Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-12-10
YULETIDE SEASON.
THE MOST CHERISHED HOLIDAY
OF THE YEAR.
IL BringS TO Mind Glad TidIngs of
Peace-It fills the Heart with
Joy A Review OF Some OF the
Cherished Customs Inseparabiy
Connected with the Day of the
Nativity.

| Connected With the Day of the
Nativity.
| By Lady Cook, nee Tennessee c. Claffiin.
Again Christmas with all its de-
lightful associations approaches, fos-
tering domestic harmony, and repeat
ing the glorious gospel of peace on
earth and goodwill towards men. No
other period of the year is SO potent as
this in healing the wounds OF friend
ship, and in warming the heart of man
towards his fellows. And whosoeyer
has British, Scandinavian or Saxon
blood in his veins, welcomes it with
enthusiasm. He observes it with
| gladness whether it comes to him in a
torrid or arctic cline or any interme-
diate zone. The best of good cheer is
spread, his dearest friends are invited,
and whatever else may grace his table,
a plum pudding stuck with berry,
laden holly will, if possible, be there,
and a bunch of mistletoe not far off:
customs strongly savoring of Pagan
ism, without doubt, and handed down
from heather ancestors, who were,
nevertheless, in their own time and
way, good men and true.
Christmas is the Christian saturnal,
when even the strictest and most de-
corous, countenance some degree of
license. The polite leaders of our
faith in the earliest days of Christian
ity thought it wise to graft most of the
| rites and ceremonies of Paganism upon
the doctrines of Christ in order to
make the latter popular. Thus they
caused His birth to coincide with the
Roman Saturnalia which for a whole
week from the 18th to the 25th of De-
cember commemorated the freedom
and equality that existed during the
whole of. the golden reign of Saturn.
We are told that long before the foun-
dation of Rome these heather feasts
were remarkable for their universal
liberty. Slaves were permitted to rid
icule their masters and to discuss
every topic with freedom. Friends
made presents to one another, the
schools were closed, no criminals were
executed, public and private animos-
ity ceased. While they lasted war
was never declared, and mirth, riot
and debauchery had full swing. Dur
ing the sacrifices the priests made
their offerings with uncovered heads,
which was never done at any other
festivals. The fetters were removed
from the public statues of the god, to
whom every emancipated slave devot-
ed his own. The temples were decked
with holly and ivy, and other sacred
evergreens, and as profusely as our
own were in the last century, when
Miss Jenny Simper thus complained
to the Spectator" "Our clerk, who
was once gardener, has this Christ
mas so overdeckt the church with
green's that he has quite spoilt my
prospect, insomuch that l have scarce
seen the young baronet for three
weeks, and unless the greens are re-
moved, l shall soon have little else to
do in church than to say my prayers" d"
The holly and the mistletoe are in.
digenous although not peculiar to
this country, and the latter, as every
one knows, was pre-eminently the
sacred plant of the Druids, that
mysterious, learned, and remarkable
caste whose history remains to be
written. In the Scandinavian my
thology, the mistletoe was consecrated
on memorable occasion and for a
most beneficent purpose, to Friga, the
Northern goddess of love. For the
protection of her son Balder, an oath
was imposed on all things of earth,
air, fire, and water, not to injure the
beautiful young god. The mistletoe
alone from its apparent harmlessness,
was excepted, and it was with an arrow
fashioned from its wood that Loki, the
evil one, slew him. All nature bitterly
mourned his death until Hela pitied
and restored him to his mother, and
from that time the fatal plant was
consecrated to Friga - our native
Venus-that it might henceforth be-
come an instrument of love but never
more of hatred. Thus at Chistmas,
when the Druids We're wont to cut it
with golden knives, we pass under its
branches with kisses, and formerly,
whenever it was scarce, our maidens,
not to be defrauded of their customary
rites, made kissing lunches" of ever
greens ornamented with oranges and
ribbons, to do duty instead.
His must be sour heart that can
view sweet old customs with any other
feeling than that of genial approba-
ton. Hundreds of generations have
enioyed them and made merry over
them, the young and the unlearned in
happy and innocent thougtlessness,
while the learned and philosophic
have busted themselves with the deeper
import that lies beneath their popular
surface. These see in them the relics
| of a universal religion devoted to