Christmas

=== 17th and 18th centuries ===

Following the [[Protestant Reformation]], many of the new denominations, including the [[Church of England|Anglican Church]] and [[History of Lutheranism|Lutheran Church]], continued to celebrate Christmas.<ref name="Lowe2011">{{cite book|last=Lowe|first=Scott C.|title=Christmas|date=January 11, 2011|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-4145-4|page=226}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> In 1629, the Anglican poet [[John Milton]] penned ''[[On the Morning of Christ's Nativity]]'', a poem that has since been read by many during Christmastide.<ref name="Shawcross1993">{{cite book|last=Shawcross|first=John T.|title=John Milton|date=January 1, 1993|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7014-5|page=249|quote=Milton was raised an Anglican, trained to become an Anglican minister, and remained an Anglican through the signing of the subscription books of Cambridge University in both 1629 and 1632, which demanded an allegiance to the state church and its Thirty-nine Articles.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref><ref name="Browne">{{cite book|last=Browne|first=Sammy R|title=A Brief Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1 |date=April 29, 2012 |isbn=978-1-105-70569-4|page=412|publisher=Lulu.com |quote=His father had wanted him to practice law but Milton considered writing poetry his life's work. At 21 years old, he wrote a poem, "On the morning of Christ's Nativity," a work that is still widely read during Christmas.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> Donald Heinz, a professor at [[California State University]], states that [[Martin Luther]] "inaugurated a period in which Germany would produce a unique culture of Christmas, much copied in North America."<ref name="Heinz">{{cite book|last=Heinz|first=Donald|title=Christmas: Festival of Incarnation|publisher=Fortress Press|isbn=978-1-4514-0695-5|page=94|year=2010}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> Among the congregations of the [[Dutch Reformed Church]], Christmas was celebrated as one of the principal [[evangelical feast]]s.<ref name="Old2002">{{cite book|last=Old|first=Hughes Oliphant|title=Worship: Reformed According to Scripture|year=2002|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22579-7|page=29|quote=Within a few years the Reformed church calendar was fairly well established. The heart of it was the weekly observance of the resurrection on the Lord's Day. Instead of liturgical seasons being observed, "the five evangelical feast days" were observed: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. They were chosen because they were understood to mark the essential stages in the history of salvation.}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref>

However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the [[Puritans]] strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of [[Papist|popery]]" or the "rags of [[The Beast (Bible)|the Beast]]".<ref name="Durston">{{Cite magazine |last=Durston |first=Chris |url=http://www.historytoday.com/dt_main_allatonce.asp?gid=12890&aid=&tgid=&amid=12890&g12890=x&g9130=x&g30026=x&g20991=x&g21010=x&g19965=x&g19963=x |title=Lords of Misrule: The Puritan War on Christmas 1642–60 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310013925/http://www.historytoday.com/dt_main_allatonce.asp?gid=12890&aid=&tgid=&amid=12890&g12890=x&g9130=x&g30026=x&g20991=x&g21010=x&g19965=x&g19963=x |archive-date=March 10, 2007 |magazine=History Today |date=December 1985 |volume=35 |issue=12 |pages=7–14}}</ref> In contrast, the established [[Church of England|Anglican Church]] "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party."<ref name="Old">{{cite book|last=Old|first=Hughes Oliphant|title=Worship: Reformed According to Scripture|year=2002|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-22579-7|page=29}}<!--|access-date=November 22, 2014--></ref> The [[Catholic Church]] also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King [[Charles I of England]] directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity.<ref name=BTR /> Following the [[Roundhead|Parliamentarian]] victory over Charles I during the [[English Civil War]], England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647.<ref name="Durston" /><ref>{{cite journal |title=From Sukkot to Saturnalia: The Attack on Christmas in Sixteenth-Century Chronological Scholarship |author=Carl Philipp Emanuel Nothaft |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=72 |issue=4 |date=October 2011 |pages=504–505 |jstor=41337151 |quote=However, when Thomas Mocket, rector of Gilston in Hertfordshire, decried such vices in a pamphlet to justify the parliamentary 'ban' of Christmas, effective since June 1647... }}</ref>

Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks [[Canterbury]] was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with [[holly]] and shouted [[Royalism|royalist]] slogans.<ref name="Durston" /> Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force: when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule.<ref name="auto">{{cite press release |url=http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/ne1000000086166/ |access-date=August 25, 2023 |date=December 17, 2003 |title=Historian Reveals that Cromwellian Christmas Football Rebels Ran Riot|publisher=University of Warwick|archive-date=September 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200928090437/https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/ne1000000086166/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The book, ''The Vindication of Christmas'' (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", old Father Christmas and carol singing.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sandys|first1=William|title=Christmastide: its history, festivities and carols|date=1852|publisher=John Russell Smith|location=London|pages=119–120}}</ref> During the ban, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret.<ref name="Outlawed"/>

[[File:FatherChristmastrial.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''The Examination and Tryal of [[Father Christmas|Old Father Christmas]]'', (1686), published after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England]]

It was restored as a legal holiday in England with the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared null and void, with Christmas again freely celebrated in England.<ref name="Outlawed">{{cite news |title=When Christmas carols were banned |url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20141219-when-christmas-carols-were-banned |access-date=March 11, 2022 |agency=BBC}}</ref> Many Calvinist clergymen disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian [[Church of Scotland]] discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though [[James VI]] commanded its celebration in 1618, [[Church attendance|attendance at church]] was scant.<ref>Chambers, Robert (1885). ''Domestic Annals of Scotland'', p. 211.</ref> The [[Parliament of Scotland]] officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been "purged of all superstitious observation of days".<ref name="RPS1">{{cite web|url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=fc&fn=charlesi_ms&id=id8564&query=&type=ms&variants=&google= |title=Act dischairging the Yule vacance |work=[[The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707]] |publisher=University of St Andrews and National Archives of Scotland |version=(in [[Middle Scots]]) |access-date=February 29, 2012 |location=St Andrews |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519170629/http://www.rps.ac.uk/search.php?action=fc&fn=charlesi_ms&id=id8564&query=&type=ms&variants=&google= |archive-date=May 19, 2012 }}</ref> Whereas in England, Wales and Ireland Christmas Day is a common law holiday, having been a customary holiday since [[time immemorial]], it was not until 1871 that it was designated a [[Public holidays in the United Kingdom|bank holiday]] in Scotland.<ref name="scotland-1871">{{cite web|url=http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/bankholidays.pdf |title=Bank Holiday Fact File |last=Anon |date=May 22, 2007 |work=TUC press release |publisher=TUC |access-date=January 12, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603185926/http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/bankholidays.pdf |archive-date=June 3, 2013 }}</ref> Following the Restoration of Charles II, ''Poor Robin's Almanack'' contained the lines: "Now thanks to God for Charles return, / Whose absence made old Christmas mourn. / For then we scarcely did it know, / Whether it Christmas were or no."<ref>{{cite book|last=Miall|first=Anthony & Peter|title=The Victorian Christmas Book|year=1978|publisher=Dent|isbn=978-0-460-12039-5|page=7}}</ref> The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of the 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years.<ref>{{cite book|last=Woodforde|first=James|title=The Diary of a Country Parson 1758–1802|year=1978|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-281241-4|url=https://archive.org/details/diaryofcountrypa00wood}}</ref>

As in England, Puritans in [[Colonial America]] staunchly opposed the observation of Christmas.<ref name="Barnett" /> The [[Pilgrim Fathers|Pilgrims]] of New England pointedly spent their first December 25 in the New World working normally.<ref name="Barnett" /> Puritans such as [[Cotton Mather]] condemned Christmas both because scripture did not mention its observance and because Christmas celebrations of the day often involved boisterous behavior.<ref>{{cite speech |last=Mather |first=Cotton|title=Grace defended. A censure on the ungodliness, by which the glorious grace of God, is too commonly abused. A sermon preached on the twenty fifth day of December, 1712. Containing some seasonable admonitions of piety. And concluded, with a brief dissertation on that case, whether the penitent thief on the cross, be an example of one repenting at the last hour, and on such a repentance received unto mercy?|date=December 25, 1712|location=Boston, Massachusetts|publisher= B. Green, for Samuel Gerrish|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N01303.0001.001?rgn=main;view=fulltext|access-date=August 12, 2022|language=English}}</ref><ref name="nissenbaum">Stephen W. Nissenbaum, "[https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44539478.pdf Christmas in Early New England, 1620–1820: Puritanism, Popular Culture, and the Printed Word]", ''Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society'' '''106''':1: p79-164 (January 1, 1996). Retrieved December 25, 2023.</ref> Many non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England.<ref>{{cite book |last=Innes |first=Stephen |year=1995 |title=Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England |publisher=[[W.W. Norton & Company]]|isbn=978-0-393-03584-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9XUKUkulSkIC&pg=PA145 |page=145 }}</ref> Christmas observance was outlawed in [[Boston]] in 1659.<ref name="Barnett">{{cite book |last=Barnett |first=James Harwood |year=1984 |title=The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture |publisher=Ayer Publishing |isbn=978-0-405-07671-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sRH9skUh6oC&pg=PA2 |page=3}}</ref> The ban on Christmas observance was revoked in 1681 by English governor [[Edmund Andros]], but it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.<ref>{{cite book |last=Marling |first=Karal Ann |year=2000 |title=Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00318-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUc13_ourtYC&pg=PA44 |page=44}}</ref>

At the same time, Christian residents of [[Virginia]] and New York observed the holiday freely. [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] settlers, predominantly [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] settlers of [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania|Bethlehem]], [[Nazareth, Pennsylvania|Nazareth]], and [[Lititz]] in Pennsylvania and the [[Wachovia, North Carolina|Wachovia]] settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes.<ref>{{cite book |first=Nancy |last=Smith Thomas |title=Moravian Christmas in the South |page=20 |year=2007 |publisher=Old Salem Museums & Gardens |isbn=978-0-8078-3181-6}}</ref> Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the [[American Revolution]], when it was considered an English custom.<ref name="cinne">{{cite book
 |last =Andrews
 |first =Peter
 |title =Christmas in Colonial and Early America
 |publisher =World Book Encyclopedia, Inc.
 |year=1975
 |location =United States
 |isbn = 978-0-7166-2001-3}}</ref>
[[George Washington]] attacked [[Hessian (soldiers)|Hessian]] (German) mercenaries on the day after Christmas during the [[Battle of Trenton]] on December 26, 1776, Christmas being much more popular in Germany than in America at this time.

With the atheistic [[Cult of Reason]] in power during the era of [[Revolutionary France]], Christian Christmas [[church service|religious services]] were banned and the [[three kings cake]] was renamed the "equality cake" under [[Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution|anticlerical government policies]].<ref name="Inc1996">{{cite book|title=Christmas in France|year=1996|publisher=[[World Book Encyclopedia]]|isbn=978-0-7166-0876-9|page=35|quote=Carols were altered by substituting names of prominent political leaders for royal characters in the lyrics, such as the Three Kings. Church bells were melted down for their bronze to increase the national treasury, and religious services were banned on Christmas Day. The cake of kings, too, came under attack as a symbol of royalty. It survived, however, for a while with a new name—the cake of equality.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://historybuff.com/christmas-renamed-dog-day-french-revolution/|title=Why Was Christmas Renamed 'Dog Day' During the French Revolution?|last=Mason|first=Julia|date=December 21, 2015|publisher=HistoryBuff|access-date=November 18, 2016|quote=How did people celebrate the Christmas during the French Revolution? In white-knuckled terror behind closed doors. Anti-clericalism reached its apex on 10 November 1793, when a Fête de la Raison was held in honor of the Cult of Reason. Churches across France were renamed "Temples of Reason" and the Notre Dame was "de-baptized" for the occasion. The Commune spared no expense: "The first festival of reason, which took place in Notre Dame, featured a fabricated mountain, with a temple of philosophy at its summit and a script borrowed from an opera libretto. At the sound of Marie-Joseph Chénier's Hymne à la Liberté, two rows of young women, dressed in white, descended the mountain, crossing each other before the 'altar of reason' before ascending once more to greet the goddess of Liberty." As you can probably gather from the above description, 1793 was not a great time to celebrate Christmas in the capital.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161101103908/http://historybuff.com/christmas-renamed-dog-day-french-revolution/|archive-date=November 1, 2016}}</ref>