Evening star., 1931-12-20
Christmas Still Is Menaced
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militant muster Of the sons of Ma.
hOmet shouting the devastating sim.
plicity of their creed in the mere erie!
of the desert But on hearing the
crescendo Of those cries, God is good !
l"God is great" "Mahonet Is the
prophet OF GOd' We should never fee
moved to round them of with a cheery
chorus Of "On Christmas Day In the
Morning" We should feel it was 9
false note. st least on the assumption
that the other WAS the true harmony
Anyhow, we can all feel it is a peculiar
note, 3 special spiritual and even phys
ical note, blend of body and spirit
after some fashion which the other
spiritual traditions not only do not DOS
SeSs, but do not desire. A Greek paint
ing picture OF the infant hercules
b not Christmas Roman sacrificing
to Saturn. even at the Saturnalia, is not
Christmas; philosopher drinking wine
at symposium OF Plato is not Christ
mas Viking throwing bones at A
boon companion at the Winter feast is
not Christmas. Every one who knows
anything of differences, even if he
knows little OF definitions, will be able
to see-We might almost say to smell
the separate tang of the tradition that
! mean.
Festival ok the Homo.
We might try TO define the thing in
many ways and fail. One way of put
! ting 1t is to say that Christmas is a
festival OF the home, to which Is added
strange sort Of tenderness, with the
! thought that 1t commentaries the
homeless. Therefore, no more heather
hsdon1Sm no mere human security in the
home, such as might be felt by iolly
pagan household worshlpIns its house
hold gods, covers the whole cUmpleyily
o. the emotlGn. On The contrary, even
III the comedy Of the thing. there is a
Streak OF irony and insecurity. a shadow
ol the injustice OF the world and OF the
mysterious mlS!ortunes of the good
This Is closely connected with what
are called the corporal works of mercy,
and 1t must be emphasized SO to speak
mat they are very corporal indeed.
There Is Q sort of mystical material
ism deliberately accentuated in the
combination Of Christmas charity and
Christmas cheer
mere Is any amount OF altruisxn. Of
pity, OF philanthropy Of various kinds ia
all sorts Of cults and cultures: but not
so lar as l know, this peculiar and
poignant combination of convivality and
compassion. Even where the same
things exist, the same things do not 90
together, in the conception and cOnn0-
tatlons Of the other types of civilization
or religion. When We understand how
subtly the qualities Of Christmas have
been valued We may begin to speculate
on how strangely they have been at
tackled
Has Always Had Enemies.
For II Is the very proof Of this Pc
clular Taste or tang that the thing Is
lot only loved but hated. This Chris
tlan festival. Which modern rational
Isl Wished 10 revive under the name Of
the Feast O1 Friends. has always had
, It's enemies. II belonged to the home,
but 1t sometimes had to take refuge in
the nome. ss Its great orlsulators had
to take refuge in the stable. 1t was
sometimes even pursued into the home
oE lts prosecutors especially the Puri-
tanS. have even heard it said that
Purltans established Thanksgiving day
IN OFder TO insure the abolition Of
ChristmaS day. SO that the Puritan
presumably ate his Thanksgiving turkey
10 express his thanks that he was not
eating his Christmas pudding.
But 1t was not only among PuritanS
or any sort of theologians that this
{ queer reaction arose The irreligious
were as fanatical as the religious. and
the lntellectuals of the Age of Reason
often froWned heavily on the Season Of
ReveiIy. This utilitarian attack Of the
radicals might have been successful had
| u hA..,
rush Of very romantic adlcal who in
this matter was the most boisterous OF
/ conservatives. Charles Dickens re-
| newed the flame of Christmas upon the
hearth If not the altar Since his time
few have dared to revive the Manichep
, or pessimlst opposition TO the popular
feast, but its perilS are by no means
over.
The tradition Of Christmas is at pres
ent confronted with a positive peril
which IS almost the opposite of its old
negative peril. Various freaks of belief
and unbelief have before now threat
ened 1t with destruction or diminutIOn.
but it IS now threatened with par
ticular sort Of exaggeration. which is
yet very close to extinction Its eNter
nails are even exaggerated at the eX-
pense Of itself, and from motive al
lOs -lIItI dl4l6kOi4ISlAC W ILScIL.
Threatened by Overproduction.
The PuritanS nearly destroyed it in
! the seventeenth century, and the UtIll-
lsrians n-arly destroyed it in the nine
teenth But in the twentieth 1t is Suf-
ftring from that typically twentieth
i century form OF destruction which We
call overpruduction. Christmas has
| been crushed by anti-ChriStmaS laws
| anti Christmas sermons, anti-ChrLStmaS
! sectS and systems and scientific tables
| Of statistics. But Christmas is now
being crushed by Christmas publicity
and big business. The Star OF Bethle-
| hem was darkened in the dense mid
night of Calvinism and by the blaCken-
| ing smoke of induStrialiSm. But today
| it i. extinguished not by darkness but
| by light. by the glare of the CHASTITY sky
signs and the fixed fireworks of trade.
| The old fundamental customs OF the
people are a sort OF test OF the aoerra-
| tions of the people Whenever they are
| forced to do something that lnterferes
with what they have always done, that
is in itself warning that the world Is
going crooked Being child OF cer-
tain civilization. for instance, i consider
it normal to take of my hat on meeting
a lady or going into church; l even,
in my private capacity, think 1t normal
to kneel in a church.
Now. If l found that fashion required
me to wear such very tall hat that 1t
could be removed only by system OF
cranes and pulleys operating from the
top Of the house, or if slaves had to
scale high ladders IN order to reach the
top of my hat. or mechanics in remote
offices or factories had to press buttons
in order to loosen it from my head, l
shuld tind myself Judging and condemn
ing the whole system Of mechanical
hating and unhatting by the very fact
that it int3rfered with what used TO be
SO familiar and instructive q gesture.
Wandered From Christianity.
II found that all the fashionable
tailorS (WhoSe shops, Of course, l fire.
quent In turn alike insisted on pro-
viding nothing but caSt-iron pair OF
trousers in which Il was impossible to