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New Year's Day Originally Bigger Than Christmas
"Christmas was not the day to give and receive presents," recalled Elizabeth Baird (1810-1890), who came to Green Bay as a teenage bride in 1824. "This was reserved for New Year's." The custom of New Year gifts dated back many centuries to pagan times, when the winter solstice marked the start of the world's renewal. It was an annual occasion when people settled debts, forgave grievances, and poor people went door-to-door for alms which their more fortunate neighbors conferred as presents.
On New Year's Eve in early Wisconsin, Baird continued, "Great preparations were made by a certain class of elderly men, usually fishermen, who went from house to house in grotesque dress singing and dancing. Following this they would receive gifts. Their song was often quite terrifying to little girls as the gift asked for in the song was 'la fille ainee' — the eldest daughter. According to the 1939 book, Old Forts and Real Folks by Susan Burdick Davis, the song ran thus:
"Bonjour, le Maître et la Maîtresse,
Et tout le monde du loger.
Si vous voulez nous rien donner, dites-le nous;
Nous vous demandons seulement la fille aînée!"
[Good-day to you, Master and Madam,
And all the people of the house;
If you wish to give us nothing, tell us so;
All we ask is the eldest daughter!]
Other French-Canadian New Year customs that came to Wisconsin included exuberantly kissing strangers on both cheeks and opening one's house. A friend remembered that in the 1830s, at Elizabeth Baird's home, "All classes of honest citizens and strangers, be they white men or Indians," were "sure of a cordial welcome from host and hostess."
The same custom prevailed in Madison, where in 1851 young Elisha Keyes and a friend vowed to visit (and eat or drink something at) every home in the city. He recalled in 1899 that they stopped after visiting 100 homes and filling themselves on pie and libations.
You can read more about early New Year customs in Wisconsin Historical Collections, volumes XIV (1898): 21-22 and VII (1876): 431, Elizabeth Sellentin's memoir, "Yuletide in Green Bay 60 years ago." (Milwaukee Sentinel, December 20, 1896), and Elisha Keyes' "New Year's in '51" (Madison Democrat, Dec. 31, 1899).
:: Posted December 28, 2009
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