[Note: there are some differing traditions for the calculation of which day of Christmas we are on.  I am calculating it from evening to evening.  I also note that I’m keeping the comments from last year—so some of the comments you read will be out of date.]

[Horatio]
And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons.  I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day, and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
Th’ extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine; and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

[Marcellus]
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long,
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallowed and so gracious is that time.

[Horatio]
So have I heard and do in part believe it.
But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o’er the dew of yon high eastward hill.

from Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

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Posted December 26, 2011 at 4:49 pm
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