Evening star., 1936-12-20
By r. PORTER WOOD. s
NRIGd, wife Of Odin. looked upon

ing CCulo nhrm nef lie, Cne
4 life Of the goddess Of the skies,
presiding over marriage and domestic
life. But Balder, although god Of
light. peace and beauty. was only the
son Of goddess and vulnerable.
Therefore, Frigg lifted her voice.
sweet as music and strong as the west
wind, and besought all things on
earth and in the air to protect her
son. One by one she named them,
sure that none would refuse the plea
of the mother goddess, wife Of the
supreme deity. the god Of wisdom,
poetry, war, the dead and the fruitful
fields.
Nesting against the gnarled trunk
| of an old oak, suspended between
earth and sky, the mistletoe shrub
cooked It's cleft green ear, rustled its
white berries and yellow flowers; but
Friggs voice died away in the dis
tance, passing from the forests to the
mountains. The mistletoe. hidden
amid the gloom Of the giant trunks
and spreading foliage. had been over
looked; and the mistletoe was furious.
So when the evil Loki sought to en-
compass Balder's doom, he found q
willing ally. The one thing in creation
that remained unpledged to do the
bright young god no harm. provided
the god of discord and mischief with
the wood for the sharp dart which
Loki then placed in the hand Of the
blind god Holder; and Falder fell,
pierced to the heart by the javelin the
blind god threw.
OF course, there is happy ending
united efforts Of all the other gods;
Loki was overcome by Odin and pun
ished, and the naughty mistletoe
promised to be good for evermore-
on condition that the goddess take 1t
under her wing. and that 1t be care
fully kept from contact with earth.
Now Symbolizes Happiness.
And that, my children. is why the
mistletoe now sympolizes happiness.
safety and good fortune, and why you
hang it up In your house at Christmas.
and kiss under its now benign green
leaves and berries.
An old story, older than the sagas
of the vikings and the songs of the
scalds-a tale that. in another form.
was ancient long before there occurred
In the dusty little town Of Bethlehem
the event which men have celebrated
now for nearly 1000 years.
But that Is the strange and fascinat-
ing thing about Christmas and, per-
haps, its ultimate secret. This feast.
this web Of observances, customs and
traditions, Is associated with the birth
of Jehu only because from time i'm
memorable homo sapiens has felt the
need for q feast and q celebration, the
best and biggest of all, around the
time when December as shows up in
our Gregorian calendar.
Probe q Christmas custom and you
uncover a pagan origin; and probe the
pagan origin and you find yourself
down among the roots Of life itself,
peering around wide-eyed in an en-
chanted realm where nothing belongs
to the day-to-day life of . human
being born to live and die on the
planet earth.
Simple Feast Really Complex.
Indeed, the more one delves into
Christmas, with its. gifts and ghosts, its
carols and crackers, its mistletoe greet
ing and greenery, its Yule log, toy
and -tinsel-laden FIR tree. Santa Claus
In red robe and white whiskers, and its
roast turkey and mince pies and plum
pudding. the more one peroeives that
what appears to be the most familiar
and simplest of all feasts Is In reality
the most mysterious and complex.
The threads of the Anglo-Saxon
Christmas run back and are entangled
with the musical watchmen Of
medieval England, the golden sickle Of
the Druids. the folklore of Asia Minor,
the tree-haunted life Of the early Ger
manic tribes and the myths Of the
heroic Icelandic and Scandinavian
peoples. .,
Bethlehem knew no Christmas carol.
A carol was originally q round dance,
during which the dancers sang. The
Greeks had q word for it. The custom
Of the carol-singing waits" seems to
60 back no farther than the singing
watchmen Of the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries in England.
The Christmas tree does not belong
to the warm southern country where
Christ was born. It now Is an insep-
arabic part Of the Anglo Saxon Christ
mas: but 1t is only 100 years old.
Queen Victoria's consort, Prince AL
bert, brought the custom over to Eng
land from his Thuringian home; and
the old German custom chanced to
appeal to the Nordic in the Anglo
Saxons.
Not Known to Latins.
But in the Latin countries, children
will not know whom you mean when
you speak Of q gift-bringer, wrapped in
furred red robe. white whiskers flying
in the wind, who drives q reindeer
sleigh laden with sacks Of toys. Their
bearer Of gifts does not come until the
feast Of the Gentiles on January 6;
and Is homely old lady who distrib-
utes toys. They know as little Of
odIta SlAuS ~ uiu tIlS pcOpAC AA Vic
days Of our Lord.
Santa Claus arrived on the Christ
mas scene 800 years after Christ. He
was Nicholas, Bishop Of Myra, IN
Asia Minor. He became the patron
saint Of Russia, and that simple people
incorporated him into their Christmas
observances.. He is also the patron
saint Of children, which may explain
the corruption OF Saint Nicholas" into
Santa Claus"
Curious that, although we know that
the social, economic, financial import
ance and religious significance Of
Christmas Is profound. no scientist,
Mathematician or sociologist has ever
investigated exactly what Christmas
does mean to contemporary civilization.
II they ever institute research sta
ton and fnd out all about it-as they
laboriously Investigate sun, moon,
stars, health, crime. industrial and
L. = ~