Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-01-02
Correspondence Of the RECORD UMoNl
HOLIDAY SEASONS
IN SAN FRANcIsCo-FETE, FAST AND
SAINT D.Ys-soME REFLECTIONS.
Chinese Temples = Christian Temples :
Jewish Customs-French Italians
and Others on Holidays

and Others on Holidays
To the middle-aged and the old, whose
kernel out of the husk of life is partially or
almost eaten away, the sweet heart of hol-
idays seems gone-vanished into that past
to which maturity consigns all enjoyments
of sparkle and zest. But to the attentive
and listening ear merry shouts and rollick.
ing voices ring through this generation as
through all the young generations that
have gone before {; light feet trip it to and
fro, and coat.tails and petticoats whisk
like mad to music that jigs along every
fiber, as though little demon of fun were
tickling each nerve with feather. As
there always were holidays, so there are
holidays and always will be while man re-
mains man.
Being the home of all religions and all
peoples, extremes, classes and kinds, the
saint days, fast days and fete days in San
Francisco are almost as many as days in
the year. There is always some one
near us
KEEPING HOLIDAY
Or holy day, SO that if one chooses there
is perpetual excuse for putting work away
Yet, and strange the paradox appears, there
never was city more alive, eager, alert to
the main chance. A very fever of excite
ment runs occasionally through the centers
of business, and it runs so high that the
steady cool hand holding the pulse some
times takes the heat. But not often, for
whether i. be grain, or stocks, or real es-
tate, or the hundred smaller speculations
that hum through the market" there
is some one at the head great for that ext
gency, who, with head enough to have
planned it, is all head and no heart to carry
it through. There are corners in every
business, and every man with dollar to
risk has keen scent for opportunity. It
has over and over again il private and pub
lie history been demonstrated that place is
made for man and not man for place, and
again and again the fact has been made
manifest in our affairs. A great grain
manipulation died and people looked blankly
about them wondering who could fill the
vacancy he had made, but our interests
have never declined One bonanza king
and another dropped off from stocks, sur
feited may be with riches, but other men
were raised up to squeeze The people
urgent to be squeezed, with an equally
disastrous result. THUS men have come
and gone, and one holiday after an
other has fallen like forgotten dust
upon the past yet men and affairs still
seem to wane. 1t is with feeling of half
AMUSEMENT AND ToLERATIoN,
As one would note the recreations of some
outlandish animals, that San Franciscans
look on at the holidays which the Chinese
observe with regard which seems in some
sort perfunctory. They go stolidly about
their celebration, which, as near as one
half foreign to their customs can Judge,
consists in passing up and down the streets
of Chinatown, fresh-bar bered and in best
clothes, and in ceremonies at the temples,
which latter seem destitute of all sacred
ness and even religious feeling. There are
number of temples here, where you will
always find few worshipers. One, on
jackson street, is built in the honor of the
Queen of Heaven; another is the Temple of
Kwan Tai, the God of War, and in the
PAX Tai temple, ON st. Louis alley, is Sam
Chow, God of Medicine, besides the God
of the Mountain, the God of the Valleys,
God OF Riches. God of Beasts, Goddess of
Virtue, etc. The highest joss or god, in
the estimation of this people of many gods,
is Guam Kong, who, according to their own
confession, is as human as the rest of us,
having been giant eleven feet high, and
who died several thousand years ago. You
will find him worshiped as great warrior
everywhere among the Chinese, arrayed In
his green dragon dress. The number of
gods is so many that a perfect list would
be well nigh impossible for one who looks
specifically at the subject, but each has a
birth or feast day, when fiocks of worship.
ers do them honor at the joss-houses
The prayers offered are printed on
little pieces of red or blue paper, which
are thrown into a furnace kept alight, and
as the papers burn and ascend the atten-
tion of the god is called to them by strik.
ing bell and sounding gong which stand
convenient. To us it seems like no reli-
gion at all, but it nevertheless has firm
hold upon the Chinese, who listen to our
teachings with great seriousness OF counte-
nance. and may be stag songs and recite
verses of scripture, all bearing on the love
of Jesus, yet burn incense sticks and wor-
ship at the joss houses on days when the
American man holds no Sunday. school.
The chief holiday of the Chinaman is his
New Year celebration, which begins Feb
ruary lst and lasts a week, and the house.
servants bring silk handkerchief, pound
of tea or pot of preserved ginger to mark
the event. On the 4th day of April they
go out to the queer little vault at Lone
Mountain, where their
DEAD APE STORED,
Awaiting expectation to China, and here
they burn joss sticks, crackers, and
make offerings to their defunct country
men. They do not take the trouble to re-
turn dead women to China. April Oath is
the feast-dav of the Goddess of Heaven,
and they continue her celebration for three
days. They also keep as holidays special
days of the seasons, such as summer and
winter solstice, beginning of autumn. little
aud great heat, little and great snow, fall
Of dew, equinox, etc. On the 10th of Sep
TENDER there is worship at the full of the
moon, when they make and distribute what
are known as moon cakes. Now and then,
when some Chinaman Of Importance dies,
a stranger would receive the impression
that great Joy was being experienced.