The Daily Alaska empire Newspaper, December 18, 1932, Page 23

THE DAILY ALASKA EMPIRE, ¥ | Christmas festivities, as the mod- | ern world observes them, owe much of their warmth and charm to the survival of pagan customs, Prof. Willlam Warren Sweet cf And lo, the angel of the Lord |the Divinity School, told a Uni- came upon them, and the glory |versity of Chicago group. Speaking of the Lerd shone round about |ay a noon-time service in Bond 3 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their ficck by night. them; and they were sore |chapel on the campus, Doctor afraid. | Sweet, who is professor of the His- And the angel said unto |[tory of American Christianity, an- them, Fear not: for, behold, I |alyzed the history of the Yuletide celebration, and asked that the small Christian element in it be kept uppermost. Exchanging gifts_ at Christmes time is a practice taken over from | the Romans, dinner, the holly wreaths, and even the Christmas free customs can be (iraced back to the barbarians of Northern Europe, Doctor Swe:t bring you geod tidings of great doy, which shall be to all peo- plc | For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto yeu; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with ihe angel a multitude of the (occasion has been chiefly its gom- heavenly host praising God, |mercialization. and saying, “It was not until about the mid- Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.—St. Luke 2:8-14. |dle of the Fourth century after | Christ that a day was formally set aside by the church at Rome for the observation of his physical and the Christmas d. America’s contribution fo the | birth,” Doctor Sweet pointed ou:)d:cked with flowers,. and presents “As it was first observed by the were exchanged church, Christmas was purely & <“aAnother festival which influ= spiritual festival. There was nO| enced the celebration of Christmas gayety; mo bells announced the|was the feast of the Kalends of coming of the glad morn; ther2| january, which marked the begin- were no garlands; no tables heap-| ning of the Roman civil year, and ed with good cheer. three days of merriment followed “But it was not to remain long| it. Mummers clad in women's in the upper air of pure devotion.|clothes and animal skins paraded There were too many pagan influ-! the streets. Pressnts were given to ences about it, one of the most im-| dear ones. ‘Honeyed things, that portant of which was the feast of | in the year the recipient might be Saturn, which began on the 17¢h| full of sweetness, lamps that might of December and lasted until the| be full of light; copper, silver ahd 24th. Saturn was the oldest and| gold that wealth might flow in.'” most denign deity of ancient Italy| Among the early colonists in Am- and his fabled reign on earth was|erica Christmas was observed as supposed to have brought peace a festival only by the Church of | and happines to mankind, and soj England adherents arnd the Roman | the feast dedicated to him was full | Catholics, Profassor Sweet said. { | The Puritans, objecting to it be- | cause of its pagan origins, banned &ny observance of the day. On May 11, 1659, the General Court of the Colony of Massachusetts P d the following law: “Whoso- ever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feast- ing, or any other way, as a festival, shall be fined five shillings.” This statute was repealed twenty | years later, but for more than | one hundred years the great “evan- gelical” religious groups, the Bap- tists, Congregationalists and Pres- | byterians officially refused to rec- | ognize Christmas. Professor Swest | reported. that he has been unabl2 | to find any reference to the fes- ‘Veracious Feasting Anciént Pre- | tival of the nativity in the liter- cedent for Modern Christ- | ature of these churches up to the mas Dinner. ic‘lvil War. Shortly after the war of joy and feasting. The school | 7 religious organ objected to the were closed, public places were observance of the day on the The hope of the world is that| Christmas does not grow old-fash-| ioned. The world may be cynical,| life may be hard, hand may be raised against hand and breast op-| posed to breast in the bitter strug- gle of men for the goals that entice them. Looking on that struggle and the oppression and injustice that accompany it, it is easy to say} that human love and charity have departed from the hearts of me: But it is not so. 'All human re lationships are founded on the qualities that Christmas typifies in| man. No human society could exist without them. Laws could not gov ern hearts that knew not love, nor force constrain the acts of men who knew not mercey. These quali- #Christmas Brings Heme to Us b Our Common Heritage. ties are inhersnt in man. He can- not divest himself of them. They are the heritage of his divine ori- gin' and nature. They distinguisa him from the beasts. Christmas is his recogntion of his own divine attributes. He can not ignore the worship that is in him for those same qualities that his baser nature may often seek to overcome, to deny, to banish from‘;E human relationships. But it is the /= history of man’s conquest of life, which often has seemed ruthless and Savage, that no triumph of, materialism, no pursuit of wealth,| == no indulgence and greed have eve separated him finally from that = first altar of his worship—from the love and mercy that have taken form in his observance of Christ- mas. With kings and counsellors of the earth, with princes that had gold and fillad their houses wita silver, and wita the lowliest in their huts of desolation it is ever| the same; together they must wor- /== ship what is in the nature of all that breathe, for without it one man would forever be a beast of burden and his brother a beast of prey. @Ghristmas, then, brings home to us our common heritage. We can- not escape it if we woyld . As the flower holds up its chalice to the raindrops, so does man, obeying an impulse as instinctive turn to Ohristmas to receive the reviving forces that are in the human love it brings. Then does he lay aside all that is unworthy of him and partake anew of the spirit ‘that alone can give purpose and dig- pity to his life on earth. As long as he turns in worship to . this beauty that really is of himself, though often through his own fail- ings removed from him and pre- served only as an image or symbol, he is not lost to some sense of his own divine nature. He can stil bring it back and receive it renewed and live by it. Thus is Christmas never out- worn, nor its reviving force ex- hausted. It cannot be while man has worship in him and gives ‘'t to that which he recognizes as the ultimate 'to which his nature as- pires. No, Christmas never can old-fashioned and in that is the hepe of the world--Kansas City Times. ———eteo—— Promote Prosperity With Printer’s wA T ri= T O 4 0000000000000 T --as the bells of Jolly Old Kris come tinkling across thesky bringing joy.and gladness to so many homes--wg pause for a moment $o wish you, pur customers and - our . friends, evety happiness. and .- thank you for any service it hag been our privilege to render. f1-4 ' ~SUNDAY, DEC. 18, 1932. grounds that there was no evidence gl |to establish exactly the date of Christ’s birth and that there was pot‘hinz in the New Testament to indicate that the birthday should Be oelebrated. “Ten years later, about 1880, Christmas issues -of _gmrch papers show a decided ghange in their attitude,” Doctor Sweet said. “Christmas adver- sements make their appsarance, istmas poems, and editorials, T T T AT T ‘ this time onward the re- Mglous significance of Christmas Bas been growing in all evangelical Pmrches. “The Christmas with which we ave familiar today is a strang2 combination of imported pagan apd Christian traditions. Though I ike to say it, it seems that about all America has added to Christmas is its commercialization. Certainly all of us have every hu- manitarian and Christian incentive tp make Christmas less pagan, less| | commercialized, more Christian.” — e LK S B R S EXCUSABLE FOLLY It is true thali men and wamen at Christmas time do things which are foolish, es- pecially, in the giving of presents. But when did cold wisdom ever make people happy? Who wants to see a Christmas when nobody spends more than he should or when there is no giving of things that are trivial or needless or foolish? A truly sane Christmas would be a miserable one. — American Magazine. : IR R IR N IR R O R * — FEE B EE R R bR l e e s e b R b e * OO i T T TR M L} Hil SN i e i iy e reetin &"Su Ty 8s B % % % ok erry G T ¥ By € ...of the Season Greetings from every one of us to every one «of you! May this Happy Season.bringyou.a bounteous measure of blessings---may:dt: be the most pleasant you've ever knewa.j; i » During the rush. of the Holiday Season we ‘have strived te give you better service.than .ever before. To us it has been-a happy gerv- .ice. You have smiled and we, have, smiled. Those smiles-have made our muytual, tasks the lighter. at bkl -~ The Wright Shop PAUL BLOEDHORN LA ORI WE EXTEND i HEARTY CHRISTMAS GREETINGS and ‘ SINCERE GOOD WISHES 'FOR ‘THE NEW YEAR i |