The Star. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1884.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5192, 24 December 1884, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1884.

Christmas Day on a Thursday. And why not? The old thunder-god, after whom the day was named, exercises no mystic influence over people in these days of evolutionary doctrine, of the freest of free thought, and of all-prevailing scepticism. Nobody now dreads his giant-sinashing [ hammer ; nobody now seeks to propitiate | him for fear of pestilence, present or possible. School Boards have introduced elementary science, and thunder-peali are attributed to a cause very much, more prosaic- than the rolling of Thor's chariot wheels. As for the hammer, well, there are no giants to smash; and besides, has not Nasmytb. given us the steam hammer, bapable of performing feats such as Thpr did not even dream of. People thought a good deal, however, once upon a time, of "Christmas Day falling on a Thursday," and some of their ideair have been preserved for us in the Harleian manuscripts at the British Museum. Thus says the old writer, whose bones mouldered away many generations ago : — If Christmas Day on Thursday he, A windy winter you shall see ; Windy weather in each week, And hard tempests, strong and thick : The summer shall be good and dry, Corn and beasts aha.li multiply ; The year is good for lands to till, Kings and princes shall die by skill ; If a child that day bora should be, It shall happen right well for thee ; v Of deeds he shall be good and. stable, "Wise of speech and reasonable. "Whoso that day goes thieving about. He shall be punished without doubt ; And if si. kness that day betide. It shall quickly from thee glide. The old couplets are as " dubersome/ almost, as the Delphic utterances, whilst there is just a suspicion that the exigencies of the rhymes had something to do with, the nature of the promised issues. This is an age of scepticism. It may be doubted, even, whether the popular notion put into form by one of the ghost-seers in " Hamlet," finds wide acceptance now. Marcellus found comfort in the idea, and his companion " did in part believe " That ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long : And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike,** No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 60 hallow'd and so gracious is the time. So hallowed, and so gracious! perish the scepticism, the dry-as-dust philosophy, the harsh rules of science ! Let us for awhile have none of these things. Let us be young again, believing, with all the fervour of the days of pattering feet, of dimpled cheeks, of wonder-waiting eyes, in Santa Klaus, in elves and fairies, hobgoblins, gnomes, and all the rest of them ; believing that at Christmastide there is peace gn earth to men of good-will, and that the good-will is universal ; believing that for us the time is hallowed and gracious indeed and that to all with whom we com* in contact we must manifest these feelings because of their very exuberance ; believing, toe, that this coming Christmas D.iy, " falling on a Thursday," means for us increasing flocks and herds, a bounteous harvest, prosperity and contentment for all. "Why may not our Christmas be kept in such spirit as this ? Are some amongst us too sorrowful for rejoicing, almost too sorrowful even for hope ? Surely some kindly voice will whisper a word of comfort! Are some amongst us in need? What then ? Are not others blessed beyond their need, and ready to acknowledge their indebtedness in the good old Bible way, by giving to the poor ? Surely. The well-to-do may not commonly have hunger for sauce, but they may secure a muck better condiment, the knowledge that some heart has been rejoiced, some home brightened. . We would have our Christmastide all aglow with the shining of good deeds, with the fervour of a universal brotherhood; and. with this spirit it is that we wish for everyone of our readers, young or agqd, well-to-do or comparatively ill-found in the world's gear, \ A MERRY CHRISTMAS !