30 Years Ago

30 Years Ago

Thursday, Dec. 21,1967

Free, free, a movie for the children will be shown at the Washington Theatre on Tuesday, Dec. 26 beginning at 7 p.m. There will also be free refreshments for the youngsters. A shooting match is held every Friday night at the Washington carnival grounds beginning at 7 p.m. Prizes include oysters, hams, turkeys and pigs. The matches are sponsored jointly by the Rappahannock Rescue Squad, Washington Fire Co. and Rappahannock Jaycees. On American tables, the center of attraction is usually the turkey. This custom has its origin in the English “Christmas bird” — usually a goose, capon or chicken, rather that a turkey. In medieval times, a large bird was standard fare at English Christmas dinners among the common people. In the legend and lore of Christmas, holly has both a merry and melancholy significance. Fairies, so it is said, loved the holly. They found its leaves such a comforting shelter that even after holly was cut from the trees, they lingered about, allowing themselves to be carried indoors, where they protected the home from evil spirits. Legend says that St. Nicholas and the Italian gift-giver, Befana, rang bells on their way down the chimney to deliver Yule gifts. Ancient followers of the Druid religion were the first to regard mistletoe as a sacred plant, say the editors of The New Book of Knowledge. They supposed it to have panacean virtues in warding off everything from witches to disease. Each year, about the time Christmas is celebrated today, there was a ceremonial rite in which Druid priests, using a olden sickle, cut the mistletoe leaves from the “sacred oak” and distributed them amongst the people. The Saxons also valued this plant; they were the first to call it mistletoe. To them, mistletoe symbolized everlasting peace. • '