The gift of Christmas

There are many theories about this - indeed, one of them predates Christ's birth by some 500 years, so we cannot claim that that particular custom was associated with our Christmas, even if it perhaps gave birth to the general idea, albeit in the very long term.

More than 500 years before Christ, there was a pagan custom at the feast of Paganalia.

It was instituted by the Servius Tillius who was reputedly the sixth king of Rome.

He reigned for 44 years, and one of his great achievements was the foundation of a system which classified the people - he was anxious to include everyone, rich and poor, worker or ruler, in his political decision-making.

So that he could count the people, he produced a very simple idea.

Every person - man, woman and child - had to place a coin on a box which stood on an altar erected especially for that purpose.

Every town and village was ordered to erect one of these altars and, in this basic manner, he knew the numbers of people with whom he was dealing.

But what happened to all that money? He gave it to the needy.

Clearly, there was no Christmas at that time, but Servius Tillius arranged for this custom to be practised at the start of each new year, just one of several similar pagan acts of generosity in ancient Rome.

It is claimed this prompted a similar custom when Christianity was founded.

In the beginning, the Christian system, based on those pagan ideals, was conducted at the new year but in time it became part of the Christmas celebrations.

Long before the Reformation, parish priests in England placed boxes before the altar into which casual gifts, usually of money, were placed.

The boxes were in position throughout the year but were opened at mass on Christmas Day.

The collected money was known as the Dole of the Christmas Box or Box Money, and later merely as the Christmas Box.

The money was counted and distributed by the priest to the poor and needy the following day - from which Boxing Day gets its name.

In this simple way, there began the notion of giving presents at Christmas, not only to the poor and needy, but also to one's friends, family, acquaintances and staff.

Apprentices would visit their master's customers while bearing boxes into which they hoped gratuities would be placed.

Even now, we continue to give presents to those who have been considerate to us during the year, not only members of our business or office, but others such as the letter post person, the milk delivery operative, the waste disposal team and others whose titles we must now speak and write in silly but politically-correct jargon.

Christmas gifts do not necessarily consist of money and I have come across a strange gift which, before the Reformation, was practised in Scotland and the north of England.

It was known as Yule Firth, firth being an old word meaning truce.

I believe Yule Firth had to be declared by the local sheriff and it meant that no criminal proceedings could be initiated in the week preceding Christmas.

Furthermore, all legal proceedings in the week following Christmas were temporarily suspended in honour of the feast.

Clearly, this must have encouraged criminals and law-breakers to have a wonderful time in the

run-up to Christmas.

They could kill, steal, plunder, get drunk or commit any kind of offence without fear of prosecution, provided they did so during the week before Christmas.

It seems, however, that the authorities of York had a rather cunning plan to cope with this.

On the feast day of St Thomas (December 21), the sheriff made a proclamation at the city of York pillory in which he announced that, during the 12 days of Christmas, all manner of thieves, gamblers, loose women and other unthrifty folk were welcome in the city.

It did not matter whether they arrived late or early, but they had to come in reverence to the High Feast of Yule.

Not surprisingly, however, there were conditions.

One was that they behaved themselves in York (ie, they had to keep the King's Peace) and, furthermore, they had to submit to certain regulations while in town.

One of them, it seems, was to attend daily mass at York Minster.

The dates of this custom are difficult to ascertain but it seems it was being practised before the Reformation, certainly until the time of Henry VIII, but it appears to have ended in the middle of the 18th century.

So what was York's cunning plan?

It was quite simple. This offering of a legal amnesty brought lots of villains into York which meant the authorities knew exactly where they were and what they were doing.

And by imposing conditions on their presence, they could be severely dealt with if they infringed any of those local rules.

I wish all readers a very happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.

Updated: 09:31 Monday, December 22, 2003