E-Books Home

{45}
The use of the Christmas crib is by no means confined to churches; it is
common in the home in many Catholic regions, and in at least one
Protestant district, the Saxon Erzgebirge.{46} In Germany the _krippe_
is often combined with the Christmas-tree; at Treves, for instance, the
present writer saw a magnificent tree covered with glittering lights and
ornaments, and underneath it the cave of the Nativity with little figures
of the holy persons. Thus have pagan and Christian symbols met together.
* * * * *
There grew up in Germany, about the fourteenth century, the extremely
popular Christmas custom of "cradle-rocking," a response to the people's
need of a life-like and homely presentation of Christianity. By the
_Kindelwiegen_ the lay-folk were brought into most intimate touch with
the Christ Child; the crib became a cradle (_wiege_) that could be
rocked, and the worshippers were thus able to express in physical action
their devotion to the new-born Babe. The cradle-rocking seems to have
been done at first by priests, who impersonated the Virgin and St.
Joseph, and sang over the Child a duet:--
"Joseph, lieber neve min,
Hilf mir wiegen daz kindelin.


Pages:
106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130