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Show ljjr f Celebrating I Christmas ANNA DEM1NQ QliAy ) (. 1924, Western Newspaper Union.) "fttT! ATF E SHALL have t0 )$r7 tPl fartl'er back )j2fv thfln tbe chrlstlan yrJWvVPfVFfti source of Christ-fjvvrvj;s Christ-fjvvrvj;s mns celebration, 0T we DOrrowe(i &i$S-Ti VTi from the nations existing long be fore the coming of the Christ Child. Christmas came from early Egyptian civilization, from the Teutonic burba-rlans, burba-rlans, or the pagan Greek and Roman nations or perhaps from all of them. But in the days of the early Christians Chris-tians Christmas ceased to be observed merely as a day of merrymaking and feasting. They celebrated it as a day of good will and kindliness, the bestowing be-stowing of gifts, and a time of peace, but they considered it a holy festival and too filled with solemnity and sacred sa-cred joy to be made a time of hilarity and boisterous jollity. That the very date is uncertain makes little retjl difference. In those early days of the Christians they thought it following the heathenish customs to observe birthdays. We cannot wonder at this when we remember re-member that every god and goddess, every noted man, and every animal considered sacred, must each have a special day of feasting and festivity. It is not strange that they should have come to a time when they put the whole custom aside, and celebrated I none at all, not even the blrthduy of the Child of Bethlehem. It was not until four hundred years later, not until Christianity had triumphed tri-umphed and become a recognized factor fac-tor in the world that they even began to question the real date of Christ's birth. The Western empire had accepted December 25 as the date, and the Eastern churches celebrated January 6, while other dates from September 29 to May 20 were observed, and each of these with some good reason for Its selection. It was Pope Julius who finally settled the controversy by accepting ac-cepting the ruling of the Western church and established December 25, and by the middle of the Fourth century cen-tury this date was generally recognized. recog-nized. In the pagan nations this had been the time when a festival of Joy took place, because It was then that the sun was' supposed to begin to recede re-cede from the equator. They celebrated the 21st of December Decem-ber by all manner of licentious revels and heathen debauchery, and even after the coming of Christianity it was centuries before these pagan customs and practices were eliminated. And it was not until after the Middle ages that the meaning and the significance sig-nificance of the season began to dawn upon the minds and hearts of men. In old England Christmas became a time of feasting, drinking and hilarious hilari-ous merrymaking not a very advanced ad-vanced conception, but a step beyond the pagan idea. Later the spirit of Puritanism began to influence English customs and public zeal ran so high that all gayety and all festivity came to be considered sinful. All observances of special days were declared designed by the "deville," j and the famous Roundhead parliament parlia-ment set aside the celebration of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide. For twelve years no special days were observed in England, and when they were once more taken back into favor the result was what might have been expected, for the Christmas season sea-son became a time of feasting, drinking, drink-ing, dancing and wild revel, lasting for twelve days and nights. The lord of misrule came into existence this was the chosen master of festivities, into whose hands the keys of the house were given and whose word was law while the revel lasted. The days and nights were full of "all manner of hilarity, and a most wild and nierrie time was had," we are told. At first only the royal households had these lords of misrule, but the custom cus-tom spread until almost every household house-hold bad Its ruler of the season's revels. But gradually, as time passed, these wild celebrations gave place to festivals none the less joyous, but more befitting the season. The ceremony of bringing In the Yule log was observed, of decorating the house with holly and mistletoe, i. i toe lighted caudie In the window, and the midnight singing of carols. Still later Christmas became a day marked by bountiful dinners given to the poor by rich landowners, rather than merely a time of feasting and merrymaking. And slowly the renl Christmas spirit is coming more and more into the hearts of humanity, as we grow each year to better understand the song the angels sang that starlit night on the Judean hills. And "on earth peace, good will to men," means more with each recurring year r.s we open our hearts to the Child of Bethlehem, |