One hundred and fifty years ago, in 1867, the Royal City was busy with Christmas. While there was not the intensity of today, there was nevertheless a sense of festivities in the air.
As many government offices operated out of New Westminster, many facilities closed on special days. Under “Public Holidays,” a notice from the Government Gazette reminded the town that three days in “Christmas Week” and three days in the next week, being the “31st, and the 1st and 2nd January, 1868, respectively, will be observed as holidays at the Public Offices.”
In offering their Christmas wishes for 1867, the paper made some wonderful comments incorporating the job of journalism in an editorial titled “A Little Rest.” In part it, reads: “In no department of human action is the grinding round of duty more relentlessly incessant than in that of the public journalist…We mean to step off this editorial treadmill for a little; this journal will not therefore be issued again until New Year’s Day. … In taking leave of our readers for the present year we most heartily wish them what we hope to enjoy ourselves – A Merry Christmas.”
Advertisements for seasonal shopping were prominent in the local press. One ad boldly noted “Hurrah for Christmas and New Year” and pointed out that they had “gold and silver coloured papers for making fancy articles for the Christmas tree.” Joseph Sorel of the City Bakery offered “for good and cheap, Christmas cakes, pies and confectionery.”
Church services were important parts of the social calendar. Specific mention was made of the services scheduled for Holy Trinity and in the Wesleyan church on Mary Street. The paper reported the services were well attended and noted the sermon was excellent and the choir received much praise for the performance.
In 1867, the newspaper produced a lengthy editorial outlining Christmas, its story, symbols and many of the personal emotional connections that attach themselves to the season. Headed “Christmas. Christi. Natalium. Festum!” the editorial begins:
“Again the great anniversary of the Christian world is upon us. Even now do we see the merry face of ‘Old Father Christmas’ peering through our dingy office window, and before these lines meet the public eye he will have greeted our readers with his gladsome smiles … Christmas, hale, genial, sparkling, laughing but tender-hearted withal, is close at hand once more.
“And that there may be hope that…everyone of our readers will partake, as is our most earnest wish, of that which is meant and embodied in the good old suggestive phrase – A Merry Christmas.” And so from 1867 to today, best wishes for the festive season.
