Each year on this particular Sunday we devote our program largely to Christmas.\u00a0Of course Christmas, as we know it, began as a Christian memorial of the\u00a0birth of Christ, and we depart far from its true spirit if we fail to recognize\u00a0each December 25th what the person and the teachings of Jesus mean to us today.\u00a0Yet the actual festival which became Christmas began at least two thousand years\u00a0before Jesus was born. It was, in certain pre-Christian lands, the annual festival\u00a0which renewed the world for another year.<\/p>\n
As I am sure most of you know, one of the oldest civilizations in the\u00a0world was thriving 4,000 years ago between the rivers, for “between the rivers”\u00a0is what the word Mesopotamia means. The rivers were the Ti gris and the Euphrates.\u00a0On the banks of one rose the ancient city of Nineveh; on the other grew\u00a0up historic Babylon. In the northern part of that pear-shaped land between the\u00a0rivers was Chaldea, from whose very ancient town of Ur Abraham set forth into\u00a0the land to the westw’ard, the land that came to be called Palestine.<\/p>\n
To the Mesopotamians the New Year was a tine of crisis. After the crops\u00a0had been harvested the empty bra-ln fie Ids told that Ii fe was dying. Then the\u00a0god Marduk who had, according to Mesopotamian legend, routed the monsters of\u00a0chaos, bui It an orderly world and created man — Marduk had again to do b:lttle\u00a0with the monsters so that death might not become complete. Thus he renewed the\u00a0world every year.\u00a0‘n th i s annual struggle man conca I ved it his duty to he Ip as best he cou I d\u00a0to purify himself of the evi Is which his sins of the past year had brought upon\u00a0him; to renew the strength which the year had drained away; and, if possible,\u00a0to find a substitute who could take the consequences of the sins which he had\u00a0committed. This last was, of course, the idea of the scapegoat. If you are at\u00a0all familiar with the Old Testament you know tow often the scapegoat — the ene\u00a0who bares blame for others I deeds — is referred to.<\/p>\n
Now it is interesting that this old New Year festival in Babylon lasted exactly\u00a012 days, just as the Christmas season has always lasted in England. Because,\u00a0\/Ike the old year, the king was supposed to die in order that he might\u00a0accompany Marduk into the underworld of the monsters and battle by his side. Apparently\u00a0even those tough-minded Babylonians and Assyrians, to whom all human\u00a0life seems to have been notoriously cheap, couldn’t quite stomach the idea of\u00a0ki II i ng off a king every year; so they estab I I shed the custom of a mock king.\u00a0An ordinary fellow, sometimes actually a criminal, was dressed up in royal robe s.\u00a0He was feasted and honored, granted every known luxury; then he was stripped\u00a0of his royal garb and immediately executed.<\/p>\n
As the festival went on, the ceremonies were meant to show that Marduk was\u00a0gradua I I Y P reva iii ng ove r the forces of death, and the I ast days of the twe I ve\u00a0were given over to wi Id rejoicing, as at the modern Mardi Gras in New Orleans.\u00a0The Babylonian festival observed an interesting custom. Masters and slaves\u00a0exchanged places; the slaves commanded, the masters obeyed.\u00a0Marduk and his fellow gods have long ago disappeared, but to this day —\u00a0in the Balkans, in Central Europe and in England — there is sti II an end-ofthe-\u00a0year festival of twelve days, with troops of masqueraders and carol-singers,\u00a0not so different from those which the ancient tablets depict as celebrating in\u00a0the streets of Baby Ion 4,000 years ago. Ch i I dren in the Ba I kans st i I I recl te\u00a0magic verses as did the chi Idren of Nineveh. Just as in old Babylon, a wooden\u00a0image of Marduk’s opponent was burned in a bonfire, so in Rumania and Bulgaria\u00a0a young man of the fami Iy chops down a speci a I tree and brings home the log to\u00a0bum in the fireplace with a definite, special ritual.<\/p>\n
Out of the land between the rivers the festival of the year’s renewal\u00a0spread westward — first to Greece, then to Rome. In ancient Italy the festival\u00a0was called the Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, god of the seed-time. It belQan\u00a0about the middle of December and continued untl I the first of January. In Its\u00a0midst came December 25, the day, according to Roman calculation, when the sun\u00a0was seen for the shortest time, and after which he would appear longer and longer,\u00a0and impart strength to the grat Ing th Ings of earth.<\/p>\n
When we cons I der that I t was the period of the Satumal ia, with Its emphasis\u00a0on December 25, that became our Christmas, it is somewhat Ironical that\u00a0the early Christians in Rome didn’t think much of the Satumalla. It probably\u00a0was a boisterous, h ilari ous kind of Mardi Gras. Yet modem schol ars be I ieve it\u00a0wasn’t so wi Id as early Christian: writers represented it. Most of the people\u00a0were simply merry, not debauched. They masqueraded in the streets, ate big\u00a0dinners, visited friends, and exchanged gifts. They decorated their houses\u00a0with boughs of laurel and other trees, with lighted candles and lamps. As master\u00a0of the festival and lord of the reve I they chose a slave, remindful of the\u00a0time 2,000 years before In Mesopotamia when masters and slaves exchanged places.<\/p>\n
Now to the early Christians the most important thing that had ever happened\u00a0was the coming of Christ. It was the beginning of a new era. Although no one\u00a0knows for certa In the exact day on wh Ich Jesus was born, the ear Iy Christian fathers\u00a0settled on December 25. The bi rthday of Christ thus became in danger of\u00a0being swal lowed up In the pagan merry-making of the fbman Satumal la. So the\u00a0Christian fathers set out to make Christmas a strictly religious celebration.\u00a0Eventually the fbmans became Christians, but as we all know too well today, the\u00a0Satuma I la remained. The merry-making, the gl ft-giving, and finally the conmerclal\u00a0Izlng of the great Christian festival have done much to obscure Its true\u00a0significance. But thanks to the Christian Church — Protestant and Catholic – ..peep Ie are every year reminded that December 25 Is more than a holiday, a holy\u00a0day, the birthday of the Savior of Men.<\/p>\n
The Roman Empire fell in ruins, but Christmas and Its festival did not die.\u00a0All through the Middle Ages it was remembered and observed. In all the medieval.\u00a0walled towns of Europe holly, Ivy and evergreens were str:ung up, candles\u00a0were I it, and mummers c lowned through the streets. The peop Ie chose ~Dot”\u00b7~~,\u00a0a mock king, as had the Babylonians 3,000 years before, but a lord of Misrule,\u00a0an Abbot of Unreason, who presided over the Feast of the Fools. The old fbman\u00a0Satumal ia was far fromltarned; the early Christian fathers would never have recognized this festival of the Middle Ages as the Christmas they intended.\u00a0All the Norse lands, where the Vi kings he Id sway a thousand years ago, seem\u00a0to ha ve known the bo is fa rous rout of the twe I ve nights. Those 01 d Norsemen knew\u00a0a vast di fference between summer and winter, far greater di fference than Mesopotamian\u00a0or Greek or Roman ever experienced.<\/p>\n
By October the harvest was In, the cattle housed. Ahead stretcR the long\u00a0months of cold. There is not enough fodder for all the animals. It is time to\u00a0thin out the herds and preserve the meat. It is just the time to invite friends\u00a0and ne I ghbors to a feast. But some of the meat must be ofte red to the gods\u00a0to Odin and Freia; otherwise +hev wi II not give us a goodly new year.\u00a0Odin was the god of the ferocious Norse warriors, and he was the leader of\u00a0the Wutende Heer, the tumUltuous army host, perhaps best translated as the raging\u00a0rout. I n tenth century Norway It re fe rred to the who Ie season from Halloween\u00a0to the end of winter.\u00a0It was in Northern Europe that Santa Claus was born. They called him, as\u00a0you knOll, st. Nicholas. Unl ike our Santa Claus, the European st. Nicholas today\u00a0wears a broad-brimmed hat and rides a faithful olB white horse. In fact, to\u00a0European children St. Nicholas dces not come on Olristmas eve, but on the eve of\u00a0December 6th, which is known in many lands as st. Nicholas’ Night.<\/p>\n
Interestingly enough there was a real st. Nicholas. He lived in the last\u00a0quarter of the third and the first Quarter of the fourth centuries. Sti II a \u00a0young man, he was made Archbishop of Myre, and died on December 6,326. He is\u00a0the saint of sailors, for whom In danger he Is the last and only help. Since I\u00a0I n the m I dd Ie ages fIB rchants we re the us ua I passenge rs on sh Ips, St. N I cho I as\u00a0became the patron saint of merchant travelers. Even pirates claimed his protection.\u00a0Somehow he became also the protector of chi Idren. He developed the habit\u00a0of slipping gifts to them in the dark of the night, and in lands where there\u00a0were big chimneys and open fi replaces, the story grew that he came down the\u00a0chimneys with his bag of gifts.<\/p>\n
What was the origin of the Christmas tree? No one knows the rLgtJt answer,\u00a0but we do know enough about it to get rid of some of the wrong answers. One legendary\u00a0account of the Christmas tree has it that Martin Luther was out walking\u00a0one night, and seeing the stars as suggestion of lights, he placed candles on a\u00a0fl r tree to brighten up Christmas for his own chi Idren. Others have it that the\u00a0Yule log is the ancestor of the Christmas tree. An old medieval legend contends\u00a0it is the symbo I of the Tree of Ll fe that stood in the Garden of Eden. In\u00a0fact; as late as the 18th century, in parts of Germany one could buy little figurines of Adam and Eve and the serpent to p lace under the Christmas tree.<\/p>\n
We now know that none of these theories about the origin of the Christmas\u00a0tree can be true. We know, for instance, just how the tree got mixed up with\u00a0Adam and Eve. December 24, on the medieval church calendar, was Adam and Eve’s\u00a0Day. As was customary with the miracle and mystery plays in the Middle Ages, the\u00a0legends of the Garden of Eden were p lay-acted in the castle court yard or the\u00a0market square. The actors trooped through the town, with Adam carrying the\u00a0Tree of Life, on which apples were hung. The Christmas tree itself is much\u00a0older than the Adam and Eve mystery plays, but It is easy to see how the Tree\u00a0of LI fe of the December 24th festi va I became mixed up with the Christmas tree\u00a0of December 25th.<\/p>\n
One th Ing we do know: the Christmas tree Is one certain contribution of\u00a0the common people to the features of Christmas. Not the church, not the nobility, not the legends of the meisterslngers or the gleemen, but the practice of\u00a0the peasants created the use of Christmas trees. The fl rst printed reference\u00a0to what must have been long a custom is found in a forest ordinance in Alsace,\u00a0dated 1561, which says: “No peasant shall have for Christmas more than one bush\u00a0of more than eight shoes’ length.” But an 0 I d book of 1605 has th I s sentence:\u00a0“At Christmas time In Strasburg fir trees are set up In the rooms, and on them\u00a0are hung roses cut from many-colored paper, app les, wafers, gl It and sugar.”<\/p>\n
In many European countries the tree is not stood in a noom; It is hung, and\u00a0hangi ng the tree seems to be a very 01 d custom Indeed. A tree-ti p was hung sometimes\u00a0from the rafters, sometimes In the window, sometimes over the doorway, upside\u00a0down. Wherever it hung, the tree was always decorated in gay colors.\u00a0How did the Christmas tree come to America? It is pretty well authenticated\u00a0that no Christmas tree was set up in America until it was erected in the caRl>\u00a0of an enemy. For it was the Hessian soldiers, mercenaries of the British crown\u00a0in the American Revolution, who set up the first Christmas tree in Philadelphia\u00a0on the December 25th when Washington’s ragged army was close to starvation at\u00a0Val ley Forge. The Hessians had known the use of the Christmas tree in their\u00a0German homeland.\u00a0There is a lovely Viking legend which tells us that, sometime In the ninth\u00a0century, the Lord sent to earth his messengers, Faith, Hope and Charity, to select the first Christmas tree. They chose the bal sam fl r because it bore so\u00a0many crosses on every tree and branch, and it was high as hope and wide as\u00a0love.<\/p>\n
But the most beautiful story of all comes out of medieval Germany. On a\u00a0Christmas eve long, long ago, says the story, a fierce blizzard raged about a\u00a0woodsman’s cottage deep in a lonely forest clearing. A timid knock was heard\u00a0at the door. When the woodsman opened It, on the th resho I d stood a sma I I child,\u00a0hungry, cold, exhausted. The fami Iy took him In, warmed him, fed him, and put\u00a0him to bed. I n the morn I ng the ch i I d sa I d: “The re is noth I ng I can give you\u00a0beyond what you already have except one thing.” Then from a fir tree he broke\u00a0off a branch and handed It to the woodsman. “See this evergreen tree, how it is\u00a0green and al.ive at Christmas time, when all the world seems empty and dead. Let\u00a0it be to you a sign of faith that does not die.” And that, says the old story,\u00a0Is the way the, Christ chi Id chose the fl r as the fi rst Christmas tree.<\/p>\n
In the midst of our holiday festivities, let us not forget that a fervent,\u00a0almost desperate financial campaign Is sti II going on to save the American legion\u00a0Building. Operation Fescue Is now In charge of Harold Hersom. He and his\u00a0committee are working hard during these days when most of us are celebrating. It\u00a0is the bus I ness not on Iy of the veterans of two worl d wars, but of all the\u00a0citizens of our community, to decide promptly and vigorously whether they want\u00a0a community building as a memorial to our soldier dead, or whether the building\u00a0must be turned over to commercial purposes. Doane Eaton woke people up to the\u00a0need. He started Operation Rescue. Now Harold Hersom is trying to rescue the\u00a0operation. Who is going to rescue him?<\/p>\n
Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #128, broadcast on December 23, 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}