The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1884.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4189, 24 December 1884, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1884.

Many of our younger readers, in all probability, merely associato Christmas Day with its religious significance, its holidays, plum-pudding, and presents. But Christmas Day was not always observed on December 25. It was altered, to that day by Pope Julius Ist from the Gth of January, in the fourth century. In Dr Brewer's " Dictionary of Phrase and Fable " wo find that the great feast of Saturn was held in December when the people decorated tho temples with such green things aa they could find. The Christian custom is the same transferred to Him who was born on tho 25th of the same month. In Becton's dictionary, however, we read that the exact day of the Nativity has long formed matter of dispute, but it is generally agreed that it could not have been on the 25th of December. One of tho reasons given is that tho shepherds could not havr> been watching their flocks in the fields by night in the middle of tho rainy season. Sir Isaac Newton attempted to account for the choice of December 25, -the winter solstice —by showing that not only the feast of the Nativity, but most of tho others, were originally fixed at cardinal points of tho year. Tho first Christian calendars having been so arranged by mathematicians at pleasure they were adopted, the main object being to have a fixed time of commemoration appointed. According to Polydore Virgil, the English were remarkable for the festivities with which they distinguished Christmas : and these we given at considerable length in Brand's "Popular Antiquities." On the night of Christmas-eve it was usual to light up candles of uncommon size, and to lay a log of wood on the lire, called a Yule clog, or Christmas block, to illuminate the fire, and, as it were to turn night into day. At Court, and in distinguished families an officer, under various titles, was appointed to preside over the revels. Stowe says, " that in the feast of Christmas there was in the King's house, wherever he lodged, a Lord of Misrulo or Master of Merry Disports ; and the like had yo in the houso of every nobleman of honor or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal." The Puritans of England were very much opposed to these ceremonies ; and in Scotland the Abbot of Unreason, as he was there called, was suppressed by Act of Parliament in 1555. "Yule," says Beeton, "seems to have been originally a pagan festival, observed in ancient times among tho Romans, Saxons, and Goths, in commemoration of the turning of the sun, and lengthening of the day, and was afterwards kept up by tho Christians." In 1618 Thomas Warmistry published a tract entitled tho " Vindication of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ " in which the following occurs: —"lf it doth appeare that the time of this festival doth comply with the time of tho heathens' saturnalia, this leaves no charge of impiety upon it; for since things are best cured by their contraries, it was both wisdome and piety in the ancient Christians (whoso work it -was to convert tho heathens from such as Trell as other superstitions and miscarriages) - to vindicate such times from the service of the Dcvill by appointing them to tho more solemnc and especiall service of God." We will now see what our authors have got to say about Christmas Boxes and Boxing-day. Christmas-box, as everybody knows, is a present given on the day after Christmas, hence the name Boxing-day. The practice was undoubtedly founded on the pagan custom of new-year's gifts. Until recently the custom had spread in England to such an extent as to become a national grievance. Tradesmen sent their journeymen and apprentices to levy contributions from their customers, and they, on tho other hand bestowed boxes on tho servants _of their customers. To the tradesman it was a pretence for lengthening out his bill ; to tho master and mistress for lowering the wages of their servants. Since 1836 tho practice has very much decreased, but wo have not loft it altogether behind us in coming out to these colonies, the kindly custom being still observed. In tho early days of Christianity boxes were placed in churches for promiscuous charities and opened on Christmas Day. The contents were distributed next day by the priests, and called the "dole of the Christmas box." Shakespeare expresses a E pretty sentiment when he puts in the mouth of Maroellus when addressing Hamlet, tho following words: — Sotuc say, that ever Valml that season comes, Vi herein our Savi >ur's birth wna celebrnterl, ' The bird of dawning s'.iiKCth all niuht lone, And then, they pay no spirit cm walk abroad, So hnllow'd and 60 f,'raci<>iis> is the Lime. And with this we wish our readers a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.