Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-12-03
DECENDER'SHFRE
ANONTHOF COODCHEER
Sacred By Virtue OF Its Having
Seen The Birth Of The Saviour.
ALUcKY BIRTH MONTH
The Morning Stars Are Mars and
Saturn The Evening Stars
Mercury and Jupiter.

here again Like the three preceding
months, December derives its name
from the place which it held in the old
Roman calendar, which divided the
year into 10 months, December (the
tenth) being the last. The ancient
Saxons called this-the Wintermnonath,
or winter month, but after their con-
version to Christianity they changed
the name to halig monath, or holy
month, in honor of Christ's annivers-
airy on the 25th.
On the 22nd of December the sun
enters the sign OF Capricornus. or the
goat. The idea best allegroized by
climbing animal is said TO be the as
cent of the sun, which. after reaching
its lowest declination at the winter
solstice, on the 2lst, recommences its
upward path. and continues to ascend
from that date until it reaches its
highest altitude at the summer soils
tice in June
The first day of December this year
was Saturday. The Church calendar
for December this year contains the
four Sundays after Advent-the 2nd,
9th, 10th and 2Srd; Christmas Day,
the 25th; st. Johns the Evangelist's
Day, the 9th; and the first Sunday
after Christmas. the 30th The old
English holiday, Childermas or Holy
Innocents' Day, comes in December
also, on the 2Sth
Morning Stars.
The morning stars of December are
Mars and Saturn and the evening stars
are Mercury, Venus and Jupiter. The
new moon of December is on the 14th
and the full moon is on the 2Sth
/, December 25, celebrated as Christ
mas. is one of the greatest festivals of
the Christian church Though Chris
tions celebrate this day as Christian
festival, to them it is the anniversary
of the most solemn event in all his
tory, the meeting of heaven and earth
in the birth of the Goldman. the fes-
tivities that mark the epoch are part
of the universay history of the race.
In pagan Rome and Greece. in the
times of the Teutonic barbarians, in
the remote times of ancient Egyptian
civilization, in the infancy of the race
of man, the period of the winter soils
tice was ever period of rejoicing and
festivity Even the Puritanism of the
Anglo-Saxon has not been equal to the
task of defending Yuletide from
triumphant inroad of pagan rites and
customs, so that the evangelical
churchman who is shocked to see
flowers decorating the sanctuaries at
Easter would be sorry to miss the
scarlet berries that hang there at
Christmas, so that even the most aus
tere lovers of the plain-song tolerate
and even welcome "quips and cranks
and wreathed smiles" in their Christ
mas carols, so that joviality and
merrymaking are the order of the day
at Christmas banquets-a joviality
sanctified and made glorious by good
will to all men.
Yet the holly and mistletoe are a
survival of ancient Druidical worship,
the Christmas carol is new birth,
purified and exalted, of the hymns OF
the Saturnaiia; the Christmas ban
quet itself is Renaissance of the
feasts given in honor of ancient gods
and goddesses. The very meaning of
the Child-God, which gives its mean
ing to the Feast of the Nativity, was
prefgured and foretold in the infant
gods OF the Greek, the Egyptians, the
Hindu and the Buddhist, which in diff
ferent ways showed the rude efforts
OF the earlier races to grasp the idea
of a perfect human child who is also
god.
The restoration of English royalty
brought about the restoration of the
English Christmas. 1t was not until
1851, however. that Massachusetts re-
pealed the ordinance of 1858. The
ante-bellum period in the Southern
States was signalized by a special
celebration at Christmastide. handed
down from those English folk who
first peopled Virginia and the Caro-
linas. There's no such thing as real
Christmas now" sigh elder folks,
white and black, whose memories run
back to the gay days of slavery. Then,
in truth, it was a two weeks Satur-
MALTA. No master who respected him
SELF. or hoped to keep the respect of
his neighbors. dreamed of asking MS
black people to do more in the month
OF December than kill hogs and get up
a big Christmas wood pile
4 Lucky Birth Month.
December is 2 fortunate birth
month. Everyone may well envy De-
cember. The turquoise is his natal
stone, which always carries with it
health. happiness and everything
worth while. The living symbol Of
December is the holly. whose green
| leaves and bright red berries make
gay our houses at Christmas time.
An old verse speaks propitiously Of
the Christmas baby:
The baby that is born on Christmas
Day
Is always rich and wise and glad and
gay
Woodrow Wilson Is a striking ex-
ample OF the value Of a December
birthday He was born December 28.