Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1883 — The Origin of Christmas. [ARTICLE]

The Origin of Christmas.

Christmas looks out at us from the i dim shadow of the groves of the Druids who knew not Christ, and it is dear to those who now renounce the | name of Christian. The Christmas I ’ ; log, which Herrick exhorts his merrie, merrie boys to bring with a noise to the .; firing, is but the Saxon Y-uledog. buuai ing on the English hearth, and the blazing temples of Saturn shine again 1 in the illuminated Christian churches. It is the pagan mistletoe under which the Christian youth kisses the Christian maid. It is the helly of the old Roman Saturnalia which decorates Byacebridge Hall on Christmas eve. The huge smoking baron of beef, the flowing 'weans ‘Of ate, are- but the- survivals of• the tremendous eating and drinking of the Scandinavian Walhalla. The Christian and ante-Christian feeling blend in the happy season, and the Christian observance mingles at every point with the pagan rite. It, is ■ not easy to say where the paganism ! ends and the Christianity begins.. > The carols and the wassail, the prayers and . the games the. generous hospitality, Hobby-Horse and (he Lord of Misrule Maid Marian and Santa Claus;, are a curious medley of the old and the new. As the religious thought of all ages and i countries, when it reaches a certain elevation, flows into an expression which makes the Scriptures of the most divergent nations harmonious',, the history Of this happy festival is evidence of the common humanity of the earlier and later races; and the stranger in Bracebridge HalL musing by the hearth. on Christmas eve, as he .watches the romping revelry beneath the glistening berries, and listens to the Waits carolling outside in the moonlight, or. as. he is wakened .QOvChrigtmas Imonjing by the hushed patter oi-children’s feet in I the passage, and the shy music of children’s; voices at. his door, may well seem to hear a more .celfestial strain, and to catch a deeper meaning in the words, “Before Abraham was, I am.”—Geo. i' TTm. Curtis, in Harper’s Magazine. y