Smyrna times., 1891-12-23
What Christmas Means.
CELEBRATED AS HOLY DAY SINCE
THE YEAR OF OUR LORD So.

The YEAR OF OUR LORD SS.
At midnight on the 25th of this
month, the birthday of the Savior of
mankind will have been celebrated for
the seventeen hundred and ninety
second time, for Christmas was first
kept as holy day A. D. SO. We have
no means of determining the exact
date Ofthe Savior's nativity.
AS to the year, prepOnderance of
opinion and of such evidence as we
have, seems to favor that of or 5 B.
G. As to the month, December is the
height of the rainy season in Judea,
and therefore, the fact, as stated in the
New Testament, that shepherds were
watching their hocks on its plains,
while the 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 arguments ad-
vanced to prove it took place in Octo-
Der, but the question will ever remain
in allegiance.
For the first three centuries, Christ
mas was one of the most movable of all
religious festivals. The Eastern
church observed January 6, as the an
niversary both of Christ'a birth aud
circumcision. But in the fourth cen
tury Pope Julius l. ordered an investi-
cation into the matter, and after long
deliOeration the theOlogians, both Of
the east and the west, united in ap-
pointing December 25th to be kept as
h
probable that in selecting December
25th as the date of the greatest event
save One-the crucifxiOn-in the
worlds history, the holy fathers were
influenced by a desire to supplant
the many heather festivals of the win
ter sOlstice, such as the Saturnalia, or
great feast of Saturn and Ops, which
began on December 10, or, after C8sar's
reformation of the calendar, on the
18th, and continued for seven days.
This presumption is made more
probable from the fact that for many
centuries the festivities of Christmas
were prolonged until Twelfth Night"
January 6, and even till Candlemas
Day, February 2, while they usually
began as early as the night before,
All Saints Day or Halloween, thus
showing the desire of the early fathers
of the church to make the heathens
converted to Christianity feel they had
lost nothing in harmless pleasure and
enjoyment by the substitution 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 uses are de-
rived from the old heather festivals
which Christmas replaced. The Gus
tom of giving Christmas presents, now
so universally observed, was derived
from the old Roman Saturnalia or
Feast of Saturn, above mentioned, at
which it was customary for all the
members of household 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 similar piece of timber gave
the principal Ere and the principal
light. The Yule clog and the super
stitiOns connected with it, are among
the most venerable of Christmas asso-
Citations. 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 English gentleman,
residing near Shrewsbury, was totally
destroyed by fire in consequence of too
large Yule log having been lighted
on his hearth-stone. When the Yule
clog was not all consumed before dawn
and burned on into the light of Christ
mas day, its ashes were carefully pre-
served until next Christmas eve.
The custom of decorating churches,
dwellings and places of business with
evergreen, holly, laurel, bays and
| mistletoe, at the Christmas seG5oa has