The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-12-15

tinctive Scandinavian celebration last
year than seems possible among 50 intel
!igent and earnest a people. and the most
characteristic OF all tile festivals among
them last Christmas is the one in the
little Scandinavian church In William
street, South Brooklyn.
1t seems 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 quaintest and
most beautiful. He was the son Of Thor
and 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 the shortest day in the year, Bal
dur was slain. lie had been troubled by
horrid dreams and prernonitions Of evil
which he and the other gods failed to in
terpret, and Frigga, determined 10 pro
tect him. if possible. exacted an oath
from everything in earth and heaven and
hell that they would none OF them harm
Baldur. Only from the mistletoo she did
not exact the oath.
The Asa Loki, who was the 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, be-
cause it was. she said. so young and so
little that it had NOT seemed worth while.
Baldur, like Achilles, had been made in
vulnerable by his mothers tender care,
and it came to be one of the fayorite
sports in the games of the gods for him
to stand up and receive unframed 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 despised para
site. This he took with him TO the
winter festival of the gods, and when
Baldur stood up, Loki asked Asa Hod,
the blind god, why he did not cast a.
spear at the sun god. Hold replied that
he could not, because he was blind, and
Loki told him that he would direct the
spear. He did SO, Hold hurled it, and
Baldur was slain.
Ever afterward, at the feast of the
winter solstice, the mistletoe was among
the Norsemen an emblem Of the myth,
and 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 mistletce into the
churches, but the prohibition was not
long effective, and today it is connected
with Christmas games, though less
among the Scandinavians than further
south, where it grows most.
but how should the commemoration
Of Baldur's death Become blended with
the celebration of Christmasf' 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. l 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 cOmmemoratedi in these win
ter feasts which have been celebrated by
all nations and all religions at about the
time of the winter solstice. The Php-
nicians, the Kelts, the Stands, the Hin
docs, the Greeks and Romans, the Jews,
the Mohammedans and the Christians
l..x oil fal- hot &. H..
most important feast. Among the Dru-
Ids was the oak ceremonial, which led to
the custom of bonfires and yule logs |
Grimm traces these back to the Twelfth |
century in Germany. The Hindoo feast |
of Lakshmi is celebrated with charity TO |
every human being. The Romans and
Greeks observed their saturnaIia by Civ |
ing their slaves temporary freedom and
license.
"Observe that these are all celebrated
after the husbandman's labor for the |
year is closed and the year itself dies.
The Rev. DR.. Jennings, in mis- work on
Jewish antiquities, says it Is a vulgar
opinion merely that Christ was born on
Dec. %. The feast Ia held then, simply
because it is the worlds time for feast.
Among our own people King Hakon the
Good. the foster son of King Ethelstan.
of England, tried. in the Tenth century,
to abolish the sacrificial feasts with
which we honored 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 he had passed away.
There had been cattle. swine and horses
sacrificed, and occasionally human lives,
but this, Of course, is no longer the Gus
toni" FALEs- CURTIS.