The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-12-30

Egyptians, but they require clever to hunt them
out. capable of getting great results from small
data"
At the period when authors wrote all learn
ing and science confined very circle of
initiates. The folks kept in strict igno
of the true meaning of their festivals the
teries hidden book to their true significance
and only the outward and visible sign of the celebrations
within their ken. How far the secrets were kept
by these nitiates-a combination compared with which
our steel and sugar trusts sink into mere
is too well known to every student Thus in many
is impossible to trace definitely the actual basis of
ancient myths and customs and attempts
force, must necessarily remain much in the nature OF
patchwork quilt gathered here and there from
the ancient writings helps to work up the quilt but the
ultimate stage has somewhat crazy appearance.
1t is all exasperatng many of these
eefy Writers, such Herodotus Putarch and others
ira words would have eased the knots that prevent
from unraveling the sken They initiates and
thus sworn to silence Their oaths however did not pre-
vent them whetting curiosity and leaving po-
sition where Putarch cynicay remarks, it would
deed be clever task to get great results from small
data
Athenaeus another of the old Greek gossipers in
speaking of the policy of the Romans in adopting the
toms of peoples whom they had conquered says: For
is the conduct of prudent abide by those ancient
institutions under which they and their ancestors have
lived, and made and subdued the rest of the
world and yet at the time. If there any
full or honorable institutions among the peoples whom
they have subdued those they their imitation
the time they take their prisoners And this
the of the Romans in olden time for they
tanning
duced from the nations whom they had subdued every
relic of desirable practices which they found This
measure the policy of the early fathers in adapt.
ing heather easts and sacrifices to the festivals of
church With them, however, it rather a case OF
adaptation than of adoption. believing that the
der of things would easier the the
Christian religion if the changes were not made too
sweeping too harsh Thus is that many the
customs connected with festivals have down
is from time long prior to the birth of the Saviour
Unlike the many customs connected with the ceebra-
Christmas beginning he lew
Year seems to bear of the stamp paganism At
the same time such customs show rather close
bance, due in large to the fact that
be traced to the celebrations round the festival
the Saturnalia and winter solstce, when the year
went out and the new in; period of general
1oicng and must be admitted great degree of row.
dyism noise and license which all the Nominations o
church councils in the Middle Ages city ordinances
and orders of chiefs of police in these later days have
been unable to suppress. The youngser of to-day with
his horn is just prominent in creating racket
his prototype of couple of thousand years ago.
OF late years this of noise has largely re
strcted the of Christmas New Year but for
merl the period closely following Christmas day was one
of continuous joifcation. Mummers perambulated
of the and villages and the Misrule
the Abbot of Unreason the Abbas Stultorum held
The "Fete of Fools" celebrated the three
days following Christmas, eliminating Holy nnocents
day In general jamboree in which not the
churches were spared Young people dressed themselves
up the great dgnaries of the church, the
offices seem to have been paraded and dances held
In the churches The second of the Council Cog
held in 1860 put under pain of excommunicaton all
such masqueraded bishops. etc. At the councils
held at Nantes in 1881 and at Bourges in 1885, fumna
tons hurled against the Fete of Fools" while
early 1912 the celebration abolished by the
held at Paris Yet the custom of masquerading the
days following Christmas is not yet extinct in dis
trcts of France and elsewhere, the celebration has
been shorn OF much of It's pcturesqueness and at the
seme time OF Its extreme license.