t before the Passover.
This year coincided with what in our common chronology would be B.C.
4--so that we have to recognise the fact that our own reckoning is
erroneous, and to fix B.C. 5 or 4 as the date of the Nativity.

[Illustration: "THE INNS ARE FULL."]

Now, out of the consideration of the time at which the Christmas
festival is fixed, naturally arises another question, viz.:--

THE CONNECTION OF CHRISTMAS WITH ANCIENT FESTIVALS.

Sir Isaac Newton[2] says the Feast of the Nativity, and most of the
other ecclesiastical anniversaries, were originally fixed at cardinal
points of the year, without any reference to the dates of the
incidents which they commemorated, dates which, by lapse of time, it
was impossible to ascertain. Thus the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary
was placed on the 25th of March, or about the time of the vernal
equinox; the Feast of St. Michael on the 29th of September, or near
the autumnal equinox; and the Birth of Christ at the time of the
winter solstice. Christmas was thus fixed at the time of the year when
the most celebrated festivals of the ancients were held in honour of
the return of the sun which at the winter solstice begins gradually to
regain power and to ascend apparently in the horizon. Previously to
this (says William Sandys, F.S.A.),[3] the year was drawing to a
close, and the world was typically considered to be in the same state.
The promised restoration of light and commencement of a new era were
therefore hailed with rejoicings and thanksgivings. The Saxon and
other northern nations kept a festival at this time of the year in
honour of Thor, in which they mingled feasting, drinking, and dancing
with sacrifices and religious rites. It was called Yule, or Jule, a
term of which the derivation has caused dispute amongst antiquaries;
some considering it to mean a festival, and others stating that Iol,
or Iul (spelt in various ways), is a primitive word, conveying the
idea of Revolution or Wheel, and applicable therefore to the return of
the sun. The _Bacchanalia_ and _Saturnalia_ of the Romans had
apparently the same object as the Yuletide, or feast of the Northern
nations, and were probably adopted from some more ancient nations, as
the Greeks, Mexicans, Persians, Chinese, &c., had all something
similar. In the course of them, as is well known, masters and slaves
were supposed to be on an equality; indeed, the former waited on the
latter.[4] Presents were mutually given and