A WONDERFUL REVIVAL

ALI, SORTS, By Fr. Basset, SA.
AT the end of the Christmas sea
son, readers will not resent a survey of the campaign to put Christ back into Christmas, for so many readers of this column have played an active part themselves. And few will want to dispute the point that there has been a most wonderful revival of the Christian Christmas since the first posters appeared on the hoarding in 1949. Who would have thought then that in 1958 "Woman's Day" would produce a coloured poster of Bethlehem and display it outside so many newsagents, presumably to promote sales? By the way, has anyone thanked "Woman's Day" for its timely and artistic poster which gave so much pleasure to all?
Church posters
IT was astonishing to see the numbers of small Christmas posters outside churches of all denominations. In the Wimbledon, Putney, and Wandsworth area, and again all along the road to Brighton, there seemed to be scarcely a church without its picture of the crib. Though the very large Christmas posters on the hoardings did not strike the eye quite so much as on previous occasions, they looked very well in places like Hammersmith and Regents Park when they were fixed to walls. Twice I saw them being used as the back scene for carol singers, and this use produced an excellent effect.
Cribs
PERHAPS the most sensational and pleasing of all the modern Christmas decorations is the use of cribs. How much we owe to shops like Woolworths for providing such lovely cribs and for being so generous with space. In Putney High Street I saw a great crowd round the crib in Woolworths' window and was astonished to watch a mother giving a little talk to her own children and to many others about Our Lord's birth. There was a delightful crib at Marylebone Station, in many shops in all parts of London. and in the windows of many private houses on two large estates. An excellent development this year was the use of transfers of the crib on the fanlights of some houses. It was also pleasing to note that many of the cribs this year were made with dressed figures and dolls.
Live cribs
LEEDS has the distinction of in itiating the first -live" crib some years ago. This has now become an annual event with Our Lady riding through the streets to the steps of the City Hall. Accounts have now been sent in of the live crib at Hammersmith. Our Lady and St. Joseph walking from Nazareth House across the Broadway to the entrance of the parish church. From Newcastle on Tyne came this further report: "The live crib was great, and ended up as a triumphal procession through the centre of the town with everyone following singing carols—everything else stopped for it."
Now Easter
READERS may now like to work READERS
ways of commemorating Holy Week and Easter in a similar style. Admittedly it is much more difficult to put the story of the Passion before the public, but a Continued from preceding column But unless we are to say that all the directives and all the encouragement given us by recent Popes has been misguided I do not see how we can fail to draw some such picture of these centuries of Church history. and say that we are seeing the accomplishment within the Catholic Church in our own time of tasks begun and, alas, so disastrously mishandled four hundred years ago.
And what a picture it is to encourage us and rouse our enthusiasm, and to transform the manner in which we present the Faith to our fellow countrymen; to make it more intelligent, intelligible, understanding and fruitful; and to make more easy, if God will, the reunion we pray for.
One hundred years ago we saw the Second Spring. And can we I not look for a harvest?
great deal can be done. In previous years mention has been made here of the charming Calvary Cards printed both in Liverpool and Westeliffe-on-Sea and used for display in a variety of ways. Some years ago Warrington made use of a shop window and displayed there, one by one, the Stations of the Cross. Most glorious of all was last year's effort at Preston where nearly a thousand people came for the Stations of the Cross in the market place. The K.S.C. printed some attractive stamps for use during Lent; I wonder if these are available again. Space is precious in "All Sorts" but any bright ideas for putting Our Lord back into Good Friday will be given pride of place. This surely is a task which deserves endless effort.
Tailpiece
How charming is the answer of " the little boy who said that men differed from animals because they had a free wheel of their own.