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Show celebration, known in (from mce s) Rome as the Saturnalia. For the lower classes, especially, it was a time of unrestrained orgiastic pleasure. More than a few Christians were inclined to join the party, and, eventually, the church fathers decided that the faithful needed some sort of spiritual anchor to resist this recurring tidal wave of moral chaos. So we find St. John Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople toward the end of the fourth century, remarking in one of his sermons: On this day (the 25th of December) the birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies, the Christians might perform their sacred rites . undisturbed. Alas, the union of the Saturnalia and Christmas did not work the magic transformation that the church fathers envisioned. Those of us who cringe when modem churchmen bemoan our commercialism may find some comfort in knowing that as far back as 742 St. Boniface was complaining to Pope Zacharias that his labors to convert the Germans were being undone because of the way the supposedly Christian citizens of Rome ' celebrated Christmas. Whenever the good saint tried to talk his prospective converts out of their pagan feasts with their lurid excesses, they told him they had seen the Christians doing the very same thing in the Eternal City itself. The poor Pope could only admit that St. Boniface was absolutely right, and pass a law forbidding setting such a bad example. Resistance in the East Acceptance of December 25 as Christmas was slow outside of Rome. Most of the Eastern Christian churches clung stubbornly to Januafy 6. Not until 813 did Christmag-r&icGermany and only around t(he 10th century did it penetrate Norway. Here, in this world of snow and ice, so different from the warm Mediterranean shores where it began, Christmas blended with the traditions of h another ancient faith. The old Norsemen had a festival rather similar to the Roman Saturnalia, called Yule. They too believed that at this time of the year the time passed the god 'Odin became more than a warrior god who would conquer the giants of nature. He beand just, and he some- came times appeared as a solitary traveler, who roamed the world, inspecting the deeds of mankind. By strange coincidence, the Christians, too, had a supernatural figure with a habit of roaming- the world. His name was St, Nicholas, y and he began as a Archbishop in Myra, a town in Turkey.' A generous man who gave away his fortune to the poor, Nicholas was the patron saint of children, sailors and, for some strange reason, pawnbrokers. But there was no special connection between him and Christmas until his legend met Odinrf. Gradually, in the North they merged, St. Nick appropriating Odins Norse costume and reindeer and his habit of checking up on misbehaving youngsters, retaining meanwhile his legendary generosity. all-seei- ng . - fourth-centur- for- tunes of the new year would be revealed and that the gods, led by Odin, would he checking up on people. The howling winds of winter were the raging rout of witches and (femons unleashed from the underworld. As Sailors and shoes Because he was a patron saint of sailors, there was a tradition of putting out little wooden ships for St. Nicholas. In the lower Rhineland, on bor- both sides of the Dutch-Germ- St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, Turkey, in the fourth century, was patron saint of sailors, pawnbrokers and children, traveled about giving to the poor. His legend drifted north and merged with the myth of the god Odin, another wanderer, who drove reindeer and judged the deeds of men. So, today, St. checks up on children and brings presents, in a sleigh the Dutch called him Santeklas Nick an der, instead of ships children began to set out their wooden clogs always by the fireplace because this was the one way a midnight visitor could enter a tightly locked house. In this same Rhineland, children knew Saint Nicholas as Santeklas, and it was from this area that more than a few Dutch sailed for a place called New Amsterdam on the banks of Hudsons river in the new world. When a British fleet changed the name to New York, the Dutch remained, secure on their farms in places like Breucklyn. When their children began to celebrate Christmas with an English accent, they put out not clogs, but stockings for Santa Claus. Joy and dread , Those howling winds of the north surrounded Christmas with a strange mixture of joy and dread. To defend himself against the creatures of the winter dark, the northerner filled his home with ivy, holly, yew, pines, spruce, fir. These were among the few growing things that did not lose their green in the desolate winter so they must have special power against the witches and demons. Smoke and fire light against winter also helped, so long after darkness the North became Christian the Yule log was ceremoniously burned. Most anciently revered of all Christmas greenery was the mistletoe which bore fruit in winter. In pagan England it was cu4 each November by the Druid priests in stately and solemn procession, and distributed among the people in small portions. The sprigs were religiously hung over the doors of their dwellings; the curative powers of the plant were believed to be endless. How it became synonymous with stolen kisses is a curious example of how beliefs are transformed by the passage of centuries. In medieval England it was the custom to carry a bough of mistletoe to the' high altar during Christ-mastiand hold it up there while the authorities proclaimed a public liberty, pardon and freedom to all local criminals. They were sent out of the city with a kiss of peace. Gradude ally, imaginative types began connecting mistletoe with a less religious kind of kiss and by the end of the 17th century the old tradition had died out and mistletoe meant kissing and not much else. The tree The first Christmas tree is attributed, to St. Boniface, who replaced Odin's sacred oak with a fir tree adorned for the Christ child. We have seen how green has long been associated with Christmas. But the idea of a tree bedecked with symbolic flowers and fruits incorporates an ancient legend that on the first Christmas Eve all the trees and plants of the forest |