The Garden

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Witch hazel

BY DOLORES MULLER

The aroma of witch hazel transports me back to memories of my childhood. My grandma used it for just about everything. When I came in with a bug bite, I can still hear her say to me, “Rub some witch hazel on it, honey.” Not just bug bites, but rashes, sunburn or any skin irritation or inflammation was treated with witch hazel. I guess grandma knew what she was talking about. Native Americans have long used the leaves and bark of the witch hazel tree for many folk remedies. It contains tannins, oils and other substances that lessen inflammation, draw tissue together and slow bleeding. Witch hazel is produced from the leaves and bark of the North American witch hazel shrub, hamamelis virginiana, When distilled and combined with alcohol, the aromatic oil extracted from the bark of the shrub makes a soothing and mildly astringent lotion. Today it has many uses, including relieving inflammation and sunburn, reducing skin irritations and treating hemorrhoids. Witch hazel is easy to grow. The shrub or small tree has arching branches generally growing as a dense, multi-stemmed clump. They can reach 30 feet high and 15 feet wide at maturity and are more often referred to as a tree owing to their size. The plant sets out pretty yellow ribbon-like flowers in the fall or early winter that are fragrant. These beautiful tissue paper-like flowers are generally blooming when nothing else is flowering. Most years, mine blooms in January or February. Growing witch hazel is easy since it requires very little care. They like part shade as they are considered an under-story plant, but full sun forms fuller, more symmetrical plants. It loves most any soil type but the long-lived witch hazel performs best on moister sites. It tolerates wet soils, pollution, shade and poor soil. As a bonus, it is a native plant. With the emphasis on native plants these days, this is a good one to add to your landscape.PL

PLPL A Look Back

Our Holiday Season

Story by Ray Owen / Images courtesy of Moore County Historical Association

It’s hard to imagine today, but when our nation was founded we had no universally celebrated holidays aside from Independence Day and Washington’s Birthday. In those early years, people saw themselves first as citizens of their state and regionally distinct as New Englanders, Westerners and Southerners. Below the Mason-Dixon line, Thanksgiving was totally eclipsed by Christmas, a holiday increasingly popular in the 19th century.

Thanksgiving, as we know it today, was not officially recognized in North Carolina until 1849. The previous year, Governor William Graham called on the legislature to establish the holiday as: “A season for kind, social sentiment; for the forgiveness of injuries; for acts of good neighborhood; and especially for the charitable remembrance of the poor.”

While 1849 marked our first official Thanksgiving, in 1758 North Carolina Royal Governor Arthur Dobbs proclaimed a day of fasting and prayer following the French and Indian Wars, and President George Washington asked the Continental Congress to declare a day of thanks after the American Revolution.

The date of observance differed from state to state until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln formally designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day, but because of the ongoing Civil War and its aftermath, a nationwide celebration was not realized until the 1870s. Still, many Native Americans are understandably averse to aspects of the holiday.

During the 18th and 19th century, the Yuletide was celebrated in parts of North Carolina as “Old Christmas.” This custom came about after the British adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 and Christmas was moved to December 25. Many colonists refused to accept the change and continued to celebrate the Nativity on January 6, commemorating the day when the Wise Men came to adore baby Jesus, bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Traditions varied, and in some communities Old Christmas lasted for twelve days, counted from sundown on the evening of December 25 until the morning of January 6. Santa arrived on Christmas Eve with a tree and presents once the children went to bed, and the decorations were left up until the twelfth day.

This was a period of great revelry, sometimes called “Breaking up Christmas,” with families taking turns hosting music, dancing and dinners in their homes. Other festivities included the blessing of fruit trees and going out at daybreak to watch livestock kneel in remembrance of the Nativity.

While the tradition of Old Christmas died out in most areas, the holiday is still observed to some degree in the Outer Banks region and parts of western North Carolina in a more secular than religious form.

After the turn of the 20th century, how you celebrated Christmas in Moore County depended on where you lived. At Jugtown in the Seagrove area, children were given handmade dolls, carved wooden guns and homespun clothing. An apple or orange was a special treat, along with a piece of store-bought candy.

By contrast, the Sandhills resorts were illuminated in their own spirit, their inns filled with many classes of people—from the very rich to the respectable poor. Finely appointed trains pulled into the Southern Pines depot six or more times a day, the new arrivals longing for escape from the icebound shores of the North.

To the native population, Pinehurst and Southern Pines seemed to have dropped down from the sky into a sea of sand, adorned with an abundance of evergreens and crimson-berried holly, their winter festivities coming on

thick and fast as the little towns made ready for the holidays.

The smell of cedar filled the air as stores filled with toys, silver and glass, confectioneries, fruits and fine cakes and fattened turkeys. Standing out among the offerings were boxes of local greenery for mailing to friends up North—pine boughs and cones, holly, mistletoe, cotton and persimmons—packed neatly into squares.

This tradition began in the late 19th century when Sandhills residents gathered cartloads of woodland greenery and flowers as gifts for shipping north to those who had aided in constructing churches and schools and other public buildings.

In those early days, countryfolk welcomed resort guests to holiday celebrations at area churches. A carriage ride from a local inn cost a quarter, and oftentimes twice the anticipated audience turned out and couldn’t all fit in the sanctuary. The Southern practice of having a decorated tree outside in the open air dazzled the Northerners. Adorned with small flags, ornaments and popcorn strings, it was indeed a wonder.

In the Village of Pinehurst there were often record crowds who enjoyed an array of fine dinners and

Right, Jugtown Christmas, circa 1926.

dances and other formal affairs. The younger guests produced a special section of The Pinehurst Outlook newspaper called “Pinecone” featuring their cotillions, vaudeville entertainment, burlesque ball games and minstrel shows. Holiday golf tournaments attracted many entrants and there was an indoor putting contest on a green made of red carpet.

The Holly Inn was a spectacle to behold with twin trees embellished in crimson bells and sparkling tinsel, flanked by bright-berried holly. Running down the middle of the hall were streamers of English ivy and large red bells at four corners. A big cluster of mistletoe hung in the center with stockings hung over the fireplaces. An orchestra played and gifts under the trees included tin jewelry and small china dolls for the ladies, along with little tin guns for the men.

The Pinehurst Village Hall was said to be a “bower of beauty”—transformed with holly and evergreen boughs and painted pine cones for resort workers and their families. A Christmas tree dominated the room, and on its branches rested brightly colored paper flowers, gild paper trimmed with lace with wax tapers supported by twisted pieces of tin. Over the tree was a star of ground glass, casting a certain glow shared by everyone.

Originally celebrated more at public gatherings, Christmas changed after World War II as families began choosing their own way to observe the holiday. Christmas became increasingly commercial with the advent of radio and television marketing, leading to the traditions we know today.PL