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32 Talking Animals That Became A Legend

How Talking Animals

Became a Christmas
Legend

BY Maureen Monahan

For all its very logical and sensible legends and
traditions, Christmas has quite a few strange
ones too (like, say, gravity-defying reindeer).
Some rare bits of Christmas mythology are even
stranger still, like the one that claims that at the
stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, animals
gain the power of speech.
The legend—most common in parts of
Europe—has been applied to farm animals and
household pets alike, and operates on the belief
that Jesus’s birth occurred at exactly midnight
Henderson’s 1879 book Folk-lore of the
on Christmas Day, leading to various "Mary Did You Know"
Northern Counties of England and their Borders
supernatural occurrences. Many speculate that
recounts the legend that, on Christmas Eve, bees (originally by Mark
the myth has pagan roots, or may have morphed
assemble into a type of choir:
from the belief that the ox and donkey in the
“Thus the Rev. Hugh Taylor writes: ‘A Lowry (lyrics) and
Nativity stable bowed down when Jesus was
man of the name of Murray died about the age
born. In any case, the story has since taken on a Buddy Greene (melody))
of ninety, in the parish of Earsdon,
life of its own, with variations ranging from
In some cases, the myth of the singing
sweet to scary.
bees circles back to that of the kneeling oxen:
According to The Christmas Troll and
“[…]In the parish of Whitebeck, in Cuberland, Mary, did you know
other Yuletide Stories by Clement A. Miles,
bees are said to sing at midnight as soon as the that your Baby Boy would one day walk on
variations of the legend can be surprisingly
day of the Nativity begins, and also that oxen water?
sinister for holiday lore. One tells the story of
kneel in their stalls at the same day and hour.” Mary, did you know
vengeful pets plotting against their masters, like
So, singing bees, plotting pets, that your Baby Boy would save our sons and
this tale from Brittany:
clairvoyant horses, praying oxen, and more, all daughters?
“Once upon a time there was a
to illustrate the power of Christmas Eve—short Did you know
woman who starved her cat and dog. At
of supernatural power, it certainly has a strong that your Baby Boy has come to make you
midnight on Christmas Eve she heard the dog
hold on the collective human imagination. [] new?
say to the cat, ‘It is quite time we lost our
This Child that you delivered will soon
mistress; she is a regular miser. To-night
deliver you.
burglars are coming to steal her money; and if
she cries out they will break her head.’
Mary, did you know
‘Twill be a good deed,’ the cat replied.
that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind
The woman in terror got up to go to a
man?
neighbor's house; as she went out the burglars
Mary, did you know
opened the door, and when she shouted for help
that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with
they broke her head.”
His hand?
And then there’s “The Friendly Beasts,”
Did you know
a lighter version of the legend in the form of a
that your Baby Boy has walked where
Christmas carol. The hymn takes a less literal
angels trod?
approach to the “talking animals” theory,
When you kiss your little Baby you kissed
instead focusing more on the connection each
the face of God?
animal had to Jesus’s birth: “’I,’ said the
donkey, shaggy and brown, ‘I carried His
Mary did you know.. Ooo Ooo Ooo
mother up hill and down; ‘I,’ said the cow, all
white and red, ‘I gave Him my manger for His
The blind will see.
head,’” and so on with the sheep and dove. The
The deaf will hear.
song’s origins purportedly lie in a mostly-
The dead will live again.
forgotten French medieval feast day, The Fete
The lame will leap.
de L’Ane, or “The Feast of the Ass,” which
The dumb will speak
honors Mary, Jesus, and Joseph’s flight into
The praises of The Lamb.
Egypt, and the donkey who transported them.
The carol was born of an early Latin hymn
Mary, did you know
commonly sung at the feast, “Orientis partibus
that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?
Adventavit asinus," or “From the East the ass
Mary, did you know
has come,” which included a chorus of “Hail,
that your Baby Boy would one day rule the
Sir donkey, hail!”
nations?
The variations of Christmas legend
Did you know
about special or supernatural animal behavior
that your Baby Boy is heaven's perfect
are diverse and far-reaching, and not all
Lamb?
necessarily involve animals speaking. In John
The sleeping Child you're holding is the
Howison’s 1821 Sketches of Upper Canada,the
great "I am"
author recounts a Native American who told
him that “[It’s] Christmas night and all deer fall
upon their knees to the Great Spirit.” William