Something made me think of an article I wrote for the Gazette way back when in 1981 about New year's Day, so I dug up the reprint from the Virginia Sesquecentennial book and thought I'd transcribe it here (minus the typos). When I worked there it was always fun to go trawling through the old papers looking for stuff to write about, and this was one thing that I came upon that sounds kind of neat even now.



They called on New Year's Day

"Complaint is sometimes heard that Virginia is very dull, and perhaps not without reason," lamented a Gazette article from December 22, 1882. "Let the coming New Year's Day inaugurate a new era in Virginia Society." Whether that new era came to pass or not, the next few issues don't say, but back then, every January 1st, Virginia residents had the opportunity to get the year off to a good start.



In the early 1880's, it was the custom on New Year's Day for the ladies of the town to open up their houses for receiving guests, and the men would travel from house to house making formal visits. "In this country, men who are past their first youth generally have little time and less inclination for much visiting," the Gazette explained in the December 20, 1882, paper. "On the new year's day most men are less occupied with business than at other times, and find it possible to call at the houses of their friends with little trouble to ceremony."



New Year's Day, 1882, saw the biggest response to this custom which apparently had been going on for several years. Nine groups of ladies announced that they would be receiving callers from 2 to 6 p.m. Those in charge at the houses included Mrs. George L. Warlow, Mrs. S.H. Petefish, Mrs. E.T. Oliver, Misses Eva Payne and Molly Cosner, Miss Annie and Miss Lennie Turner, and Miss Nellie Cosgro. Mrs. S.F. Allard's house received such comment by the Gazette as "time flies here, and before we knew it we have eaten enough to feed a small army." At Mrs. J.A. Epler's, the ladies apparently had a running joke going of presenting to their guests a banana with an ear of popcorn inside. The ninth house was that of Misses Emma and Kate Gatton, who knew nothing about the event until gentlemen started knocking at their door at 8 o'clock.



For those first few years, this was quite an occasion. The houses were elaborately decorated, everyone dressed in their Sunday best, and large amounts of food were served. However, everyone insisted that it was an entirely informal affair. "If 'an entirely informal affair' means an occasion when everybody is to be made happy and at ease - provided that they don't make themselves uncomfortable by overfeeding - then receiving of new year's callers by the ladies was 'an entirely informal affair'," the Gazette concluded.



After the calling had finished, everyone met for a "phantom party", the "social" event of the season, where thirty couples dressed up as ghosts at a dinner served by the Virginia House and danced to the music of Professor Fero. To the Gazette, at least, it marked "an epoch" in social life in Virginia.



"Let every door be open," the Gazette urged the following year, citing more interest in participating than the previous year. This information proved faulty, as only four homes announced in advance that they would be open, and Mrs. F.E. Downing added her name to the list New Year's morning. "We doubt if any gentlemen left this place willingly," the Gazette said of Mrs. Downing's group.



Because of the small number of houses, the callers expected to take only half an hour to make the rounds, but at each place "found the ladies so numerous and so pleasant that they extended their formal calls into a social visit," and calls were still being made at 7 p.m.



By 1884, interest in the custom was waning, mostly because of the trouble and expense the ladies were going to, so a different idea was proposed. "Some of the ladies of our city announced their intention to provide suitable refreshments only," the Gazette reported. "This is as it should be. Were it not for the fact that receiving New Year callers required so much elaborate table preparation, many more houses would be open on that day."



One week later, December 23, 1883, the Gazette carried the news that "It will now seem that the ladies of this city will not keep open house on this day," without saying why, ostensibly because everyone already knew. However, the following week, five houses were listed as planning to receive, and because of the small number, the callers again made longer visits.



A heavy snowfall made traveling on foot difficult, so that "closed carriages, single cutters and bob sleds, and even buggies were flittering about our streets carrying their occupants."



At each house the callers were given a little souvenir as they left, generally consisting of a ribbon with a brief saying and a list of the ladies receiving attached, which was pinned to the caller's lapel. "By the time all the places were visited the callers were more decorated than a Foreign Prince or a prize winner in the numerous pedestrian matches," the Gazette reported. At one house, an "old maid cake" was to be awarded by "chance circumstance" to a caller, who would receive the cake and, they said, the old maid who baked it. Interestingly enough it was won by the Gazette editor and publisher Charles Tinney.



The following year, 1885, apparently the custom was on the way out. The Gazette did not print a list of those who were receiving and the gentlemen didn't know where to go. However, since houses were open, [some calls were still made], although the Gazette had apparently lost interest in the matter and gave the event only a couple of paragraphs. No mention of receiving callers was made in the following year, so one can assume the custom had died out.



But while the custom didn't survive, the reason for initiating the event still exists today, and one can't help but think that maybe it's not such a bad idea. As the Gazette of January 6, 1882, put it: "Social life in Virginia has received an impetus that promises well for the future. The Gazette felicitates itself upon that fact, then that the social life for the New Year had been successfully inaugurated, and can only hope that all those who added so materially to the pleasures of the day may live long, and by their continued presence contribute to the happiness of all with who may come in contact."

Amen to that, here's to a fabulous 2004!