The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1947-01-03

II is New Years Eve as We
write this column Tonight, in
all parts Of the Western world.
whistles viii blow and folks
will set up a racket at exact
" the stroke of midnight. as
the old year dies and the New
Year begins to tick away its
first fresh and innocent sec
ondS. Tomorrow most of us will
be as conscious Of the "new-
ness" Of the new year as
though II were a brand new
store suit OF a squeaky pair
Of shoes. We are accustomed
to believing that one day can
actually be different from an
other-without ever thinking
much why it should be so.
The answer is of course that
New Years day or any great
holiday differs from other DAYS
only because we assume that
il should be so. Though mos,
of us in modern times and
Christian countries no longer
profess a belief in the magic,
such as the magic of special
numbers. deep down inside
many of us still give special
and almost mystical signifi-
eance To certain special dates
or the year. or to special COM
binations like the sl3ih of the
month and Friday Of the week.
The scholars who dabble in an
cient history call there traits
"survivals" and say that they
stem from the ages before
Christ when most Of cur an
cestry were barbarians in the
forests of Europe.
A good part of this ances-
try. indeed. were Inhabitants
of the British Isles, which
were ruled in ancient days by
a priest craft called the Druids,
whose speciality was magic and
little else. The people wosship-
ed trees and stones and the
sun, The druid priests held
complete control over them be-
they believed these
priests held certain special ma
gle numbers and formulas and
certain magic words which
them all-powerful. TER
great holiday was the Writer
Solstice, the day on which the
sun began his northward jour-
ney and the days began to
grow longer. This was on the
day which corresponds TO De-
cember % by our calendar.
The historians tell US that our
own New Years Day. coming
as il does so close to the Win
ter Solstice, is actually a carry
over of this ancient holiday.
The Druids and the early in
habitants of the British Isles
were conquered by Caesar ana
the Roman armies not long al
ter the birth of Christ. When
Rome became converted to
Christianity several centuries
the new religion was car-
ried into the British Isles and
the old tree-worship and num-
Der magic of the Durids died
out-except, as the historians
tell us, in the tendency of
many people even today to
give special significance to Ger.
tain dates and combinations
of dates.
We should like to recall here d
a story well known to history.
but the details of which now
escape our memory. II is the
story of the eleven lost days
which SO agitated the people
of Europe some five or six
centuries ago when Pope Greg
ory ordered a new and more
efficient calendar system to
be enforced, replacing the old
Julian" calendar of julius
Caesar, II an encyclopedia were
at hand we could check up on
the details and thus get the
story right, but none is avail
able at the moment
In general. what happened
was that the leading scientists
in the time of Pope Gregory
him that the old Julian
system of computing time and
was losing about a
day every century. That is.
the year is actually a little
than S65 DAYS. and the
Did system computed BY cae-
sar's mathematicians was run
nlng slightly behind the unI-
verse itSelf-like \ slow watch
don't understand this any
more shan Vou probably du.
sOod reader: ana II YOU Ia in
led understand !. perhaps
soa val be Kind enough one
iay a. explain it II Us Neve
.heiess. In the time # pupe
: egory the calendar Vas cut
= la. a. aa aE ~