Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Christmas: A New Holiday

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The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities reminded interested readers yesterday that on 25 December 1659, our General Court passed a law:

[R]equiring a five-shilling fine from anyone caught “observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way.”

Christmas Day was deemed by the Puritans to be a time of seasonal excess with no Biblical authority. The law was repealed in 1681 along with several other laws, under pressure from the government in London.

It was not until 1856 that Christmas Day became a state holiday in Massachusetts. For two centuries preceding that date, the observance of Christmas – or lack thereof – represented a cultural tug of war between Puritan ideals and British tradition.

I did a double-take when I read that last paragraph: Christmas Day was not a state holiday until 1856. I guess this is a recent tradition. In any event, I like it.  Happy holidays everyone, ha ha ha!

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  1. I can see the Fox News headline from 1659: “Why do Massachusetts Puritans hate the baby Jesus?”  

    • Nowadays, attacks on Christmas are seen as attacks on Christianity, which is why Fox News goes on about “secularisation.”  However, in that era, the Puritans viewed Christmas not as a Christian celebration, but as a Catholic ritual, i.e., one based on paganism.  Thus, those who overtly celebrated Christmas were Catholic heretics and had to be placed at the pillory.  

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      p>Sure enough, anyone who notes Christmas lights will see that the most elaborate displays come from Catholic households (Italians, Irish, Poles, Hispanos, etc.).  Of course, since there are many more Catholics in this country, the citizens no longer see Catholicism as heresy (except for a few oddballs here and there).

  3. I did a double-take when I read that last paragraph: Christmas Day was not a state holiday until 1859.  

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    p>According to your excerpt it was 1856 that the state declared Xmas a state holiday.  It was 1659 that the state outlawed it.

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    p>The latter was another of the dumb laws that are probably available on dumblaws.com.

  4. website:

    Most Protestants and Roman Catholics and some Orthodox Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25. Before the 19th century, many Americans worked on Christmas, but in the industrial era the holiday began also to honor universal values, such as home, children and family life, and to incorporate secular customs like exchanging gifts and cards, and the decoration and display of evergreen “Christmas Trees.” Congress proclaimed Christmas a federal holiday in 1870.

  5. Sure the state didn’t recognize the holiday until 1856, but somebody had to be pushing to get it recognized. So how did people celebrate in the 1850s and 1840s I wonder?

    • And meditated on the wonders of the scientific revolution, and whether they were inimical to the precepts of organized religion, no doubt.

    • but I would venture that Dickens observations of industrial GB are relevant. He published a Christmas Carol in 1843.

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      p>

      Contemporaries noted that the story’s popularity played a critical role in redefining the importance of Christmas and the major sentiments associated with the holiday. A Christmas Carol was written during a time of decline in the old Christmas traditions.[4] “If Christmas, with its ancient and hospitable customs, its social and charitable observances, were in danger of decay, this is the book that would give them a new lease,” said English poet Thomas Hood.[5]

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      p>

      The story deals extensively with two of Dickens’ recurrent themes, social injustice and poverty, the relationship between the two, and their causes and effects. It was written to be abrupt and forceful with its message, with a working title of “The Sledgehammer.”……Dickens wrote in the wake of British government changes to the “Poor Laws” (welfare system), changes which required among other things, welfare applicants to “work” on treadmills, as Ebenezer Scrooge points out. Dickens asks, in effect, for people to recognise the plight of those whom the Industrial Revolution has displaced and driven into poverty and to provide for them.

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      p>Hmmmmm, a title. Let’s see, how about “A Christmas Carol in Prose”, or maybe “The Sledgehammer”. Tough call.  

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