The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1897-12-23
A CHRISTMAS HOMlLY.
The Social and Secular Significance Of
the Day.

The Social and Secular Significance of
the Day.
The establishment Of the Christmas fes.
tival, now the most joyous of the yearly
holidays throughout the civilized world,
is the most recent In date Of the great
church days, Its social and secular sig
niflcance, of course, followed its religious
adoption. Yet curiously enough, 1t de.
rived its rites Of merry making not from
Christianity so much as from the customs
of the heathen world The rulers of the
early church, from Constantine down,
were shrewd politicians. They knew how
important it was to include as many as
possible Of the old pagan usages and be.
liefs to which tho people of the Roman
empire had been attached In the observ-
ances Of the new faith
Just why Dec. 25 was selected as the
natal day Of the Saviour of the world no.
body has ever been able to tell Certainly
there Is no historic reason nor the slightest
authentic clew, and it Is well known that
December is the rainy season In Judea,
when neither shepherds nor flocks brave
the open sky 1t is more than probable
that the celebration of Christ's birth
which up to the fifth century had not been
observed at all, got them to be recognized
as not less worthy of holiday conservation
than Faster and Whitsunday 1t was
happy thought to make this as nearly
identical as might be with the old Roman
Baturnalia, which still survived in some of
its forms, and with the annual feast of
Thor observed among all the Teutonic
races, even those which had accepted the
white Christ 1t was the more opposite
too, as the Roman festival and the Teu
tonic alike had symbolic reference to the
great natural fact that the sun at or about
that date rises out of the docadence of his
power to augmenting heat and splendor
This was easily applicable to the first ap
pearance of the Son of God and the Sun of
the World among men
So we see imported into the observance
of the Christian holiday from the first on
its social side the time honored heather
usages and ceremonies The universal
present givingof the saturnalia, especially
to children, and the democratic equality
which abolished distinction of rank at
that period were at once followed by the
Christian mcrrymakers From the old
Morse usages the day borrowed the Gus.
toms Of the huge bonflres, the Yule log of
holy ash or oak TO be burned indoors, the
vi AHO lOllg anu InlSuleIOe
boughs, alike sacred TO the deities, the
great boars head served as the piece de re.
sistance of the Christmas feast and the
general bacchanalianism of the occasion
The latter however, was also typical Of
the old Roman festival Santa Claus (St
Nicholas) came by and by into the rich
symbolism OF tlY Christmas show as the
successor Of Odin, the all father and all
giyer The Scandinavian god on the oc
casion OF the festivities OF his eldest son,
Thor, distributed universal gifts, the IA
ther Of each family being his special agent
In the matter AS Odin, or Wooden, became
In later myths the mighty huntsman who
ranged the forests, we see how the Christ.
mas tree and evergreens found their places.
Why, however, the functions OF Odin
should have specially been finally transfer
red to St Nicholas out OF all the Christian
canon roll, unless from the fact that this
fine old saint was the special patron OF
children and schoolboys IL Is not easy 10
divine These things go TO show what a
curiously tangled composite our Christmas
Ia and how Justify 1t has grown out OF di-
verse elements till 1t has become the most
significant and hallowed of holiday sea
sons. marking really an epoch of the year
Among the causes which have enshrined