The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-01-18
CHRIsTMAsTIME BEFORE
CHRIST.
BY JAMES PARTON.

Merry Christmas is older than Chris
tianity. It is older than history. 1t is
as old as wine. As far back in anti luity
as we have any knowledge of the vine
clad lands around the Mediterranean
sea, the harvest-home of the vineyard
has been celebrated in the latter days of
December. In these sunny Regimes the
work of the wine-maker and the farmer
is protracted into December, and then
there is of necessity a pause. The fruits
of the earth are all gathered and stored,
tie labors of the coming season can not
yet begin, and all the world may aban-
don itself TO festiTity. For a similar
reason the great Egyptian festival Oc-
ours in September, when the land Is
covered with the tertiljzing waters of
the Nile. There is then nothing to do;
the product Of the year is safe the in
undation is an assurance of plenty for
another season; and every heart is dis
posed to joy.
The puritans, then, were rigth. Christ
mas is not of christian origin. 1t was
originally the harvest-home of the Greek
and Roman world The Romans called
it the festival Of Saturn and the Greeks,
the festival of Bacchus; and to both it
was the most joyous and the most uni
versaI holiday Of the year. So rooted in
the habits of the people especially the
poor and the slaves, was this December
festival, that the fathers of the church,
in wise defiance of all probability, fixed
the birthday of Jesus on the 26th day of
that month. But it has never lost the
flavor of its origin. 1t is to this day
more Bacchus thar christian. A signi-
fcant fact it is, that some of our etrictest
teetotallers deem it more than right
deem it due to the day-to drink a glass
or two of wine at their Christmas dinner.
1t is startling to observe in how many
particulars the Roman Saturnalia re-
sembled our Christmas. Even the re-
ligious ceremonial, imposing and pro-
nounced as it was, appears to have played
about the same part in the festival as
our church-going does in the celebration
of Christmas. We decorate our churches,
as the ancient did their temples, with
garIands, wreaths, and flowers; the ser
vice is ornate and musical, but we hasten
away, as they did, to enter upon obser-
vances which we feel to be more in har-
mony with the occasion. A Roman boy,
we may fairly infer, went eagerly from
the temple, as your children do from
church, to revel in the anticipation Of
the gifts that were about to shower in
upon him from relations and friends.
1t was a time of universal gift-giving
in Rome, and the gifts were only too apt
to be of kind more convenient to give
than blessed to receive. The Roman
poet Martial, one year, sent copy Of his
works to a friend, with an apology in
verse for the trivial nature of the pres
emit; and he mentions some of the regu-
lation Christmas gifts of the pagan R0-
mans. II may seem TO you stingy or
rude" said the poet, since, in this
month of December, when napkins, ele-
CANT shoe-fastenings, WALLPAPERS, tablets,
and tapering vases filled with Damascus
plums fly about in all direction, have
sent you nothing but my little books. ]"
The satirist also alludes TO a circumstance
perfectly familiar to us, as it was the
Romans namely, that a Christmas pres
ent is not necessarily an offering of afec-
tion. He SPEAKS of SaturnaIian gih-giv-
ing as crafty and mischievous art, and
intimates that poor devil in Rome
sometimes made little present about
the time Of the Saturnalia TO a rich man,
in hopes OF munidcent return, as Il
fisherman bats his hook with a fly in
order to catch a trout.
Roman slaves, we are told could say
what they pleased to their masters dur
ing the three days of their Saturnalia
but, doubtless, they used this liberty
with discreet reference TO what might