An excerpt from The Festival by H.P. Lovecraft

It was the Yuletide, that men call Christmas though they know in their hearts it is older than Bethlehem and Babylon, older than Memphis and mankind. It was the Yuletide, and I had come at last to the ancient sea town where my people had dwelt and kept festival in the elder time when festival was forbidden; where also they had commanded their sons to keep festival once every century, that the memory of primal secrets might not be forgotten.

The Festival, from the omnibus volume Dagon & Other Macabre Tales was written by H.P. Lovecraft,
published by Arkham House, and is copyright © by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei.