ER XMAS
SWEETEN HER-
Chocolates
ATTRACTIVELY PACKAGED IN 1. 2 & 3. LBS.
AT
THE HONGKONG DISPENSARY
A. 5. WATSON & CO., LTD.
Thursday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
December 21, 1939.
IN FINLAND
"Prest-O-Lite" CHRISTMAS IN
Batteries Automotive Types
.Prest-O-Lite
One of the oldest names In Automotivo History-and one of the most bonsured.
First of all every Prest-O- Lite is a good battery-tho lowest Cost per mite or 'month of service.
THE FINEST OF QUALITY BATTERIES
Obtainable at the.
Hongkong Hotel
Garage
TEL. 20016.
BE SURE
Stubbs Rd.
OF THE
SHOWROOM
The
Phone 27778/9.
TRUDA PANET, A Hongkong lady who spent several years in Finland, tells "Telegraph" readers of Christmas in
the land victimised by Russia.
D
ECEMBER 1 is called
"Little Christmas" in Finland and a sort of minor Christmas spirit reigns from that date right through the month, till, when at lest the 25th comes, one is tired out by the strain of keeping up, for so long, the festive atmosphere be- coming the season..
Tired out, that is, if one is a foreigner, The Finns, like Ger-:
mana and Scandinavians, love
Christmas time so much that it is almost impossible for them to feel that it can be overcelebrat- ed.
*
SHOULD mow fall December in Helsingfors, the charm of the scene of the market place can only be described by that
Christmas Programmes Hongkong Telegraph hackneyed phrase "ike an
From Home
PYE Radios
G.E.C. Radios
A SMALL INEXPENSIVE RADIO
MAKES AN IDEAL X’MAS GIFT
S. MOUTRIE
& CO.,
YORK BUILDING -
PHONE 20527.
LTD.
CHATER ROAD.
A WORD
WISE
CIE
HAND BAGS
WHY NOT? / Give Gloves
That Match !
Our clerk will help you select the pair that best match the bag you buy. Sucis thoughtfulness will
make your gift complote!
ΤΟ
MEN!
Thursday, December 21, 1939. Wyndham St., Hongkong Telephone: 20615
Cold-fashioned Christmas card."
The harbour is blotted out by a forest of fir trees-that have been brought by sledge and boat to be bought by the towns- THE preix hectal to the Telegraph" people. The stalls are decorated. Is used by the longkang Telegraph" indate news which is strictly copyright with coloured paper and bunting. Under the provisions of the Telecommun-Gay balloons hover overhead. Calons urdinance, 3930. Such new
bears the indication "U" is received in The sun-though at this time of Itongkang on this date of publication by the United Press Associations, year it climbs scarcely higher serve all rights and forbid republication, arrangement
The Infant
|
than the roofs of the houses, made more palatable by powdered large parcel akids across the polished its illuminations and decorations are- cinnamon. In the disk, however floor, propelled by an unseen hand stripped off and the family join hands
esther wholly or in part without previous does not rise till 11 o'clock and large, is one single almond embedded. It is all most simple and enjoyable. and sing songs of farewell walking sets promptly at 3-glitters dut: Whoever is fortunate enough to And Grown ups and children alike ex- round and round the bare branches, ing its short workday, on the that in his helping will be lucky for perlence the same thrill and pleasure, rather brown and withered now. Re- snowy roofs and trees.
a whole year after. The last course Next day, Christmas Day, is spent gretfully, the servants remove it to- Faces, whiled to red by the cold, consists of special three-cornered jam in church-going and quiet family be burnt, and then and only then, NOWADAYS Christmas is
for smile out of fur caps and collars. The tarls of puff pastry.
gatherings, and it is not until Boxing in the end of the long Christmas sea- most people merely a holiday, sound of traffic jars the ears.
noisy cobbles are stilled by snow. No- After dinner, toasts and speeches Day, as we call i, that parties are in son in sight,
comes the great moment of opening full swing.
So the shortest, darkest days of the not a holy day. The pagan fea-
long Finnish whler are tided over. The jangle of sleigh bells and the the presents. One by one the parcels
*
After the New Year the days grow Hissing rattle of tyre chains are the from around the tree are given out tures of the festival have become only warnings of its presence in the and everyone watches the lucky re- THE Christmas tree sill retains its longer with such seeming rapidity predominant: although, to be sure, streeta.
that the coming of Spring, though Car drivers are never, ex- cipient open it, Not till it has been place of lionour in the house. still nearly five months ahend, seems cents it a case of emergency, allowed handed over to use their borns in Helsingfors, and over the quiet is restful and most pleasant door is opened
*
they have been transfigured by the spirit of Christmas charity. The Church has always shown a far- seeing sagacity in adapting old pre VERY family in the town is buy- Christian observances in new and E ing a Christmas trees, The finer usages. Thus the universal poorer people carry theirs away themselves, father carrying the thick- custom of present-giving recalls er end of the trunk, mother and one aspect of the Ruman Saturnalia, chlidren, beaming and gleeful, sup- porting the branches. The pavements n-riotous-week during which all
are
•n tangle of pedestrians and hori-
the next parcel Every hight that the family spends within our grasp, so to speak, and the enjoyment is at home it is Illuminated and gazed the winter days, with their longer surreptitiously and a centre of the lost sad ceremony. All prolonged for all. Sometimes the at. Then, on Twelfth Night, it in the hours of sunshine grow pleasanter
every week.
SONGS THAT HAIL CHRISTMAS
Interesting_Facts_About_Carols
Reading, of the Chapel
Royal.
social conventions were relaxed and drashky or sleigh and troop proudly carol? Properly speaking, it was the custom for those men to play Ward, Bishop of Brentwood, proved zontal trees. Richer familles hire a WHO sang the first Christmas In the eighteenth century it became reference was dropped when Mgr. dissolved into frivolity. Every off holding on enormous free upright sung by the angels whose voices complete tunes on their instruments that the carol was sung in English- citizen then expected to get pre-
over their heads.
filled the midnight.nir with musle, at Christmas time, and to call at each speaking countries for the first time Arrived at home, the fir tree is set when the shepherds arrived at the house on Christmas morning to collect at the Portuguese Embassy Chapel sents from all his friends, and the in u stund in a favoured corner of the stable where lay the new-born King: money and presents from the people. In South Street, Victoria, London. plutocrat's poor clients give gifts room and then decorated, Coloured Glory to God in the Highest and on
The year 1829, however, saw the candles, silver tinsel liny witch-balls,
In 1000, when Vincent Novello be- 15; earth peace to men of goodwill." they could i afford-more often bright festoons of paper are draped
establishment of the police force by came organist there., he found the than not, no doubt, in the hopes of labelled with the
over it and sweets and tiny presents If, however, as it is believed, the played and sang in place of the re-carols were unknown) and ascribed Peck; thenceforth ordinary individuals carol or hymn (at the time Christmas .name of the word carol signified originally a being remembered in his wifl. recipient are hung on every twig, dance-song, in which the participants dundant watchmen. This was the it to the seventeenth century John
Hongkong has supported gener-foot. Then, for the
Bigger presents are draped round the moved in unison, while a leader sang origin of the Christmas "waits."
two or three the verses and the company joined of Portuguese Origin
As the leading figure of an exten- ously during the past year the days that remain before Christmas in chorus, we must seck
sive musical circle, Novello was able to popularla the time in London and. various organisations that are an candles are it, other lights in the
Eve, the tree la gazed upon. The origih..
That most beautiful carol, the to make it known all over Europe and Before the establishment of the Atleste Fidelia, which enjoys inter- the States! roorn are extinguished, and outgrowth of the wars on two con- admiring crowd stare at the leor "walts" were employed in every | everywhere called the "Portuguese" Portuguese Embassy, yet the Adexta-
an police force in England, watchmen national and deathless popularity, is tinents, and there is cause for points of lights t
Many aire emanated from their eyes are city to guard property. It was their hymn. By analogy with the "Sicilian alone acquired the appellation "Portu- satisfaction in noting the an-tired and strained.
What hurt looks duty to sound a horn or ring a beli Mariners Air" It used to be sufficient guese." Why? nouncement earlier this week that turns away to rest her eyes too soon! all was well.
the foreigner received, if she like me, every hour to let the citizens, know to say that it was the most precious The truth is, the composer, Marcus the British War Organisation Fund to be kept in quiet and seclusion. All
Christmas Day itself is a Sabbath]
song of the Portuguese -sailor, This Antonio, hailed from Portugal. Born
now exceeds three lakhs.
the festivities take place on Christ-
tween threo and five o'clock the
candlesticks.
*
'You'll find a bag for her every need and every
At the same time, it is no dis-mas Eve. All day long people pay taste in our great selec-.
brief visits to one another, carrying loyal or unworthy question to ask little presents and admiring their tion. There is
every
at this Season of Goodwill whether friends decorated trees. Then be shape in almost every we are not forgetting that charity Christmas dinner is served on a table material including many also begins at home; that in this decorated with red wooden triple dxquisitely worked bags Colony we have several organisa-
☆
* for evening's out. tions, living by hand-to-mouth even
before the war in China and the TO US, it seems a strange meal, but like our, it is founded on old Europe draines much of traditions handed down from genera- tion to generation. First comes "lut- their revenue-he revenuo upon Ask" a sort of ling caught in the whom Life itself verlly depends, summer, dried, and cooked in water
One such organisation in the is alightly glutinous, and eaten with:
two or three days before cooking. It
Society for the Protection of Chil-white sauce. Then a hot delicious dren. Wo gave publicky to its ham, served with prunes, which bring
out its flavour wonderfully, Frenchi annual report a few days ago: noted mustard and boiled potatoes. Next. that the income of the families of is a dish of rice, plain, bolled rice, those whom it is supporting to lowering than at any other period
war in
in its history: noted further that that have Tein sacrificed in this but for the generosity of an Colony where one of every threa anonymous contributor, there would infants born dies on the altar of have been a heart-breaking deficit poverty and malnutrition before it of .some AOVUN or eight hundred attains the age of twelve months-
dollars.
ancrificed for want of the nourish-
This Socicly cannot distributeing foods the S.P.C. is forced so sparingly to distribute because of Christmas cheer to the people for lack of funds. whom it cares. It has, indeed, in-
Particularly at this season, when
THE WING ON CO., LTD. sufficient rovei.je to save the lives wo commemorate the birth of an
STORE OPEN UNTIL 9 P.M.
of any but the families whose in- Infant, we should remember that como averages less than $1.75 per all creature comforts are divine month. It would be impossible to gifts and should be shared with our compute the number of infant lives less fortunate neighbours.
We should never be permitted to
the S.P.C. has saved with its milk forget the sacred significance of the and broths during the years of its festival which commemorates the existence. Even moro Impossible | most wonderful event in the world's to compute are the numbor of lives ▼ History: ---
Inter
GRIN AND BEAR. IT
By Lichty
"You don't have to make a icono-) only called him 'Darling".
bocause I couldn't remember his name.
the
in Lisbon in 1762, he completed his upprenticeship in his native city and become a prominent official of the Opera of Madrid. Here he completed his masterpiece, Speranaze, from which the Portuguese national anthem is derived
The Aderte, it is thought, was written about 1778. The author's intimate connection with various Continental Embassies fnellitated the dispersion of the hymn among Latin nations cast and west, and via London: throughout the rest of the civilised world.
Through carols the Christmas spirit adds a new ccstasy to existence, awakes to life the consclousness of avery source of delight as in "The, Holly and the Ivy:-
F...
The rising of the sun, And the running of the dear. The pinying of the merry,
organ, Sweet singing in the choir."
The carol dances joyfully through the Christmas story, a song of Jubilation, for the tidings are of com- fort, raising hearts spontaneously-to- heights where sorrows are forgotten. | How Stuping Soved a Town
There is a story told of how a carol saved the old town of Eldore. It happened on Christmas Eve in days when persecution swept over one- time Morrio England. Word "had received that the fanatical Puritans were coming to tear down everything that savoured of the holy
been
season.
Children ran weeping to the arms. of their mother, all but one little choir boy who, had been so busy with one thing and another that he did not hear the news, or if he heard, did not comprehend."
Aa. usual, be vent to his place in the choir stalls of the old church for tha Christmas carols_practice which
PLEASE Turn To Pago 7..