The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1895-12-20
CHRISTMAS
Celebrated of Old and
in Lands Far Away
ITS BEAUTY AND LESSONS
THOUGH OLD, SEEM
EVER NEW.
Written for the cqti.en.A.

nave stories OF the Christmas morning on
the old plantation. "Ole Masters" door
was crowded with his dusky vassals troop
ing up to greet him and crying ''Crismus
glt Marster. Crismus gif'.' Then began
for them twelve days rest till the Twelfth
Night there were many songs to the banjo.
and merry feet ratified on the cabin floor.
The Big House. with great log on the
hearth and wreaths and branches of holly
throughout the halls kept festival with open
doors. Then there was the old French
Christmas. in Louisiana. with masquerades
and old customs and carols rudelv trans
planted from the land of Acadie. My
Lord of Baltimore kept Christmas in the
old Feudal style. Mynheer. of New York,
with long pipe sat after Christmas dinner
IN his chimney corner lin fair round belly
with good capon lined. " and laughed over
ponderous Hollandish Jokes with several
other Mynheers of the vicinage The chill
dren roasted apples and nuts in the roaring
fire, and listened to the old tale. ever new.
of how good st Nicholas came sleighing
through the clouds and made poor children
1lch. Fol they say that while alive he Sc
cured dowries for three young maidens and
after death saved three bows from drowning.
and so the children all are grateful to him
to this day. The prim children OF the Pilgrim
Fathers had their Christmas. too in their
staunch old New England homes. There
We're sleigh rides. and after them stories
were told in the kitchen ire-light while
home-p pressed cider was drunk, and the
children sat Watching the Christmas candle
that grandma had dipped, with a quill of
gnnpowder III 1t. And what jump there
would be when the quill went off! In
canada. Christmas was a holiday for the
trappers and "Voyageuls." The block house
was crowded with wanderers from all the
country round, Indians and stalwart men
OF North France. Its roof would resound
to old French hymns of "Noel," sung more
heartily than tremendously. The fowerv
Provinces of Mexico kept Christmas in
Spanish style
Across the water the DAYS OF our fathers
We're troubled, but the fair-haired sires of
Morse and Danish homes found time TO
make merry around the gilded boars head
that came smoking into the banquet hall
The German children danced about the
Christmas tree as ours do now. Away up
IN the Alpine valleys the Swiss children
came singing their carols, and on twelfth
( day, friends, dressed as kings. came bring
{
OF the many old customs to which our Gus
TOM OF Christmas gifts owes its origin
Down IN Italy, pilgrims come to see the lit
tie manager, black with age, carried through
the alSles of the Basilica of Santa Maria
Mag@iore. The Russian children wait for
simple present from the Babousha. Il
woman who refused hospitality TO the three
kings and would not follow their quest of
the enid, and now she goes wandering over
me world leaving Il gift for every little
one lest that perhaps he lie
but Christmas IS So vast: how could we
ever nope to travel even in thought over all
the lands it makes happy every year, and 1t
Is so old-even the present customs OF our
homes date back beyond the birth of our
country to the days when Milton sang of
the night
Wherein the Prince OF Light
MS reign Of peace upon the earth began
1t goes beyond the days when urim MOL.
Cromwell sent his bell-rngers through the
streets ringing the Knell of Christmas and
shouting " No Christmas. No Christmas -
Its traditions carry us back past the merry
England !" that Shakespeare has described
into the peaceful days of CHANGER. when
some good franklin. his larer well stocked
with fowls and game. kept festival in his
wooden castle, OF jolly company of 'goode
tellaWs met at the "Tabard " in London.
fora pleasant evening or long drawn story.
But Christmas was more than thirteen
hundred years old when Chaucer first heard
OF It as boy Perhaps the sweet singer
OF the " Canterbury Tales =" was watt
himself once, a ruddy-cheeked choir boy of
some rural abbey, through whose halls at
midnight Of that solemnest vigil save only
the vigil of Easter. the mingled train of
youthful chorsters and aged iriars passed
singing the glad invitatorium:
Christ is born unto us:
Come let Us adore Him"
How the echo of their chant recalls DAYS
when that old music attuned to the thou
SAND Threats OF congregations filling TO the
doors the vast basilicas of Rome. CONSTANT
hople or Antioch reSOunded through the
roots when the early christians kept the
vigil of the feast. On Christmas Eve Char
lemagne stood with drawn sword and read
the gospel beginning "A decree went forth
from Caesar Augustus Years before
HIM the Emperor Vaens had tried in vain
to confuse the Christmas vigil of the neonla
The chanting of the psalms echoed throuoh
the holy place like the rumbling of thunder
The people, like waving sea filled The
house of God. Such was the order and
P"lnp III ana about the sanctuary that it
looked more like heaven than earth. The
emperor heard and saw all this. He had
never before witnessed a spectacle so I'M
posing. lie was overpowered. He grew
DIZZY and darkness yelled his eyes," So
says the old Chronicle. Before him the
salhted mother of Constantine had sought
out the CRIB OF Bethlehem and enshrined its
Dlackened boards in silver In the old DAYS
the BIRTH OF Christ was celebrated in the
East on the 9th of January. In $50 A. d.
we ma St John Chrysostom preaching to
the Church of Antioch on December 18th
ana saying that the celebration of the feast
ON that day was of but ten years standing
The Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian
ratified this date for all places within the
roman Empire. Armenia being at that
time outside the empire, still celebrates
Christmas on the 9th Of January. The Of
neral documents of the reign of Augustus
ordering the enrolment of the citizens
probably preserved in Rome for many wears
after the Resurrection, and the time of tbe
year when, according to Jewish custom. the
priest Zachary went up to the temple, were
the basis OF the tradition in favor of this
day The twelve days between Christmas
and Epiphany, the sixth of January, were
called by the Greeks Dodekameron. {"
They Kept them 50 sacred that the Emperor
prohibited servile works or the holding of
courts during that time.
Though so old, Christmas always carries
with 1t something of the childhood of the
] world. Ii to some the Nhnln fnstiril,t 10