CHRISTMAS QUIPS

Evening Star, Issue 17541, 22 December 1920, Page 5

CHRISTMAS QUIPS

IS YOUR BIRTHDAY DECEMBER 25?

In many parts of the South of England there is a superstition that boys that are born on Christmas Day should be brought up to enter the Church, and. girls should become nurses, otherwise their lives will always be a dreary round of ill-success. lii either of these occupations, however, Christmas Day children are believed to excel. One of tho most generous superstitions about people born on Christmas Day, a supestition will be found in many countries, is that they have the power of healing by “laying on of the hands,” and of second sight. They are held to possess some hidden magnetic power which enables them to soothe anyone in pain, and so help them on their way to recovery and perfect health. Christmas Day children are usually extremely keen-witted and talented in some form or other.- They generally make excellent musicians and entertainers. IS CHRISTMAS DOOMED? The sceptic who declares that Christmas is becoming a back-number and will soon pass out of our calendar is becoming more and more prevalent. Each year sees a greater number of people ivho grumble over heavy bills, long shop hours, useless cards, and “nonsensical Yuletide festivities.” Without doubt, many of the things we countenance under the cloak of Christmas custom are strange enough on the face of them. We exchange parcels with friends, send good wishes to many people in whom we are really very little interested, waste money, and tire ourselves cutin time, perhaps, these things may pass. The sceptics so far may be right. But they are not right in thinking that Christmas will pass away with them? The spirit of Christmas is "quite apart from many of the forms by which we celebrate the day. It is the spirit of true brotherhood, and it will continue to touch ns with its magic long after the outward symbols we employ to-day are languishing on the dust heap! ° NEVER HEARD OF CHRISTMAS. Only about a-third of the world’s population has ever heard of the word Christmas, let alone celebrated it. By far the great majority of people in the world pass by December 25 as though it were not of the slightest importance. China, Japan, Thibet, Siberia, and Burmah teem with countless millions of people who don’t know Christmas Day from Good a 9 d save for the scattered colonies ot Christians i n their midst, no church beU is heard announcing the most import‘ant day of the Christian year. The greater part of Africa is ChristmasJess. ins African continent contains more ‘ h ,“, fo , ur r , 1,1 maa as many people as the whole of Great Britain, yet out of all the i ? r hel j are , onl y j«st sufficient to mas on^on h ave heard of Christpe?rie 0 in t 5f B ‘ i * te hlmdred Odd million people in the world, m fact, only about five hundred millions are Christians.