Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-01-30
OLD CHRISTMAS AND NEW CHRIST.
MAS,

childhood's early day until now I hav'
heard old men and old women sa,
THE people of our country celebrate
g the wrong day for christmas. Be j
!. understood, however, they did not pur
! it on the ground of the view taken BY
: Prof. j. NJ. Wright, in his recent able
discourse in the city of Clarksville, in
which he so lucidly showed the great
; improbability of Christ having been
born on December 25, an extract Of
which was given in late number of
the CHRONICLE. But their assumption
i IS this, True Christmas comes on the
day we now style January B." Now l
have asked fully score Of persons,
men and women of the average brain
and cultivation of our country, to ex-
plain to me the origin and cause of the
, dispensing with old and the adoption
of new christmas? The most common
answer given to my question is this:
1.-The Jews kept a Festival of some
kind, prior to the birth of Christ,
which they called christmas, and that
all christians and christian nations
now keep what they understand to be
the day representing the one on which
Christ was actually born. In refuta-
tion of this view, Mr.. Webster stands
for my defense, telling US the word
christmas is compound of Christ and
mass; of course the word refers.
therefore, to Christ for its origin. And
though the Jews had thousand Fes-
tivals, not one of them throw, was ever
called christmas prior to the birth Of
Christ, and not even since by them, as |
they repudiate Christ. Morever, it is
said 10 the American Encyclopedia,
page 173, that there was never cele-
bration of the birth of Christ tillsome-
time in the fourth century, and it was
during the Efth century that the West
ern Church ordered it to be celebrated
forever on December 18th, that being
the same day celebrated with great
feast by the Romans. In honor Of the
birth of Sol.
Now, whether DR.. Clark, Prof.
Wright, the author of the American
Encyclopedia and others, are correct
in expressing great doubtas to whether
Christ was really born on December
25th, or whether it be the actual cor
rect anniversary of the birth of Christ
is not my question. My question is,
when. where and how was the change
brought about from "old to new christ
mas?" / believe the gist of the answer
to this question is clearly brought out
in the Science of Astronomy and the
higher branches of Mathematics,
though | do not find the words "Old
and new christmas" in them. l quote
from Olmsted's Astronomy, page M
E9: "The astronomical year is the
tise in which the sun makes one eyo-
latsOn in the ecliptic, and consists of
3e5 days, 3 hours, 48 minutes and 81
seconds. The civil year is 365 days
the difference is nearly six hours. The
most ancient nations determined
the number of days in year by means
of the stylus, perpendicular rod
which casts its shadow on a smooth
plane bearing a meridian line. The
time when the shadow was shortest
would indicate the day of the summer
solstiee, and the time which elapsed
from that till the shadow reached the
same length again would show the
number of days in year" The first
experiment of this kind showed that
800 days only elasped till this evolu-
ton; but future discoveries showed a {
difference existed between the Civil
and Astronomical year which threw all
dates into confusion Julius Caesar,
therefore, made, perhaps about the {
middle of the third century, change
in the calendar, by introducing an in :
tercalary day every fourth year. This {
is called bissextile or leap year. Pope
Gregory XIII did not think that !
Julius Caesar had reached AstTonOmi :
cal precision by his correction. He !
claimed that there was still an annual a
difference of IL minutes, amounting to
of day each century,
or 8 days in 400 years. and that from !
the time julius Caesar made his change
sill 1852, When he madea second alter $
alton, that it amounted to 10 days
hence he passed decree that the year :
should be brought forward 10 days by c
declaring October 5th the 18th. Q
This reformation of the calendar =
was not adopted by the British Parlia- :
ment in England till the year 1752, o
when the difference amounted to IL il
days. Parliament therefore ordered II
that the year should be brought for +
ward by declaring September 3rd the
l4th. And Mr.. Ray, the great Mathe- d
metician, tells us that the Greeks and :
Russians still observe the Julian cal q
endar, while Americans, and perhaps Fl
almost all other nations. have adopted b
the Gregorian calendar; and Mr.. Ray e
observes that the difference between .
the Julian calendar and the Gregorian D
is just twelve days. Now if Mr.. Ray s
be correct, and | do not doubt it for a
moment, then the Greeks and Russians ),
have December 18th, when we have G
December 18th, our christmas day. d
and when we have January 9th they !,
have December 18th, their christmas = =
day. That is what gives US in our Il
books, "old style and new style" and e
It is exactly what has created the $
names and days, "old christmas and !,
new christmas" II
W. d. CHERRY. 5.
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