National Republican., 1877-12-24

And the young who have lived In this world but .
What with chatting, and feasting, and merry old
The night win pass swIf,ly and say,y along.
what reck we OF winter the tempesu may roar,
Ana the thow.drins NIL up every window ana
The storms may rave on, but we heed not It's din
Though winter without II is summer within.
Fair fingers are decking with holly and bay
The old village fame for the festival day;
With myrtle and mistlstoe wrtathinF IN green
The pulpit and chancel the altar andscrseni
Come all then to night. iis q season f9r mirth
When the magic OF old found the long sought-for
boy,
They " sfoioed" it said with exceeding great
"The Day We Celebrate"
Is there heart among the children Of
larger growth" In this worldly wise genera
tion 80 callous that IL does not remember the
joyful Christmases Of childhood2 The mo-
mentous solemnity of hanging the stockings
on Christmas Eve, the unusually early hour Of
| retiring that the night might seem the shorter,
and then the exciting anticipations that kept
one broad awake into the wee sma' hours; the
| restless dreams, with bewildering visions OF
white-bearded old saints and rampant rein
deers fitting through, and the rushing down
with whoop and halloo ut the first glimmer OF
dawn-to find the stockings stuffed to tho
brim and sticking out in bumps and protuber-
anccs most bewitchingly suggestivsf
There is gentleman residing in this city
| whose memory dates back over half century,
| to the time when, rs o chubby toddler, he first
began to hang his Christmas stocking In the
| chimney corner, and who hes ever since kept
| up the practice with each succeeding anniver-
| sary, though now the youthful hose, we'll
sav'd," have become "a world too wide for his
shrunk shank" ,Ho has preserved with reli-
gious care q stocking Of
FORTY YEARS AGO,
| with all the little toys that loving hands then
placed therein-hands that have long been
| dust. He says that whenever In later life he
has been grievously tempted to do 4 wrong he
had only to get out that Christmas stocking,
i with its treasured toys, recalling memories Of
innocent boyhood, and pure-minded mother,
to at once exercise all evil impulses from his
mind. Tonight that same forty-ycar.old
stocking will hang beside his children's and
grandchildren's, and it's safe.to assert that tho
old boy who owns II will take as much COM
fort in overhauling its contents on the morrow
as any urchin in town. This story demon
strates not only tho durability Of carly i'm
pressions, but that the material Of which
lstockings were made half q century agone
must have been in quality superior to that Of
the present, for mothers In these latter days
would rejoice to find hose strong enough 10
last modern boys so long as forty days.
The Christmas festival-from Christi ndssd,
"Mass of Christ"-is as ancient rs tho days Of
Pope Telesphorne who lived in the first CEN
tury after Christ
IN THE EARLY DAYS
it was confounded with that Of Epiphany, and
celebrated oftcnest In the spring. Doubtless
when the fathers of the fourth century fixed
upon the 25th of December as the appropriate
day they had some good reason for 10 doing,
although there are no conclusive proofs as to
| what day Of the month or season Of the year
l tba ~pba ri for low 0f
the Son of Man. Long before this the Goth
and the Roman devoted this particular period
to Throx-the sun-"wh0se mighty hand IL
was that turned the wheel Of the year" from
darkness to light.
The Druids in those early days kept "Yule"
by solemn professions TO the sacred oaks
dressed in white robes and followed by all the
people; with the golden sickle they cut the
mystic mistletoe, the white bulls and human
prisoners Of war were sacrificed, and by the
shedding Of innocent blood the unknown god
was supposed to be proptiated.
At the same time the noble Romans, with
greater pomp and magnihcence, held the feast
Of Saturnalia amid q whirl Of Bacchanalian
revelry. A little later, and the Christian
Church of Rome, founded by disciples Of the
despised Nazarine, were keeping the true
festival with prayers and hymns In the midst
of these orgies, hid away In rocks and caves ol
the hills. History tells us of
ALIrTLE CONGREGATION
in the Eternal City who were gathered In theiI
sanctuary one Christmas morning toward the
close of the third century, to worship the liv.
ing God when the Emperor Dioclesian ordered
his cruel soldiery TO burn the building and all
within it, and SO the pastor and his Pensioners,
young and old, the mother, the grandsire, and
the babe finished that Christmas day In glory.
In the Middle Ages the day was oftenest
celebrated by q sort Of fantastic spectacular
DRAMA representing the Blessed Babe as at
tended by the Virgin Mary. St. Joseph, and
the Magi, grotesquely surrounded by cherubs
and bulls heads. The Catholic custom, which
originated in the sixth century, of ushering In
the festival by three Masses-one at midnight,
one at early dawn, and another at the usual
morning hour-doubtless springs from tho
tradition that Christ was born at midnight.
Hence the celebration Of Christmas eve. The
custom of garlanding our walls with ivy and
mistletoe, holly, rosemary, and other green's
was derived as much from the Roman feast Of
Saturnala as from the practices of the Drnids.
who believed that sylvan spirits sheltered
| themselves In tho evergreens through the
frosty days of winter. SO immense Christ
mas candles" were lighted the great "iulo
log' was set blazing by the charred remains o
last years beacon fire, and noble and baron
yeoman and serf, united in "playe and goode
cheere" under the "mistletoe bough" al
through the Yuletide till after Capdlemas and
Twelfth Night.
The singing Of
CHRISTMAS CAROLS,
commemorating the song Of the shepherds and
the birth of Christ, began after the common
lpcople ceased to understand the Latin Ian
guage. In those early days the clergy and the
people, rich and poor, parents and children
Joined together In chanting professions on
Christmas eve, each bearing lighted torch.
In Italy It is still the custom for the Gala
ban minstrels to come down from the noun
- IA
Christmas, singing before the many shrines OF
the Virgin Mother on the way, with the bency
olcnt intent of keeping her spirits up till IN,
trying hour Probably the divine Raphae
had this custom in mind when he INTRODUCED
into his immortal picture of The Nativity
a shepherd playing on bag-pipo. Christ
mas trees" originated in Protestant districts o
the north Of Europe, a yew bough being huns
with presents and lighted by tapers, and {
still in full favor among American children o
more prosaic presents To our Saxon ancestor
We are also indebted for the