ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17348, 20 December 1919, Page 5 (Supplement)

ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS.

It is worth while learning how December 25 was fixed on as the birthday of Jesus, because it is an example of one of the many proofs which history supplies of the -mingling of pagan rites and customs with 'the Christian-religion. * , IS..'tße^KomanV."calendar.that day was the day of the winter solstice;" that is when the sun, reaching its apparent farth' est point from . the - equator, seems to stand still" and then to turn back wheel-like m its path through the heavens. When, with the entrance of the Oriental religions, the worship' of Mithra, one of the Vedic sungods, spread from the East into Rome,' this day became dedicated to him as the ." birthday of the unconquered sun, 'and was ushered in with {easting. »or .men rejoiced-..when - the turning-point of the year was reached, and when nature awaking .from her winter sleep, doffed her sombre dress arid, put on the fresh green robe -of spring-time ; - decked with early flowers, in witness- of- xenewed life These combed to make the season celebrated,., and ,at last;' during the fourth T^iJ he soman Christians gave to the birthday of-Mithra' a fuller meaning infixing upon it as the birthday of Him in whom they . belie as " The -Light' of the World.", And when their missionaries Fn±^r. 00 *?"* the' tribes: of Northern Europe they found it easy to impart such glad observance of the.season, it became the merry « Yule " time among those rude sun-worshippers.. And in the blazing S ad 0^ m - ent ? c i trees and sprigs of mistletoe the customs of our forefathers, as in certain" doctrines of the Christian rehgiqnthertx.ara, the traces of Egyptian and still older influences