Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-12-25
Mastery of Christmastide
Robert Holden in Chicago News.

Our WORD christmas comes from the lneulde- ,
val English Cristemesse, which means Christ's
| mass 1t IS written by some OF the most learned
and devoted of students that the selection OF
December Is is entirely arbitrary, that many
tdaes had been celebrated. with different dates
in different what were called Christian coun-
tries; and that the date now celebrated was not
chosen for several hundred years after the
CruCiNlon. This detraCts nothing from the
beauty of the story of Christ or OF the COM
memoration.
1t is said by students that the choice of the
time was because it was i'll harmony with re-
lolclngs of many peoples for long centuries, civ
ilized, half-civilized and savage because at HAT
season the sun, to inhabitants Of the northern
hemisphere, seemed to be sinking away, possibly
never to return; but when what we now call the
winter Solstice had passed, which is that point of
eclipse of the earths orbit when the sun seems
on account of the carth's revolution to be farth-
est distant, though actually the nearest, and the
great lumnary was again in the ascendant all
the world rejoiced at the apparent new birth
of the grand source Of heat. light and life.
Thus it was that Christian celebration of a
new light and more splendid spiritual life
came to be synchronous with this pagan and
absolutely physical inspiration. 1t has even been
held by some learned students of the story of
the crucilxion and resurrection that it a
beautiful allegory of the same days of the year;
that the 'crucitlxion with its strange and solemn
accompanying terrestrial phenomena. illustrates
the extreme of the declination of the sun toward
the southern horizon, and that the resurrection
, embodied the story of the evident return OF
heat, life and light.
Let it be repeated that none Of these interest
ing speculations, based partly on legend and
partly on authentic history, dims for one mo-
ment the charm of the Christmastide. While
the churches maintain the religious celebration,
with decorations and chimes and choral produc-
ton OF the grandest OF mems musical compost
tons wholly apart from that is the custom of
present giving; the tender renewal Of feasts and
drinking of loving cups; the appealing fiction of
Santa Claus, or Saint Nicholas or krSs kring1e;
the spectacle of the venerable vistant from the
arctlcs, with reindeer and inexhaustible treasures
| on his slcdge; the mystical acrobatiC feature of
the chimney, eternal and never to be effaced by
any dwelling of heretics or conoclasts. School
children will continue as long as time lasts to
recite Twas the night before Christmas, when
all through the house, and SO OH deliciously.
"Let the origin of the celebration of the time
be pagan if it is" said one of the most charm
ing long ago writer's 1T is the grand feast of
the year. Both pagan and Christian features of
the moment appeal to all who have the least feel
ing OF that poetic sentiment interviewer Of the
birth of Christ ana the fading and return of
brilliancy Of our luminary, without which there
would be no life. Edwin Arnold wrote of the
Light of Asia telling of the beauties of the
religion and social life of the Far East. Nearly
all peoples have had inspired philosophers and
religions similar to that which has been erected
by the story of Christ, and crucihxions of these
people have been innumerable. But nothing of
Christ fades but suffers sea change into some
Nthing rich and strange"
/, At the time of the winter solstice which be-
gins during the hours of December p, in our
| ATTITUDES, there was probably never year when
this dying and resurrection Of the sun was not
celebrated. There was the festival among
Roma oeon1ec in honor of Mithro +ha
illustrating the glory of the Birthday of the
Unconquerable Sun" In the country OF the
Saxons and Scandinavians originated the Christ
mas tree and the burning of the Yule fog in the
great hearths of ancient times in those lands;
and from that the customs came to Anglo-Saxon
countries and thence to America and to Pitts
burgh, where we have instituted the custom of
the municipal Christmas tree
Grimm, German writer of charming fairy tales,
Identifies Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, with
knecht Ruprecht and Robin Goodfellow, which
may have been another name for the possibly
more modern Puck; and Grimm asserts that in
some of the countries of the old Teutons Knecht
Nicolas is only the assistant of the real giver
OF gifts, who some say is the infant Christ in
some others that it is Dame Bertha" other
writers of legends that it was dwarf lunch
back called Krampus who carried away all
naughty children instead of giving them giftc
The literature of the infant Christ and\of the
Christmas extravaganzas and soemnitieS is so
great that it is possible the shelves of no library
of the world would find place for it. In our
own times Charles Dickens wrote some of the
most touching pages intimate of the time The
rvthmic form of this remembrance, was in
French called Noel, the birthday. OF the ami
versary, and from this word, in different forms,
| the Natal Domini of the Latins, the birth of
our Lord and the literature of this dates far
back of Chaucer in the English, and the Anglo
Saxon Of Caedmon, who was said to- be the
author of the earliest Anglo Saxon verse:
The first Novel; the Angel did say
Was to three poor shepherds in the fields as
| they lay:
In the fields where they lay keeping their sheep
In cold winters night that was so deep.
NOVEL;, NOVEL;, Novel; Novel;
Born is the King of Israel