Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 25 December '85 ^

SHOP AT HOME IN CAPE MAY COUNTY

The Whole World Cheers Itself Up

By ARTHUR SCHWERDT Saint Boniface was attempting to convert a tribe of Teutonic barbarians in what is now northern Germany, when, the legend has it. he angrily chopped down one of the Sacred Oaks of Odin with an ax. Miraculously, from the oak's stump a magnificent fir tree sprung up full and green. "Look how it points to the heavens," the Saint shouted. "There is where you will find your new God. With this new tree, the evergreen, you will remember that he was born to you forever." This story of the first Christmas tree reminds us that most of our customs for decorating at this time of year come from our primitive, pre-Christian ancestors. It all has to do with the Winter Solstice. The Druids of Stonehenge set up those famous stone pillars so that they could keep a careful eye on the movements of the sun on which they depended so much for their crops, and consequently, their lives. HOW FRIGHTENED these poor, ignorant people must have become by the shortest day of the year — December the twenty-first. How much they must have felt like rejoicing when the days started getting longer again. In Rome the festival was called the Saturnalia, to thank the Titan god who Spirit of the Star By HARRY EMERSON OTTO When stores make an unjoyful noise Announcing toys for girls and boys When Santa Claus his visit makes, And Grandma bakes her favorite cakes, As silent snow drifts carelessly, And children decorate the tree, There is no reason to explain That Christmas time has come again. Perhaps the Spirit can be found In stores that sell a Santa clown, In Grandma's tasty pumpkin pie Or flakes that go adrifting by; But let us contemplate the Star, Outstanding others from afar, And realize with heart unfurled That one lone Star can change the world! Harry Emerson Otto of Stone Harbor writes this paper's weekly "Planetarily Speaking" column.

left Olympus to be their special guardian. The holiday of Kalends was celebrated on January the first in honor of the newly reborn sun. Through different cults and tribes throughout primitive Europe worshiped different gods, the reason for celebrating was the same — Nature has come through for us; we are saved again! The methods of celebrating were similar too; they all involved decorating the home. The yule log and its accompanying kindling, holly, garlands and wreaths were all a part of these ancient festivities. BY THE YEAR 1000, about the same time Saint Boniface was wielding that fateful ax, the Church realized that this would be the perfect time of year to celebrate Christmas. The birth of Christ, like the new sun, brings us all new life. Once again we have been saved — this time, forever. The custom of Christmas decorating thrived in Germany, but was held back from developing in England by strict Puritans who were having nothing to do with any primitive pagan customs, no matter how harmless. Queen Victoria's consort, the German prince Albert, did a great deal to restore these customs to England. In fact, Charles Dickens' vivid descriptions of the Victorian Christmas have greatly influenced the way we celebrate Christmas today. The first commercially printed Christmas card was a Victorian English invention. It showed a family gathering framed in boughs of decorated rustic trellis-work. Acts of charity — feeding the hungry I and clothing the naked — were depicted on either side of a banner reading: "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year To You." MY PARTICULAR favorite of all the decoraNew Notes (From Page 24) eluded Tom Wallace, Don Gailinger, and Holly Autunes from MTHS: 1 Kathleen Sullivan and Jeanette Harris from the Middle School; Nancy Roller from Elementary 3; and Millie Quay from Elementary 1. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our friends and readers a very "Merry Christmas" and a very "Happy Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!" The Middle Township Optimist Club sponsored a Christmas Party in Margaret Lewis' Resource Room at Elementary School No. 1 Dec. 17. Dessie Baker, Cathy Williams, and Debbie Wallace were also involved. This is a correction from last week's issue.

tions at Christmas time is | the wreath. Its shape says | forever; and it doesn't | grow that way ; it has be be | made. Because of this, it | also seems to be reminding us just how much happiness we can make with « our own two hands. | A friends recently confid- s ed that she gets real | frustrated at Christmas si time because her husband | and children insist on decorating the tree. "I'm a perfectionist." 1 she told me, "and they do such a lousy job. But they have such a good time doing it — we all do — I just i-i don't have the heart to tell them how awful the tree looks." I told her that my father was the Christmas tree perfectionist in our house. Each year, on the night before Christmas Eve. we would all get together and have a great time decorating the tree. By the next evening, when it really counted, by father had completely redone it. It was beautiful AS THE YEARS went on. by watching him. we got better and better, and tried to make it so that he would have no redecorating to do Eventually we succeeded < I suggested to my friend that she go ahead and redecorate her tree. The family just wanted the fun of doing it all together. And what a great memory that makes Christmas is all about happy endings. At home, ours came when guests and family members arrived on Christmas, and the first thing they saw when they opened our front door was that resplendent tree. What a great way to start an evening! PSYCHOLOGISTS have written widely of the effect that our surroundings have on our state of mind. Government buildings, offices, and department stores are designed and laid out to move us in a particular way. Those old barbarians, the Early Church, and my father also knew well the power of beautiful decorations. At Christmas time it seems like the whole world is cheering itself up — all of us starting the new year like my family's Christmas Eve guests opening the front door. Now I have some wreaths up around the house all year round — grape vine and other dried wreaths that I can decorate a little differently as the seasons change. Why not have some of that Christmas cheer all through the year? Of course, the memories of those tree-decorating days — they are forever. And, after all, forever is the happiest of happy endings. A good old Christmas to all! Arthur Schwerdt, coowner of The August Farmhouse on Route 9 in Swainton, regularly writes on antiques for this newspaper.

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