Los Angeles herald., 1891-12-25
WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS.
Celebrated as a Holy Day sinoe the Year
of Our Lord 0S.


the birthday OF the Saviour Of mankind
teen hundred and ninety second time,
for Christmas was first kept as a holy
day A. d. 9S. We have no means of de-
termining the exact date of the Saviour's
nativity.
AS to the year, preponderance of opin-
ion and of such evidence as we have
seems to favor that Of 4 or B. G. AS
to the month, December is the height of
the rainy season in Judea, and, there
fore, the fact, as stated by the New Tes-
lament, that shepherds were watching
their focks ON its plains while stars were
shining in the heavens ON the night of
the Saviour's birth, makes it extremely
unlikely that it could have occurred in
that month. Many learned treatises
have been written and plausible argu-
ments advanced to prove that it must
have taken place in October, but the
question will ever remain in allegiance.
For the first three centuries Christmas
was one of the most movable of all re-
igious festivals. The Eastern church
observed Jan. 6 as the anniversary both
of Christ's birth and circumcision. But
in the Fourth century Pope Julius | or
dered an investigation of the matter,
and after long dehberation the theolo-
gians of both the east and the west
united in appointing Dec. 25 to be kept
as Christ's birthday. 1t seems not i'm
probable that in selecting Dec. 25 as the
date of the greatest event save one-the
crucifxion-in the worlds history the
worthy fathers were influenced by de-
sire to supplant the many heather fes-
tivals of the winter solstice, such as the
Saturnalia, or great festival OF Saturn
and Ops, which began on Dec. 10 Tor
after Cpsar's reformation of the calen-
dar on the 17th) and continued for seven
days.
This presumption is made more prob
able from the fact that for many centu-
ries the festivities of Christmas were
prolonged until Twelfth night" Jan. 6,
and even till Candlemas day, Feb. 2,
while they usually began as early as the
night before All Saints Day, or Hal
loween, thus showing the desire of the
early fathers of the church to make the
heather converts to Christianity feel
that they had lost nothing in harmless
pleasure and enjoyment by the substi-
tuition of the Christian festival for the
heather one.
Not only did the Romans observe this
period of the year as a time for mirth
and rejoicing, but many of our most
familiar Christmas usages are derived
from the old heather festivals which
Christmas replaced. The custom Of
giving Christmas presents, now so uni
versally observed, was derived from the
old Roman Saturnalia or Feast of Saturn,
above mentioned, at which it was Gus
tomary for all the members of house
hold to offer gifts to one another.
The Yule clog, or log-the great stick
of timber placed in olden times upon the
Christmas fire-was derived from the
Saxon feast of Jul or Yul, at which a
similar piece of timber gave the princi-
pal fire and the principal light. The
Yule clog and the superstitions con-
nected with it are among the most ven
cradle of Christmas associations. The
Yule clogs that blazed in the vast halls
of the old English feudal barons of the
Middle Ages were huge trees, and we are
told that even just before the close of
the last century the mansion of an Eng
lish gentleman residing near Shrews-
bury was totally destroyed by fire in
consequence of too large Yule log hav-
ing been lighted on his hearthstone.
When the Yule clog was not all con-
sumed before dawn and burned on into
the light of Christmas day, its ashes were
carefully preserved until the next Christ
mas eve.
The custom of decorating churches,
dwellings and places of business with
evergreen. holly, laurel, bays and mis-
tletoe at the Christmas season has also a
heather origin, being a perpetuation of
an observance of the old British Druids,
whose belief it was that kindly sylvan
spirits sought these ornaments of living
green and hovered near them, untouched
and unharmed by nipping frost, until
the death of winter.
Those same old Druids attached much
Importance to the mistletoe, investing it
with a peculiarly hallowed and mystic
character. They regarded it as an en-
blem of love and believed that it typi-
fed the benefcent feelings of their gods
toward mankind. 1t is doubtless to this
old Druidical association of the mistle-
toe with love that the English custom,
which still obtains, of enforcing the for
felt of kiss from any female who is
caught under branch of it at Christmas
time is traceable.
By the celebration of Christmas, with
its grand liturgy, its magnificent music
and its pictorial and dramatic repre-
sentations of the principal events in the
life of him whose birth it commem-
grated, the church sought to replace
these heathen festivities and to lift up
the minds of the people to something
higher and holier, though from the first
the day was regarded both as holy
commemoration of u most sacred event
and as mirthful, joyous festival. In
the Middle Ages the festive observances
of the day often so far overtopped its
more sacred features that the clergy
were frequently compelled to check the
unseemly merriment of their fiocks.
The name of Christmas assigned to
the festival was derived from Christ and
the Saxon maesse or mass, and the two
words were combined to denote special
service in honor of the birth of the Son
of God.
Probably one of the most generally