AR) childhood, Where does it all come from? One would say right away: from the Bible—and that is essentially true, But to understand it better, we must first understand how the gospels, that part of the Bible concerned with the life of Christ, Came about, The first disciples of Christ - took their teaching orally, As ' time passed people, here and: there, took notes in writing, Preachers would use these notes, enlarge on them, perhaps add to ‘them as they came across fresh information, Soon, several collections of Such notes were circulated, Most Scholars agree that these were the first bases for the fuller accounts that some early Chris- tian preachers consciously set Out to write, and which are now Called gospels, How many gospels were writ- _ten? We do not know, but cer- tainly there were many,. In the fourth century the fathers of the church made a choice, be- Cause some of the gospels taught " doctrines that the offical church did not approve, They kept four Of them and declared those four Sacred and part of the Bible, They did not choose them on Scientific grounds, They thought there should be four because that was a good symbolic num- ber, Some of the discarded gos- _Pels were obviously forgeries but others were very similar to the Chosen ones in origin, antiquity and general tone. Early Christian communities had regarded them as sacred Writings and they had been read from the pulpit just as the rest Of the Bible had, To denounce them as fantasies would have Meant raising many doubts about the authenticity of the official S0spels too, for there is no fundamental difference between the four “official” gospels and the rejected ones, But, let’s go back to our Christ- mas story, Out of the four official 80spels, two give an account of the birth of Christ—two com- Pletely differing accounts The writer known as Matthew tells us about Joseph taking Mary 4S his wife and then about the Wise Men, their star, andHerod, But the gospel of Luke tells about Joseph and Mary going to Beth- &hem for a census, Jesus being Orn in a manger, and angels Christmas legends ‘=== right away, In the course of cen- turies, many texts have been lost, but some have been preserved to this day. Their collection is called “Apocrypha.” (There are also Apocrypha of the OldTestament), Indeed, one has been discovered in quite recent times and arche- ologists may unearth more, In addition, many were preserved orally as legends, In the 13th century a number of these legends, together with other Saints’ stories, were col- lected by the Italian monk Jacobus de Voragine under the title Legends Aurea (Golden Legends), That is where to look for many old Christmas legends, Then, there were also legends which were never written at all but were passed on orally down to modern times, When we read all these stories, we understand better how the people’s imagination, wor ked around the personality and life story of their leaders, The of- ficial Xmas story alone makes PACIFIC | ZANE YWackeR dreams, miraculous star, angels appearing, naive shepherds, mysterious visitors, romantic escape... And what a wealth of details in the Apocrypha! Some are cute stories like the one of Jesus ordering a palm tree to bend down so that his mother can pick the fruit; some are touching, like the story of the two highwaymen who pity the runaway family and feed them; some are ludicrous and even coarse, like the one in which a midwife wants to test for herself Mary’s virginity— her hand dries up on the spot, Here are endless stories about Joseph’s and Mary’s youth, too, The Roman and Orthodox ‘churches give a measure of con- sideration to all these unofficial traditions; most other churches do not. Yet it is difficult to tell exact- ly where the churches draw the line, for some of the stories that the public considers authen- tic Christian tradition have ho other source than the Apocrypha of oral legends, To take a small detail for an example: we have always seen Mary pictured travelling on a donkey and we always place an ox as well as a donkey by the manger, but neither animal is mentioned in the Bible—they are in the Apocrypha, The stable where Jesus is said to have been born is often de- scribed as a cave or grotto, although this information is an oral tradition only; in Bethlehem, this grotto and the “exact spot” of the birth are shown totourists and pilgrims, Neither the Apocrypha nor the Golden Legends tell us much about the Wise Men, The Bible tells us that some “Magi” saw a “star” and came from the “Orient” with presents for Jesus, But oral traditions, mostly from the Middle East, tell us a great deal more: that they were three in number, named Gaspard, Melchior and Balthazar; they were each of a different race; they were kings as well as scholars and priests, And we know exactly how many _presents each brought and where they obtained the gifts; we know of the many adventures encoun- tered on their journey; we know it was Balthazar who spread his rich cloak to cover the child; and that afterwards the three went to live in India where they were baptized by the apostle Thomas and died as martyrs, etc. Their “relics” were brought to Europe and are kept and honored in the cathedral of Koln, Germany, Legends about the Wise Men have been woven into the folklore of various countries, In Prov- ence, France, they are linked with the legend of the Golden Goat and a hidden treasure, Bizet took the theme of the “Marche des Rois” which opens his opera “L’ Arlesienne” from oneofthose Provence folk songs, In some Rhine districts, three men dressed as the Wise Men go through the villages asking for alms, In Spanish-speaking _countries it is the Wise Men who bring presents to children on “El Dia de los Reyes.” (January 6). All these fanciful and pictur- esque Xmas stories form an important sector of our folklore, They very often inspired paigt- ers, composers and sculptors in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, They have directly or indirectly inspired modern writers of Xmas stories, It would be a pity to allow them to be forgotten, But it wouldhardlybe sensible to regard any of them as his- torical documents, one Nace RING OUT THE OLD Ring In The New Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow; The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true, Ring out the grief that saps the mind, For those that here we see no more; Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind, Ring out false pride in place and blood, The civic slander and the spite; appearing to shepherds, Ring in the love of truth and right, 3 Ring in the common love of good, Thus, the Christmas story aught in today’s Sunday schools S amixture of these two “sacred” 80spels, Ring out old shapes of foul disease; Ring out the narrowing lust of gold: ' i Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace! —Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) What happened to the other ep spels—those discarded by the hureh? They did not disappear December 24, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9 eee ee