The Church and Superstition--Nature of Pagan Survivals--Racial Origins--Roman Festivals of the _Saturnalia_ and Kalends--Was there a Teutonic Midwinter Festival?--The Teutonic, Celtic, and Slav New Year--Customs attracted to Christmas or January 1-- The Winter Cycle of Festivals--_Rationale_ of Festival Ritual: (_a_) Sacrifice and Sacrament, (_b_) The Cult of the Dead, (_c_) Omens and Charms for the New Year--Compromise in the Later Middle Ages--The Puritans and Christmas--Decay of Old Traditions. |9| CHAPTER VII ALL HALLOW TIDE TO MARTINMAS 187 All Saints' and All Souls' Days, their Relation to a New Year Festival--All Souls' Eve and Tendance of the Departed--Soul Cakes in England and on the Continent--Pagan Parallels of All Souls'--Hallowe'en Charms and Omens--Hallowe'en Fires--Guy Fawkes Day--"Old Hob," the _Schimmelreiter_, and other Animal Masks--Martinmas and its Slaughter--Martinmas Drinking--St. Martin's Fires in Germany--Winter Visitors in the Low Countries and Germany--St. Martin as Gift-bringer--St. Martin's Rod. CHAPTER VIII ST. CLEMENT TO ST. THOMAS 209 St. Clement's Day Quests and Processions--St. Catherine's Day as Spinsters' Festival--St. Andrew's Eve Auguries--The _Kloepfelnaechte_--St. Nicholas's Day, the Saint as Gift-bringer, and his Attendants--Election of the Boy Bishop--St. Nicholas's Day at Bari--St. Lucia's Day in Sweden, Sicily, and Central Europe--St. Thomas's Day as School Festival--Its Uncanny Eve--"Going a-Thomassin'." CHAPTER IX CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE TWELVE DAYS 227 Christkind, Santa Klaus, and Knecht Ruprecht--Talking Animals and other Wonders of Christmas Eve--Scandinavian Beliefs about Trolls and the Return of the Dead--Traditional Christmas Songs in Eastern Europe--The Twelve Days, their Christian Origin and Pagan Superstitions--The Raging Host--Hints of Supernatural Visitors in England--The German _Frauen_--The Greek _Kallikantzaroi_. CHAPTER X THE YULE LOG 249 The Log as Centre of the Domestic Christmas--Customs of the Southern Slavs--The _Polaznik_--Origin of the Yule Log--Probable Connection with Vegetation-cults or Ancestor-worship--The _Souche de Noel_ in France--Italian and German Christmas Logs--English Customs--The Yule Candle in England and Scandinavia. |10| CHAPTER XI THE CHRISTMAS-TREE, DECORATIONS, AND GIFTS 261