they moved round on this festive day. Without venturing to assert that the family sideboard on New Year's Day groaned under such pyramids of crockignolles, iced gáteaux and bonbons, such an array of wine decanters and liqueur flasks, as was customary in the hey-day of our youth-when Blue Ribbonmen, alas! were curiosities-we can positively affirm that reliable, written records remain of how things were managed in the "rock city" in the good olden time. Several entries occur in the private journal of the Jesuits, recently published, throwing light on the customs of New Year's Day and its presents, furnishing a gratifying picture of the cordiality which reigned among the inhabitants of New France. Let us open the quaint volume and read an extract, (1) taking us back to the distant era when a Knight Grand Cross of Jerusalem, gallant Charles Huault de Montmagny, held his court, in Champlain's Fort, at Quebec, as the worthy representative of his serene Majesty, Louis Quatorze. These extracts will bring us face to face with several of the notabilities of the period. The Governor's visit over, the first we shall meet on 1st January, 1646, is Dr. Robert Giffard, an inmate of Quebec, a cultured professional man from Perche, France, seigneur of (1) January 1st, 1646, the soldiers went to salute the Governor with their guns; the inhabitants presented their compliments in a body. He was beforehand with us, and came here at seven o'clock to wish us, a happy New Year, addressing each of the Fathers one after another. I returned his visit after Mass. (Another time we must be beforehand with him). M. Giffard also came to see us. The Hospital nuns sent us a letter of compliment early in the morning; the Ursulines also, with beautiful presents: wax candles, rosaries, a crucifix, and, at dinner, two excellent pigeon pies. I sent them two images (in enamel) of St. Ignatius and of St. F. Xavier. We gave to M. Giffard the "Life of Our Lord," by F. Bonnet; to M. des Châtelets, a little volume of "Drexellius on Eternity"; to M. Bourdon, a telescope and compass; and to others, reliquaries, rosaries, medals, images, &c. We gave a crucifix to the woman who washes the church linen, a bottle of rum to Abraham, and four handkerchiefs to his wife; some books of devotion to others and two handkerchiefs to Robert Hache; he asked for more and we gave them to him. "I went to see M. Giffard. M. Couillard and Mademoiselle de Repentigny. The Ursulines sent to beg I would come and see them before the end of the day. I went and paid my compliments also to Madame de la Peltrie, who had sent us presents. "At home I gave to our Fathers and Brothers what I thought they would like best. I had given beforehand to F. de Quen, for Sillery, all he chose to take from my room and a choice present for Father Massé.—Jesuits' Journal, p. 24. Beauport, in virtue of a grant dating as far back as 1634; his solid Beauport manor seems to have been less attractive that winter than city life in Quebec. He is now trudging over the snowy streets towards the Jesuits College (the old Jesuits Barracks raized in 1878), facing the Basilica; let us wish him the compliments of the season! He is followed by Juchereau des Châtelets, the factor of the fur-company; both will receive pleasant souvenirs, New Year's gifts from the learned professors at the college. Another visitor is in view, Jehan or Jean Bourdon, savant, land surveyor (1), engineer, explorer, a species of admirable Crichton, who left his surname to that leading thoroughfare, St. John's street. Most appro priate presents await him: a telescope and a compass. Other callers of less importance, socially, are gratified with petits présents,-rosaries, medals, images, etc. Even the laundress of the college is remembered. That shady (2) old salt, the King's pilot, Abraham Martin dit l'Ecossais, who bequeathed his name to his Quebec estate, the historic plains of Abraham, comes in for creature comforts and carries away a flagon, probably of the "real stingo, from St. Domingo, by Jingo, a bottle of French rum, and his wife, six handkerchiefs. Robert Hache, the greedy fellow, is not satisfied with receiving two handkerchiefs, but "asks for and gets more." Louis Couillard (3) who, the year previous, had munificiently given the site on which was built the Basilica minor, also Mlle de Repentigny, (4) waited (1) Bourdon was chief engineer of the colony. (2) There is in the Journal des Jésuites an awkward entry for his fair fame; seemingly he was not a Joseph. (3) Couillard was son-in-law of the first settler, Hébert. (4) Mademoiselle de Repentigny was daughter of Le Gardeur de Repentigny, commander of the fleet. until the Reverend Fathers called on them, as well as that accomplished, charitable and elegant French widow, Madame de la Peltrie, the founder of the Ursuline Convent, in 1639. To a Silleryonian, it is pleasant to notice also a remembrance in store for that good Father Massé, who, for more than two and a half centuries, enjoys the long rest under the nave of his little church, at the spot marked by his monument, at Sillery Cove. No other New Year's day, however, will dawn for the devoted missionary; six months more only of sublunary existence are vouchsafed him in his Sillery mission, where he expired among his tawny neophytes on the 12th May, 1646. Among the hallowed, primitive New Year's Day customs, perpetuated in some corners of French Canada, is that known as La Bénédiction Paternelle - the Father's blessing on his children; it was generally delivered in the morning after Mass. Not always after High Mass. In some families, the touching observance took place much sooner. The historian of Montcalm and Lévis, abbé Casgrain, has related how the New Year was ushered in for the young hopefuls, in the family circle of his late father, the Honble Chs. Eugène Casgrain, at Rivière-Ouelle, P. Q. "At early morn', says he, our mother woke us up, attired us in our Sundays best suit, and gathered us all together, with the house servants following, in the parlor: she then thrust open the bed room door of our father, who from his couch, invoked a blessing on all of us ranged kneeling round him, whilst emotion used to bring tears to the eyes of our dear mother. Our father in an impressive manner accompanied his blessing with a few words to us, raising his hands heavenwards. Of course the crowning part of the ceremony, was the distribution of the New Year's gifts which he kept concealed behind him ".-(Mémoire de Famille, p. 206.) |