DECEMBER 



1727 



DECEMBER 



ECEMBER, the twelfth and last 

 month of the year, often represented pictorially 

 by a very old and feeble Father Time, leaning 

 on a staff. The decem of its name, so familiar 

 to even the beginning Latin student, seemo 

 strange as applied to this month, for it means 

 ten; but in the old Roman days, before the 

 reform of the calendar, December was the 

 tenth month. By the time the change was 

 made the numerical significance of its name 

 had been somewhat lost sight of; at any rate, 

 no learned Roman thought it of enough impor- 

 tance to call for correction. One alteration 

 occurred, however; for centuries December 

 had had but twenty-nine days, but Caesar 

 added two, making it one of the longest 

 months. The holly is the special flower of 

 this month, and its gem is the turquoise. See 

 CALENDAR. 



December's Place in the Year. The first of 

 December is generally considered to begin the 

 winter season, but in reality winter does not 

 commence until December 22, the day on which 

 the sun reaches the solstice (see SOLSTICE) and 

 turns back for its northward journey. In the 

 northern hemisphere that is the shortest day 

 of the year, in the southern hemisphere, the 

 longest, though for a month thereafter there 

 is little perceptible change in the length of 

 the days. Though December is frequently 

 spoken of as the "frosty month" or the "icy 

 month," it is not usually the coldest of the 

 winter months, nor is it the most cheerless, 

 for the good will, the crackling fires and the 

 holly of approaching Christmas seem to shed 

 a glow over all. The Romans made Vesta, 

 goddess of the hearth, the special deity of 

 December, and this seems appropriate, for there 

 is no time when hearth fires are more in evi- 

 dence or when they have a greater signifi- 

 cance. 



The great Christian festival of Christmas 

 (which see), celebrated on the twenty-fifth, is 

 the chief holiday of the month; indeed, to the 

 children at least, it is the chief holiday of the 

 year. The thirty-first, the. last day of the year, 

 is known as New Year's Eve, and often par- 

 takes of the festivities with which the open- 

 ing of the new year is celebrated. New Eng- 

 land has set apart the twenty-first for special 

 reverence, and calls it Forefathers' Day. On 

 that day the Pilgrims, that "band of exiles," 

 "moored their bark on the wild New England 

 shore" and began to make history that yet 

 influences the entire country. 



December Out-of -Doors. This is one of the 

 months in which Nature seems to be resting, 

 for of the manifold activities of summer and 

 autumn there remains scarcely a trace. This 

 does not mean that the month has no interest- 

 ing out-of-door phases. There are the hardy 

 evergreen trees and the holly how are they 

 able to live and be so cheerful when the other 

 plants seem practically dead? Why has not 

 the cold driven away the English sparrows and 

 the chickadees, with most of the other birds? 

 There are wonderful "Jack Frost" traceries 

 to be studied on the windows (see FROST), and 

 beautiful snow crystals to be examined under 

 the microscope, and there are all the strange 

 achievements of the cold. Why is not the ice 

 in the brook as rippled as is the water in sum- 

 mer time? Since cold contracts, why does the 

 frozen milk push its way up out of the bot- 

 tle, and why does freezing water crack a 

 pitcher? The child can do no better than to 

 interest himself in such studies as these in 

 this winter month, for it is even more neces- 

 sary than in the summer that he should have 

 plenty of out-of-door air, since homes are not 

 likely to be as well ventilated as in the open- 

 door and open-window season. A.MCC. 



