The Wairarapa Daily TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1889. CHRISTMAS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3394, 24 December 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily TUESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1889. CHRISTMAS.

CniiiSTUAS comes round this year imdor favorable auspices, and with an abundance of good clieor. A settler who has been-fattening geese for this festive season tells us that every bird has been disposed of, and that ho could hsiye placed double the number, People evidently mean to enjoy themselves, and oven the longest and possibly the hottest day

of the year will not deter them from consuming time-honored fare which is more appropriate for a white Christmas at the other side of the world. How far into the dim recessos of tliQ past this particular timo has been observed as a festival it is difficult to conjecture. Before tho Christian era- our pagan ancestors used to celebrate this goitson, bepiiuso, at this particular time the shortest day of the year had ended andtlmy looked forward to old Sol again giving thorn a little more of his countenance and dispersing the cold and gloom of tjreary wjntor. The Christmas cheer In those days must have been of a primitive character I However, our English forefathers, when the better light ol the ue\v era dawned upon them began to. make Christmas what it has been for tlie laiit thousand years tlio supreme festival of the year. The keeping of Christmas is simply constitutional with Englishmen, and whether tlio modem Briton is sweltering in the tropics or freezing at the pole he requires a supply of the traditionalplumptiddingandotliordainties which are recognised from time immejßpf ijf J as appropriate Christinas fare,- There are, of course, other memories associated with Christmas which make the day memorable, It is the white letter tliy whioh has: so often reunited families and friends, whiph has healed strife, reconciled variance, and ejjrnulated all the belter feelings in poor huraan nature. "Peace and goodwill" has been its motto for over a thousand years, and w}ll he, we trußt, for a thousand years to come.. for the last year or two wo have almost; iiesitatsd to express the customary gocd wishes to our friends, for they, havo been seasons of coinparatiyo adversity and 'depression, l times when the stern cry of" referent has had to be listened to by but now that tho cloud,has the dark hour has passed, we can again heartily and sincerely wish one and all A MERRY CmiISTMAS AND A /HAPPY NEW YEAR. ,