The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

which day is christmas fbeolofram have always been ft predlcaojent over the ol hon oi christ s birthday new fagtament nowhere when ft was 1 oootemporary roman re- wm not very muci con ed about recording births herod made no records i ch have survived for a time it didn t matter ch for at least 300 years christ s death no one tured to make christ s birth an occasion of religious cc ration or even to mark it by special ocremonics in part he reason or the re lance was theological the iflcant event in christ s lifi his crucifixion and to fol st matthew or even st ke in glorifying his birth emed out of place moreover early christianity i in constant peril or being 1 out and its devotees sawl occasion for the sort of ecl tion which later was to e associated with christ stem odd today naturally however there speculation on tht date ofi ists birth a book written in 243 and as i bed to hippolytus then ra a scholar of outstanding re- purported to lay down date according to exact i enhfic principles other tings ascribed to julius af anus another dnine follow his line t e general tenor of the ar ent seems odd to us today it was taken with the ut seriousness at the time d for long afterwards wlytus first calculated twben the book of genesis god created the world in days resting on the sev it meant that god created world in 6 000 years a years being reckoned as ay to god e then established that the lining of creation would been at the spring equi when all things sprang to this reckoned hippoly would in the relevant year been the 28th of maroh the coming of christ id have marked the end of liar period it being the fulfilment of gods plan ore christ would have n born on march 28 in a which fitted the theory t 3 bc teralists then took over the en the day they recfci could not actually hare ed to the physical blrtb christ but to christ a con- on by th holy ghost a complex calculation of aiology and theology they ned that this must have ta- j place on december 25th ther divines disputed the usion they did not how- question the basic peine- they mserted merely the day of the beginning creation would have been s rather than march 25 would have brought as birth forward to janu 6th is they reckoned in terms the traditional dates of i resurrection after his txlon had taken place ing to the divine plan the same date as the date the beginning of creation ere were therefore two s of thought one which eved that christmas day be december 25 and one i believed that it must be uary 6 th adoptlonlttt the matter might have rested with neither wde ach leving satisfaction but for a quite extraneous fact the church had begun to ce lebrate january 6th as the dau of christ s baptism most people held that christ s baptism was synonymous with his birth dut thoee who held that this birth had taken place on december i 25 did not seriously object to i january 8 as a date for the bap tism then theologians began one of those delightful wrangles which to them involve ques tions of salvation and datnna tion but which to the layman and even the ordinary clergy man are virtually incomprehen sible j some of them thought that christ was not born the win ot god but became the son of god i upon being baptised these were called adoptionists the rest and the prevailing maj ority believed that christ was born the son of god the difference in essence was one between theologians who believed divinity to be a spiritual matter requiring some progress on the part of anyj i human being and between theo logians who took christ s div inity lilerallj as applying to jlhnst the man and not simply to christ in his spiritual pr fection haresy the fact that his baptism was celebrated while his birth was not was therefore repug nsnt to the ruling majority who had branded adoptioniwn a heresy main for that reason pope liberius proclaimed christmas an official feast and declared m to be december 25th the sug gestion appears to have been regarded as sound by eastern orthodox leaders and it soon was adopted there too it does not however seem to have caught on immediately among the general public in 389 the emperor valentia nus published a list of public holidays among religious hoi ldays only sundavs and ea ter appear in part this refutes the the ory that christmas was unvd for december 25th in order to compete with the old pagan holidays which had always mar ked the day on which days stop ped getting shorter and began 1 getting longer lata comar there seems to have been n immediate desire on th partj of the public to adopt christ mas indeed in some contin- ental countries january 0th which is both epiphany the day of christ s baptism and the fast or the three wise men is celebrated rather than dcombcer 25th although dec ember 25 is universally ack nowledgcd to be the day ofj christ s birth christmas indeed was a late comer in the christian calendar and in the days of the itcfonn ation it was of course held to be highly suspect and a papist invention it had become a holiday only gradually and no doubt h re placed pagan celebrations just as gradually unfortunately history tells us little about its early growth for that of course there is a very good reason the history of the period was kept by the ologians and monks they eel e bra ted christmas as they had been commanded to and ihey were more than little averse to admit an paper that 4heir success in pormiddmg the po pulace to do likewise was lim ited old time concert fills capacity ballinafad hall the last centennial project of the community centre was an old time concert which was held on friday night decern ber 15th under the direction of school teachers mrs r shor ull mrs j moencry mrs e snow and mrs w smith they did a splendid job of planning and selecting numbers so that practically all the children in the community would be parti cipaling the program consist ed of recitations songs plays tableaus etc too numerous to ndividually the hall tableaus etc mentionnadi inek was filled to capacity with the audience enjoying every mom ent the evening ended vilh senba claus giving a candy treat to all the children prcsnt on dccennbor 17th family sunday was observed at the church with members of the sunday school participating in the church service they were as follows nancy greygoow marion jamicson nancy shor till debbie ransom ituky hembruff and lorne sinclair the junior choir under uv lei thi obokobtown hiraldj thursday dic hat 147 pa r 10 christmas customs the origin of many christmas customs can be traced back to prehistoric times some pagan customs were modified to fit into the christian observance daily average patient lead but as official christian holidays chnstmtis and new years had a long struggle to become firmly established even months towns hospital had 1905 patients with just the month of do- adults children 79 ccmber to be added the total newborn v 1 number of patients admitted to georgetown and district mem onal hospital during the first 11 months of 1967 stood at 1905 according to figures rel leased this week the total in eludes 232 newborn also increased are number of emergency visits number of x rays units of work in the la boratory and occupancy in the medical surgical wards admftiioru adults and children newborn emergency visits maj operations mm operations lab units of work xrav exams drrship of the organist mrs e mcrncry sang so nicely several hnstmas nunitmri which inclu ded a solo by nancy short ill who also look part in a divt with dcbbir rr nch after the sr ice a pot luck lunch and social h ur was en joyed by tho congregation in h basement later carols were sunn then the christmas tree gifts were given out to tho sunday school children when sinli jails paid his annual vi sit mrs s snow is in guelph gen rral hospital a speedy recovery n wished for him merrv christmas to tho staffl it the herald office and to all uur rcadirs and to all thanks for your wonderful patronage arnos texaco specialist in volkswagen repairs 87 main street north e774371 markiret jamieson 166 26 190 7 390 587 adults childrm 5 j newborn i pectntas of bad occupied fa the spirit of christmas church belu rlne oat the joy and hope vcleelucbitatmas paul and ursula ecketi hunters inn groceries mountainvlew road 9772781 ukiitmui it here ail tat bed hi jim and ywn and a sincere thank you for your patronage robert r hamilton optometrist let na rejoice note for ttje nnte of eace is born again bringing 06 a renetoal of faith ana fjopr from ail of us at cvullb llmain s gec23st0wn m holiday 1 cheer lj j what better time than christinas io thank you for your patronage and wish you the hest of everythtngl robert mcdonald plumbing and heating 31 mountilnvew 8771641 sday ycax sod jour laved ones lure s jnexxy cbxatbmfafni tnjojall ae mduion l tamoa and dtaajto of do alad cunt bill garbutt plumbing and heating best wishes for a merry christmas md my chnstmas day be an espeeafljr merry and bright one brngmg you full jnesure of joy peace and contentment robertson electric electrical contractor 8772924 goorsolown 52 norton crescent 877 2924 may the joy of the holiday glow brightly for you and your family a bp thank ou torn all of ul here scotch bakery kill street georgetown s merry christmas toeachahd everyone whether jom dreams be big or hide may thsy all cone trial jackson s childrens wear 1 main street north best wishes to all1 dave williams electric and heating ltd 19 elgin street 177331 cm best wishes for a chnstmas glowing with differ eetings dick norton hawes and nelson building contractors 8773372 8773392 were riigiif a test wiskes for bfw hliiijg ftr all ear fni ftiafa ul fitrob barbers jewellery and gifts paul and ruth barber and staff