HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1970-12-24, Page 10GODERIcH .1 NM ,-STAt , TTRAUSD A , DECEMBEI 24% t9.7Q
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As we celebrate His Birth,
we pause to study the,. true meaning
of Christmas. Best of the
season to you and your family.
TED-WILLIAMS & FAMILY
Manufacturur.'s1,Life Insurance Agent
Best wishes for a holiday season
filled with happiness and good .cheer. And
sincere thanks for your patronage.
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The Word.
"Yule"
Has PaganT
Origins
•
The ancient northern
Europeans, acutely con-
scious of the peregrina-
tions of the Sun, formed
definite theories about it.
They thought the sun
was a wheel revolving
around the earth, and they
observed that on -one par-
ticular day in midwinter
its appearance and dis-
appearance marked the
shortest day of the year.
This cyc)e was known to
them as the Hweol, and it
was a time of celebrating.
As the pagan Yule cele-
brations were replaced by
the feast of Christmas, the
festival season, extended
from Christmas Eve to
the Feast of the Epiphany.
This meant that the. Yule
log had plenty of time, big
as it used to be, to flame
and flicker before the last
of it had smoldered to
ashes.
In the agricultural econ-
omy of the pre -Civil War
South, here in our own
country, the Yule log was
the means of procuring a
Lrue holiday for the field
hands.
There was on many
. plantations an accepted
unwritten rule 'that the
slaves would not have- to
work outdoors so long as
the Yule log was --alight.
The workers would take
advantage of this custom,
and select the biggest:and
toughest gum tree trunk
they could find. They
would sink it under water
for weeks beforehand, to
make it as slow -burning as
possible. Sometimes one of
these nearly fireproof logs
would simmer away for
several weeks.
Mistletoe, said to hold a
license for kissing, was re-
nowned in ancient times for
many mystical powers. Be-
cause, of its pagan associa-
tions, it was long forbidden
• in churches.
A German legend held that,
if a sprig of mistletoe was
carried into an old house, the
ghosts of the house would
appear and answer questions,
Santa's
who gave Santa his red
Suit, broad girth, white beard,
ruddy cheeks and nose, fur-.
trimmed hat and coat?
Surprisingly enough, the
donor was a political car-
toonist.
The artstts name . was
Thomas Nast, cartoonist for
Harper's Illustrated Weekly,
who also created the now -
famous symbols of the Re-
publican elephant and the
Democratic donkey.
• The figure of Santa that
Nast drew in 1863, and Per-
haps earlier, has proved to be
the definitive one, and even
today the figure as drawn by
Nast appears occasionally on
Christmas greetings.
"Nast's image of Santa was
extraordinary," says Mrs.
Jeannette Lee, director of
" design at Hallmark.
"He gave Santa many of
'the qualities that have en-
deared him to children ever
since, and we wouldn't dream
of tampering very much with
them today."
Nast,. first credited Santa
with keeping books on good
and bad children, having a
Christmas toy workshop and
reading letters sent to him
by children.
Perhaps it was the now -
famous poem, "A Visit from
St. Nicholas," by Dr. Clement
Clarke Moore, that inspired
Nast's illustration of Santa.
In this children's• classic of
1823, the right jolly old elf,
who looked like a peddler
with a pack on his back, was
te Beard;
first describedn print.
Nast followed►r. Moore's.'
description of Santa in sev-
eral particulars, but many of
his concepts were original.
At the time of Nast's Santa
Claus drawings the nation
was at Civil War, and fam-
ilies were separated. In a
note to cheer both soldiers
and their waiting families
Nast drew "Santa Claus in
Camp," for Harper's Weekly.
This earliest Santa was
different from any artist's
creations up till then. He was
shown wearing stars and
stripes of the Union and dis-
tributing gifts to soldiers.
Actually, this Santa might
have been meant as a repre-
sentation of Uncle Sam also.
A later, equally moving
Nast illustration featured a
soldier's Christmas home-
coming.
Born in 180 in the tiny
hamlet of Landau, Bavaria,
Nast probably pictured Santa
as the long -imagined Saint
Nicholas of his childhood.
Albert Bigelow Paine, a
friend and admirer of Nast,
said the artist often revealed
to him his love of the' Santa
illustrations. He later wrote
in his biography of the car-
toonist:
"His own childhood in far-
off Bavaria has been meas-
ured by the yearly visits of
.. St. Nicholas ... and the
girlhood of the woman who
was to become his wife
(Sarah Edwards of New York)
was intimately • associated
•
Red Suit Come from Cartoonist
with' brilliant and joyous
celebrations. n:
"Nast's children later re-
called there was always a
multitude of paper dolls ---
marvelously big and elabo–
rate, a race long since be-
come extinct.
"And these the artistic
father — more than half a
child himself at the Christ-
mas season arranged in
processions and cavalcades,
gay pageants that marched
in and about those larger
presents that could not be
crowded . ' into the row of
stockings that . hung by the
family fireplace.
"It was a time of splendor
and rejoicing — the festive
blossoming of the winter sea-
son -- and it was a beautiful
and sturdy family that made
Merry Christmas riot in the
spacious New York home."
In Nast's day, the idea of
some sort of Santa was not
new to this country. He was
introduced to North America
by the early Dutch settlers
and `his name was St. Nicho-
las. The annual visit of this
kind man, who was thought
to have been a fourth -cen-
tury bishop, was his feast
day, December 6th.
By 1809, Washington Irving
was describing Santa as a
small _Dutch citizen who
looked much like Father
Knickerbocker. Irving won-
dered how the poor old man
could get to all the homes
in a growing America on his
• horse,, so he invented the fa-
mous reindeer -drawn sleigh.
"HELLO, LITTLE ONE" WAS TITLE FOR this faired drawing
of Santa, by Thomas Nast from Harper's Weekly. Nast, a noted
19th century political cartoonist, was the first to illustrate Santa
as a bearded, red -nosed jolly old man whose rotund, figure was
clothed in a fur-irimmed red suit, according to researchers for
Hallmark.
AMERICA'S SETTLERS CELEBRATED IN OWN WAY C$31;433WAAWSIgilegiASSASMSASVAIMaitaNgiAgiggilit4YegliPSA
During the early 17th
century any formal ob-
servance .of Christmas
was 'rule` out by the rigid
code of Puritanism. Yule
festivity was forbidden as
emanating from the Devil.
And the Devil was very
much a personage in those
days. This rule persisted
until 1681 when it was re-
Who invented that popular
holiday beverage, eggnog? It -
has been part of the festivi-
ties for. so..many years that
nobody really knows its ori-
gin.
One possibility is that egg-
nog came from the Old Eng-
lish hot drink, sack-posset,
which was also made of eggs,
milk, nutmeg and sugar.
*
Among the earliest Christ-
mas tree ornaments were
some that resembled the sun,
stars and moon, or animals.
Using signs of nature , as
decorations . can be traced
back to the feasts of the win-
ter equinox, when sun -wor-
shipping pagans r hung simi-
"_- lar trinkets on trees.
* * *
"The cattle were lowing,"
says the carol, "Away in a
Manger," and N'ativity aint-
ings often show the animals
of the manger.
Appropriately, tradition
says that cattle and other
domestic animals should
have a special feast on
Christmas , Eve. It's legend-
ary, too, that cattle are given
the power of speech for a few
moments at this time:` '
., , , • ,1
It'
LARRY RIECK
BROADFOOT
iA CLEMENTS
We're wishing
you all the
blessings of
an old-fashioned
Christmas. May
your Yuletide
be merry and
full of
good, cheer.
Thank you.
•
pealed. Probably he influ-
ence of the Dutc and Ger-
man settlers _ had pre-
vailed, and their ctfstoms
of Christmas feasting' and
gaiety softened the hearts --
of the strict Puritans.
The plenty f the new
land provide abundant
foodstuffs for the holiday
table. And the woods'
greens,, boughs and assort-
ed cones were used for
decorative trim.
In 1804 the explorers •
Meriwether Lewis and
William Clark rested from
their journey westward to
(vow�)
nn -vii MOTORS-
YOUR VOLVO DEALER
1. ,,EAST STA • 624.7212
GODS RK H
"We enjoyed a merry.
christmas during the day
& evening until nine.
celebrate Christmas Day
somewhere in the vicinity
of what is now Bismarck,.
North Dakota. Captain
Clark wrote in his journal;
In northeastern Wyom-
ing it was rumored that
one of. a pioneer's Christ-
mas trees had a calming
influence on a wounded
Sioux Indian who burst in-
to a widow's cabin seeking
'help and food. She was
decorating a.small tree for
her two children. Its beau-
ty aroused the Indian's
curiosity and through sign
language, the woman was
able to explain in part
some of the tree's signifi-
cance. She fed and cared
for the Indian and was
able to take . him back to
his tribe. It is part of the.
legend that he; having
learned . the spirit of .
Christmas, rewarded her
with many gifts.
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1
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LADIES' .WEAR LTD.
ON .THE `SQUAME GODERICH
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