At Christmas certain animals become more human, or express their joy at the birth of Christ in unmistakable fashion.
There was an old Scottish belief that, at the exact hour of the Saviour’s birth, bees in their hive emitted a buzzing sound . According to a Breton folk-tale the ox and the ass can converse for a single hour, between eleven and twelve on Christmas night. At the same hour, in German folk-lore, all cattle atand up; another version, however, makes them devoutly kneel.
Among the animals which folk-thought has brought into connotion with the Christ-Child is the horse. A Russian legend tells us that the flesh of the horse is deemed unclean because when the infant Saviour was hidden in the manger, the horse kept eating the hay under which the babe was concealed, whereas the ox not only would not touch it, but brought back hay on its horns to replace what the horse had eaten. From a Spanish-American miracle-play, we learn that the oxen and asses around the manger kept the little babe warm with their breath.
In Ireland the following folk-beliefs obtain regarding the ass and the cow: Joseph and Mary fled into Egypt with the infant Jesus. Since that date the ass has had a cross on its back. This same ass returned to Nazareth seven years later with them on its back, travelling in the night, since which time it has been the wisest of all animals; it was made sure-footed for Christ to ride on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and it remains the most sure-footed of all beasts. The ass and cow are looked upon as sacred, because these animals breathed upon the infant Jesus in the manger and kept the child warm. Old women sprinkle holy water on these animals to drive away disease.
- From The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought by Alexander F. Chamberlain, 1895.