The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-12-31
NEW YEARS C0STOhS.
How the Festival is Cele-
DRAFTED in Different
Places.
SPANISH ERA IN PORTO alCO
1928" In the Philippines-Old
Time Turkey Shooting
Pantomime.
SPANISH ERA IN PORTO alCo
Copyright, 1898. BY the Author.1

E~UNDAY. Jan. i. begins the year 1899
~ of the Christian era, but there are
~ citizens and residents who use other
calendars. Mobam1nedan sailors and ped
| Hers Of the leading seaports are still in the
thirteen hundred and sixteenth year of
their era. The many Armenian refugees
arc in the thirteen hundred as&T forty
seventh year of theirs. The orthodox Jews
are In the thirty-nine hundred and four
tenth year of the A~brahansic era. The
| citizens Of Chinatown in San Francisco,
New York and the other large cities are
/ celebrating the forty-seven hundred and
ffty-frst year since the accession of Fuh
Hi, their great civilizing emperor, while
many Christian sects look at the time as
the ffty-six hundred and afty-ninth year
of the world In our new territory of
Porto Rico the educated Spanish still refer
Ia the Spanish era. which began IS b.. G..
! and is now 1887 years old. The Philip
pine insurgents keep alive the memory of
their wrongs by using 328. the number OF
The year which is the period that has
elapsed since Luzon was conquered by the
! Spanish arms under Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi. Our Mormon brethren comment
orate their faith by calling the present
time the seventy-sixth year since the angel
disclosed the golden book of Mormon to
JoseDh Smith.
The festival IS very old. much older
than civilization itself. 1t was intended
/ 10 commemorate the return of the sun
which was, failed to have gone away or to
awe been slain or wounded in the poetry
and myths Of the early northern races.
This occurred at the winter s~oIstice. Dec.
/ 2I-22. and SO far as was known was OBJ
served by all primitive nations as a time
of ioy. AS human knowledge grew the
moon became used as the measurer OF
time. the very words moon and month
meaning originally the "measurer." As
the lunar and solar wears never agree there
arose early a tendency to break the first
/ festival into two. and this accounts for the
Discrepancy which prevails among civil
lied nations in regard TO the observance Of
the great winter festival With the Ger
mano-Gothic races the f~avorite is Yule or
Christmas, but with the Latin races it is
New Years. No better illustration of
the cosmonoIitan character of n country
could be found than our celebrating both
festivals and making Christmas and New
Years events OF equal entertainment and
inv In the American celebration of New
Years. there is a distinct picture Of our
colonial history. In nearly every district
the prevailing style of observance is that
Of the first settlers from Europe Those
Who maid the greatest attention to the dsv
were the Dutch. French. Hucuenots and
enaniards The Dutch center of obsery-
ance was New YORK and New Jersey. The
French was Jouisiana and Mjssissippi
Ia the Southern states and Maine in the
Northern nh Huguenots settled first in
New York. Massachusetts. North and
So,th Carolina. while the Spanish had
settlements in Florida California. New
Mexieo. Arizona and Texas.
our good friends the pilgrims and Puri-
fans were n tribe anstere' and their chief
festival was the day of Thanksgiving.
which thev themselves appointed. The
vonnaer neople who vera encouraged by
their mothers kent mn MANY of the older
festivals If the fatberland. In this way
thara was q covert celebration of the har-
vest moon. Halloween. Christmas. New
Years and NAV dav. these being the chief