finery; and the contrast shows in their keeping of
Christmas.

The modern Christmas is above all things a children's feast, and the
elders who join in it put themselves upon their children's |360| level.
We have noted how ritual acts, once performed with serious purpose, tend
to become games for youngsters, and have seen many an example of this
process in the sports and mummeries kept up by the elder folk for the
benefit of the children. We have seen too how the radiant figure of the
Christ Child has become a gift-bringer for the little ones. At no time in
the world's history has so much been made of children as to-day, and
because Christmas is their feast its lustre continues unabated in an age
upon which dogmatic Christianity has largely lost its hold, which laughs
at the pagan superstitions of its forefathers. Christmas is the feast of
beginnings, of instinctive, happy childhood; the Christian idea of the
Immortal Babe renewing weary, stained humanity, blends with the thought
of the New Year, with its hope and promise, laid in the cradle of Time.

|361| |362| |363|

NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTION

1. #G. K. Chesterton# in #"The Daily News,"# Dec. 26, 1903.

2. _Ibid._ Dec. 23, 1911.

3. Cf. #J. E. Harrison, "Themis: a Study of the Social Origins of Greek
Religion"# (Cambridge, 1912), 139, 184.

4. Or plural _Weihnachten_. The name _Weihnachten_ was applied in five
different ways in mediaeval Germany: (1) to Dec. 25, (2) to Dec.
25-8, (3) to the whole Christmas week, (4) to Dec. 25 to Jan. 6, (5)
to the whole time from Christmas to the Octave of the Epiphany. #G.
Bilfinger, "Das germanische Julfest"# (Stuttgart, 1901), 39.

5. #A. Tille, "Die Geschichte der deutschen Weihnacht"# (Leipsic, 1893),
22. [Referred to as "D. W."]

6. #H. Usener, "Das Weihnachtsfest"# (Kap. i., bis. iii. 2nd Edition,
Bonn, 1911), 273 f.

7. #L. Duchesne, "Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution"# (Eng.
Trans., Revised Edition, London, 1912), 257 f.

8. #J. Hastings, "Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics"# (Edinburgh,
1910), iii. 601 f.

9. #E. K. Chambers, "The Mediaeval Stage"# (Oxford, 1903), i. 244.
[Referred to as "M. S."]

10. #A. Tille, "Yule and Christmas: their Place in the Germanic Year"#
(London, 1899), 122. [Referred to as "Y. & C."]

11. _Ibid._ 164.

12. Tille, "D. W.," 21.

13. Tille, "Y. & C.," 203.

14. #K. Lake# in Hast