In the place, however, of the Christmas decorations, the “greener box was upraised,” and Christmas now was positively at an end. Some indeed, considered this to have been the case on Twelfth Night, and old Tusser, in his _Five Hundred Points of good Husbandry_, strongly contends for it; but then his head was more full of the cart and plough than of regard for old customs; and like any other master, he was naturally anxious that the holidays should be ended, and the labourers should get to work again as soon as possible; and merry-making, however agreeable it may be, will not help to dig the land or sow the grain. But in spite of these wise saws, the truth of which nobody would contest, human feelings are stronger than human reason, and customs, when they tend to pleasure, will maintain their ground till they are superseded, not by privations, but by other forms of amusement.--_New Curiosities of Literature_, Soane, 1847, vol. i. p. 52. The following is from Herrick’s _Hesperides_, p. 337. “Down with the Rosemary and Bayes, Down with the Misleto; Instead of Holly, now up-raise The greener Box for show. The Holly hitherto did sway, Let Box now domineere, Until the dancing Easter Day, Or Easter’s Eve appeare. Then youthful Box, which now hath grace Your houses to renew, Grown old, surrender must his place Unto the crisped Yew. When Yew is out, then Birch comes in, And many flowers beside; Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne To honour Whitsontide. Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents, With cooler Oaken boughs, Come in for comely ornaments To re-adorn the house. Thus times do shift; each thing his turne does hold; New things succeed, as former things grow old.” NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. It was at one time customary, in the villages bordering on the Trent, to decorate not only churches but houses with branches of box, and to light up a number of candles in the evening, as being the last day of Christmas rejoicings. “On Candlemas Day throw candles away” is a popular proverb for the following day.--_Jour. Arch. Assoc._ 1853, vol. viii. p. 231. FEB. 2.] CANDLEMAS DAY. This day, the festival of the “Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” is sometimes called _Christ’s Presentation_, the _Holiday of St. Simeon_, and _The Wives’ Feast_. The ceremony of candle-bearing (which continued in England till it was repealed for its Popish tendency by an order in council in the second year of King Edward VI.) is generally considered to refer to what Simeon said when he took the infant Jesus in his arms, and declared that he was _a light to lighten the Gentiles_.