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Christmas: A
Definition
by Clement A. Miles,
from Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, published 1912 in England by T. Fisher
Unwin.
Christmas is a microcosm of world
religion. It reflects almost every phase of thought and feeling from crude magic
and superstition to the speculative mysticism of Eckhart, from the mere delight
in physical indulgence to the exquisite spirituality of St. Frances. Ascetic and
bon-vivant, mystic and materialist, learned and simple, noble and peasant, all
have found something in it on which to lay hold. it is a river into which have
flowed tributaries from every side, from Oriental religion, from Greek and Roman
civilization, from Celtic, Teutonic, Slav and probably pre-Aryan society, all
mingling their waters so that it is often hard to discover the far-away springs.
At no time has so much been made of children as today, and because Christmas is
their feast its luster continues unabated in an age upon which dogmatic
Christianity has largely lost its hold, which laughs at the pagan superstitions
of its forefathers. Christmas is the feast of the beginnings, of instinctive
happy childhood; the Christian idea of the Immortal Babe renewing weary, stained
humanity. It blends with the thought of the New Year, with its hope and promise,
laid in the cradle of Time.
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