Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1906-12-15
CHRISTMAS AND
ITS CHRONOLOGY
AN INTERESTING PAPER WRIT
TEN BY REV. c. w. MYERS OF
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH..

of Christ's mass, and refers to the
early Catholic custom of celebrating
the day by masses. Yule. an old Eng
fish term of Scandinavian origin, is
another name for this festival
i According to Prof. Harnack. it
means wheel, and refers to the turn.
ing of the sun at the winter solstice.
Among the pagans of northern Eu-
rope il was the name of a heather
festival in honor to their god, Odin.
Later on, when these pagans were
converted to Christianity. their Yule
was also converted from a heather to
a Christian festival. The German
name for Christmas is Weinacht (holy
night. II is also of heather origin.
and the plural fOrm-Weinachten-
was the term used by the pagan Ger
mans for the twelve holy nights"
about the winter solstice, during
which they celebrated the festival of
the returning light" The nature of
this festival was something similar to
that of Yule Like the Scandinavians,
these Germans. when converted to
Christ, changed the nature of this fes-
tival and put into the word Weinacht
a Christian meaning. From this time
onward they made the 25th of Deem
Der. instead of the 21st, the most holy
of these twelve days. 1t is worthy
of note that very many of the Christ
mas usages of the present day had
their origin in the old sun-feasts cele-
brated among ancient pagans in vari-
Gus ways. These general remarks
about the name of Christmas introduce
us now to the more definite subject
of Christmas and Chronology.
ID The Date Of christ's Birth.
Neither the gospels nor the Chris
tan writings of the first two centur-
les give us any definite information
as to the day of the month on which
Jesus was born; and there did not ex-
list in the primitive church any tradi
ton concerning the exact date of his
birth. The people of that period were
not so much concerned with the mere
date of that event as they we're with
its supreme significance. When, there
fore, the desire arose to know on what
day of the month Jesus was born,
there was then no source out of which
to determine it. In this case. as in
many others, the wish became father
to the thought" and in 97S A. u C.
corresponding to 225 A. d., the
Christian writer Hippolytus declared
arbitrarily that Jesus was born on the
25th of December, and on Wednesday. !
Let us keep in mind that this was an
attempt to fix only the day of the |
month, and not the year. of Christ's !
birth. The year of his birth was not |
fixed until several centuries later. as
we shall see further on. From the |
time of Hippolytus onward. the birth.
day of Jesus was placed on various |
days of the month by various individ. |
ual writer's, but the matter was not |
officially recognized by the church I'M
til there came to be a general desire |
to celebrate the event publicly by a |
birthday festival When the church |
finally authorized the public celebra-
ton. Of this event, the 25th of Deem.
Der was chosen as the proper date.
This leads now to consider
(2) The Origin Of the Christmas Fes-
tivai.
We are considering now, not the
date Of Christ's birth, but the date of
the first public celebration of that
event We are inquiring now. not
when Jesus was born, but when Christ
mas was first observed. Originally the
Christians had but two regular festi-
vals-Sunday and Easter. One OF
these was a weekly. the other a yearly
celebration of the resurrection of
Christ. Thus we see that Easter
Though not called Easter then, of
course). was observed much earlier
than Christmas. For long while the
early Christians we're averse to the
celebration of Christ's birth, because
it would resemble too much the heath
en- custom of celebrating the birth
festivals of their gods. But this aver
sion gradually wore away until finally.
in the fourth century, a bishop of
Rome authorized the first public cele-
bration of the birth of Christ. Thus in
Rome, on December %. 1907 A. U. c.
1854 A. d.. Christmas was celebrated
for the first time in the world. From
Rome the new festival extended first
to the west and then to the east. until
by the fifth century it was observed
by nearly all the Christian church.
Let us notice next:
~ The Origin of the Christian Era.
When Christ was born. the Romans
were reckoning time from the founding
Of the Imperial City-Rome When
and how did the Christians induce tho