as to the nature and
meaning of the non-Christian customs. The subject is vast, and has not
been thoroughly explored as yet, but the labours of historians and
folk-lorists have made certain conclusions probable, and have produced
hypotheses of great interest and fascination.

I have spoken of "Christian"[2] and "pagan" elements. The distinction is
blurred to some extent by the clothing of heathen customs in a
superficial Christianity, but on the whole it is clear enough to justify
the division of this book into two parts, one dealing with the Church's
feast of the Holy Birth, the other with those remains of pagan winter
festivals which extend from November to January, but cluster especially
round Christmas and the Twelve Days.

* * * * *

Before we pass to the various aspects of the Church's Christmas, we must
briefly consider its origins and its relation to certain |20| pagan
festivals, the customs of which will be dealt with in detail in Part II.

The names given to the feast by different European peoples throw a
certain amount of light on its history. Let us take five of
them--_Christmas_, _Weihnacht_, _Noel_, _Calendas_, and _Yule_--and see
what they suggest.

I. The English _Christmas_ and its Dutch equivalent _Kerstmisse_, plainly
point to the ecclesiastical side of the festival; the German
_Weihnacht_{4} (sacred night) is vaguer, and might well be either pagan
or Christian; in point of fact it seems to be Christian, since it does
not appear till the year 1000, when the Faith was well established in
Germany.{5} _Christmas_ and _Weihnacht_, then, may stand for the
distinctively Christian festival, the history of which we may now briefly
study.

When and where did the keeping of Christmas begin? Many details of its
early history remain in uncertainty, but it is fairly clear that the
earliest celebration of the Birth of Christ on December 25 took place at
Rome about the middle of the fourth century, and that the observance of
the day spread from the western to the eastern Church, which had before
been wont to keep January 6 as a joint commemoration of the Nativity and
the Baptism of the Redeemer.[3]

The first mention of a Nativity feast on December 25 is found in a Roman
document known as the Philocalian Calendar, dating from the year 354, but
embodying an older document evidently belonging to the year 336. It is
uncertain to which date the Nativity reference belongs;[4] but fu