When Pilgrims came to America in 1620 they were strict Puritans who did not celebrate Christmas.
They argued that the scriptures did not name any holidays thus “They for whom all days are holy can have no holiday”.
“The Puritans who rejected Christmas in England were also against it when they landed in America.
Calling it “Foolstide,” it was outlawed in New England. Some continued to insist that Santa Claus was the Anti-Christ for the next two centuries.
Foolstide was forbidden to “celebrate in feast or frolic”.
There were several reasons for their disdain of Christmas in particular.
First of all, the holiday did not start out as Christmas, the birth of Christ.
That did not happen until Pope Julius I chose the day to celebrate the birth of Christ to overshadow the pagan ritual of Saturnalia, the birthday of the Roman Sun god Mithra.
The Puritans were furious, believing that Christ was born sometime in September and it was historically inacurate to place his arrival on December 25th.
One of the main reasons the puritans did not like Christmas was old english practice of “Lord of Misrule” when they believed, men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas,”than in all the 12 months besides.
Puritans in the English Parliament eliminated Christmas as a national holiday in 1645.
Settlers in New England went even further, outlawing Christmas celebrations entirely in 1659.
Anyone caught shirking their work duties or feasting was forced to pay a significant penalty of five shillings.
In New England it remained banned until the 1680s.
1712-Cotton Mather, told his flock in 1712 “the feast of Christ’s nativity is spent in reveling, dicing, carding, masking, and in all licentious liberty…”
1797-Anti-Christmas sentiment flared up again around the time of the American Revolution. Colonial New Englanders began to associate Christmas with royal officialdom, and refused to mark it as a holiday.
1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a public holiday, and other states soon followed suit.
1850, in New England, schools and markets remained open on Christmas Day.
Christmas Day was formally declared a federal holiday by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870.
Well Christmas. You’ve come a long way baby.
So Feast, Frolic, Celebrate and Love.
Tony Ray Baker
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Tony Ray
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