The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-12-21
CHRISTMAS.

a sense of utter loneliness to the for
lorn. Heaven pity those who at this
festive period have no smiling faces OF
dear ones at their board, or worse still,
possess neither home nor friends. When
most families are annually gathered
together in loving communion, it is
meet that the common sympathies OF
humanity should be most strongly
stirred on behalf of the wretched and
the OutCaSt.
1t is unquestionab1e that our Christ
mas festival is of Pagan origin; that it
is the survival of sun-worship
form of that great and universal phal-
lie creed which would seem to be as old
and as ubiquitous as mankind. Who
can say for how many thousands of
years the souls of men were moved to
hope and JOY by the return of the SUN
to vivify and bless the earth? The
end of the winter solstice was a period
of expectancy and promise, celebrated
by joyful feasting, curious customs,
day of every week was dedicated by
Ang1o-Saxon ancestors to the solar
deity. Christianity appropriated the
Pagan festivals to its own cult with as
few innovations as possible, so as not
to shock too rudely the conservative
susceptibi1ities of its converts. And
thus the time of year of the universal
Saturna1ia was fixed upon as the pre-
else period of the birth of Christ, the
spiritual Sun, ''the Sun of righteous
ness" Who was to bring gladness and
healing beneath His wings. The
Scriptural phrase is plain allusion to
the So1ar-serpent worship which pre-
vailed in Syria, as in this country and
throughout the world. An ancient
hierogram of its divinity was a circle,
egg, or sun, with lowering wings.
The Yu1e-c1og or log was emblem
attic of the same sacred fire. The suns
name in Welsh was Haul; in Breton,
Heo1. The Anglo-Sa10n naIIe for
Christmas was Geo1 or Iule; Danish
and Swedish, Jul; Icelandic, Iol or
Jo1; and English, Yu1e. Thus Yule
plainly meant the festival of the Sun.
A year was often called a sun by the
ancients, and Yule was the time when
the old sun died and the new one was
born. Thus the birth of Christ coin
cides with the birth of the sun.
Warmestry, in his ''Vindication of
the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ"
1648, says:-If it doth apPeare that the
time of this Festival doth comply with
the time of the Heathens' Saturnalia,
this leaves no charge of impiety upon
it; for, since things are best cured by
their contraries, it was both wisdom
and piety in the ancient Christians
(whose work it was to convert the
Heathens from such, as we'll as other
superstitions and miscarriages) to vim
dicate such times from the service of
the Devil, by appointing them to the
more solenne and especial service of
God. The B1azes are foolish and vaine,
''Christmasse Kari1les, if they be
such as are fit for the time, and of holy
and sober composure, and used with
Christian sobriety and piety, they are
not unlawful, and may be profitable, if
they be sung with grace in the heart"
New Yeares Gifts, if performed
without superstition may be harmless
provocations to Christian love, and
mutual testimonies thereof to good
purpose, and never the worse because
the Heathens have them at like times"
All very sensible, but at the same
time clever example of special plead
ing, not unknown in our own time, in
which Heather priority is ignored.
The "Blazes," or Yule-1ogs. how
ever, were difficult for Warmestry to
account for or to claim as Christian
emb1ems. We can scarcely suppose
him ignorant of their meaning or of
that of others, but he doubtless thought
it would not be wise to enlighten the
vulgar Herrick tells us that the Yule-
log of the new Christmas used to be
lit with the last years brand" In
some places this was kept under the
bed during the interval as a preventive
against thunder and fire. 1t was said
to cure cattle diseases, and its ashes
freed the corn from blight.
The Christmas candles used to be of
enormous size, and made to illuminate,
the whole house. They were always
lit on Christmas Eve, and thus Christ
mas, says Blount, was called ''the Feast
of Lights, - in the Latin Church.
Christmas is the season of carols.
lnrar1d,1S derived this word from, 1.ar,