CHRISTMAS DAY, a festival of the Christian church; observed on the 25th of December, in memory of the nativity or birth of Jesus Christ. As to the antiquity of this festival, the first footsteps we find of it are in the second century, about the time of the emperor Commodus. The decretal epistles indeed carry it up a little higher; and say that Telesphorus, who lived in the reign of Antoninus Pius, ordered divine service to be celebrated, and an angelical hymn to be sung the night before the nativity of our Saviour. However, that it was kept before the times of Constantine, we have a melancholy proof: for whilst the persecution raged under Dioclesian, who then kept his court at Nicomedia, that prince, among other acts of cruelty, finding multitudes of Christians assembled together to celebrate Christ's nativity, commanded the church doors where they were met to be shut, and fire to be put to it, which, in a short time, reduced them and the church to ashes.
CHRISTOPHER'S, ST., one of the Caribbee islands, in America, lying on the north-west of Nevis, and about 60 miles west of Antigua. It was formerly inhabited by the French and English; but, in 1713, it was ceded entirely to the latter. In 1782, it was taken by the French, but restored to Britain at the peace. It is about fifteen miles in breadth, and four in length, and contains 43,726 acres. It has high mountains in the middle, whence rivulets run down. Between the mountains are horrid precipices, and thick woods. The population was computed by Bryan Edwards in 1794 to be 4000 whites and 21,000 negroes.
Christo-
pher's
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Chromatic.
The air is good; the soil light, sandy, and fruitful; but the island is subject to hurricanes. The produce is chiefly sugar, cotton, ginger, indigo, and the tropical fruits. W. Long. 62. 32. N. Lat. 17. 30.