The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-12-23
Christmas.
IT'S ORIGIN, CUSTOMS AND DELIBERATIONS

IT'S ORIGIN, CUSTOMS AND CELEBRATIONS +
At this season, some facts with reference tt
the origin and customs of Christmas may no
prove uninteresting to our readers AS al
know it is the festival commemoration of thu
birth of Christ. Its institution is attributed by
the decretal letters to Pope Telesphorus, who
died A. D. 1873, and throughout the subsequent
history of the Catholic Church it has been one
of the most noted of the Christian solemnites
At first, it was the most movable of the Chris
tian festive days, oftenconfounded with Epipha
ny and celebrated by the Eastern churches in
the months Of April and May. In the 4th CEN
fury the urgency of St. Cycil of Jerusalem OBJ
vestigation to be made concerning the day OF
Christ's nativity. The result ofthe inquiry by
the theologians of the east and west was an
agreement upon the Goth of December.
The custom in Roman Catholic countries Of
ushering in Christmas day by the celebration
of three masses, dates from the 9th century.
The day was considered in the double light OF
holy commemoration and a cheerful festival,
and was accordingly distinguished by devotion,
by vacation from business and by merriment.
During the middle ages it was celebrated by
the gay fantastic mysteries and moralities per
formed by personages in grotesque masks and
singular costumes. The scenery usually rep
resented an infant in cradle, surrounded by
the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, by bulls
heads, cherubs, eastern magi and manifold
ornaments
Preparatory to Christmas the bells are rung
at dead midnight throughout England and the
Continent and after the solemn celebration of
the mass, for which the churches in France
and Italy are magniicently adorned, it is usu-
al for the jewellers to partake of collation.,
that they may be better able to sustain the ia
tigues of the mig ht Among the revels of the
Christmas season were the so-called feasts of
fools and of asses, grotesque saturnalia, which
were sometimes termed December liberties, in
which everything serious was burlesqued, in
feriors personifed their superiors, great men
becoming frolicsome, and all illustrating the
proneness of man to occasionally reverse the
order of society and ridicule its decencies.
LII tuc lOtcSbdile ulotllCtc VI 0ClHlohJ ohu
the North of Europe, Christmas is often called
the "Childrens' festival" and Christmas eve is
devoted to giving presents, especially between
parents and children, and brothers and sisters,
by means of the Christmas tree. Former
ly and still in some of the smaller villages of
North Germany, the presents made by all the
parents were sent to some one person, who, in
high buskins, white robe and mask and an
enormous fax wig, becoming the bug bear of
children known as Kneclt Rupert, goes from
house to house, is received by the parents with
great pomp and reverence, calls for the chill
dren and bestows the Intended gifts upon them
according to the character which he hears
from the parents. This is the real origin OF
our traditional Kris Kinkle.
Christmas has always been at once a relig-
ious. domestic and merry-making festival
among our English ancestry and the festivities
were continued for weeks, tenants being en-
tertained at the Manor Hail. and Il general sea-
son of joy among all classes prevailing The
generous wassail bowls abounded, and period
of carnival and tumult followed. But the old
Christmas celebrations in England have lost
their primitive boisterous character, and the
gambols and carols are nearly gone by, and
family reunions and evergreen trimmings ale
about all that remains of the various rough
merriments that used to mark the festival.
In the United States, since the Puritans were
at first stern opponents of Christmas pastimes,
the Cay was for long time less generally eel
ebrated in New England than in the Middle
and Southern States. The spirit of the old cav
alier more Thoroughly permeated the South and
in that section particularly the season has been
observed as period ofjollity, mirth and feast
| Even now the Christmas celebrations of New
| England are not as general as those through
out the South, SO long does the influence Of
ancestry continue its sway.