THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2806, 25 December 1907, Page 51

THE WEEK.

•* X«aq«ua »ll«d o»tara, alls* mpimitU dlxlt."— Jertiiu "Onl lum ud food mm» Butinr JoU.*— r»r*. t _____ Probably the universality of Christmas and the self -same spirit Ckrlataai which animates all propel aad Christmas festivities could Th» CkrlitMM not find better and more Carol. emphatic illustration than an the world-wide favonr with which Charles Dickens's renowned story "The Christmas Carol" has been received and acted upon since its first publication some 64 years ago. It was Leigh Hunt who remarked that no literary food- for the season evei came up to the substantial as well as the exquisite fare iet forth in the pages of "The Chimes" and "The Christmas Carol," for, as "be so forcefully observes,- " they are the sermons of the morning rescued from the dead letter of mere assent and custom, reproduced with all the allurements of- wit and pathos, and made contributory to the great practical workings of the time." Few will venture to dispute the statement that the keeping of Christmas as we understand it la the twentieth cenlury owes its present position and popularity almost entirely t« Charles Dickens, and the particular story amongst his many Christmas stories which has contributed most to this desirable result is without doubt "The Christmas Carol." In the Christmas number of Cassell's Magazine there is an interesting account of the history of "The Christmas Carol," The author, Mr Ejrnest H. Rann, introduces his subject with the familiar word^ put into the mouth of Scrooge's nephew by the great novelist : "I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around, apart from the veneration due to its | sacred name and origin — if anything belonging fo it can be apart from that, — as a good time, a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time ; the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem t>Z pie consent to open their shut-up

hearts freely and to think of people below them, as if- they really were fellow pas- ! sengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." And Mr Rann goes on to point out that the spirit of this Christmas utterance is exactly the spirit in which "The Christmas Carol" was conceived and written, and exactly the spirit which has carried "The Carol" right round the world, until it is beloved in every country where the English language is spoken, and , in thousands of homes where only other tongues are known. For the story has. been translated into every European 1 language, including Irish. It is to be found in the literature of Japan, and if ever the world follows the teaching of Dr' Zamenhof and adopts Esperanto a '. version of "The Carol" in that unknown ; tongue will be ready to hand. "The . Carol " is read every Christmas in Birmingham and other of the great cities of England, • and "wherever read or recited if never fails to attract large and sympa- ; thetic audiences. For, as Mr Rann puts it: "Year by year 'The Carol' increases • its hold on our hearts, softening them to better feelings than they have pre- • viously known and inspiring them to deeds of charity and love. The Queen of Norway not long ago said : 'No one can be really > bad who can cry over Tiny Tim. Whenever I feel that I am getting a wee bit selfish I read "A Christmas Carol" through, and then I feel as though I ' must do something to brighten the lives of the many brave-hearted little cripples i there are in the world.' And the feeling of the palace is the feeling of the cottage." Thus it is that the spirit of .Dickens as revealed in: "The Carol" is the real Christmas spirit, and the universality of " The. Carol " is but another proof of the , universality of the Christmas spirit. 1 The ever present difficulty aboul Christmas ' * celebrations in New Zealand Am Antidote 'is that by tradition and for all ■> custom inherited from the Social Ills. Old World Christmas is ' N essentially a winter festival. ', But with the adaptiveness peculiar to the Anglo-Saxon race it has been found pos- : sible to acclimatise Christmas even when ; the 25th* of December falls in the middle ' of summer. Charles Lamb calls Christmas ; Day a day of victory, fqr, writes he, "every heuse and church is as green as spring. The laurel that never dies, the holly, with • its armed leaves and scarlet berries; the ' mistletoe, under which one sweet ceremonial is, we hope, still performed, are seen. Every brave shrub that has life ] and verdure seems to come forward to < brave the reproaches of men and to show - them- that the earth is never .dead, never parsimonious." And if this lesson may be learned in. the Old World in winter time, l how- much more emphatic is the message . in New Zealand in the middle of summer, and particularly a summer such as the present, when every flower and shrub is blooming so gorgeously and so fragrantly, setting an example to man of almost prodigal "generosity. There ife no gain- > saying the fact that an extension all the year round of the spirit which animates, almost everyone at Christmas time would go far to solve all the social problems and to cure all the ills which flesh is heir to. For, speaking generally, the combinations, co-operations, legislations, and prohibitions, the framing and making of which occupy one-half of the world for the benefit of the other half, are all directed against the results and outcomes of man's selfishness. Now, at Christmas time selfishness is voted out of court, and he who would retain his selfishness may not participate in any -real Christmas joy. The pity of it is that Christmas is so soon forgotten, and with the coming of the New Year all the old selfish strivings come once more into play, and the world wags .its selfish way* waiting for the coming of another Christmas. Still, accepting it as an impossibility to so alter the nature of man as to make permanent any extension of the Christmas spirit, we will do well to make the most and make the best of this Christmastide. To which ; end we pass on for general emulation the ; concluding words of Lamb's essay upon r "Christmas" : "Oh! merry, piping time cf [ Christmas! Never let us permit thee to . degenerate into distant courtesies and , formal salutations. But let us shake our ." friends and familiars by the hand, as our ; fathers and their fathers did. Let them , -all come around us, and let us count how \ many the year' has added to our circle. , Let us enjoy the present and I&ugh at the past. Let us tell old stories and , invent new ones — innocent always and ingenious if we can. Let us not meet to abuse the world, but to make it better by our individual example. Let us be patriots, but not men of party. Let us look of the -time, cheerful ana generous, and endeavour to make others as 'generous and cheerful as ourselves." Although climate and environment are so totally different, yet it is As Old Eafllah good for many reasons to Ckrlstmta, keep alive the memories and recollections of the real Old English' Christmas. The season is sur- ; .rounded by all kinds of quaintest ceremonies. For instance, Robert Burton, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," published as long ago as 1621, has in his chapter on " Symptoms ef Love" the following oldtime legend :—": — " We- have a" pretty story in * Westmonasteriensis,' an old Writer of ours (if you will believe it). An. ' Dom. 3 012 at Colewiz, in Saxony, on Christmas Eve a ' company of young men and maidens, while the priest was at Mass in the Church, were singing catches and love ■songs in the Church Yard. He sent to , them to make less noise, but they sung on still ; and if you will, you shall have the very song itself :—: — A fellow rid by the greenwood side, And fair Meswinde was his bride ; "Why stande we so, and do not go? This they sung, they chaft, till at leng'h, hn£atient as he \vaSi he prayed to St.

Magnus, Patron of the Church, they might all three sing and dance till that time twelve-month : and so they did, without meat and • drink, wearisomeness or giving over, till at year's end they j ceased singing and' were absolved by i Heredotus, Archbishop' of Cologne." And. '■ Burton adds, "" They will in all places be doing this — young folk especially, — reading love stories, talking of this cr j that young man, such a fair maid, sing- | ing, telling or hearing tales and tunes, j — such objects are their sole delight, their ' continuous meditation, and as Guastivii niuos adds, 'An earnest longing comes j hence, amorous conceits, tickling i thoughts, sweet and pleasant hopes : hence it is they can think, discourse willingly jor speak almost of no other subject. 'Tis their only desire, if it may be done by art, to see their Husband's picture in a glass; they'll give anything to know when I they shall be married, how many husI bands they shall have, by Crommyoman- ': lia, a kind of divination with Onions laid j !on the Altar oil Christmas Eve < or by j j fasting on St. Annes "Eve or Night, to ; know who shall be their first husband; I or by Alphitomantia, by beans in a cake, i I etc., to lurn the same." Although the : girls of New Zealand 'flatter themselves „ doubtless that they are much in advance of their sisters of the seventeenth century, yet, they will not be above practising some' of the foolishnesses and follies peculiar to every Christmas Eve. There is another side to Cnristmas which may not be forgotten, and The Children's it is thus pleasingly set Christmas, forth by an esteemed lady correspondent :—": — " A happy Christmas," dear readers — "a happy Christmas and bright New Year !" Old and terse and commonplace as the expression is, it is yet so fraught with old cus toms, old memories, and old associations that we are loth to let it sink into oblivion. It may be merely a phrase, yet it is a pleasant phrase and good to hear. And the Christmastide is a goodly time. Though to many the glad season "is darkened with sorrowful memories and clouded with old regrets, one cannot but put self aside and let one's thoughts flow into a brighter train" when the joyous greetings of the young folks fall upon ears. Christmas time is so essentially a retrospective season that we would fain let our thoughts float back and linger over dead and gone Christmastides ; over past glad reunions and merry gatherings But the children take away the sting of the old sorrows. Their laughter recalls only the mirj>h of bygone' days ; the , sorrowful memories may not' linger with these joy -illumined faces looking' into ours —these, happy voices calling upon us to join in their happiness. Though for a moment one sees through, a mist of tears, and deep down in one's heart quivers- for one instant the old longing for our absent dead, we are forced to throw aside the selfishness of grief and scatter for the nonce that sunshine of well-doing which we owe tor the little ones. For Christmas time is children's time. We shower good wishes around us ; we fill pockets and palms with dainty gifts and watch the joy-light leaping into the young eyes. We delight to find some tiny 'maid or small laddies to whom the belief in Santa Claus has not been shattered, — to them the costliest present received from our hands is not so good as the veriest trifle coming from that wonderful personage. Christmas time is assuredly the joy, time of youth, and we are forced to lay aside our grown-up mantle and don a child's garb and come back to their childhood. We are children again with cares effaced and sorrows forgotten, working with thought v and hands for their pleasure. We are glad in their gladness ; we rejoice in their joy; we rifle fancy shops for their adornment; we place ourselves as agents for Santa Claus, and fill bulky stockings, and rack our brains to iind suitable toys for our favourites, and grudge not one_whit the fact that the invisible driver and his world-famed car received the voluble thanks that should be ours. Dear little children, a happy Christmas to you and a glad, New Year. And to my older readers, a happy Christmastide. There are many who sneer at our old-fashioned homage ito the Christmas; there are those who tell us that we worship a myth — a tradition. What matter if it be merely a shadow of the substance — a tradition broidered with sentiment. In this age of modernity it were well to let our mind turn aside from the hard-and-fast facts and wander among illusionary by-ways. The old customs contrast very strongly with our up-to-date ideas, yet we would fain cling, to them a little longer. We are loth to have any of our illusions vanish. - We love the old order with its halo of reverence. We weave a beautiful chain of faith anent the wonderful birth of the wonderful Child, and it stretches away back over the years until its links are Wrapped in the darkness of mystery. And j we would have it so. The ways of our parents seem goodly ways, and we — very many of us^-are content to tread in their footsteps and follow their beliefs and customs. 'Tis trtia the same old customs may be mere fanciful than useful, more broidered with sentiment than adorned with sage wisdom', still we have a warm plaoe in our hearts for them. We do homage to them as an old allegiance. In infancy our restless fingers tore open Santa's gifts and emptied his well-filled stocking; in childhood we played Christmas games and guessed Christmas riddles; in girlhood we sang carols and hung mistletoe in the doorway just as in the past our mothers had done. I ■■ ' .