The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-27
For the National Era.
FAMILY FESTIVALS.

One can hardly decide what he shall say
first unon So suggestive a topic The time il
Mt hand when many make tho wonted pilgrim
age to the Shiloh of early affections. The
names of the Thanksgiving and Christmas
festivals send a quicker pulse from the heart
as the sensitive inscriptions upon the tablet OF
the memory are called forth in all original dis
tinctness Mt the rekindled flame of old associa-
tons From the humble New England APP
prentice to the jslrneying metropolitan mil
| iioniare. all revere and ycarn for the season
| when the long separated reunite when the
| old places are revisited, and lull is made be-
tween the surges that dash and foam upon the
lifc-voyager To the posterity of the Pilgrims
the annual Thanksgiving comes with a pecu-
liar pleasure The venerated custom insti-
tuted by
"The men who set faiths burning lights
Upon those everlasting heights
To guide their children through the ycars of Time
The men that glorious law who taught,
Unshrinking liberty Of Thought,
And reused the nations with the truth sublime .
is hallowed with peculiar fervor upon that
I" stern and rock-bound coast" Honored by the
fathers from whose hoary locks it has borrow
cd " the crown Of glory it is consecrated in
the memory of the sons. The gloom and sut-
fering Of the first long winter when wider
ness, an ocean, and famine, sought TO swallow
up those brave God-fearing men, il remember
ed in the feast which commentaries their de-
iverance. From the perplexity Of the count
ing-house, the din OF the workshop, and the halls
of science, this welcome season recalls all but
the homeless to the ancestral roof; restores to
the mother her son. to the sister the brother, to
the bereaved the memory Of the beloved dead,
and infuses joy and gladness or lighter grief,
into every heart Full and strong flow the tides
Of afectonate feeling, the social rites are duly
hallowed, hilarity and contentment reign, and
hospitality is impaired to the outcast and the
fricndless
To others, who, although publicly acknowl-
edgng Divine bencfcence, have not received
the custom from their ancestors, dearer season
il when
" The Christmas bells from hill TO hill,
Answer each other in the mist F"
and the Christmas Of the Episcopalian, and the
Thanksgiving Of the Puritan, once sectarian and
antagonistic names, now becoming seasons
of mutual observance and interest, are kept
sacred with equal zeal and attachment. As the
scattered members Of the family repair TO the
annual rendezvous, to make new days the same
az old, and 10 renew the pledges Of old affection
"As in the winters left behind,
Again the ancient games have place,
The mimic pictures breathing grace,
And dance, and song, and hoodmsn blind !"
who does not feel the air around him teeming
with the good fairies of whom, with Santa
Claus, all the children dream debghtedly!
Were we Romans we might adore the twelve
gods no propitious 10 our domestic Saturnalia.
1t is happy custom, wise observance, that
strengthens old ties in these annual festivals
Families often rcassemble in the course OF half
centuries, in grandcr and more consequential
meetings But these more simple, less ostenta-
tious, more intimate approaches when hands
are cordially graspcd, and lips meet and hearts
are unburdened, how refreshing how pleasant!
No other than that plain, sweet word NO full In
meaning, can express the deep feeling. May
the practice prosper, and the circles widen, and
families after families commence the continual
observance Of these festivals. National integ-
rity will be secured, when at every fires'de
many from the East and the West, and the North
and the South assemble and abjure oil ami
mostly and dissension in the festivals which,
like the "pillar of witness" commemorate and
! continue 8the bond of peace" T.