THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 303, 23 December 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS

Ln most homes mother makes out the Christmas list. She fights her way through shrieking crowds to buy the presents; she wraps and addresses and mails some of the packages and spanks the children if they go near the hiding place of the others; she decides on the menu and arranges the Christmas dinner; she fills the stockings on Christinas Eve, while father sits on the floor playing with a puzzle picture or a Jack-in-the-box —and father gets credit for being Santa Claus. Glistening. “You look pretty slick in that new .'■ergo suit, Harold.” i “This isn’t a new serge suit, Donj aid. It’s just my old one reshined.” Behind the Times. | An Englishman who had an Amcri- { can business man staying with him ! over Christmas tried all the London j theatres for two tickets for Boxing j Day. All he could get were two stalls I for ‘ ‘ Hamlet. ” “You sure are behind the times.” I commented the American when ho j heard the news. “Why, I. saw ‘ Hain»let’ in New York four years ago.”

cients conjoined the mistletoe, with a number of fabulous narratives and superstitious beliefs. It was tho, golden bough which the mythological heroes of Greece and Rome carried as a charm to shield them from evil when engaged in any perilous undertaking, rtd not Virgil’s Aeneas traverse even Hades itself in safety—all because of the protective virtues of the mistletoe bough ? In tho pagan days of Celtic Britain the sacred mistletoe was the very axis of those Druidical Ceremonies which were performed with the dual object of propitiating tho divinities and frightening the many malevolent spirits. The Arch-Druid cut the mistletoe with a golden knife, and the assembled Druid priests caught the sprigs as thov fell, so that the magic properties of tho plant should not be diminished by touching the ground. Then in the Norse mythology there is the storv of tho beloved Baldur. god of light, whose mother Frigga. obtains the promise of gods and men and all things not to hurt the bright hero. AH but tho mistletoe, which, not growing out of the -earth, is overlooked, with fatal results to Baldur at the winter solstice. For Loki god of darkness, causes tho blind Hodor to throw a sharpened stick of mistletoe at tho, favourite. So on tho floor lay Baldur, dead; and round Lay thickly strewn swords, axes, darts, and spears. Which all the gods in sport had idly thrown At Baldur, whom no weapon pierced or clove; But in his breast stood fixed tho fatal bough Of mistletoe, which Loki, tho accursed, gave To Hodor, and unwitting Hodor throw; Gainst that alone had Baldur *8 life, no charm. Now, reflecting upon these ancient superstitions, and remembering that Christmas is the birthday celebration of the Founder of Christianity, the question arises, why is it that such tokens of paganism have been allowed to Cling to our great festival? Why did the early Christian fathers refrain from abolishing those dreams of darkness? The reason seems tn be that the pioneers of our faith wished tn establish the new religion through channels already known. It was like preaching the Gospel in the only language the people could understand: their own. ’l'he hallowing of the heathen Yule by the superimposition of the spiritual festival of Christ’s birthday on tho older and material feast has neither Christianised paganism nor paganised

Christianity. Christmas was originally [Christ’s Mass—a purely religious celebration; but now, through the wisdom of those early Christian fathers, we have that most felicitous combination of holv day and holiday, known as |‘*A Merry Christmas.”