Word: original
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...prints books. His press is part of the Cuala Industries run by the Yeats family -one sister manages the embroidery department, another the hand-press, and a brother designs hand-blocked prints. Versatile, Yeats does sketches for Punch (pseudonym, W. Bird) ; served in the Free State Senate since its origin. Resigned last month in favor of the easier Riviera, he will be missed for his infrequent but shrewd comment on political matters-he, the poet-creamer...
...Pandemics (worldwide epidemics) generally move westward. The U. S. influenza epidemic in 1918 was part of a pandemic, supposedly having its origin in Spain...
...origin of the Christmas tree is lost in antiquity. As a Christmas feature, however, it was mentioned first in a manuscript of the time of Luther, and was adopted first by the Germans. A German gentlewoman was visiting in England over Christmastide early in the last century, and part of her celebration was a little fir-tree lighted with candles. It was pretty, and next year Prince Albert had a Christmas tree for his wife, the queen at Windsor Castle; and after that its popularity was established in Britain. It was a German army that took, as well as Death...
Indeed, an impartial observer, mindful of the origin of many a Christmas custom, might think of this holiday as one that embraces all creeds, all times, in a common human experience. It occurs at the time of the winter solstice, when the sun reaches its farthest point south, and the day begins to grow longer. Pagans throughout the world, in ages past, held festivals at this period. In ancient Rome at the Saturnalia (Dec. 17-21), windows and rooms were decked with holly wreaths; and at the Sigittaria (Dec. 22), it was customary to give presents, especially dolls...
...custom of singing carols had a definite Christian origin. Early Franciscan friars, strolling through Italy, put the tale of the birth of the Babe into homely ballad form, the better to win simple hearts. Over the Alps they went, throughout the World, singing of the sweet mystery of Bethlehem. Their songs lingered behind them. The Spanish peasant added episodes out of his dark Moorish imagination. In one group of Spanish carols the three wise men become gypsies, who read the palms and tell the fortunes of Jesus, Mary, Joseph. In Germany an ancient custom still endures, in some old-world...