EECEMBEB A1940 Qld Yule Revels an. woan was Z avomu ms cl u» m, macs with m“ cocci-dink W “unbllmglgoblrllrdcn m isea, m“ w mm had 1 Druid Yule did that c! Christ- the Gregorian the Ru- bu obsorved 14, and Eastern’: “fin, qld-gnsnicotland omdlemuceiebration of the E Y s, New‘ Year's Dayhferl wugry l , an was somet nss nrhegl" as late as February or March. within com- paratively recent times that New Day achieved its present gigniflcimw in Scottish social life, 5nd most of the customs we now observe at New Year and Hog- manay were originally features u! the old Scots Yule. A CLEANING-UT gr the rural districts all fann- mg operations were strictly for- bidden during Yule except the feed- 111g and necessary attendance of livestock and the performance of essential domestic duties. On Yulc Eve, the entire house was swept out and then garnished with bunches of rowan: clean linen \vas put on every bed; a large supply of peat was brought in from the stack and heaped in the neuk by the fire; and the girls of the house- hold drew waier from the well and filled every tub and pail, for, in the words of the old rhyme:- "Young maidens maun mak’ merry, Auid wives they dauma spin; But woe the house that's waterless Whaur a maiden bldes therein." For some days before Yule, the gurlewife was busy in the kitchen ensuring that the larder would foe well-stocked for the holiday. En- ormous quantities oi sevens made from the husks of oats were pre- pared and piles of oaicakes baked, together with gingerbread baked and gilded in the shape of dragons, horses, and demons. l. PRANKS AND RAIDS ‘i Fun was lusty and rugged in the old days, and it is hardly surprising that the Yule holidav was often an excuse for considerable horse-play. Parties of young men would ion carnival attire and tour the n- la-ges and country lanes in search of mischief. The smearing or doors and windows was a favourite caper, while the more venturesome re- vellers would climb on roofs to ourh bushq down chimneys. Another favourite exploit of the r etime murauders was to raid ‘he cottage of a notorius scold, and, placing the furious woman in a creel, parade her round the district while they mocke‘ her vain efforts ioescape. Unpopular male mem- bers oi the community were either pui in a barrel and rolled down a hill, or mslde to "ride the slang " The latter indignity consisted in compelling the victim to straddle s pole, which was then hoisted shoulder-high and paraded through the village. Not infrequently, the humour of the Yule-tide players was broad to a degree, and in 1702 the paro- chial officials oi Falklrk were con- strained to have before them a number of farmers and labourers accused to overstepping the bounds of propriety. However, the offend— crs expr humble oontrition at having "acted things unseemly.‘ and were thereupon dismissed but. not without warning that "i! they should be found guilty of like in time coming they would be W0‘ ceeded against after another man- her." But in general the wildest Yule escapade was invariably accepted with tolerance by the majority of people; for Yule came round but once a year to provide vonng and old with s. welcome break in the monotonous existence of our rural ancestors. Eben Finds the Secret of Happiness th ii ed in Many years ago ere v England a country my who learns‘! that there was more joy in all"!!! his Chirstmas money than spend- ing it. His name was Eben Holden and this is the story as he told it: "I ‘member one year the day bt- fore Christmas, my father Kin me two shillln'- I lee s‘ many thins! 1 couldn't make up my mind t’ ouy nuthin‘. I stud there ieelin' uv n pair 0' skates. my wus sund- ali shiny with new straw 1nd buckles. I did want ’ern awful. but I didn't have enough money. Party soon Isee a lettel bit uv s. girl in a red jacket iookin' at a 10% o’ dolls. She was ragged, an’ there were holes in her shoes. an‘ she did look awful poor_an‘ sickly. she's so up an’ put her hand on one o‘ them dolls’ dresses and Whllililfi “Borne day’ she'd say, ‘some dll.’ Pilmsoonshsssniz cnevhldm doll with s blue dress on for three Pennies. " ‘No,’ says a woman. says she. ‘the lowest price in one shilling." "The little gal she looked es if 8111 WRI goin’ to cry. “Some day I'm goln’ b h" one.’ said she. "I couldn't stun’ if an’ so I all?‘ Md up an‘ bought one an’ put it in her arms. I never-‘ll fegit the look that come into her face then. Wall, fihe went away an‘ set down sll by helfllf. an’ it come cold, an’ that flisht they found her asleep in s deli alley. Bhe was holdin’ the ut- tle doll with s blue dress on. The "We zirl was mu dead’. with the cold an‘ time was one thing about 1t Ill that made her famous. She hm tool: off her little red 1mm the little doll." she die and went to heaven!’ fl you ask?" ‘N03 said he quickly. ‘she lived Igh went there. Ye don't have t‘ dis l l0 to heaven. Ys've crossed the who m“!!! moi-eh d if, ii ‘t ain't nobody natal-ml laymen: ' e-ltvlng Iecheilor. l1! CANDLES FROM BIRDING ‘(To This Spot the Slur of Bethlehem L Stair in the Cl~ rcli of the Nativity, Bethlehem, ed the Magi. Arrow Indicates the Leading io_Whal is Believed io llave Been the Site of the Holy Manger. Why Sciencifs New Theory vof the Guiding Light of the "Magi Must Remain aTheory By John Cahill “Now when Jesus was born. in Beth- Mhcm of Jurica, in tho days of Herod U16 King, behold there canto wise mam krona the East to Jerusalem. _ “Saying, Whore is Ha that is born flffng of the Jews? for we have seen His pfm- in the East, and arc chm/e to wor- ship him." —i\lATTI'lEW 2:1-2. IS Star in the East! The mag- IH nificent, inscrutableflnexplicnble flash of glory and limitless beauty in a sable sky that so many cen- turies ago led the Magi to the Cradle of iChrist in Bethlehem and still stands to- lduy as a challenge to the world of laciunce. To countless millions throughout the acres the Holy Star has remained what F1 was that joyous night in Juries-a n aculous message from on high. On e1. h succeeding Christmas the star has ‘appeared again to them, in their im- mginution or in their inner consciences. llfhey are satisfied that, it shone as a ‘beacon light to salvation when the world cried aloud for a saviour. And each succeeding Christmas the scientists try again to make up their Eminds whether it was indeed a miracle, ior something us comparatively prosaic 1m; nn exploding star, a conjunction of vplirnets or a comet. For while science admits that miracles have occurred and will occur again, the mind steeped in logarithms and “Q. E. Dis” must perforce seek uilcr the whys and whcrefores. When after publication or‘ his “Origin of Species" Charles Dar- win was asked if be did not feel a tri- umph over demolishing age-old super- stitions and beliefs, he replied: “If I but knew the mystery that lies within a blade of grass, then would I be truly satisfied." The great evolutionist passed away without learning what makes the grass grow grecn and none of his successors have learned any more than he. But this week the astronome s at the Hayden lanetarium of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City are rolling back the centuries to dem- onstrate again the theory that Mars, Jupiter and Saturn came together in conjunction that first Christmas Eve in a phenomenon that heralded the birth of Christ. Each day during the Christmas sea- son the scientists seek to recreate the heavens as they shone on the night of the Nativity. There is some documen- tary evidence to show that these bril- liant plnneta were in conjunction on that “Silent Night, Holy Night." But noth- ing, of course, to prove that. occurrence of the phenomenon on that particular evening was anything but a miracle. What is known from the Scriptures and the legends dear to Christianity is that the Magi, the Wise Men of the East, torn with anguish by the brutal tyran- nies exacted by Herod upon their peo- ple, waited with unxioua eyes the ap- pearance cf some message from Heaven to tell them that Christ had been born. Suddenly this great star or conjunc- tion ct planets appeared in the eastern sky, lighting up the bowl of black above their heads with an effulgent radius and calling from far Chaldea, Persia and Arabia the Wise Men who knew that the signal so long awaited had come at last. ' Toward this mystic light and toward Bethlehem they turned their steps, car- rying, frankincense and myrrh and gifts oi’ untold value for the son of God. The passage of 20 centuries has not sufliced to dispel the mystery and wonder oi this magnificent star, but in all jus- “. . . for we have seen His slur in the east, and are come lo worship Him.” ‘ ‘ tics to science it must be admitted that the “wise men" o! a later day lost little time in ntiempti to probe this greatest o! all ‘ ’ l phenomena. Dr. Clyde Fisher of the Hayden Planetarium, who admits that the conjunction theory is st lesst worthy o! intensive study, says: “This triple conjunction o! Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, is one of the rarest of celestial events. It happens only once in every 800 years. The next one is due early in the 25th century. So scientists will have to wait quite l while before they can test the theory in the heaven itself." But by means o! lenses and photo- graphic plates tbat are worth their weight in gold, the Hayden scientists are able to reproduce upon the Planetari- um's artificial sky a creditable facsimile of the event supposed to have occurred upon the first Christmas eve, and in so doing are able to put to the test a theory advanced originally in the 17th century by J chann Kepler, one of the earliest of the world's great astronomers. Kepler ran his calculations back after reviewing the extraordinary conjunction and found that it had taken place before in 799 a.d. and in December of the year 7 B.C. Modern investigation has dis- closed that the year of the birth of Christ does not correspond to the year 1 of our era. By fixing the date of the death of Herod it became possible to date many New Testament events and to fix the year of the first Christmas. This has proved to be ‘l B.C. The conjunction appeared in the con- stellation Pisces, or Fishes, a sign of the Zodiac then of especial significance to the Jews. Kepler, alive to Judeefls ex- pectation of _ a Messiah, concluded it would be entirely logical for the Magi to interpret this celestial phenomenon as the awaited signal and to start out on their biblical journey forthwith. Kepler's theory stood up fairly well until Professor Ideler o! Berlin came along and in 1826 showed that the three planets were at no time in absolute con- Jllllctlon . . . ruling out the possibility of them appearing as a single star. Then came geographers who proved that there were no roads or negotiable thorough- fares prevailing at the time that would enable the Wise Men to travel to Beth- lehem and keep the star in front of them for any length of time. So the world of science was ripe and "Edy for some new explanation when Prof. R. A. Proctor propounded the theory that the Star of Bethlehem was really a comet. This seemed to account for some discrepancies until men learned 1n scientific lore pointed out that the ancients all feared comets as harbinger-s of evil and as retribution for sins done on earth-hardly the signal of the sa- v1our's arrival. _ Then came the most beautiful and poetic “explnnatiorfi of all-that the Star of Bethlehem was a “nova" or an exploding star, one of those incredibly glorious phenomena of the heavens cre- ated when two cold, dead bodies of the upper atmosphere collide in space at 400 miles a second and set loose the pyro- technic gases buried in their interior. Immediately after the contact, the pent-up fury deep inside the dead stars bursts forth in a terrific blaze. Arrested in mid-flight, these bodies turn and twist on a common center and produce an il- lumination with their burning frag- ments that vies with that of the noonday sun. The newly-created “live" star may remain in the sky for quite some time but eventually its brightness fades and flnally the star cools off and disappears. If the Star of Bethlehem was a nova that has long since “chilled" and become invisible, there is no way known to as- tronomers of recapturing its sudden flare of dazzling brightness. There was a recent exarnf o! this phenomenon lour years ago when the giant star known as Nova Herculis suddenly flared up in the sky-visible to the naked eye ’even though its distance was so great that its light took 1,300 years to reach the earth. Now Herculis has all but disappeared. A telescope is needed to find it, but there is still evidence to prove that Herculis was one of the rarest of all-a “twin" whose two component parts burned with such an unearthly brightness for such s ‘little while. This the Star o! Bethlehem may have been, or perhaps s planetary conjunc- tion, or less likely still s comet. But it may just as well have been whai: Christianity prefers to believe-a miracle that occurred but once and will not occur again, a mystery just as pre- cious and inexplicable to all mankind as the blade of grass was to Darwin. l Astronomical Pictures by Cour- tesy of American Museum of Natu- ral History. m» Jn CCTION lion. Onc of These Occurred, ll in Calculate For n Brief Time Their Brilliance .4 UMET? C N. . r r-icnlials Have NOVA??iln|llng Slur, turics. Bu! All Thcec Exp Q Every 8 Actually Was a Comet. Have Aiirucled Attention and Been Rec of Which here H A Number of Astronomers Have Put Forward the Theo Bu! Rho Sword-like Tall of l orded in Biblical Accounts oi the Nativity. l lo Explain the Alan So lanaiions Must Remain Theories, [l0 Years the Planets Mars, o Jupiter and Saturn Form a Conjunc- d, About the Time of Jesus. . Muy Have Been Mistaken for one Slat. 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