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 Christanity 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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