[Apologetics] Fw: CS Lewis on "Xmas and Christmas"

[Stephen Korsman]

Hi

I found this on a newsgroup ...

God bless,
Stephen

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike I"
Newsgroups:
tnn.religion.catholic,alt.religion.christian.baptist,alt.religion.christian.
adventist
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2005 4:59 PM
Subject: CS Lewis on "Xmas and Christmas"


With the debate over happy holidays vs. Christmas raging. It could be
described as a battle over how secularists have put their own spin on
what Christians believe i.e. to make it something is not. Then use it
to attack those who continue to believe. C.S. Lewis' essay struck home
with me especially when I think of how many of us have allowed
ourselves to become much like the  Niatirbians. I include myself in
that "us".

Note: Lewis reverses "Britain" and names his fictional nation Niatirb.
An excerpt from C.S. Lewis' essay called, "Xmas and Christmas: A Lost
Chapter from Herodotus."

"In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound, (the
Niatirbians) have a great festival called Exmas, and for 50 days they
prepare for it (in the manner which is called,) in their barbarian
speech, the Exmas Rush.

"When the day of the festival comes, most of the citizens, being
exhausted from the (frenzies of the) Rush, lie in bed till noon. But
in the evening they eat five times as much 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 the reckoning of how
much they have spent on gifts and on the wine.

"(Now a) 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
Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before
sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast.

"But (as for) what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the
same, (this) is not credible. It is not likely that men, even being
barbarians, should suffer so many and so great things (as those
involved in the Exmas Rush), in honor of a god they do not believe
in."

C.S. Lewis wrote this about 50 years ago.
--
Mike
Most sacred Heart of Jesus,
truly present in the Holy Eucharist,
I place all my trust in you.