The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-06
KINGs:o RUSSIANS CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS EVE.

In the lands ravaged by war and Tn tropic countries far distant from the strife, this will be a day of celebra- tions and sacred rites connected with the observance of the Christian feast of Epiphany, called by the English Twelfth-Day, by the Poles and other continental peoples tttI1e Feast Of the Three tKngs.'' and lby the Latin Americans "E1 Dia de los Reyes In addition, the vast multitude of the Czar's subjects and those peoples of the Balkans who are adherents of the Eastern Church, will tonight celebrate Christmas Eve The Greek church still clings to the old Julian calendar, so that their festival of the Nativity falls on January 7th of the modern calendar.
 The unhappy Poles, their footed and divided Kingdom now raVaged by con flict their homes demolished and 1 their fields laid waste, and their men forced to fight and kill each other in l the armies of the warning powers, 1 will have little cause for celebration today, although the Feast of the 1 Three Kings is one of the most pop 1 ular of Polish religious festivals. Even in the stress of war, however, many | Poles will doubtless attend church to- day and receive from the priest the blessed chalk with which. upon re- turning home, they will mark on the door the letters 70. M. B.9' in honor of the three kings or wise men of the East, Caspior, Melchior and Balthazar. who. led by star, came to worship Jesus immediately after his birth. l This rite will be carried out with | quaint ceremonies by the Polish Cath aolics in America
 l In Latin America "El Dia de los l Reyes or the day. of the kings, is an important feast, and in some of its aspects takes on the characteristics 7AIr- A Christmas. In Cuba it is the day | when gifts are given to the young lsters It will be recalled that the 1 three Magi carried presents to the infant Jesus-Melchoir a gift of gold, in testimony .of his royalty as the l promised king of the Jews; Caspar a gift of frankncense, in token of his 1 divinity, and BaIthazar, gift of myrrh, in alIusion to the sorrows
 which Jesus was to take upon him tself. It is in commemoration of l these gifts that the Latins make T ciaIIy to children.
 In France the Day of the Kings
 is usually a day of settlement, and.
 while the old custom will probably
 times a Frenchman considered him self disgraced if all his bills were lot I settled by the sixth of January. I Servants in households and clerks in
 stores must be given gifts of money l in honor of the Athenian, the Brah-
 man and the Egyptian who showered ;l gifts upon the baby Jesus AItogetheT
 it is rather a sad day for the hard
 driven Frenchman, and those of ire
 Iigious bent probably shower male
 dictions upon sfthe Kings
 In spite of the war, the vast ma Jority of Russians will probably cele-
 brate Christmas eve tonight in the
 usual joyous manner, but for those priests of the Greek church in Jeru-
 salem it will be an occasion for feal
 and trembling. Bethlehem and Jeru salem are in the possession of the
 Turks, and Turkey is at war on Rus
 sta, wherefore there will be no thou 7 sands of Russian pilgrims come tt
 celebrate Christmas eve at BethIe : hem and Christmas Day in the Hol ] l City, as was always the case whe1
 that part of the world was at peace