Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-20

,
ter solstice celebrations of the pagans
Toward the end of the festival d king
was chosen and much power granted
him for the duration of his ephemeral
reign, to which may be traced many
Of the Twelfth Night revels of later
years.
One of the cOmmoneSt Of customs
and one that has withstood the chang
ing years seems directly traceable
to those pagan ceremonies and is
therefore one of the Oldest. The
Druids, ancient priests of the Britons,
preached in groves and regarded oaks
and miStletoe as objects of venera ton.
With the coming Of the Christians,
customs that had grown out of these
beliefs were retained and adapted to
the new services, and from them it
appears probable that our present
cay use of evergreens and mistletoe
has come. 1t would seem, then, that
these pleasant scented and pictur-
esque decorations, though used now
because of their specially Christ
MASSEY" associations, represent but
the inheritance Of a barbaric super
Stition.
Light was shed upon the Christmas
customs of the earliest Christians
with the opening of the catacombs.
On their rock hewn tombS and walls
have been found writings and paint
ings depicting practices and hopes
that gave the martyrs most pleasure.
We find that in their subterranean
temples they met in secret on many
ChristmaseS to sing their songs of
praise and to retell the beautiful
| story of the holy night. Those
hazardous underground meetings have
been referred to as the early under
mining of paganism by Christianity,
and their songs of praise as i''muftled
music which came like a prelude to
| later triumph song"
Constantine's reign in the fourth
century marks the beginning of
brighter days for the Christians, and
| the ChristmaseS were brought out of
their hiding places and made &C.
casions of happiness and "Alleluias."
| So prominent a place did it eventually
come to occupy in the yearly festivals
| that Bishop Gregory Nazianzen (who
| died in $500 cautioned all Christians
! against "feasting to excess, dancing
and browning the doors tpractices de-
rived from the heathens), urging the
! Celebration of the festival after an
heavenly and not an earthly manner. y
| Early in the Christian era Christ
| mas was CeleDraleu IN lne pTIliSn
Isles and there, as elsewhere, the re-
| ligiouS observanceS were mingled
| with ancient customs OF both the
! Britons and the Romans AS nar'v as
| RIA three British bishops-those OF
York, London and Camuiodunum-
participated In a council at Aries,
and the canons framed there became
the law OF the British church. Under
,hese favorable conditions Christmas
became more than ever an occasion
Of great rejoicing. But with the out
| going of the Romans preceding the
Norman conquest and the incoming
| of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. with
their heathenish beliefs and customs,
! conditions were seriously disturbed.
/ For at least $50 years Christ and the
| god Thor were worshiped side by side
! Some historical characters Of that
time, feeling entirely too uncertain to
| take a definite religious stand, resolv-
ed to serve Christ and the older gods
together. Reodwald of East Anglia
erected in the same royal temple a
pagan and a Christian altar which
fronted each other.
| But by 597 the odds were in favor
Of Christianity. On Christmas day of