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Show ChristmasCustoms come from i-iilani Lands r ablutions. Candles burn all night I for "Kristine" who brings the gifts, : there are games until the carolers burst; in upon the revelers, masked , performances and pantomine and " mock military drills, j Many countries claim the Christ-; Christ-; mas tree. In Scandinavia there is j the legend of the "service" tree sup-I sup-I posed to have sprung from the soil where a pair of lovers were killed ! by violence, and where the tree mysteriously appears with its myriad my-riad of lights at the Christmas time when no winds blow. A thirteenth century romance features the gigantic gi-gantic tree ablaze with burning candles found by a questing hero with the haloed child shining at its 1 top, the whole aflame with candles, the tree significant of mankind, the cancHes of humans, good or bad, the child of the Christ Child. Germany, keeping Christmas, often welcomes its guests with green branches ornamented orna-mented with lighted candles. One of the -loveliest of Its legends tells that Martin. Luther, walking over the snowy winter hills at night and observing the bcatlty of the. glittering glitter-ing stars- against the dark, set up for his children a -tiny fir, with candles representing the stars. 0 i bility offered hospitality and enter-Jltainment enter-Jltainment to the poor. Then were i the splendid pageants and banquets ' such as those King Arthur's court knew well, with minstrels fnd glee-men, glee-men, harpers and jugglers, pipers and dancers, log fires immense and -j of long duration within, hunting, . ! wrestling and jousts without. In-: In-: i temperance was prevalent, and the :i r.le and mead flowed widely while : 1 there was the lighting of the Christmas Christ-mas log, the bringing in of the " boar's htvad, and the games dice, chess and bacgammon. Crowned on Christmas I)ay-t- A succession of Roman emperors that began with Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas day, including includ-ing Alfred the Great (whose defeat by the Danish host is held to have happened because he would not interrupt in-terrupt himself and court in their twelve-days' celebration of the season sea-son even with the enemy horde at the gates), the Danish king Edward, Ed-ward, and Edward the Confessor and his son Harold, whose coronation corona-tion took place together with the consecration of Westminster Abbey in 1066. : ' . Mock ceremonial, quaint humors and the spirit of. fellowship, marked the celebration of these times. From the days of the early Norman conquest con-quest to those of the Commonwealth Common-wealth in England, down through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, "Bloody" Queen Mary and Good Queen Bess, into those of James I, Charles I and into the days of the Puritans, there, is record that the Christmas revels, made their way and the customs persisted through the "centuries. The Puritans; however, how-ever, would have none of the "nonsense,'.' "non-sense,'.' and in New England in 1621, Governor Bradford rebuked a bevy of young men lately arriver from England, when they objected to working on Christmas day and insisted in-sisted upon giving it at least to games and sports while he looked on and frowned. Virginians Observed Day It was by . way of the Virginias that Christmas observance came to America, and in England the restoration resto-ration of the rayol family to the throne restored the rites of Christmas Christ-mas there. It was not until 1659 however, that the law against its celebration was repealed in . New England. With this halting by the Puritans the Christmas festival began be-gan a languishing from the immense im-mense elaborateness of its earlier celebration that has gradually grown, but Christmas, one truly believes, will never become extinct. Amid changing custom the spiiit of the season still survtvus, and while uproarious merriment' may have passed by the board,, the period of its commemoration continues con-tinues to exist as a time of celebration cele-bration all over the civilized world. Northern ; Germany holds the faith that Mary and the Christ Child pass through the lanes and streets on Christmas eve, and in Austria arises ,our adopted custom w placing candles in the windows Christmas eve that the Christ Child passing by in darkened ways might not stumble. . Paris has originated a more secular secu-lar celebration of Christmas Eve, staging its "reviliTbn 'in cafes with its climax in midnight Christmas supper. In Russia "Kolenda" cames with -its Christmas Eve pro- j cession through the streets, r its carol-singing for coppers, the masquerading mas-querading of revelers as animals, significant of the manger, and with its trees in the homes of noblemen. Scandinavia has given us many r Christmas custom. -Peace- prevails for all the season there, with old feuds forgotten. There the shoes of the family are set in a row with their retiring, that its members might live in peace throughout the year to come. There is found the Yule log, the dancing and the skating, skat-ing, and it was a custom of longstanding long-standing in other years, and may still be followed in parts of the penisula, to celebrate the season with the yearly bath, the great wash tub dragged out into the center of the house for the series of i ' - -- 1 Tradition that strongest link' in j any chain that ties the human race j to any of the customs that its ! mcny lands and people share in common has been since time immemorial im-memorial the keystone upon which has been built the whole structure of Christmas. Back 2,000 years before the birth of the child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem, there are historic evidences evi-dences of the keeping of a season that was. in spirit much like the essential es-sential character of the Christmas season that tradition has brought down to us, despite the natural inclination in-clination of the Christian world to date the great festival from the birth of Christ:- Authentic record of the actual date and season of the year in which the Christ was born has never, however, been established, pnd historians disagree as to them both. It was many years after his life on earth, however, before December De-cember 25 was fixed as the date for celebration of his .birthday, and from , that time on . Christians 1 united in accepting the day as . sacred to his birth and to his service ser-vice the Christ-mass. . Forerunner of Carols Going back before the Christian era students of the festival Have found traces that most of the nations na-tions of ancient time recognized the winter solstice as a season of rejoicing. The return march of the sun up into the heavens, and the season's turn from short days and long nights to days of lengthening light and warmth, impelled a natural nat-ural demonstration of pleasure that it was so. The Roman Saturnalia, which fell at such a period, was such a festivity of rejoicing, marked mark-ed by privileges and hailed as ex empt from ills, with the spirit of mirth and unbounded license abroad everywhere. The. hymns of this time to the sun were forerunners forerun-ners of our Christrr-as carols. Presents Pres-ents were passed from friend to friend. Gifts were made to the poor, quarrels forgotten and feuds ended. In the northern countries of ancient an-cient Europe the God Thor was the object of similar celebration at the same season, the sonfj, danca and feast universal and mingled with the savage religious rites. Some authorities au-thorities find th origin of the word "Yule" in the name of this celebration "Yule," "Jule," "'lul," or "lol." Origin of Festival The Christian festival of the Nativity Na-tivity has incorporated the character charac-ter of these early celebrations and appears to have been appointed very shortly after the establishment establish-ment of a new religion. It is first definitely recorded in the history of the second century, although there are indications that it was in order even earlier. Students of Christmas, while disagreeing upon the exact time of the birth of Jesus, agree : that in' the early years of the church there was a union celebration celebra-tion of the Nativity and the Epiphany Epiph-any in the belief that the birth of Jesus coincided with the appearance appear-ance of a star in the east which revealed re-vealed it to the Gentiles. The word Kris' mas is held to be "Christ's mass," however, and the word Noel is from the French word "nouvelles" meaning tidings. Druids, Romans, Saxons, Jews, Anglo-Saxons have all kept such a festival, marked in the days of the Romans by temporary equality of slaves and masters, of the Druids by the use of evergreens and the mistletoe in temple rites, by the Jews with a dedication of their temples, and in the days of the Angio-Saxons by the elaborate customs which have long endured and which marked the Middle Ages. k . Then the great "halls" of the no- |