THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR 0'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3434, 24 December 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1879.

Ovkb three centuries ago good old Thomas Tusser wrdle— At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year. And many many Christmas days, with their festivities and rejoicings, hare come and gone since then, and Tusser's command ia still obeyed through the length and j breadth of Christendom. And here in i Now Zealand we find ourselves on the threshold of another Christmas Day. Not the frosty Christmas of our Mother Country, with leafless branches and cloudy skies, but our own New Zealand Christmas, whose peculiarly pleasing associations multiply as the age of our | adopted country adrances. What a difference between the physical associations of Ckri«tmas-tide in the two hemispheres. Here King Sol shines brightly and warmly on an enchanting prospect of primeval forests, hillsides clad with verdure, and the happy looking habitations of man. flow different is the " Merrie Christmas" of old England; but without using the hackneyed truism aboufc com* parisons, we, leaving the present for a time will peer into the misty avenueß of the Past, and recall to the memories of our readers a few of the associations which accumulated ages have hung like ivy round this great festival of the Christian year. Of course j any school boy can teller ou the festivities 'at Christmas - tide commemorate the nativity of the Messiah, but there is good reason to believe that long before the beginning of the Chmtian era, the winter solstice was a season of rejoicing, to welcome the approach of spring, as it were, bid farewell to the dark season when frost and snow reigned supreme. The worship of nature is intuitively implanted in the human mind; being more strongly marked in those ' primeval regions where the study of the handiwork of the Creator is almost forced on. the least observant of mankind. In conformity with this great universal law we find pagan nations offering idolatrous devotions at the time of the well defined changes of the seasons, and those at the winter solstice were the greatest. The first certain traces that we hare of the celebration of the birthday of the Saviour is ia the reign of that imperial monster, Diocletian in the third century. This tyrant while keeping court at Nicomedia, learned that a number of Christians had assembled in their place of worship to celebrate the birthday of Jesus, and he thereupon sent his lictors to close the doors of the Church and set it on fire. The barbarous mandate was obeyed, and all the worshippers perished in the flames. Rather a painful association, we think, of the first recorded celebration of Christmas. It does not appear that there was any uniformity in the observance of the Nativity amongst the early churches, nor is at all certain that -the 25th of December in the year 1 was really the natal day of the Saviour of the world. The opposite is probably the case, indeed it is hardly likely the shepherds of Juries would be watching their flocks by night in the height of the rainy season. A celebrated authority holds that the celebration of the Nativity at this period of the year was neither forced arbitrarily nor casually but ascribes it to the circumstance that we alluded to a few minutes ago. One of the mistletoe-like accompaniments of the good old festival is the custom of singing carols in celebration of the Nativity. We have evidence that this is indeed a very old custom, one of the principal being ' the sculptured representation of a Christian family joining as if in choral praise found on a sarcophagus of the second century. The oldest printed collection of English Christmas carols bears the date 1521, and the majority of them were written by men of letters. The date we have just mentioned reminds us of another date, viz., 1525, when all England kept a " still Christmas," in consequence of the illness of the king. Nor was this the only occasion on which, English history informs us, the usual celebration of Christmas was suspended. Oliver . Cromwell, " Praise the Lord " Barebones, and the other leaders of Puritanical England abolished Christmas altogether, and declared holly aud ivy to be symbols of sedition, and it was not until after the blazing of the bonfires and the pealing of the joybelU had announced the Restoration, that the festivities were resumed. Never bare they been assailed from that to the present day. Our younger readers will probably consider it a dereliction of duty on our part if we omit to say something about Christmas boxes. The custom is of great antiquity, and is essentially an English one. The giving of a small money gift by masters to their servants at Christmastide has given rise to the term Boxing Day, or the day on which the Christmas boxes are given. At the commencement of the present century the custom became quite a social nuisance. Everybody was begging for " boxes," and ail seemed to forget that it is " more blessed to give than receive." A poefc of the period writes: —

Gladly theboy with Christmas Box In hand, Throughout the town his dubious route pursue*; And of his master's customers, implores The yearly mite: often his cash ho shakes, The which, perchanco, of coppers few consists, Whose dulcet jingle fills his little soul With joy.

Well the habit of giving boxes became •ucli a nuisance that a Government circular was issued in 1836 requesting a discontinuance of Christmas gifts to messengers and other public servants. Since then the practice seems, to have somewhat decreased, but it still shows a healthy vitality. In conclusion, we may say that we hope before next Christmas wo will have increased prosperity on the Thames, and heartily wish all our readers—