SOME CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2219, 23 December 1920, Page 1

SOME CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

When the Druids gathered the mistletoe from the sacred oak each winter two bulls were sacrificed, and the ancient Britons ale beef as a reminder of this sacrifice, this significance has, of course. long since l died out, but beef has always been the Christmas meat of the English. The loin of beef was knighted by Charles 11. at a Christmas feast because on returning from the hunt the dish was so gratifying to Ids palate: Quoth Charles: “Odd's fish! a noble dish! Ay, noble made by me! By kingly right I dub thee knight; Sir Loin henceforward be." For hundreds of years holly has been used for Christmas decoration. It grows in almost every country. The choice of our Christmas colours, red and green, has no doubt come about from these colours which Nature’provides at the Christmas season in the holly and poinsettia. The ancient Teutons, who were sun worshippers, thought that the spreading of a great tree was symbolical of the sun rising higher and higher in the heavens, and the decoration of our Christmas trees is supposed to be symbolic of the sun tree. The lights represent the flashes of lightning overhead: the apples, nuts and balls symbolise the sun, moon and stars, while the little animals represent the sacrifices made to the sun god. In another endeavour to>give a new meaning to heathenish customs the early Christians put a new interpretation upon the tree itself, and attached new meanings to its decorations. The fir itself, with its lights, represented the Christ, who was the beginning of a new life in the midst of the wintry darkness of heathendom, the tree of life, the light of the world. “Purely Christian symbols were introduced. the angels, the anchor, cross and heart, the star of the east and the golden threads, called Lametta, which represent the hair of (he Christ Child. Under the branches of the tree lies the Babe in a manger, watched over by His parents, and surrounded by sheet) and oxen.’’