NO OTHER institution, secular or religious has taken such firm hold on the popular mind of all ages as that—now known as Christmas—which centers around December 25th, with its attendant gaiety and spirit of giving. For many centuries Christmas has been associated almost exclusively with the doctrines and dogmas of Christianity. The early fathers of the Christian Church exhibited a remarkable ability for adapting the festivals and services, as well as the basilicas, of the many religions which it superseded and which held a festival similar in many respects to our Christmas. Christmas Day has come to be regarded as the exclusive institution of the Messianic idea to such an extent that very few people have any thought of the origin of the festival, which has been lost, so to speak, in the dim recesses of the ages.

Its original inception was through religious channels, with a beginning that dates back to the remotest antiquity, to the very dawn of human civilization. Divested of its modern significance, the 25th of December will be found to occupy a very important position in the history of all the great world religions.

Man’s first attempt to give his aspirations concrete form when he was groping blindly toward a knowledge of something which he felt intuitively was infinitely greater than himself, a personality of which he was but the creature, found its original manifestation in the development of a form of astronomical worship which for many thousands of years in Egypt, India, Persia, and China, dominated the religious and philosophic thought of the ancient world. These aspirations which gave rise to a worship of the heavenly bodies—aspirations common alike to the lowest savage who carves his deity out of the trunk of a sapling and of the modern cultured man, who, as a concomitant of his own existence, accepts the postulate of a Creative Intelligence—were not only the outgrowth of his ignorance, but were the first steps which led to the last and most wonderful of revelations embodied in the person of the gentle Nazarene.

To the ancient priesthoods scanning the heavens nightly on pylon and terrace tower from the Nile to the Euphrates, the stars told a wonderful dramatic story. To those silent watchers of the night we are indebted for our astronomical year and the calendar much as we have it today. Indeed, practically all of the basic facts on which our modern system of astronomy is constructed are due to the work of many centuries of patient investigations by those priests.

They constructed the zodiacal circle of the heavens, dividing it into 360 degrees and four right angles of ninety degrees each, and into twelve signs of thirty degrees each, known as the constellations. These last were named according to the climatic changes taking place upon the earth at the time the sun was passing through them. Thus, from the storms and rains of January (it must be remembered that the weather conditions in southern Asia are tropical) the group of stars through which the sun passes during this particular month of the year is called Aquarius, the Washer, or Baptizo.

In February, the constellation receives the appellation of Pisces or the Fishes as a result of the accumulating waters which leave in their path famine and distress. In March, Aries, the Lamb, signifies the young products of springtime. In April, typifying the energy of the agricultural season the constellation receives the name of the Bull. The apparent reconciliation of winter and summer in May, when the blossoms and flowers appear, gives to the constellation through which the sun then passes the name of Gemini, or the Twins. In June, the seeming retrograde motion of the sun dubs its sign Cancer, the Crab, and so on, all the signs receive their appropriate names—Leo, the burning heat of July, the Virgin of August, the Scales of September, the Scorpio, or Great Dragon of October, the Archer of November, and the Goat of December.

From this celestial scheme the ancients mapped out a great drama, with the stars and their various time divisions as the principal actors which kept the stage throughout the solar year. In this group the sun (the sungod) was of course the principal figure because of its life and light-giving properties. When he enters the sign of Aries, or the Lamb in March, he crosses the Vernal Equinox and becomes the Redeemer of the World—that is, dispelling darkness of winter and restoring the earth to fruitfulness, healing the sick and feeding the multitudes.

His divine mission is now begun. His career reaches its fullest glory between July and August, known to the ancients as the marriage feast of Leo and the Virgin. From now on, his mission seems to be evenly maintained during the reign of the Scales of September until he reaches October when he encounters the Great Dragon, Scorpio. Sorrow and lamentation prevail. The Solar Saviour must now be Crucified on the cross of the Autumnal Equinox—this is literal, taken from ancient rituals—and he descends into the South—the Hell, Pit, Sheol, Acheron, and Hades of many nations.

He is now between the two evil months, November and December, which like the Two Thieves, suffer with him on the Cross of the Autumnal Equinox. Just as Midwinter—the winter solstice—when the radiance of the sun is so feeble as to appear almost stationary, the ancients announced the reappearance of the Virgin of summer with her companion constellation Boötes or Joseph, and from the fancied resemblance of a cluster of stars which to their eyes resembled a manger, during the ascendancy of Capricorn, the Goat, they announce the reappearance of the Sun-God as a newborn babe, December 25, once more given to mankind to give the blessing of bounty.

This in brief is the drama mapped out thousands of years ago and which has formed the groundwork of all the systems of theology which have since been erected. This traditional birth of a saviour on the 25th of each December looked forward to throughout the entire solar year and accompanied with a celebration of the celestial gift by feasting and exchange of gifts between the members of the human family, has come down to us through the creedal forms of all ages. Hence the births of the personal Messiahs and Saviours of all great religious systems have been claimed by their followers to have occurred on December 25th.

The name Christmas, Krystmas, Christ-masse, etc., has several origins. The term Mass, from the Latin, signifies a harvest, gathering the honey, bringing in the fruits of the reapers, and in one sense, notably that in which it is theologically used today, a sacrifice of the “greatest gifts.” The Mass is an extremely ancient ceremony, greatly antedating Christianity, and always used in one or more of the meanings given above. Among the Greeks and Romans, it was used in the ceremonies of their Temples, and in connection with the Astronomical worship. Thus the Venus Mass, Saturn and Jupiter Mass, and among the Algonquin Indians, the oldest tribes perpetuated the observance of the Moon-Mass.

Christ (from Chrestos, the “good one”) is the name of the Great Sun Spirit, the Highest Initiate of the Sun-Period of human evolution and has been attached from the earliest times to Jesus, the name of the last human personification of the Sun-god (Son of God) drama, and thus the curious interweaving of the ancient astronomical ceremonial with the later philosophic idealism of Christianity has been continued down to the present time.

It is interesting in connection with this subject to trace the origin of the legend of St. Christopher and the personification of the Santa Claus of childhood which unfortunately seems to be dying out. Probably no event is so important to the youngsters as the annual arrival of Santa Claus and his reindeer team, laden with gifts for all good children, a tradition which has its origin in some of the old legends of Northern Europe.

St. Christopher was the Saint and Patron of Ferryman, a man of fine physique, markedly handsome, and a profound scholar. He suffered Martyrdom and torture under Decius, having been originally a so-called pagan, baptised by Babylas, Bishop of Antioch. Through his later life, he sought One greater than himself, to serve. Christopher attached himself to the services of an unbridged stream, carrying over those who were unable to cross alone. A Child presented himself. Christopher took him upon his back. As he progressed, the burden became very heavy. Christopher at last exclaimed that the whole world could not have been heavier. On reaching the other side, the Child said unto him, “Marvel not, for thou hast indeed borne the whole world and Him who created it.”

In America no special custom outside of the Christmas Tree and the customary exchange of gifts can be said to prevail, but, in England, the Yule log or Christmas Block is still the signal for the annual gathering of all the members of a family group. In the cosmopolitan cities of America the observances of the Christmas season is marked by most gratifying conditions—the gradual breaking down of sectarian prejudice. It is not so long ago that the permitting of anything of a social or festive nature in connection with the gloomy ideas of puritanism with its plain, barewalled churches, devoid of the esthetic embellishment of art, would not have been tolerated and would have subjected the offenders to the censure of the rigid elders and the custodians of the public morals. Now Christmas trees with their blaze of lights and colored globes bring happiness into the hearts of thousands of little ones annually, and happiness reigns supreme for at least one day in the year, in millions of homes throughout the land.

Sect cooperates with sect in the effort to bring the sunshine, for which the Christ-child stands, into the homes where darkness now prevails, and it is especially noteworthy that this same spirit of the day is being gradually adopted among the Jews with whom it is not founded on any special religious dogma.

In this brief glance backward through the long centuries, during which this custom has obtained, we may feel sure that, whatever may have been the origin of the day and the manner of its perpetuation through Christian ideals or even its possible future development, it will always remain an enduring institution, because founded upon principles which make for a broader humanity, spreading the gospel of cheerfulness, charity, and love—the attributes of the Great Sun Spirit after whom the Day is named.

GOD gave His only begotten Son to this world on Christmas morning.

Jesus gave His ministry in the flesh, His victory on the cross, and His triumph over the grave as His present to the world.

In humble appreciation I offer myself; it is all that I have to give.

I promise to work patiently with my Soul, my mind and my body until they are cleansed of every last vestige of faith in that which is not God-like: that which, being not of God, is not real.

I promise to nurture my Soul, my mind and my body and to work with them, and to pray for them incessantly, as a mother tends a growing child, until the fever of doubt and unbelief is forever stilled, and I AM is established in me in the positive knowledge of the nothingness of the negation and the ALLNESS OF GOD. —Earl Sumner.