ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2071, 23 December 1919, Page 2

ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS.

IT is worth while learning lunv Do.comber 251 h was lixed on as the birlhday of Jesus, because it is an example of one of the many proofs which history supplies of the mingling of pagan rites and customs with the Christian religion, In the Roman calendar that day was the day of the winter “solstice”; that, is, when the sun, reaching its apparent farthest point from the equator, seems to “stand still,” and then to turn hack wheel-like in its path through the heavens. When, with the entrance of the Oriental religions, the worship of Mithra, one of the Vedic sungods, spread from the East; into Home, this day became dedicated to him as the “birthday of the unconquored sun,” and was ushered in with feasting. Eor men rejoiced when the turning-point of the year was reached, and when nature, awakening from her winter sleep, doffed her sombre dress and put on the fresh green robe of springtime decked with early flowers, in witness of renewed life. These combined to make the season celebrated, and at hist, during the fourth century, the Roman Christians gave to the birthday of Mithra a fuller meaning in fixing upon it as the birthday of Him in whom they believed as “The Light of the World.” And when their missionaries went to convert the tribes of Northern Europe they found it easy to impart giad observance of the season, it became the merry “Yule” time amoug those rude sun-worshippers.

And in the blazing logs and .ornamented trees and sprigs of mistletoe there linger the customs of our forefathers, a,s in certain doctrines of the Christian religion there,are the traces of Egyptian and still older influences..