I found the piece below while going through some old papers, and thought
that given the furor this year of "Christmas" vs. "Holiday," some of you
might enjoy it.

Claire McCullough


____________________________________________
| Dr. Claire L. McCullough, PE
| Professor of  Engineering
| University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
| 615 McCallie Ave., Chattanooga TN 37403
| Voice: (423) 425-4352 Fax: (423) 425-5229
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XMAS AND CHRISTMAS
A Lost Chapter from Herodotus
C. S. Lewis



	And beyond this, there lies in the ocean, turned towards the west
and north, the island of Niatirb, which Hecataeus indeed declares to be the
same size and shape as Sicily, but it is larger, though in calling it
triangular a man would not miss the mark.  It is densely inhabited by men
who wear clothes not very different from the other barbarians who occupy the
north-western parts of Europe, though they do not agree with them in
language.  These islanders, surpassing the men of whom we know in patience
and endurance, use the following customs.

	In the middle of winter, when fogs and rains most abound, they have
a great festival which they call Exmas, and for fifty days they prepare for
it in the fashion I shall describe.  First of all, every citizen is obliged
to send to each of his friends and relations a square piece of hard paper
stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card.  But
the pictures represent birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green
prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that
their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their
ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs. And the Niatirbians are
unwilling to say what these pictures have to do with the festival, guarding
(as I suppose) some sacred mystery.  And because all men must send these
cards, the market-place is filled with the crowd of those buying them, so
that there is great labour and weariness.

	But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they
return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent
to them.  And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent
cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at
least is over for another year.  But when they find cards from any to whom
they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses
against the sender; and, having sufficiently lamented their misfortune, they
put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for
him also.  And let this account suffice about Exmas-cards.

	They also send gifts to one another, suffering the same things about
the gifts as about the cards, or even worse.  For every citizen has to guess
the value of the gift which every friend will send to him, so that he may
send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not.  And they buy as
gifts for one another such things as no man ever bought for himself.  For
the sellers, understanding the custom, put forth all kinds of trumpery, and
whatever, being useless and ridiculous, they have been unable to sell
throughout the year, they now sell as an Exmas gift.  And though the
Niatirbians profess themselves to lack sufficient necessary things, such as
metal, leather, wood and paper, yet an incredible quantity of these things
is wasted every year, being made into the gifts.

	But during these fifty days the oldest, poorest and most miserable
of the citizens put on false beards and red robes and walk about the
market-place; being disguised (in my opinion) as Cronos.  And the sellers of
gifts, no less than the purchasers, become pale and weary, because of the
crowds and the fog, so that any man who came into a Niatirbian city at this
season would think some great public calamity had fallen on Niatirb.  This
fifty days of preparation is called in their barbarian speech the Exmas
Rush.

	But when the day of the festival comes, then most of the citizens,
being exhausted with the Rush,  lie in bed till noon.  But in the evening
they eat five times as much supper as on other days and, crowning themselves
with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated.  And on the day after Exmas
they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the
drinking and reckoning how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine.
For wine is so dear among the Niatirbians that a man must swallow the worth
of a talent before he is well intoxicated.

	Such, then, are their customs about the Exmas.  But the few among
the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called
Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas.  And those who keep Crissmas,
doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that
day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they
partake of a sacred feast.  And in most of the temples they set out images
of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees and certain animals and
shepherds adoring the Child.  (The reason of these images is given in a
certain sacred story which I know but do not repeat.)

	But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and
asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared
to me inconvenient.  But the priest replied, "It is not lawful, O Stranger,
for us to change the date of Crissmas, but would Zeus would put it into the
minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it
at all.  For Exmas and the Rush distract the minds even of the few from
sacred things.  And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at
Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left."  And when I asked him
why they endured the Rush, he replied, "It is, O Stranger, a racket;" using
(as I suppose) the words of some oracle and speaking unintelligibly to me
(for a racket is an instrument which barbarians use in a game called
tennis).

	But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is
not credible.  For first, the pictures which are stamped on the Exmas-cards
have nothing to do with the sacred story which the priests tell  about
Crissmas.  And secondly, the most part of the Niatirbians, not believing the
religion of the few, nevertheless send the gifts and cards and participate
in the Rush and drink, wearing paper caps.  But it is not likely that men,
even being barbarians, should suffer so many and great things in honour of a
god they do not believe in.  And now, enough about Niatirb.

	

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