Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-12-14

anu IN tuceo oSSOcIatiOn3 tn0 Oi0of Gus
toms are still preserved In modified
form, but there Is less each year Of the
picturesque home life and northern man.
ners among them. found less dis
tinctive Scandinavian celebration last
year than seems possible among so intel
ligent and earnest people, and the most
characteristic Of all the festivals among
them last Christmas Is the one In the
little Scandinavian church in William,
street, South Brooklyn.
II seems n pity that this Is SO, for Of
the many poems Of the worlds religions
that are founded ON the dying Of the year
that OF Baldur seems the qualntest and
most beautiful. He was the son of Thor
aud Of Frigga, and resembled Apollo In
his attributes OF light and beauty. When
light and the warmth and brightness OF
the northern summer came to die on the
eve Of tho shortest day In the year, Bal.
dur was slain. He had been troubled by
horrid dreams and premonitions Of evil
which hc and the other gods failed to in.
terpret, and Friggn, determined to pro-
tect him, II possible, exacted an oath
from everything In earth and heaven and
he'll that they would none Of them harm
Baldur. Only from the mistletoe she did
not exact the oath.
The Asa Loki, who was tho god Of
darkness and evil, and who hated Baldur,
inquired about this, and Frigga told him
what she had done. Only from the
mistletoe had she taken no pledge, bc.
cause 1t was, she said, 30 young and so
littla that not oxo,,,aJ
Baldur, like Achilles, had been made In.
Vulnerable by his mothcr's tender care,
and 1t came to be one or the favorite
sports In the games Of the gods for him
to stand up and receive unharmed the
assaults Of all the weapons of the other
asas, or gods. Loki travelled away to the
south country, and, gathering the mistle-
toe, he fashioned spear whose head was
made Of the wood Of the dcspised para
site. This he took with him to the
winter festival Of the gods, and when
the blind god, why he did not cast.
spear at the sun god. Hod replied that
he could not, because he was blind, and
Loki told him that he would direct the
spear. He did SO, Hod hurled II, and
Baldur was slain.
Ever afterward, at the feast of the
winter solstice, the mistletoo was among
the Norsemen an emblem of the myth,
aud not merely bit Of meaningless dec
Grafton. When Christianity made its
way northward, the priests among the
Germans and Scandinavians forbade the
introduction Of the mistletoe into the
churches, but the prohibition was not
long effective, and today 1t Is connected
with Christmas games, though less
among the Scandinavians than further
south, where 1t grows most.
"But how should the commemoration
Of Baldurs death become blended with
the celebration OF Christmas?" asked
Of venerable Scand, who has studied
the traditions Of his own and other races
long and earnestly.
Because" he answered, 'the two are
one. ! do not mean that Baldur and
Christ are one. though some Christian
writers have tried TO show that Baldur
was merely the northern heathen's dream
Of the Messiah. mean that their death
and birth are cOmmcmorated In these win.
ter feasts which have been celebrated by
all nations and all religions at about the
time of the winter solstice. The PhD-
nicians, the Kelts, the Stands, the Hin.
docs, tho Greeks and Romans, the Jews,
the Mohammedans and the Christians
have alike taken that season for their
most important feast. Among tho Dru-
Ids was the oak ceremonial, which led to
the custom Of bonfres and yule logs
Grimm traces these back to tho Twelfth
century In Germany. The Hindoo feast
Of Lakshmi is celebrated with charity to
every human being. The Romans and
Greeks observed their saturnalia by Civ.
ing their slaves temporary freedom and
license.
Observe that these are all celebrated
after the busbandman's labor for the
year is closed and the year itself dies.
The Rev. DIR. Jennings, In his work on
Jewish antiquities. says IL Ia vulgar
opinion merely that Christ was born on
Dec. 25. The feast is held then, simply
because 1t Is the worlds time for feast.
Among our own people King Hakon the
Good, the foster son Of King Ethelstan.
OF England, tried, In tho Tenth century,
to abolish the sacriiicial feasts with
which we honorcd Baldur, and TO sub
stitute the Christmas celebration. He
failed, and was compelled to take part
in the old heather rites himself, but his
will prevailed after lie had passed away.
There had been cattle, swine and horses
sacrificed, and occasionally human lives,
but this, of course, IN no longer the GUS
tonh EAIEs.( (IRTia