The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-01-05
wright. 1898. by the Author. ]

turkey SaOotinE - RAISING OF the
Pantomin.e.
copyright. 1898. by the Authorl
CUNDAY, Jan. 1, begins tho year 1899
of the Christian era, but there are
citizens and residents who use other
calendars. MOhammedan sailors and ped
dlers of the leading seaports are still in the
thirteen hundred and sixteenth year of
their era. The many Armenian refugees
are in the thirteen hundred and forty
seventh year of theirs. The orthodox Jews
are in the thirty nine hundred and four
teenth year of the Abrahamio era. The
citizens Of Chinatown in San Francisco,
New York and the other large cities are
celebrating the forty hundred and
fifty first year since the accession of Fuh
Hi their great civilizing emperor, while
many Christian sects look at the time as
the fifty six hundred and fifty ninth year
! of the world In our new territory of
Porto Rico the educated Spanish still refer
to the Spanish era, which began 3S B. C..
and is now 1887 years old The Philip
/ pine insurgents keep alive the memory of
their wrongs by using 32S, tho number of
the year which is the peri ID that has
elapsed since Luzon was conquered by tho
| Spanish arms under Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi. Our Mormon brethren commem-
crate their faith by calling the present
| time the seventy sixth year since the angel
! disclosed the golden book OF Mormon to
/ Joseph Smith
The festival is very old, much older
than civilization itself 1t was intended
to commemorate the return Of the sun
which was tabled to have gone away or to
| have been slain or wounded in tho poetry
and myths Of the early northern races.
! This occurred at tho winter solsticc Dec
| 21-22, and SO far rs was known was OBJ
served by all primitive nations as time
of joy. AS human knowledge grew the
moon became used as tho measurer of
! time, the very words moon and month
meaning originally the "measurer." As
| the lunar and solar years never agree there
arose early 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 favorite is Yu!o or
| Christmas, but with the Latin races it is
| New Years. No better illustration of
tho cosmopolitan character of our country
| could bo found than our celebrating both
| festivals and making Christmas and New
| Years events Of equal entertainment and
| joy. In the American celebration of New
! Years there is q 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 paid tho greatest attention to the day
were the Dutch, French, Huguenots and
| Spaniards. The Dutch center of o5sery-
ancc was New York and New Jersey. Tho
French was Louisiana and Mississippi
in the southern states and Maine in tho
northern. The Euguelots settled first in
| New York, Massachusetts, North and
| South Carolina, while the Spanish had
settlements in Florida, California, New
Mexico, Arizona and Texas.
Our good friends tho pilgrims and Puri-
tans were triGo austere. and their chief
festival was tho dag of Thanksgiving,
which they themselves appointed. The
younger people who were encouraged by
their mothers kept up many of the older
festivals of the fatherland In this way
there was a covert celebration of the har-
vest moon, Halloween, Christmas, New
Years and May day, these being the chief
| festivals of merrie England in yc olden
time
The so called Cavalier settlers of Della
ware and MaIy land, Virginia, the Caro-
linas and Georgia observed New Years as
q day of rest and social entertainment,
though without any uniform characteris
tics The Scotch settlers, who went in tho
beginning chiefly to Virginia. West Nir-
ginia Kentucky and Tennessee, treated the
day with a mild severity, although it is
said that on New Years eve the allowance
of Scotch whisky was doubled in every
household. The Quakers under Penn gave
the occasion a religious significance, as
did afterward the Mcthodists The Ger
mans or Falatines who came over in the
beginning Of the eighteenth century and
settled in New York and Pennsylvania
had Il hearty affection for the day and ex-
pressed it in shooting parties and social
functions In the process Of consolidation
through which the nation has gone tho
old race lines have vanished, and most of
the special features which marked the
celebration ky each clement have passed
away Or else been SO modified as to lose
their primitive character.
Thus in the memory Of many who are
4 alive today common New Year practice