"PUBLICK NOTICE - The Observation of CHRISTMAS having been deemed a Sacrilege, the exchanging of Gifts and Greetings, dressing in Fine Clothing, Feasting and similar Satanical Practices are hereby FORBIDDEN, with the Offender liable to a fine of FIVE SHILLINGS."  Part of a 1659 notice announcing the banning of Christmas celebrations in Massachusetts.

 

 
Christmas - Banned in Boston!

 

Dear Friends, Thank you for reading these columns each week, and for the very kind comments you send me about them. Planning and writing these stories is one of the great pleasures of my week. We will take a few weeks off for the holidays, and return on January 9th. All best wishes for the holiday season, and a very happy New Year!  - Gloria

 

 

Second of Two Parts:  So, you would expect that as the early settlers came over from England to the new colonies, they brought their rich and colorful Christmas traditions with them. But you would be wrong. Christmas in colonial New England was nothing like traditional Christmas in Olde England.

 

In fact - Bah, Humbug! - in 1659, the Massachusetts Bay Colony banned the celebration of Christmas. Not 'discouraged' or 'frowned upon,' but BANNED, as in subject to criminal prosecution and a fine of five shillings (now, about $8000).

 

In the Massachusetts colony, the established church of the 1600s was Puritan. The Puritans were seeking to reform and 'Purify' the church by purging it of the idolatry (both saintly and pagan), the princely hierarchy, and the ceremonial excesses that they saw in both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Most of the New England colonies also outlawed non-Christian congregations - Rhode Island was an exception, and was therefore the home of the first Jewish congregation. Several colonies also banned Quakers, most banned Catholics (who settled in Mary-land). Our ideals of inclusion, and diversity, and the separation of church and state were completely meaningless to 17th-century people. They lived by the authority of the Bible, and their social, civic, and religious lives were intertwined. Town Meeting took place in the Meeting House, both because it was the largest space, and because in order to participate in civic life, a man (yes) also had to be an accepted member of the congregation.

 

So why did the Puritans ban Christmas? Last week I mentioned some of the pagan holdovers in the holiday traditions. And also Christmas in Catholic/Anglican England was a rollicking time. The harvest was in, the beer had been brewed, and the meat had been salted. It came right at the start of winter - a long, dark, cold season. So, it was a time to celebrate before the gloom set in. All that feasting on boar's heads, dancing, wassailing, decking the halls, and resting-us-merry that the carols celebrate - that was Christmas before the 1600s.

 

In the 1640s, however, England underwent a revolution that drove King Charles I from his throne (and ultimately to the headsman's block) and established a Puritan Commonwealth. Among the rulings of the new Parliament was the decree in 1644 that December 25th would thereafter be a day of "fasting and humiliation" and that anyone caught celebrating or setting aside their labor would be charged with an offense and fined.

 

The Puritan General Court of Massachusetts soon followed suit, outlawing the celebration of Christmas in 1659.

 

Puritans had two main objections - first, that a 12-day-long party was not a suitable expression of religious devotion, given that the event was intended to commemorate the birth of the Savior. People spent more time indulging in license and sin than they did in devotion and prayer - "Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas than in all the 12 months besides," lamented one preacher. And second, there was no authority in the Bible for a December Nativity. The date had been co-opted by early Christians from pagan celebrations - the winter feasts of the Roman Saturnalia and Norse Yuletide - that marked the winter solstice.

 

The English monarchy was restored in 1660, but Puritans maintained their power in Massachusetts. The ban remained law until 1681, and continued in practice for many more decades. Throughout the 1700s, December 25th was a regular day of work and school. It was not until 1856 that Christmas became a recognized legal holiday in Massachusetts.

 

So how did we get Christmas back? In part, because American society became more diverse in religion as new denominations flourished. The church was "dis-established" in Massachusetts in 1834 and public life became a secular matter. Add to that, the rise of the industrial economy in the mid-late 1800s and the more widespread availability of consumer goods. The 1840s also saw a huge influx of immigrants - Germans and Scandinavians settling in the Midwest, and Catholic immigrants, first Irish, then Italians and Poles, in the northeast, for whom the festive celebration of Christmas was customary.