THE Wairarapa Age THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1908. THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3078, 24 December 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1908. THE CHRISTMAS SEASON.

To-day the world of Christendom stands once more on the threshold of its parent festival—on the eve of Christmas Day. The season chosen tor solemnisation as it was in early times of the Christian era in the Old World to serve the added purpose of brightening the dull period of material life, has for centuries drawn around itself associations inseparable from midwinter conditions. The northern Christmas has a charm which can only be allied with the happy reunion around the family or social fireside while winter holds sway. Strangely enough there would be little consistency in solemnising

the birth of the "Prince of Peace" , in southern lands in thejrhidwinter of ; their hemisphere, as geographical i conditions are such in the continents I and great islands that midwinter ! snows and depressing meteorological .conditions are not universal associates of the winter solstice, but'rather the reverse. The antipodean Christmas, nevertheless, has very many charms, which we may correctly say are superimposed on many of those which endear Christmas so greatly to the people of the Old World. It is the same hallowed period of retrospect, of family reunion, and of effervescing goodwill between man and man. But viewed from a purely material light, it comss at a season of the year when the earth is giving of her fulness, when the sublimity of the weather conditions simply compels enjoyment to the normal being, and when that most essential element of all to modern material happiness—money —is usually freer of circulation than when the spell of winter lessens the interchanging of commodities. And so, 1 for symbolic purposes, our Christmas season in the Southern Seas is quite as consistent as in the lands of deep midwinter snows and cheery log-fires. The brightness of the human temperament at the fperiod when the beauty of nature's vernal garb is just beginning to be viewed in the humid sweetness of early summer days, may account for perhaps a slight sacrifice i in the sentiment of devotion, and for an increased yearning for material enjoyment, but still that sentiment is there. The material does not obscure the spiritual, and the festival of the birth of the Messiah is a season of love and rejoicing. Christmas in the colonies is the recognised season for holiday-making, and so the gratification of the material desire for a trip of greater or less distance an! duration may mean that the family circle on Christmas Day i 3 smaller bj a member or'two than the sentiment of custom might expect. But this very fact alone strengthens the hold which the Christmas season has upon the affecrions of most colonial people. While they pay due homage at the altar of divinity they unconsciously, as it were, blend a happy season of spiritual revivification with creature enjoyments, and a perfectly homogeneous commingling it is. Wonderful, too, is the power and advancing sway of Christianity ! In this year of grace, 1908, it marches with the same irresistible tread as when the efficacy of the Christian belief was the theme of the martyr and the Crusader. It is ramifying more peacefully now, but just as surely, and with the multiplication of Christians and Christian doctrines comes the benign breath of toleration and national and individual peace. The most gratifying feature of; the present Christmas festival to the people of the Dominion will probably be that with it comes the prospect of brighter days. The past year had been, one of industrial and commercial vicissitudes in many lands, New Zealand suffering in a measure in this respect. It, therefore, seems very 'fitting that a subject for Christmas cheer is the commercial outlook alone. In our immediate community the Christmas season promises to be a very enjoyable period, and we hope sincerely that the promise will be fulfilled to the utmost. We extend to all our readers hearty wishes for a joyful Christmas tide.