Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE NEWBERRY SUN CHRISTMAS CHOIR ... Junior members of a church choir lift their voices in song during the annual Christmas candlelight service. Truly, they represent the spirit of Christmas. i _a .. t £ Quaint Rehearsal Of Christ's Birth Found in Old Carol “Auld Lang Syne” has become such an integral part of our mod ern New Year’s eve that no cele bration, however gay, would be complete without it. The music sheets for those, nos talgic strains simply say “Robert Burns—Scotch Air,” and Robert Burns generally is supposed to have written it after he had fet tled down on a farm and taken himself a wife, following the sweeping success in 1778 of the sec ond edition of his “Poems.” Well and good, but Auld Lang Syne was not exclusively a Burns’ product, nor did he claim it to be. In a letter to George Thopison, a publisher. Burns explained: “It is an old song of olden times, which has never been in print. I took it down from an old man’s singing.” Modern scholarship has discov ered that Burns was wrong when he told »Thomson “Auld Lang Syne” never had been in print. Its refrain, at least, was printed obscurely long before Burns heard his “old man singing.” Further, the original song often has been credited to Sir Robert Aytoun (1570-1638). Aytoun was one of the earliest Scots to use the low land dialect as a literary medium. Multitudes of Americans decended from non-British stock are per petually mystified by this dialect, nor does it seem to make much sense in the standard English translation. • Regardless of its original author agd origin, it was Burns who gave “Auld Lang Syne” its immortality. And though the bells now welcome the New Year with joyous peals, symbolizing mankind’s hope for a bright future, the nostalgiast of “Auld Lang Syne” summarizes an adherent reluctance to leave the security and friendship of the past and embark upon a future which, howeve/' promising, may not be more pleasant. Thus, it remains a part of the English speaking herit age to “Drink a cup of kindness yet For Auld Lang Syne.” Christmas Eve Memory Check Did You Remember . . . ... to take home a few extra toys? If you are expecting two or three neighborhood small fry to drop in, you can be sure six will show up. And three toys and six children do not enhance “Peace on Earth.” Did You Remember . . . ... to check the Christmas tree lights? Not day before yesterday. Not last week. We mean right now. A few stores are still open and you can supply new ones. Did You Remember ... . . . that you told all those people to drop in for refreshment tonight? Better check on the cake, cookies, soft drinks, and other goodies. Dirl You Remember . . . . . . those last minute Christmas cards? If not, you can send tele grams to friends too far away for cards to reach them by December 25. You can even have a messenger call at your house while the guests you invited in for snacks are there, and probably everybody will re member someone far away who should have a Christmas greeting. Did You Remember .... ... to hang some kind of Christ mas decoration outside the house, so passing strangers may enjoy some of the Christmas glow that is in your home and reflect it around your town? Remember, everyone has a part in this Christ mas cheer, not just your small circle, and the more cheer you scatter, th^ more you will gather. Sir At Christ mad Card Wad Created in 1842 Over 250 years ago English school children wrote Christmas expressions of good will called “Christmas pieces*” From this school chore came the gracious custom of sending Christmas cards. The first known Christmas card was created in 1842 in London by a young etcher named William Egley. In the United States, Louis Prang published the first Christ mas cards. During the 1870’s and 80’s Prang produced thousands of beautiful cards and has become known as the grandfather of the business. NO RAIN, DEAR . . . This young lady makes a pretty pic ture down in sunny Florida on Christmas eve as she poses with Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. Although Florida lacks snow it makes up for it in other beau ties. Christmas Rose Enhances Yule's Festival Mood A MERICANS usually decorate their homes at Christmas time with holly, evergreens, or hot house plants. Recently, however, they have found a new friend in the Christmas-rose. Nurserymen say this plant’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last few years. The Christmas-rose is not really a rose at all but belongs to the crowfoot family. It is a small plant no more than a foot high when mature. Nevertheless, it can put forth seven or eight small white roselike blooms tinged with pink. Called by botanists Helleborus niger or black hellebore,- it gets this name from its black stalks. The Christmas-rose is no freak, no super-precocious flower or esarly-blooming plant. This ligiti- mate child of winter flowers nat urally in December or January. It withstands snow and low tempera tures, demanding only some sort of shelter from the snow. Helleborus niger does not propa gate well in the United States. Hence, most of the tiny plants are imported from Belgium and the Netherlands. They develop best only in the western part/Of those Countries where they thrive in soil peculiar to the region. The ancient Romans knew about the Christmas-rose and eagerly sought it for medicinal use. They believed that eating the roots would “clear the brain, cure stu pidity and relieve insanity.” “Let him sail to Anticyra,” said the poet, Horace, of an ill friend. Anticyra was a Greek town where the black Hellebore flourished. The Helleborus family is indige nous to southern Europe and the Mediterranean regions. The Christmas-rose variety came orig inally from Austria. Noel Preparations Started in Norway In Middle of Year C IRISTMAS just couldn’t help being the event of events in Norway when grandmother was a girl. Without exaggeration, prepara tion for Christmas actually began six months before December 24. Everything which was used— food, clothing, household furnish ings—was prepared in the home. Even the leather for shoes was tanned from hides raised on the homestead. The cloth for apparel, from the skin out, was woven on hand looms. Cobblers came to the house and made the shoes; dressmakers and tailors came. Everyone in the household had to have a new wardrobe for Christmas and, since tailors and cobblers and dress makers could not be at all places at once, it was necessary to get an early start. When the butchering was fin ished—in October or November— the suet was melted and the can dles were made. The children always had a hand in making the little ones for use on the Christ mas tree. And they usually made one which had three prongs which, placed at the very top of the tree, represented the three wise men. The Rose of Christmas Was Young Girl's Gift T HE Christmas rose blooms at an unusual season, from De cember to March, with white, sometimes pinkly colored blooms. Because of the soft tinge of pink, the flower has been given the name Christmas rose. Legend tells us that when the Wise Men were journeying to ward Bethlehem, they came upon a young girl who was tending her sheep. The girl complained to an angel that she had no gift for the Holy Child, whereupon the entire pathway to Bethlehem was flow ered with glistening white Christ mas roses. Madelon, the girl, offered the flowers, and when the fingers of Jesus touched them they became suffused with pink.