The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-12-16
NULE TIDE,
With All Its Pleasures is FAgain Drawing
Near.

Again Christmas with all iSS delight.
full associations approaches, fostering
domestic harmony, and repeating the
glorious gospel of peace on earth good.
will towards men. No other period
OF the year is so potent as this in heal
ing the wounds of friendship, and in
warming the heart of man towards
his fellows. And whOsoever has Brit
ish, scandinavian, or Saxon blood in
his veins, welcomes it with enthusiasm.
He observes it with gladness whether
it comes to him in torrid or arctic
cline or any intermediate zone. The
best Of good cheer is spread, his dear
est friends are invited, and whatever
else may grace his table, plum pud-
ding stuck with berry-iaden holly will
If possible, be there, and a bunch of
mistletoe not far off; customs strongly
savouringof Paganism, without doubt
and handed down from heathen an
cestOrs, who were nevertheless, in
their own time and way, good men
and true.
Christmas is the Christian Saturnal
when even the strictcst and most de
cOrous cOuntenance some degrees 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 causedHis birth to coincide with
the Roman Saturnalia which for a
whole week from the 18th to the 25th
of December cOmmemOrated the free
dom and equality that existed during
the whole Of the golden reign of Sat
urn. We are told that long before the
foundation of Rome these heather
feasts were remarkable for their uni
versal liberty. Slaves were permitted
to ridicule their masters and to dis
cuss every t opic with freedom.
Friends made presents to one another.
the schools were closed, no criminals
were executed, public and private an
ceased. Whilei they lasted
war was never declared, and mirth,
riot and debauchery had full swing.
During the sacrifices the priests made
their offerings with uncovered heads,
w l,icb yyoc nouor 1Opo ~ onSr o+ Il ~,
festivals. The fetters were removed
from the public statutes of the god, to
which every emancipated slave de
voted his own. The temples were
decked with holly and ivy, and other
sacred eVergreens. and as prOfuSely
as our own were III the last century,
when Miss Jenny Simper thus com
piained to the "SpectOr:" "Our clerk
who was once a gardner, has this
so overdeckt the church
with green's that he has quite spoilt
my prospect, insomuch that | have
scarce seen the young barOnet for
three weeks, and unless the green's are
shall soon have little else
to do in church than to say my pray
prs."
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 sa-
cred plant of the Druids, that myster-
lous, learned, and remarkable caste
whose history remains to be written.
In the Scandinavian mythology, the
mistletOe was cOnsecrated on mem
Orable occasion and for most benef-
icent purpose to Friga, the Northern
goddess of love. For the protection
Of her son Balder. an oath was i'm
posed on all things of earth, air, fire
and water, not to injure the beautiful
young god. The mistletOe along from
its apparent harmlessness, was except
ed, and it was with an arrow fashion
ed from its wood that LOki, the evil
one, slew him. All nature mourned
HIS tCttIlI ulllll Iltld DlJleu ana re
stored him to his mother, and from
that time the fatal plant was conse-
Grated to Friga-our native Venus,
that it might henceforth become an
instrument of love but never more of
hatred. Thus at Christmas, when
the Druids were wont to cut it with
golden knives, we pass under its
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 a sour heart that can
view these sweet old customs with
any other feeling than that of general
Hundreds of genera
tions have enjoyed them and made
merry over them, the young and the
unlearned in happy and innocent
houghtlessless, while the learned and
have busted themselves
with the deeper import that lies be
meath their popular surface. These
see in them the relics of universal
religion devoted to Nature, whose or