A WEEK OF JOY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 21 (Supplement)

A WEEK OF JOY.

The Christmas season is always welcomed, by the poor as well as by the rich. It is the season of festivity and rejoicing, of giving and receiving gifts, when even the humblest make an effort to provide some unaccustomed delicacy, and, indulging the flesh, to make the spirit happy. To some the season comes with sadness, because familiar faces are missed from the social gathering; but their sorrow is soothed and softened by the associations of the time. Christmas has alw ays been observed as an occasion for family reunion, when all the members, from the grandparent down to the tiniest toddling mite, assemble under one roof and share in the good things of the earth, according to their circumstances. This association of families is> a healthy sign in English life and a strong foundation for the English constitution. It is said that the family is the basis of society, upon. which the whole superstructure of civilisation is built ; and it would be a bad day for Britona if ever the old Christmas custom, which binds the members of the family so intimately together, were neglected. Even now, it is said, some in high places are breaking away from what they are pleased to call the " martyrdom " of the Christmas family gathering. Dulled by the fancied monotony of the home life,, they seek richer joys in the nutter and oxcitemen*- of a dinner at a restaurant. Happily, this condition is confined to the fevered few, palled by a life of in;>ctivity, and has not yet extended into the masses. In the castle of the King, and in the roltage of the peasant, there will be the long-accus-tomed family gathering, reuniting the scattered members after the long absence, probably from distant places, to renew their pledges of affection for another year. When one comes to think of it, the circumstance that Christmas happens, in England, in mid-winter, is distinctly exhilarating. There is a peculiar appropriateness in the frost and the snow, in the sweet, fresh, nipping air, that belong to the traditions of the season. It is a healthy, vigorous time, picturesque and pleasant — a time for youthful joy and amusement in the open air, and for cosy semicircles about the drawing room fire ; for smoking pipes and sipping spiced drinks ; for the romping of children and the forgathering of fathers and mothers ; a time for the satisfaction that comes to a Briton when he is overcoming difficulties in travelling; a time for adventure and excitement. It is a joy to the healthy man to be out and about, for exertion in the nipping air sets the blood tingling in the veins, and makes the cheeks glow with rude health. The country folk have to put up with a deal of inconvenience, but it is questionable whether this is not more than compensated for by the happy fulfilment of Christmas traditions. If we may believe the old and ofi>quoted proverb, whose chief value resides in the proof it affords that a mild Christmas was no rarity with our rude forefathers, " a green Yule makes a fat kirkyard." Much depends upon the nature of the Yule's greenness. It ib a fact, however, that an open winter is not necessarily a healthy one, in spite of the groanings and complainings of the aged and the delicate when the snow is on the ground.

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