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Show T . by Richard J. Maughan, B.S., L.L.B. - 1 At Christinas, play and make good cheer tP V ' Fcr Christmas comes but once a year. V (Thomas Tusser. 1524-1580) The Christian Ideal i prohibited such practices and ord-,ered ord-,ered a practice of the Christian j concept of the day . . . they were i mixture of pagan and Christian customs persists, and one of the (reasons for this is aptly shown in !the following quotation from Bede, I English Nation. Here Bede puts I forth the orders of Pope Greg-lory Greg-lory I. "Let the shrines of the idols by no means be destroyed ibut let the idols which are in them ,be destroyed. Let water be con-Isec'rated con-Isec'rated and sprinkled in these temples; let alters be erectd so 'that the people, not seeing their temples destroyed, may displace error, and recognize and adore the true God. And because they were wont to sacrifice oxen to ,devils, some celebration should be Igiven in exchange for this, they ! should celebrate a religious feast and worship God by their feast-'ing, feast-'ing, so that still keeping outward pleasures, they may more readily receive spiritual joys." THE CHRISTIAN IDEAL Harold Beghe (1871-1929) had a thought about this and put it in words we would all do well to remember, they are these, "The Christian ideal it is said, has been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult, and left untried." un-tried." Much could be said about the Christian ideal, and much has been about it, much of it is known, not much of it is practiced. It has produced great music (Handel's Messiah), great literature, and great thought. Dicken's, A Christ-it Christ-it of Christmas . . . read it this season. Dickens had a great feeling feel-ing for Christmas so let me wish you the best of the season in his words from Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions Pres-criptions (1355),' My best of wishes for your Merry Christmasses and your , happy new Years, your long lives and your true prosperities. Worth twenty pound ' if they are delivered as I send them. Rem-for Rem-for life." - Each of us, during this season , which is more compelling than 2 any other in our society, will react to Thomas Tusser's thought J as expressed in his little jingle. We will do so because our pagan s ancestors, thousands of qyearsj before Christ, built fires at the' ij time of the winter solstice to pro-; vide light as a help for the sun: god to bring back the longer days I This force which has been ingr-jj. ingr-jj. . . ained into succeeding generations,' i by one means or another, comes1 jv to us today very subtly as a law! it is as much a law as any statute' .; that was ever passed, and would ; ' be much harder to change. It helps ". to control and hold together our society. It has such force that it causes whole nations of people to move at once and in the same ' general direction. Any concept which can do that is more of a law than any edict declared by a ; King. ' Looked at in this light, the bright thread of Christmas can be plainly seen running through all the conc-j epts which mae up our seamless vvebb of the law, which the general' effect of holding it all together.; WHERE DID IT COME FROM? In so-called "Christian" countries, countr-ies, we usually think no further back than to the birth of Jesus Christ, and give that as our reason for whatever we do on the 25th of December and its season. However, it doesn't take much observation to make out that most! of the activities rampant at Christmas Christ-mas time have an origin about as far removed from worship of the Son of God as anything can be. The fundamental basis for the :, activities at the winter solstice justify a conclusion that our holr ; day4 is more pagan than Christian. The ancienc peoples of the northern nort-hern hemisphere really got the " thing started, because they were much concerned with the advent of more light after December 21st, it meant more heat, an easier life, and crops for food. This became be-came fitted into their religion and fastened onto their lives securely as a superstition. The bonfires, the feasting, and the religious rites of that time of year all greeted the Roman legions leg-ions on their5 campaigns of conquest, conq-uest, and made themselves felt . in the government of the outer marches of the Roman Empire. After the Emperor Constantine (AD 272-337) declared that Christ-: Christ-: ianity be the religion of the Roman Empire the celebration of the birthday birth-day of Christ began to take form, ; but no set day was used until the year 354 AD, when the Latins transferred a prior feast day from January 6th to December 25th to coincide with the grand feast day1 of the Mithra as N ATA LIS INVICTI . SOLIS, the feas't of the birthday j of the unconquered Son of Phil-: ocalus. This season also was thei occasion for the Saturnalia, a time of feasting, revelry, and general! license practiced by members of the Roman Religion in honor of i the Saturn, the god of seed sowing.) What resulted was a natural inter-j mingling of customs, and manyj of the Christmas time antics ofj today stem directly from the worship wor-ship of- Saturn and Mithra rather j than from any homage paid to! . the Prince of Peace. j The ancient Romans, during the Saturnalia, decorated their temples, and gave presents. The Druids ofj ancient England gathered mist-j :' letoe as' a religious symbol, and! the Saxons symbolized their seas-j onal celebrations with holly, ivy. - and bay, While in England frorm ' " the 11th through the first half of; the 17 century. The custom was then to appoint a Lord of Misrule, and let the chips fall where they; may . . . which they did! This' English "Saturnalia" was changed by the Puritans in 1644, when they i |