Evening star., 1928-12-23

all proper stories should start, Christ
mas. of course, began with the Star and
the Manger and the clarion song of
the angels. And with Mary's still and
adoring face as she bent above her
Babe. Then. according to the legends.
| the cattle knelt down and WorSh1ped
with the shepherds, the little brown
| bees sang together in a corner, and
when the magi came, the goose alone
remembered its manners and went
properly out to greet them. In Bosnia
now, they tell very beautifully that the
sun leaped in the heavens and the stars
around it danced. A peace came over
mountain and forest. Even the rotten
stump stood straight and healthy on
the green hillside. The grass was be-
flowered with open blossoms, incense
sweet as myrrh pervaded upland and
forest birds sang on the mountain top
and all gave thanks to the great God.
I'm Switzerland still, the cattle are
supposed to talk together on Christmas
eve, but woe to him who listens to them,
for death shall be his portion. In Eng
land, the Glastonbury thorn blossoms
only on Christmas day, and in Provence,
the children go out with gifts of sweet
hay and carrots for the weary camels
of the magi, whom, from year to year,
they hope to see That small feet
never find the right road means no de-
struction of faith, because one can
never tell beforehand by which way
the Kings will travel, and they are in
deed always waiting in the church by
the Creche when, colder and wearier
than the far travelled camels, the chill
dren creep into their places at last.
Nor is there to be forgotten that In
an earlier day in this same mystery
loving neighborhood great figure of
Melchior, made from wicker work,
dressed in strange garments and laden
with pannier of no mean size behind,
was mounted on donkey and taken
from house to house that the charitably
inclined might drop into the pannier
The round was finished at the chapel
door, where, under fiaring torch to
simulate the star, and to the ringing of
the holy bells, those who were in need
came to receive their share Of the gifts
to Christ
* X **
GIT was in AID. 354 that a Latin
chronographer made the first note
Of Christs birth Of which we are GER
tain. He said: Year /, after Christ in
the consulate of Caesar and Paulus, the
Lord Jesus Christ was born on the 25th
of December, Friday and the 18th
day of the new moon He was mis-
taken in one thing, December Is of
that year really came on Sunday. There
were, however, for many years heated
discussions as to the authenticity of
this date. 1t was st. Crysostom. in 386
or thereaboutS, who stated that the feast
of December 25 was first held In the
west, from Thrace as far as Cadiz, and
that it spread eastward from those parts
with amazing rapidity. AS early as
AID. 400 in Rome an imperial rescript
included Christmas as one of the three
feast days upon which all theaterS
must be closed. Easter and Epiphany
were the others. The real beginning of
the church's recognition of Christmas
as a feast day, however, was between
$50 and 400 AID.
1T is of the greatest interest to note
that this holiest day in ChriStianityS
comedies with the pagan cele-
sun and fire worshiperS of the days of
mans racial childhood the moment on
which the sacred sun left his Winter
sleep behind him and began his ascent
toward the zenith was one Of peculiar
thanksgiving. For another year the
world was to be assured the gift of life,
the dark days of death and Winter
would vanish and with Spring and Sum-
mer would come renewed fertility of
the soil and the JOY of heat and light.
In the awesome forests Of Britain the
prince of the Druids cut the nistletoe
from the oaks with golden sickle; in
the yet more barbarous Nlrthern couns
tries huge logs were set blazing to the
glory of Odin and Thor and dark Sacrts
fees Of cattle and men were made to
appease their Winter wrath. Goth and
Saxon called this feasting time 'Yule,'
and the name still fingers in modern
Scotland in the place Of Christmas
Ancient Germany synlbolized the sun