1930-12-17 — Page 1

Page

Library, Supreme Court

China * Mail.

Christmas Supplement 1930.

LKASIA!

HONG KONG, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1930.

Christmas Customs

come from

Many Lands

|RADITION—that strongest link in any

TRA

claim that ties the human race, to any of the customs that its many lands and people share in common-has been since time immemorial the keystone upon which has

been built. the whole structure of Christmas.

Back 2,000 years before the birth of the child Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem, there are historic evidences of the keeping of a season that was in spirit much like the es- 1 sential character of the Christmas season that tradition has brought down to us, in spite of the natural inclination of the Chris- tian world to. date the great festival from the birth of Christ.

Authentic record of the actual date and acason of the year in which the Christ was born has never, however, been established, and'historians disagree as to them both. It was many years after his life on earth, how- ever, before December 25 was fixed as the date for celebration of his birthday, and from that time on Christians united in ac- cepting the day as sacred to his birth and to his service-the Christ-mass.

Forerunner of Carols.

I dance and feast universal and mingled with the savage religious rites. Some authorities find the origin of the word "Yule" in the name of this celebration "Yule," "Jule," “lul," or "Iol."

Origin of Festival.

has incorporated the character of these early The Christian festival of the Nativity

celebrations and appears to have been ap pointed very shortly after the establishment

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Christmas 1930

BRIGHTER ever brighter gleams the

star of Bethleham, Centuries pass. Nations pass. Cultures pass. But the great Truth survives, and grows in glory.

On Christmas, who is there but stands'in awe of “a spirit that has persisted through ager of Hatred and Persecution, War and Suffering; a Spirit that has rested firm in an age of Materialism,

Christmas is the symbol of good cheer--- the day of rejoicing and merriment-the day of forgiveness and friendship—the day of hopes for the future. To all our readers we extend the good with that Christmas Day, this year, will smile through all the clouds of commercial depression, warm the hearts of the inhabitants of this "Grown Colony, and be the forerunner of a new year of happiness and prosperity,

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Going back before the Christian era students of the festival have found traces that most of the nations of ancient time re- cognised the period of that which we know as the winter solstice as a season of rejoicing. The return march of the sun up into the heavens, and the season's turn from short days and long nights to days of lengthening light and warmth, impelled a natural demon- stration of pleasure that it was so. The of a new religion. It is first definitely re- Roman Saturnalia, which fell at such a period, was such a festivity of re- joicing, marked by privileges and hail ed as exempt from ills, with the spirit of mirth and unbounded licence abroad everywhere. The hymns of this time to the - sun were forerunners of our Christmas carols. Presents were passed from friend to friend. Gifts were made to the poor, quar- rela forgotten and feuds ended. How

I

meaning tidings. Druids, Romans, Saxons, Jews, Anglo-Saxons have all kept such a festival, marked in the days of the Romans by temporary equality of slaves and masters, of the Druids by the use of evergreens and the mistletoe in temple rites, by the Jews with a dedication of their temples, and in the days of the Anglo-Saxons by the elabor- ate customs which have long endured and which marked the Middle Ages.

Then the great "balls" of the nobility offered hospitality and entertainment to the poor. Then were the splendid pageants and knew well, with minstrels and gleemen, harp- banquets such as those King Arthur's court ers and jugglera, pipers and dancers, log fires immense and of long duration within, hunting, wrestling and jousta without. In- temperance was prevalent, and the ale and mead flowed widely while there was-the-

chess and backgammon. lighting of the Christmas log, the bringing in of the boar's head, and the games-dice,

As Hamlet Said It.

Shakespeare' has Hamlet recall the gen. eral feeling of the eeriness of the holy night before Christmas shared by many an age and race when he recites:

"Some say that ever 'gainst that season

comes

Wherein our Saviour's birth is cele

brated,

The Bird of Dawning singeth all night

long;

And then, they say, no spirit stirs

"abroad;

The nights are wholesome; then no

planets strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch has power to

chain,

So hallowed and go gracious is the

time."

Crowned on Christmas Day.

A succession of Roman emperors that began with Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day, including Alfred the Great (whose defeat by the Danish host is held to have happened because he would not-inter- rupt himself and court in their twelve- days' celebration of the season even with the enemy horde at the gates), the Danish king Edward, and Edward the Confessor and hla son Harold, whose coronation took place to gether with the consecration of Westminster Abbey in 1066.

The next Christmas day saw William the Conqueror.crowned there, but it was in the days of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen turies when "Merrie England's" Christmas celebrations rose to their height of splendour with their Anglo-Saxon rites and customs. It was then that baronial castle and manor corded in the history of the second century, house rang with the merriment of the sea- although there are indications that it was son, and every village inn kept hospitable in order even earlier. Students of Christ cheer. The Yule log roared and the wassail inas, while disagreeing upon the exact time bowl was everywhore. The ale went round of the birth of Jesus, agree that in the early and the sugar- and - cinnamon - sweetened- years of the Church there was a union cele water toast hailed friend to friend.. Old bration of the Nativity and the Epiphany in Father Christmas rode, his goat through the the belief that the birth of Jesus coincided streets of the city and the lanes of the vill with the appearance of a star in the East ages, and as he rested at the hearth from which revealed it to the Gentiles.

house, to house, his kind-hearted sons looked In the northern countries of ancient The word Kris mas is held to be in upon the poor. « Europe the God Thor was the object of simi-Christ'a mass," however, and the word lar celebration at the same season, the song, Noel is from the French word "nouvelles"

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