Note 133 — Chapter VIII · VILLAGE CUSTOMS, FESTIVALS AND FOLK-LORE
Reading edition
Cf. pp. 262 seq. From Gibbon's Decline and Fall (vol. i. p. 344) we know that long after the establishment of Christianity there was kept up, in Europe, a pagan festival at which it was customary to decorate the doors of houses with branches of laurel and to hang out lanterns. The doors of Roman houses were regarded as being under the special protection of the household gods.