Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1909-12-30
INSURE Il GOOD
CROP BY wHSSAlLITS
J176 ORCH7RD

Egyptians but they require clever man to hunt them
out man capable of getting great results from small
data" p. .4..." .....n
At the period when these authors wrote all learn
ing and science confined a very circle
initiates The common folks kept in strict igno
of the meaning of their festivals mys
teres a hidden book to their true significance
and only the outward and visible sign of the celebrations
within their KEN How far the secrets kept
by these inates-a combination compared with which
steel and trusts sink into insignicance-
is too well known to every student Thus in many
1t is impossible to trace definitely the actual basis of
these ancient myths and customs and any attempts
force, must necessarily remain much in the
patchwork quilt scrap 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 exasperang because many of these
early writer's, such Herodotus Plutarch
have stopped short in their screeds just when few
ira words would have eased the knots that prevent
from unraveling the sken. They initiates
thus to silence Their oahs however did pre-
vent them whetting curiosity and leaving po-
sition where, Plutarch cynicay remarks it would
deed be clever task to get great results from small
data" ... III. ..
Athenaeus, another of the old Greek gossipers in
speaking of the policy the adopting the Gus
toms of peoples whom they had conquered For it
is the conduct of prudent abide by those
institutions under which they and their ancestors
lived, and made upon and subdued the 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 olden tme for they
tanning their national customs, at the time intro
duced from the nations whom they had subdued every
relic of desirable practices which they found This in
measure the policy of the early fathers in adapt
ing heather feasts and sacrifices to the festivals of the
church With them, however, it rather a Of
adaptation than of adoption believing that the
der of things would easier to the the
Christian religion if the changes not made
sweeping too harsh. Thus ii is that many of the
connected with festivals have
from time long prior to the birth of the Saviour
Unlike the many customs connected the celebra-
ton of Christmas, those of the beginning of the New
Year to bear of the stamp of paganism At
the time such customs show rather close
blance due In large to the fact that both
be traced the celebrations round the ancient festival
the Saturnaa and winter solstice, when the year
went out and the came in; period of general
oicing and 1t must be admitted of
dysm, noise and license which all the Nominations of
church councils in the Middle Ages and city ordinances
orders of chiefs of police in these later
unable to suppress The youngster of to-day
his horn is just prominent in creating racket
his prototype of a couple of thousand years ago.
OF late years this period of been largely re-
striced to of Christmas and New Year
mery the period closely following Christmas day was one
Of continuous jollicaton Mummers perambulated the
of the towns and villages and the Lord of Msrue
the Abbot Of Unreason the Abbas Stultorum held
sway. The "Fete of Fools" celebrated the three
following Christmas eliminating Holy Innocents
day in general jamboree, in which not the
spared Young people dressed themselves
up great dignitaries of the church. and the
Offices to have been paraded and dances held
the churches The second of the Council Cog
mac held in $780, put under pain of accommodation all
such masqueraded as bishops, etc. At the councils
at Nantes in 1431 and at Bourges in 1885, fumina
lions 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 many dis
of France and elsewhere, but the celebration has
shorn of much of its picturesqueness and at the
time Of its extreme license.