Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-12-24
WHEN CHRISTMAS
COMES TO OTHERS
In the Courts of Europe, In the
Homes Of Warning Countries,
in the Arctic Regions-Cus-
toms of Many Lands

THRISTMAS customs as observed in any
~ given community, are of many different
origins. Few of these customs have come
down to us without mixture one with an
other
The burning of the Yule log on Christmas
Eve is an ancient ceremony transmitted TO
the British Isles by our Scandinavian an
oestors, who at their feast of Juul at the win
ter solstice, used to kinde huge bonflres In
honor of their great god Thor. In the Eng
land of the feudal age the bringing In and
firing of mighty log in the spacious baronlal
hall was one OF the most Joyous occasions
of the merry Christmas season. The vener-
able tree, shorn of It's branches was drawn
in triumph from the woods, each wayfarer
raising his hat as 1t passed, knowing full
we'll that 1t was full Of good promises and
that It's flame would burn out old wrongs
and heartburnings. and cause the liquor to
bubble in the wassail bowl that was quaffed
to the drowning of ancient feuds and ami
mosities. But 1t BODIED Ill luck to the house
II squirting person entered the hall when
the log was burning. Many superstitions
are connected with Christmas Day, and in
some places 1t is believed that II the sun
shines bright at noon n plentiful supply OF
apples may be expected in the following
year.
The Sacred Tree
Germany, whose people loved the
"schwarswald," the forests of black frs
which so terrified the Latins, brought to the
Christian festival the sacred tree. Our
Anglo-Saxon fathers knew nothing of such
trees, but what would Christmas be to our
children deprived of them? Into the parlors
of the millionaires, sumptuous with the
gathered treasures of all climes, the Christ
mas tree brings reminder Of humble origin,
telling of the days when all our Teutonic an
cestors dwelt beneath overarching branches
as their only ceiling. Back to the "Wein-
achtsbaum" turn our hearts instinctively
as the soul of the adult always reverts
to the scenes of infancy. And when to our
Teutonic family was added strain of Celtic
blood. with 1t came the mysterious mistle-
toe; no longer reserved for Druidic rites, but
hung above the sports and dances and CO.
quetries OF our lads and lassies; while as the
good faith made It's way to the afar north,
the holy-that Is the ''holy' tree-with Its
brilliant red berries, took the place Of sum-
mer's vanished flowers and flied choir and
chapel with It's winter sunshine.
Germany without Christmas-or better
Christmas without Germany! For me the
state is as unthinkable as the other"
wrote an English woman before the war.
after comparing my experiences I can but
come to the conclusion that there Is no
country in the wide world where Christmas
fourishes with so much of Its old truth so
much of it's own true feeling-in fact, where
Christmas Is so intensely 'Christmasy,' as in
the Fatherland. / do not want to hurt any
body's feelings with this statement, and 1
must admit that my experience Is not very
wide 1t extends only over England France,
Belgium and Italy, and have no doubt that,
for instance the Yankees make the season
an occasion for great magnlhcence, the Rus
slams for pomp and ceremonial, and 80
throughout the whole Christian world, each
land imprintng its own national character
istics upon the festival. I always think OF
the Christmas spirit as little child, who
would be very happy to sing carols beside
tiny shrub in some poor German garret, but
would shrink back involuntarily from the
offer of gems and rich incense. And 1t Is
that childish. open-hearted simplicity which.
so 1t seems to me, makes Christmas essen
TALLY German at any rate explains why
II is that nowhere else in the world does 1t
find so pure an expression"