BIRTH OF THE SAVIOUR

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 79, 27 December 1928, Page 9

BIRTH OF THE SAVIOUR

CELEBRATIONS IN PALESTINE PROCESSION FROM JERUSALEM TO BETHLEHEM MANY EUROPEANS IN THRONG There was a picturesque ceremonial in Bethlehem to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the Saviour. (United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph. -Copyright.) (Australian Press Assu.—united Service.) Jerusalem, December 25. Tourists and Christian pilgrims from aS far afield as China and Japan joined to-day in a picturesque ceremonial around the grotto which, according to tradition, served as a stable for the village hostel in ’Bethlehem, where the Saviour was born 192 S years ago. The procession was headed by the Latin Patriarch, with an escort of Palestine Mounted Police. Hundreds of clergy and natives in brightly coloured robes formed at midday in Jerusalem and proceeded from the Jaffa Gate to Bethlehem. Many well-dressed, well-to-do Europeans accompanied the throng, some as onlookers and some as devout worshippers at this annual glorification of the Birth of Christ. The weather was more like an English spring day than the December of the Christmas card. There was an artist’s sky arid a cloudless sUn glinted on the jewels in the Patriarch s mitre and tlie accoutrements of the. guards. The ground was ablaze with a huge silver star of hundreds of twinkling candles around the site of the manger, now marked by a marble monument built over the grotto in the Church of the Nativity. Into and around this moved the throng. The observance continued until midnight, when the worshippers reassembled at the Church of St. Catherine, adjoining the Basilica, and formed a procession to the grotto, where the image of the infant Saviour was'laid in its place in the manger, where it will be kept until Epiphany. The Protestants commenced the observance of the holiest day in Christtendom by a w’atch in bright moonlight in the Shepherds’. Field situated on the east road from Bethlehem, and then spent the night under the clear stars and sang carols in the courtyard adjoining the grotto. CHRISTMAS IN OTHER LANDS M. BRIAND AS SANTA CLAUS (Australian Press Association.) Paris, December 25.

As the result of the decision of the French Senate hot to complete the work on the Budget, its prominent members were able to spend the holiday on their estates and elsewhere. The Foreign Minister, M. to Cockerel and acted as Santa Claus for the children of the town, according to his custom. MM. Poincare, Leygues, and Painleve went to their estates. M, Clemenceau motored to the tomb of his friend the artist, Claude Monet, on which he placed flowers. ITALIAN ROYAL FAMILY (Australian Press Association.) Rome, December 25. The Italian Royal Family celebrated Christmas quietly in the Villa Savoia, near Rome, and, according to the custom. hundreds of children in the asylums in the city received toys as a Christmas gift from the Queen. The Pope officiated at Mass in the private chapel and gave communion to a number of his relatives. Signor Mussolini and his family celebrated the day at his residence in the city, where the Premier was joined later by members of the Italian Naval League. IN UNITED STATES (Australian Press Association.) Washington, December 25. Having complied with the annual custom and pressed the electric button on Christmas Eve, lighting the capi-

tai’s Christmas tree, President Coolidge and Mrs. Coolidge departed to-day for Eapelo Island, off the Georgia coast, where they will spend the Christmas and New Year holidays. The President-elect, Mr. Hoover, passed Christmas on board the battleship Utah, which is nearing the Equator on the voyage home, while the crew joined him in singing carols on the quarterdeck.

In the meantime New York has reported a bountiful Christmas. Mail records were broken, and the stores reported tremendous sales, spme managers estimating that this year would be found to show the greatest buying in the history of their stores. The New York Post' Office reported 141 million pieces of mail handled, which is the greatest Christmas mail ever handled in New York City. FIREWORKS FATALITIES Australian Press Association. New York, December 25. Seven children were killed as the result of accidents arising from, the custom in the Southern States of celebrating Christmas with fireworks. Four youngsters lost their lives at Hazard, Kentucky, when a ’ fire-cracker tossed in fun landed in a can of blasting powder. There was an explosion, and a fire, in which the mother of two of the youngsters was also badly burned. Three children at Carterville, Georgia, earning Christmas money as temporary clerks in a fireworks store, were burned to death when a Roman candle lit by a customer caused a fire and explosion. A fourth person,, a young woman of eighteen, was badly burned; probably fatally. HEAVY CASUALTY LIST IN SYDNEY Sydney. December 26. Three dead and twenty-one injured is the roll of Christmas Day casualties in Sydney and suburbs. Two deaths were" the result of motor accidents, the third being that of a'fettler who was run down by a train. One of the injured men had his right eye torn out when a car crashed into a tram. Several others are in a critical condition.

BOY’S PRESENT BRINGS TRAGEDY Sydney, December 26. Tragedy brought a sad Christmas to the Wright family, of Marrickville. Leo Wright, aged eleven, received a cricket ball from his father on Christmas, and a few hours later, while he was playing with other boys, the ball was hit' on to the roof of a factory. In endeavouring to recover it. the lad Wright crashed through the glass skylight to the concrete floor thirty feet below. The ambulance officers smashed in the door, and found him dead.