Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1907-01-05
ORIGIN Of
CHRISTMAS
CUSTOMS
BY J. p. o'Conner.

sent and as the mistletoe--which,
by the way. seldom now is found on
the oak-was then its most frequent
parasite, 1t was honored by the sacri-
| fee of couple of white oxen. and
sometimes even b. human sacrifices
In Scandinavian mythology the mis-
tletoe-so far from being what It is
| with us. one of the Christmas wea-
pons of Cupid-furnlshed the wood
! for the arrow by which the otherwise
invulnerable Balder was slain, Balder
the god of poetry. son of Odin and
Friga, terrified his mother by narratS
ing to her a dream of his own death.
In her terror Frlga summoned all the
powers of Nature-earth, air, fire,
water, and all animals, trees, and
plants-and exacted from them an
oath that they should do Balder no
hurt. Thus secured. Balder took
courage to Join combat with the
gods, and his invulnerability in battle
set his arch enemy, Loake, to ferret
out its cause. Loake, in the disguise
of an old woman. praised to Friga
her sons valor, dwelling so much on
his miraculous escapes from death
that Friga disclosed to him the secret
of his invulnerability. Nothing In
Nature will injure him. since | have
bound all things by an oath to OBJ
stain from hurting a hair OF MS
head; except. she added as though
by an afterthought. "the mistletoe'
which / had forgotten, but of course
nothing so insignificant could possi-
bly harm him." On this hint Loake
suggested to the blind Heda an arrow
made out of mistletoe as the only ef-
fective weapon for Balder's destruc-
tion: and with such an Insignificant
weapon even the blind Heda succeed
| ed in staying the son of Odins
II Is curious that not one OF our
| Christmas festival customs Is Chris
tion in its origin. Christianity hac
ito stooo to conquer" the heathen
by the assimilation of their rites and
ceremonies. The burning OF the Yule
log, is. like the hanging of the mistle-
toe, of Scandinavian origin, since
our ancestors of this race used TO
kindle bonfires az their feast JUL.
at the winter solstice in honor OF
Thor. BY the way, you can cheaply
insure you house against fire by pre-
serving an unconsumed fragment
OF the Yuie log in your ce liar till the
following Christmas, and using II to
light the log next year, as Herrick
suggests:
"with the last years brand
Light the new block, and
For good success in his spending,
On your psalteries play
That sweet luck may
Come while the LOG is teending. y
Teending-ie., burning.
Heather and Scandinavian, again,
are both the Christmas tree and the
Maypole, symbolic of the Scandina-
Wan Ash. Yggdrasll, the Tree of Time
whose roots penetrate to heaven, 10
Glnnungagap-wh where the frost giants
dwell-and to Niffheim. where dwells
the great serpent. Nidhogg, and un-
der whose root is Helheim, the home
of the dead. The Christmas tree Is
usually supposed to have been intro
duced into England by Prince Al
bert, but the following passage from
"The Greville Memoirs" shows that
Il was trying to take root there eight
years before the accession OF Queen
Victoria: Dec. 81. 1s29-on Christ
day the Princess Lieven got up a lit
tie fete such as Is customary all over
Germany. Three trees in great pots
were put upon long table covered
| with linen: each. tree was illuminated
with three circular tiers of colored
wax candles-blue. green, red. and
white Before each was displayed a
quantity of toys, gloves, pocket hand
kerchiefs. work boxes. books. and
various articles. presents made TO
the owner of the tree
The custom was imported into
America.
From the Roman .Saturnalia are
derived many of our Christmas Gus
toms. and among them that of mas
queradipg. In the year I 400 Henry
Inv was snferfafnAd al Christmas at
Ethan by twelve aldermen and their
sons as mummers. Shortly after
wards. however. according TO Fab-
yam, conspiracy to murder that king
was organized under the guise OF a.
Twelfth Night Mumming. The plot
was discovered only few hours be-
fore the time arranged for the as
sassination. Indeed. 1t was the num7