We can only offer a few additional remarks to what we have already
said elsewhere in these pages on the Pagan origin of Christmas. It
will make us grateful to remember that just as we have to go to the
Pagans for the origins of our civilized institutions--our courts of
justice, our art and literature, and our political and religious
liberties--we must thank them also for our merry festivals, such as
Christmas and Easter. The ignorant, of course, do not know anything
about the value and wealth of the legacy bequeathed to us by our
glorious ancestors of Greek and Roman times, but the educated can have
no excuse for any failure to own their everlasting indebtedness to the
Pagans. It will be impossible today to write the history of
civilization without giving to the classical world the leading role.
But while accepting the gifts of the Pagan peoples we have abused the
givers. A beneficiary who will defame a bounteous benefactor is
unworthy of his good fortune. I regret to say that the Christian
church, notwithstanding that it owes many of its most precious
privileges to the Pagans, has returned for service rendered insolence
and vituperation. No generous or just institution would treat a rival
as Christianity has treated Paganism.

Both Christmas and Easter are Pagan festivals. We do not know, no one
knows, when Jesus was born; but we know the time of the winter
solstice when the sun begins to retrace his steps, turning his radiant
face toward our earth once more. It was this event, a natural,
demonstrable, universal, event, that our European ancestors celebrated
with song and dance--with green branches, through which twinkled a
thousand lighted candles, and with the exchange of good wishes and
gifts. Has the church had the courage to tell its people that
Christmas is a Pagan festival which was adopted and adapted by the