Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-08

Gil passed December a. 1862. This edict prohibited
any church exercises that should in any way recognize
the abhorred Christmas. 1t for this particr
lar festival OCCASION singing it out for special rcpressve
action; but it was only repetition and confirmation
of order of the but of wider scope passed
in 1917, which expurgaed all the so-caled holy days.
The government of Cromwell vigorously enforced the
act of 1862, its soldiers conscating everything that
might contribute to the festivities of Christmas.
This sort of treatment not at all pleasant for the
of English people of that time with their legends,
customs, and sentiments Possibly Christmas meant
them than to any other people of that period.
They had in mind that their King John born
the Christmas of 1866; and that it a Christmas
day that William the COnqueror crowned King
in Westminster Abbey. They may not have cared to
remember what Cromwell did not forget,-that it
Christmas day in the reign of Henry V. that Lon
don given the spectacle of poor old Lord Gotham,
of the religious sect of Loards hung up in chains in
what is St. Ges-in the Fields and slowly roasted
to death for the alleged crimes of heresy and treason.
The papists punished in the name of their church,
many assumed crimes against it that it is not at all
surprising that when the heretics under "Od Noll did
get the upper hand they undertook to eliminate all the
cherished religious observances of their once pitess
enemy
WHEN King Charles II. came to the throne his peo-
pie once more had their great day of Jolllty and
generosity Its return not the studied purpose of
his Majesty who had special regard for the day ITSELF
but because he was merry sort of monarch, with
style of merriment peculiarly his own and sought to
keep his ecclesiastical aduncts popish and puritan
good humor In this way. If in no other he did vast
amount of good; for it is difficult to imagine what
humanity would have become had the puritan depriva
ton remained unchanged.
Though the day has been battered about like mod
ern football denounced by fanatica few festival
of acrid shas and dotic mummeres, it has sway of
unbelievable power all classes of society," with few
poor rich but that the appointed twenty four
hours makes them glad, generous, both Who
whether the festival be adapted legacy from heathen
dom so long it is heart warmer?
THE mummery part of Christmas is and has been for
L children They would feel lonesome without a
Santa Claus of some kind The original of this merry
old saint named Nicholas. and he became Bishop
of Myra when very young. After his death he
onized the saint for children, and in his
established festival that began December 6, but was
afterward transferred to Christmas Day. In olden
times in England the churches chose chor-boy rep
resent the saint Properly costumed this lad went round
his parish and was given money and sweetmeatS. In
later times say century and half ago, the boys of
England still keeping up the customs of their
saints festival On Christmas Day they went into the
churches singing, carrying their arms baskets of
nice red apples with sprg of rosemary in EACH They
gave the fruit to the congregation receiving return
ourpence sxpence according to the station in life of
the giver. 1t the oldfaShioned boy who stirred
the heart goodness and broke the gloom of winter
night with his Christmas carols.
But England does not hold patent the day or
its saint though the Anglo Saxon does the most of the
celebrating The saint credited with going round the
world in twentyfour hours, starting in the middle of
the Pacific Ocean, the 1SOth meridian of longitude;
though the children of Finland and Norway think of
him as living among the icebergs of the North Pole and
Christmas night scooting through the air sedge
drawn by four reindeer. In Germany the fathers big
boots often take the place of the regulation stocking
The peasant boys of France wooden shoes gift
holders, and the days saint is clown cap and bells
Austrian boys and girls good way behind the
times; for they still sticking to the original St
Nicholas Day, December g. 1t doesn't seem as if they
could get much fun out of the OCCASION for they
examined in their catechsm, rewarded where they
know their lessons. or turned to troublesome de-