River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-12-23
ITO UJrE n NOOD
CROP By WIHSe5AlLITG
THE ORcHHRD

Egyptians but they require a to hunt them
out capable OF getting results from small
data"
At the period when these two authors wrote all learn
ing and science confined very circle of
initiates The folks kept III strict gno-
rance of the true meaning of their festivals; the mys-
teres hidden book their significance,
and only the outward visible Of the celebrations
came within their KEN How FAR the secrets were kept
by these initiates-a combination compared with which
steel and sugar sink insignitcance
too well known every student many cases
it is impossible definitely the actual basis of
these 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 a somewhat crazy appearance.
1t is all the exasperating many
early writer's. as Herodous Putarch and others
have stopped short in their screeds just when a
ira words would have eased the knots that
from unravelng the skein They initiates
thus to silence Their oaths however pre-
vent them whetting our curiosity and leaving us in
ition where, Plutarch cyncaly remarks it would in
deed be clever task to get great results from small
data"
Athenaeus another Of the old Greek gossipers in
speaking of the policy the Romans adopting the
of peoples whom they had conquered says
As the conduct of prudent to abide by those ancient
institutions under which they and their ancestors have
lived, and made upon 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 take for their imitation
the time they take their prisoners. And this
the conduct of the Romans in oden tme for they,
tanning their national customs at the same time intro
duced from the nations whom they had subdued every
relic of desirable practices which they found This in
a the policy of the early fathers in adapt
ing heather feasts and sacrifices the festivals of the
church With them, however, it rather of
adaptation than of adoption believing that the new,
of things would easier to the converts to the
Christian religion if the changes not made too
sweeping too harsh. Thus it is that many of the
connected with festivals have down
from time long prior to the birth of the Saviour.
Unlike the many customs connected the celebra
IF he hpOi nnino IF tho
Year seems to bear of the stamp of paganism At
the time such customs show rather close
blance due In large to the fact that both
celebrations the ancient
Saturnaa winter solstice. when the old year
went out and the in; period of general
joicng and must be admitted of great degree of
dyism. noise and license which all the Nominations
church councils in the Middle Ages and city ordinances
and orders of chiefs of police in these later days have
been unable to The youngster of to-day with
his horn is just prominent in creating racket
his prototype of couple of thousand years ago
OF late years this period noise has been largely re-
strcted the of Christmas and New Year
merly the period closely following Christmas day
of continuous jollifcaton Mummers perambulated the
of the towns and villages and the Lord of Msrue
the Abbot of Unreason or the Abbas Stultorum held
sway. 'Fete of Fools" celebrated the three
days following Christmas eliminating Holy nnocents
day a general jamboree, in which the
churches spared Young people dressed themselves
UP the great dgnitaries of the church. and the
very to have been paraded and dances held
the churches The second of the Council Cog
held in 1850 put under pain of accommodation all
such masqueraded bishops. etc At the councils
held Nantes in 1881 and at Bourges in 1885, fumna
hurled against the "Fete of Fools while
early 1912 the celebration abolished by the council
held at Paris. Yet the custom of masQuerading the
days following Christmas is not yet extinct in dis
trcts of France and elsewhere but the celebration has
been shorn of much of its picturesqueness and at the
same time of its extreme license.