Yule-Tide in Many Lands | Page 8

path before us is untried and dim; But let us take it with the step of gladness, For God is there, and we can trust in Him.
What of the buried hopes that lie behind us! Their graves may yet grow flowers, so let them rest. To-day is ours, and it must find us Prepared to hope afresh and do our best.
God knows what finite wisdom only guesses; Not here from our dim eyes the mist will roll. What we call failures, He may deem successes Who sees in broken parts the perfect whole.
And if we miss some dear familiar faces, Passed on before us to the Home above, Even while we count, through tears, their vacant places, He heals our sorrows with His balm of Love.
No human lot is free from cares and crosses, Each passing year will bring both shine and shower; Yet, though on troubled seas life's vessel tosses, The storms of earth endure but for an hour.
And should the river of our happy laughter Flow 'neath a sky no cloud yet overcasts, We will not fear the shadows coming after, But make the most of sunshine while it lasts.
A good New Year! Oh, let us all begin it With cheerful faces turning to the light! A good New Year, which will have blessings in it If we but persevere and do aright.
--E. Matheson.
CHAPTER III.
[Illustration]
YULE-TIDE IN GERMANY
"Feed the wood and have a joyful minute, For the seeds of earthly suns are in it."
--Goethe.
It was away back in the time of Alexander the Great that Germany was made known to the civilized world by an adventurous sailor named Pytheas, a man of more than ordinary talent, who was sailing northward and discovered a land inhabited by a then unknown people. He reported his discovery to the Romans, but the difficulty was that Pytheas had seen so much more than any of the Greeks or Romans of those days that they utterly refused to believe his statements. Time has proved that the sailor was nearer right in many of his apparently visionary statements than his countrymen dreamed, although it has taken centuries to prove the fact in some cases.
The people whom Pytheas then introduced to the polite world were Teutons, a branch of the great Aryan race and closely related to the early English. The men were simple, truthful, and brave, but were sadly addicted to drink, it was said, and consequently were often quarrelsome. The women were much like those of to-day in their characteristics: virtuous, proud, and dignified; very beautiful, with golden-hued hair, blue eyes, and fresh, fair complexions. Like most of the early peoples, the Teutons worshiped gods and goddesses, and so have many customs and traditions in common with other branches of the Aryans.
If England has enjoyed the merriest Yule-tides of the past, certainly Germany enjoys the merriest of the present, for in no other country is the day so fully and heartily observed. It is the great occasion of the year and means much to the people.
For a week or more before the day, loads of evergreen trees of all sizes may be seen coming into the cities and towns to be piled up in squares and open places until the entire place looks like a forest of small firs. One wonders where they all come from and for how many years the supply will last, but it is not likely to fail at present.
The Lutherans gave Martin Luther the credit of introducing the Christmas tree into Germany. He may have helped to make it popular, but certainly there is abundant evidence to prove that it was known long before the Reformer's time. It is generally supposed to have its origin in mythological times and to be a vestige of the marvelous tree, Yggdrasil.
Possibly Martin Luther thought of the old story of the tree and imagined, as he traveled alone one cold night, how pretty the snow-laden fir-trees along his path would look could they be lighted by the twinkling stars overhead. But whether he had anything to do with it or not, the tree is now one of the most important features of Yule-tide among the Germans of all denominations.
Nearly ten million households require one or two trees each Christmas, varying in height from two to twenty feet. Societies provide them for people who are too poor to buy them, and very few are overlooked at this happy holiday season.
The grand Yule-tide festival is opened on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, December sixth; in fact bazaars are held from the first of the month, which is really one prolonged season of merrymaking.
In Germany, St. Nicholas has a day set apart in his honor. He was born in. Palara, a city of Lycia, and but very little is known of his life except that