The Portland daily press., 1883-12-25
BY c. W. ERNST.
Written for the Press

could witness the Christmas celebration of
New England in 1888, they would be greatly
shocked, but like good logicians they would
promptly try to prove, by history and Holy
Writ, that these Christmas festivities are
simply return to Popely, and unworthy of
the church as reformed by Calvin, Knox and
the learned men who once ruled the little
thcocracy of New England. On the other
hand, If we go to the learned men who be-
ieve nothing, save what stands written in
official documents or rests on similar au-
thority, we shall probably hear that Christ
was not born Ammo Domini, but three or
four years B. c., and that there is no au-
thority for celebrating the birth of Christ on
the twenty-fifth of December Quite likely
the Puritan fathers were not SO wrong as is
now thought by some people, and the learned
men who study chronology are probably
right in what they say about the day and the
year of Christ's birth. But it does net fol-
low that we of modern New England are
either irrational or absurd, when we have
Christmas trees, or special service in
our churches, and when we make particular
efforts to gladden. the hearts of our children.
The simple truth is that we do no more and
no less than do all the members of the great
Germanic family, on the unity of which Mr.
Edward A. Freeman, the famous historian,
spoke SO eloquently and SO justly when he
visited this country. Nor is Christmas con-
fined to America, England, Germany and
Scandinavia. The French celebrate their
Noel with much zeal, and, not to speak of
other nations the very jews are known to
have had Christmas trees.
And why should not the Jews adopt popu-
lar customs? There is good reason to be-
lieve that the twenty-ffth.of December was
celebrated in pagan Rome and barbarous Ger
many before the story told in the second
chapter of ST. Luke's gospel was known.
The old Romans and Germans thought De-
cember 25th to be the winter solstice, and
they celebrated the day in many ways. The
Romans called the day natalis soils inoicti--
the day of the victorious sun, who was sup
posed to have defeated the encroaching north
and its night. Out of the very word natalis
or natal grew the French word Noel, which
means Christmas. On that day the old Ro-
mans finished their annual Saturnalia, dur
ing which it was customary to make pres
ents, and to wait upon servants and poor peo-
pie. The Germans of that time had neither
servants nor rich and poor classes; but they
celebrated the winter solstice by lighting
big fires, by feasts and by burning the yule
log. which is still one of the Christmas fea-
lures in Scandinavia and a few English fam
lilies. Even in devoutly Christian families,
towns and countries Christmas has become
very largely social festival, especially for
children. Now the Jews are illustrious for
the beauty and purity of their family life,
and they are not entirely unjustifed in hav-
ing Christmas trees. They have right to
celebrate Christmas as social aud popular
festival
Nor is the name Christmas quite as secta-
rian as is generally believed Christ certainly
belongs to no sect exclusively, ard the ter
mination mas may mean mass, or it may
mean matutinal. The word mass is not
liked by Protestants; but the word Christ
mas is very much like the German Christ
mette, and the latter word has nothing to
do with mass, but is corruption of the
word matutinal, which means in this case
early service, it being an ancient German
custom to have Christmas service before
daybreak, for ST. Luke tells us that Christ
was born in the night. The idea that Christ
was born in stable where there was an OK
and an ass, is probably due to bad transla-
ton of the Old Testament into Greek by the
seventy interpreters. Habakkuk iii, 2 was
interpreted by the Septuagint as meaning
'in the midst of two animals thou wilt be
known the Hebrew shani'n being mistaken
for shnaina, and chGjehu for chqjoth, and
this pardonable error, occasioned by the fact
that in old Hebrew the consonants only are
written, was supplemented by Isaiah i, 81
The OK knoweth his owner, and the ass his
masters crib. The Armenian church to-day
accuses Catholics and Protestants of paving
too much attention to animals on Christmas
day, and the reproach is justified by the me-
di@val hymn which says
Cognovit bos ct asinus
Quod puer erat Dominus,-
Ok and ass recognized the child as the
Lord. Some medieval hymns, which Vol
taire ridiculed very properly, went so far as
to initiate the language Of the animals, the
OK being supposed to have said paer natus-
the child is born, to which the ass replies tia
yes, while the sheep answer in Betlem.
The relies of these pioas superstitions sur
vive in some popular songs and in certain
Christmas toys But all this has no more
to do with the Christian idea of the day than
has the English yule log, which is merely a
reminder of the Danes, who once ruled along
the eastern coast of England. In southern
France, in Roumania, and among many
Slavs Christmas is called chalende. kolenda
or koyada, with evident reference to calen-
dar or the first day of January. This shows
that Christmas, as celebrated to-day is a
mixture OF Christian traditions and purely
secular superstitions. The old Puritans.
then, were not right in thinking Christmas
mainly Popish day; neither is it exclu-
sively pagan day or purely popular festi-
val.
The early Christian church did not cele-
brate Christmas. II is quite certain that
the Eastern church adopted the day from
the Latin church. st Chrysostom preached,
in 1856, a sermon in Constantinople, which
contains this interesting statement: 'It is
not ten years that we know this day, yet