Speaker 1: Christmas ideas and celebrations from everywhere. Many of us would
like new and affected ways of celebrating Christmas befitting the
new order of peace and good will that has come
to mankind. Sometimes in the last few decades it has
been with Christmas celebrations a case of the world is
too much, with us late and soon getting and spending,
we lay waste our powers instead of so much gift giving.
A revival of some of the beautiful and dignified old
time ceremonies that make the significance of the season more
vivid might have our consideration. The various customs of foreign
lands at different periods of history perhaps will suggest new
ways to us of borrowing or adapting an idea that
will celebrate Christmas this year, either at home or in
public places, with such picturesque beauty that a new spirit
of service rather than gift barter, will appeal to us. Christmas,
as the holiday celebrates the Nativity of Christ, was originally
celebrated in very early spring, but as most all the
nations of medieval Europe, regarded the winter solstice as the
turning point of the year, when nature began a renewed life.
The custom gradually developed of celebrating this Christian holiday in
the period during what is now the last of December
and the first of January. In Norway, the winter solstice
was the time for holding a Yule feast, originally in
celebration of a pagan god, and among the Scandinavians the
Yule log and the Yule cake were among the observances
of Yuletide that was a season of rejoicing and visiting.
In England, Christmas celebrations of three or four hundred years
ago charm us with their quaint and simple jollity. The
English always remembered everyone, from their neighbors down to their
servants in the country. An English gentleman always invited his
neighbors and tenants to his great hall at daybreak on
Christmas morning. There they were regaled upon toast, sugar, nut
make and good old Cheshire cheese. The house was decked
with ivy and other greens under the title of a
Christmas box. The general English custom, which still prevails to
some extent, a small gift of money was given to
postmen and other delivery men the day after Christmas, which
was called Boxing Day. In eleven hundred, Henry, the first
granted a charter to London, making it a city, and
the Christmas celebration, it is recorded, consisted of a feast
for rich and poor. The people gathered in the streets
around blazing bonfires, singing and dancing after feasting upon oxen,
deer ale and mead. The wasasail bowl, spoken of so
often in many books describing England at the time of
the Crusades, was another evidence of the ever ready hospitality
that the English offered to all comers. Christmas music in
England was delightful carols sung on Christmas Eve and sometimes
early Christmas Morning on the doorsteps by bands of children
and young folks called waits, who were rewarded at the
end of the program with money or gifts, or an
invitation to enter and feast. Many of the celebrations, strange
as it may seem, consisted of superstitious testings of fortune,
similar to those now practiced at Halloween. Attempts to forecast love, marriage,
and good luck for the household during the coming year
were all among the entertainments of the season in old
time England. An old rhyme that has come down to us,
which prophesizes in this fashion is this one a Monday Christmas.
If Christmas Day on Monday be a great winter that
year you'll see and full of winds, both loud and shrill.
But in summer, truth to tell, high winds shall there be,
and strong, full of tempests, lasting day long, while battles
they shall multiply, and great plenty of beasts shall die.
They that be born that day. I ween they shall
be strong, each one and keen. The origin of the
Christmas tree has never been fully determined. Some declare it
Norse because in the Northern mythology a certain world tree
typified existence. Others declare the Christmas tree was used to
celebrate the Roman Saturnalia, a December festival for all classes,
and was imported into Germany with the conquering legions of Drusus.
But it is interesting to know that the Christmas tree,
with its dependent toys and mannequins, is distinctly portrayed by Virgil,
the Roman poet. The symbolism of the evergreen tree is interpreted,
with its lights and fruits, the symbol of Christ, who
is the beginning of new life in the midst of
wintry darkness of heathendom, and the immortality of life candle
lights also symbolize the light that came into the world
with the birth of Christ. The gold thread that is
entwined as decoration on some Christmas trees is called lametta
and represents the golden locks of the Christ Child. The
star is the emblem of the star in the East
that guided the shepherds of Bethlehem. In Norway, sheaves of
wheat to tie on shutters or roof poles to feed
the birds are sold on the streets, just as holly
wreaths are sold in the United States. Isn't this a
thoughtful decoration for the home? In Brazil, Christmas is celebrated
in the home in a fashion that brings to mind
the Three Wise men. An altar. Sometimes the staircase is
covered with fine linen. On the top is placed the
Christ Child in a cradle, and below are placed the
choicest gifts of the soil, to show that the first
fruits and best fruits should be His. Spices and myrrhr.
Clusters of all kinds of fruit and rice and other
grains deck this altar. The church steps are covered with
spice leaves to make the steps fragrant when walked upon,
and at night there is a Christmas celebration with fireworks.
Perhaps with our own new custom of Christmas trees in
public squares or parks in some of our large cities,
where some great singer freely gives beautiful music appropriate to
the season, we are not far away from such a
celebration with fireworks. Strange as the idea may seem at first,
for fireworks lighting the heavens may easily take the form
of Christmas symbols, And surely such a celebration is one
that many rich and poor can enjoy. And of Christmas
ideas and celebrations from everywhere,