The copper era and Morenci leader., 1918-04-05

with 26 out of its possible 30 dayRl May comes next with 25 and an, adj dftional Sunday not otherwise cele-l brated. thus actually tying Novembefl in the number of days closed to busi- ness. March. on the other hand, isI the longest all around businessE month. having only 10 holidays. .Thusl at least two-thirds of every month in- .terferes with the free play of inter national business. S-.,e,--.--~ ,s he Even such generally observed festi- 'vals as Christmas and New Year'sI Day can't be depended upon by theI banker without consulting the inter- national calendar. ~ csefdHsaars
 New Years Day is the only holiday universally observed. But, alas, it| falls on II dinerent dstes in different parts of the globe. and some countriesl exhaustive study of these New, Year, celebrations would give one pretty fair knowledge of the ancient history of the world. Curioussy> enough, one , of our own states, Massachusetts. does not make this a legal holiday. though her citizens generally observe 1t.
 Where Christmas b Net 0bserved.
 Christmas Day, due to It's religious significance, is not go generally eb- served as New Years Day., It has, moreover, only, three different dates. 2 It was not generally observed on Dc eember 26 until the fourth century. The early church, lacking any au- thentic knowledge n to the date ef christ's birth, celebrated 1t without uniformity in May, Apf11 and Janu- fary. The Armenian Church stfll sb- serves January 6 Why the Deeem- Der aate was finally selected is uncer- ' tain Some see in it displacement % of the Roman Satrrnalia; others dc clare 1t a survival of the Feast of tho Winter Selstice, and still others point to its coincidence with the old, Ger man Yuletide Feast Counties where the old style calendar prevails still celebrate January ..
 In the Puritan days Scotch Presby- terians and English -ConfOrmists rejected Christmas Day altogether aa .savoring of papistry," and in New England Thanksgiving Day was de- yised to replace it. It seems a curl ous thing that there are today Christ tian countries where 1t Is not 0bI served legally. Such are Norway Panama. Peru. Portugal and thu South African Union.
 The last named. however. still ob| serves the old English institution oi Boxing Day on December 26. Thi3 WAS the day when the English gentry having had, their own Christmas cele| hratten the day before, turned thei| attention to the poor by presentinj them with Christmas boxes; The daj later became the day for general gi1 Ing of Christmas gifts Portugal Drops Traditions. The only country on earth stud of whose holidays reveals little of il political, racial or religious origin Portugal. The first attempt to estaq
 fish a republic in Portugal was mad on January 31, 1891. This is relied
 ed in Its calendar of holidays, whiC
 runs: January l, dedicated to un
 yersal brotherhood; January 31, de
 icated to the memory of all those WI fought and died to establish the I
 public in Portugal; May s, in meI
 ory of the discovery of Brazil by u
 Portuguese; June 19, municipal ho
 day at Lisbon; June 24. municip
 holiday at Oporto; October 5. t
 date of the establishment of the Pd
 tuguese republic; December l, Fl
 Day, to commemorate the indepeI
 ence of the country; December
 Family Day"
 These brief notations on holida touch only their distribution a dates. Back of these lies wide il
 filled with quaint and curious ind nation relating to the manner of ebrating them