Yar demand and authorized a true
7 Christmas ‘card, with Mother and
Babe design, The motion for it came
from Colombia, and it was passed
with the approval of Moslem Pakis-
tan, Hindu India and other nations
‘classified as non-Christian.
simply fnally recognized
that hundreds of millions in
mite express good will to-

Es
ap?
beg

order for a dozen
& London firm. He
Usual seascnable snowy
stipulated that the cards
the Inscription: “Praise
of

Hyderabad, though a
@ an ode on the Nativi-

HTL
Hira

?
i

;

A had printed tn Christ tho birth of Horus by Egypt-

mas-card form and sent to 56,00)
friends, acquaintances and co-res
Ngtoniats. A special copy was printed
on gold leaf, bound in crimson silk,
and presented to the Pope,

Opening up the repository of
‘Christmas or Yuletide lore of the var.

the curious and interesting facts
to be found are related in this Page.

The time of the winter solatice, the
turn of the year from short dark
days back to long tight ones, wan
celebrated as the birth of a god by
five different peoples centuries before
Jesus Christ—the birth of Buddha by
Chinese; ‘the birth of Nolagh by
Di

quay

MERRY CHRISTMAS

OW to say appropriate Yule-
tide greetings in a dozen tan.
ea:

VERDICT IN COURT

In France, a professor was sued by
@ father for destroying the faith of
the latter's child in Christmas. The
father won the enit, and gave the
money to a charity,

ders, which
il venturing

up from’ Scandinavia
The idea, however, {9

gin, having its foundation
Bibh

Prince Aber
of Queen Vi

forties of the 1
mas reborn
Vogue of Christe
the first Christmas ca:
Salo—a thousand
and 1843 say
est of Christma:
Christmas Car

The idea came to
id he began work on it dur-
cond Week of October, He
put all he knew of
as into his Carol, writing in a
state of mental incandescence.
wept overvit, and laughed
again as he wrot
night for fifteen or twenty
About the London street
his story.
end of

chester, an,
ing the
said that he
Christm;

Jana; the birth of
tans; the birth of
Romans,

Of the ~reasonat
Names used, Merrie

Bazon origin; Noel

French; Yule was
and Yuletide in scax

CHRISTMAS FORBIDDEN

Christmas Was
toms That Have S,

prung Up
df -@ Pleasant Fe,

How-Feeling, .

Mithraa by Pers.
Solls Invicta by

ly after World Wer 11

x

3 TY Stteched ig
en
ond tie rment Christmas trees for Yule %* Back im the Middle A

Christmas is of {i6® celebrations. Now at Christmas 8 deemed ‘tairacuisus’ eve pay
comes from the a eachee
Spree Lot ee tay SO finere, Which has been a tra.  SUERE converts to his oda f

leith,

It wi i) bel iwi
era side-by-side wi fas sti lieved that
During the Cromwell dictatorship 7 ooo, traditions:

fn England, when puritanical feelings

held tron sway

Cakes and ale were
Ubations to supersti

throughout ¢
citles of the

of the common crier, t
Day should no longer

it being a sus
custom; and tha:
the more

ORIGIN OF YULE TREES

The use of Christ

» to

San

© was

s trees

Under Mussolini's Fascist regime in
Italy, efforts were made to abolish
Christinas trees as pagan, un-Italian,
and undesirable in a country short of
Umber. Any effects of the campaign

Party to Ifo. 700 sansoield,
vil creeds together eight tong,

mistletoe.
be cut up root and
its of the Evil One,
eld to be impious

ingly, in the year 1647, the
overnment ordered
cipal towns end
by the mouth
hat Christmas

® and hurtful
e thereof, and
work a
hould be held on the

ple, es-

days
ight-
ed to ofl.

ing what happ.
at

were fixed so
8 given for lad.

as trees sprang
and Germany,

¢ German consort
is credited with
ing the Christmas tree into

rds were on
of them—in 1846;
issue of the great-
books, Dickens’ ‘A

@, and walked at

8 thinking of
Tt was completed by the
November and published a
fow days before Christmas 1843.

Six thousand copies.
first printing:
day,

the complete
—were aold on the first
The story {9 read in nearly
every principal language on earth,

trees were sold in Italy in 1955,

were made to put oe rk through the
med sup. An Englishman, Jonathan King, hours it

A boar’s head Was the tradi.
tional Christmas meat course in
England until the reign of
James L That monarch hated
Pork and ordered turkey or
of anclent orj. 80086 Served instead. Court and

in the Society followed his lead.
fe. In Isaiah are the words, “The

glory of Lebanon shalt
thee, the fir
the box toge
place of &
the palm tr

e unto THE CLUE IN A CARD
pine tree and
beautify the
ary.” In Egypt,
a.

A Christmas card enabled a murder
to be solved A beautiful girt was
found strangied in a lonely field in
Canada. Her clothes indicated that
ahe came from a community many
hundreds of miles east. The only
other clue besides this and a photo
of the dead girl's face was a Christ.
mas card. It bore the words: “With
fondest love from Harry.” The letter
enabled Detective John W. Murray to
trace and arrest the sender of the
card, who subsequently confessed to
the crime,

The Christmas_card began in Brit.
ain. At Christmas, 1944, W. B. Dob-
fon, @ Royal Academy artist, made a
sketch, Uthographed copies of it, and
sent these to friends instead of a
letter. Tt portrayed @ family group
toasting absent friends,

The following year, Sir Henry Cole
asked John Calcot Horaley to get up
@ card similar to Dobson's for him to
send. Horsley’s card, which showed a
family celebrating the holiday with
“brimming cheer," was coudemned by
temperance advocates. The Publicity
the controversy gave the card
Prompted numerous cards to be put

On the market and sold.

Fruit trees were bound” together

Fuclth heavy atraw withes on Christmas

Bve by German peasants in former
days, The act of binding was preceded
by an eladorate ceremony in which
the respective t were “married” to
each other, -

tresattes, Over 3,000,000 Christmas  EOUEN the “air oe br

George E. Mottnam, a Britian hist
quan. saya that John Schorne’s fo
lowers believed

he could “conjure up

‘the devil out of a boot,’ for they saw
this happen with their own eyeat

Schorne practiced & trick before his
flock by holding a large top-boot, and
after uttering several words in Latin,
he would cause a Little fiend to jump
out of the top of it

This ruse worked by a simple me-
chanism. The miniature devil was come
Sealed in the foot, and on the release
of a spring, he jumped up into fun
Niew. He could be made to disappear
Again by pressing: another spring.

‘The artisans of the period permane
ently recorded Schore’s curious Ge
Vice in stone and woodwork, and in
older towns in England carvings can
Still be seen of this preacher Rolding
& boot, a Satanic imp grinning trom
the top.

4
THE OLDEST CAROL |

Tt is odd that the best-known
Christmas Carol, Dickens’, is intended
to be read, not sung. For no other
Christmas tradition is older than
garoling. In the 2nd century, A.D,
Telesphorus urged his flock to sing
the Angels’ Hyms (Gloria in Excelis
Deo) on the eve of the Gay the Natiy.
ity was observed. However, the word
“carol” did not come into the Engtish
language until late in the Middle
Ages.

‘The oldest Christmas hymn is sald
to be the one beginning “Vital spark
‘of heavenly fame,” which goes back
to the Roman Emperor Hadrian (76
to 138 AD,). However, the observ
ance of December 25 as Christmas
Day was not officially recognized. in
Rome until $54 A.D, when the Em
eror Justinian designated it § hole
day, As a Christian festival, it re-

placed “Dies Natalis Invictus,” the
last day of the Saturnalia, which had
Gegencrated into a week of unbridled

own to the Christians; it was # time
When they were most free from pers
aecution, a