The true history of the War on Christmas
Some of you may be confused about what is involved in waging war on Christmas.
I'm going to try and clear up this confusion.
#1) Waging war and killing people on Christmas Day is a good thing.
For example, Washington crossing the Deleware on Christmas night in order to slaughter drunk mercenaries is a legendary example of the Christmas spirit in America.
Note: Getting your ass kicked while trying to slaughter civilians on Christmas Day is a bad thing.
Hence, the reason Zachary Taylor isn't considered heroic while Washington is.
#2 Refusing to kill your fellow man on Christmas Day is a bad thing.
Sure, the famous Christmas Truce of World War I is remembered fondly now (by people who obviously don't understand the situation), but at the time the attitude was different amoungst more respectable leaders.
Cpl. Adolf Hitler of the 16th Bavarians lambasted his comrades for their unmilitary conduct:
Such things should not happen in wartime. Have you Germans no sense of honor left at all?
When Gen. Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, commander of the British II Corps, learned of the consorting, he was irate:
I have issued the strictest orders that on no account is intercourse to be allowed between the opposing troops. To finish this war quickly, we must keep up the fighting spirit and do all we can to discourage friendly intercourse.
To put this holiday into proper perspective, remember that it all started because some unemployed itinerant preacher, who never wrote a book, never held office, had a family or a house, who didn't have any credentials whatsoever, defied his political betters.
So he recieved the mock trial and crucifixion that any vagrant, bum, and ne'er do well, was supposed to recieve by law.
#3) Celebrating Christmas is evil, according to true Christians.
That is why the Puritans of Massachusetts outlawed all game-playing on Christmas Day in 1621.
Things were more severe in England.
"Resolved by the Parliament: That no observation shall be had of the five and twentieth day of December commonly called Christmas-Day; nor any solemnity used or exercised in churches upon the day in respect thereof."
- Act of Parliament, 1652
Town criers would go through the towns yelling "No Christmas! No Christmas!"
Because Christmas has no biblical origins, the puritans viewed Christmas as a pagan
holiday.
"The old Heathen's Feasting Day, in honor of Saturn their Idol-God, the Papist's Massing Day, the Profane Man's Ranting Day, the Superstitious Man's Idol Day, the Multitude's Idle Day,
Satan's -- that Adversary's -- Working Day, the True Christian Man's Feasting day...We are persuaded, no one thing more hindereth the Gospel work all the year long, than doth the observation of that Idol Day once in a year, having so many days of cursed observation with it."
- 1656, Hezekiah Woodward, regarding Christmas
Of course puritans, especially those in England, were against having fun in general.
Pointless enjoyment was frowned upon. Cromwell shut many inns and the theatres were all closed down. Most sports were banned. Boys caught playing football on a Sunday could be whipped as a punishment. Swearing was punished by a fine, though those who kept swearing could be sent to prison.
Sunday became a very special day under he Puritans. Most forms of work were banned. Women caught doing unnecessary work on the Holy Day could be put in the stocks. Simply going for a Sunday walk (unless it was to church) could lead to a hefty fine.
Women had to wear a long black dress, a white apron, a white headdress and no makeup. Any woman caught wearing makeup on the streets would have it scrubbed off by soldiers. Men had to dress head to toe in black and cut their hair short.
If a Sunday walk was against the law, you can just imagine what sort of outrage celebrating a pagan holiday like Christmas might bring.
Thus the Real War on Christmas began.
In January 1645 parliament enlisted the help of a group of ministers to create a Directory of Public Worship establishing a new organisation of the church and new forms of worship that were to be adopted and followed in both England and Wales. According to the Directory, the population was to strictly observe Sundays as holy days and were not to recognise other festival days, including Christmas, since they had no biblical justification.
Cromwell considered Charles I not sufficiently christian, despite passing these laws. So shortly before having Charles beheaded, Cromwell abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun in 1647. Soldiers would patrol the streets of London and seize food that they suspected of being prepared for Christmas.
Attending Christmas mass was specifically forbidden in England.
"I went to London with my wife to celebrate Christmas-day, Mr. Gunning preaching in Exeter Chapel, on Micah VVII:2. Sermon ended, as he was giving us the Holy Sacrament, the chapel was surrounded with soldiers, and assembly surprised and kept prisoners by them, some in the house, others carried away.
- diary of John Evelyn, 1657
Cromwell eventually died in 1658. After Charles II regained the throne, he had Cromwell's body dug up and put on trial. His body was found guilty of being a traitor. It was hanged from the gallows. He was then decapitated and his head was put on display at Westminster Hall for over 20 years.
I hope this help clear up your confusion about Christmas.
Comments
Christmas has always been controvercial.
During the first 2 centuries CE the church grappled with wither it was appropriate to celebrate a birth of christ because to them it detracted from the Easter story. Complicating that was the then belief that important men died on their birthday and combining that with with the Shepherds out in the field many wished to do Easter and Birthday during the same period. The vernal equinox.
The first public celebrations of Christmas wasn't until 313 when Constantine accepted Christianity as the Roman State Religion and they continued to spend centuries arguing where to celebrate it on Dec 25 or Jan 6 which has never been totally resolved. in fact there are still limited sects who celebrate a Spring birth.
Chrismas when through a period in which the celebration turned into drunken sectarian or a mixture of pagan religions and the backlash finally cased a 15 year ban on the celebration in Briton. Calvinist did not celebrate Christmas because it is not explicitly named as a a celebration in the bible.
I could go on and on. Read Christmas in the Crosshairs for a scholarly look at Christmas which has always been controversial and there is always something about the season and it's celebration to piss off someone else especially at the intersections of various cultures with their own traditions rub againstan a world wide phenomena and not just something Bill O'Reilly made up.
Modern Christmas began to evolve toward the middle of the 19th Century and since then has for most take on a highly secular commercial implication here in America which is of course controversial with those who want to "keep Christ in Christmas." In the meantime other countries fight to keep their own traditions and of course non Christian faiths which greatly out number Christians are compelled to figure out how to deal with its vast commercial implications.
The truth doesn't lead itself to a bumper sticker slogan.
Thanks for bringing a more complex picture to our attention. By the way Merry Christmas.
The current "war on Christmas" is mostly a crock.
Based on discussions with friends last year? It consists of their not being able to say "merry Christmas". When I asked them who is preventing them from saying "merry Christmas" they got all huffy & couldn't answer.
Yes, if you work for a public school (government entity) you're pretty much limited to "happy holidays" and it's "winter vacation" not "Christmas break". But if, say you are a parent, nothing is preventing you from saying merry Christmas. We aren't 6 after all and the principal doesn't control what we say (exception is if we're speaking at some school activity).
If you work for a retailer your employer can require you to say "happy holidays". They didn't like my point that a lot of the big retail companies are ny based (Macy's for example) and have a sizable number of Jewish customers who don't celebrate Christmas, instead celebrating hanaukuh (sic) so "happy holidays" works for both. But again, just because a sales clerk says "happy holidays" doesn't mean you can't reply "merry Christmas". I don't see pc police from the govt roaming the malls to arrest people for saying merry Christmas. And malls still have Santa, a Christian symbol.
Yeah, municiplatites have problems with Christmas trees. I see someplace in Indiana topped theirs with a cross. And the usual court case has ensued. So the cross is going to come down. But so a municipality can't have a "Christmas" tree; nothing prevents a private individual or a church from having one. Why one would look to the government anyways for religious instruction is beyond me. And I expect most of the people yapping about we can't have a Christmas tree yada yada are unawares of its pagan origins.
The one that bugs me is it's not Halloween anymore; it's "fall festival" down here in the south. And that's because of "you can't celebrate witchcraft" type shit. It's Halloween, folks. Kids dressing up like cartoon or Disney characters & getting candy is the furthest thing from witchcraft.
I've taken to saying Was Hale!
On the theory that Yule (as a solstice festival) is open to everyone.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Consumermas.
That's all it is to me. I participate to the extent that I bring good holiday cheer to my co-workers, my kids and grandkids. I take the opportunity to send a few holiday cards with handwritten updates summarizing my year. It's a way to stay in touch with others instead if using social media, for me. I just don't get into the consumerism of it anymore, but I used to. That's how I participate in this particular war.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Advent is a penitential season
The other (better known one) is Lent. So as a practicing Christian, I find the commercialism to be completely at odds with my personal spiritual practice.
All religions embody what the Lutherans would call prophetic tension - an ongoing critique of the dominant social order. Every time one of them gets absorbed by a political or economic system, it isn't good for either side.
We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed.
- Greta Thunberg
Excellent and enjoyable.
I'll throw in my two cents since I can't buy much with them anyway.
If Jesus existed, he had a family. Regardless of who you think his daddy was, we know he did have a mom, a father who raised him and a biological father, who, depending on your beliefs, may have been mortal or a deity. The Bible also says he has brothers. How one interprets "brothers" depends. If you believe Jesus's mom died a virgin, then you interpret "brothers" as members of his extended family. If you don't believe she died a virgin, then you may or may not interpret "brothers" as his brothers.
He probably did not have a wife and children of his own, but I don't think the Bible says, one way or the other. I don't think the Bible says what kind of trial Jesus had, either. However, he was handed over to Pilate. Pilate (kind of) said that Jesus had done nothing wrong, He was not charged with vagrancy and he would not have been crucified for that under Roman law. What the charges were is unclear, but he did say he was King of the Jews, while Herod was the official king. So, maybe that had something to do with it. (Maybe it's not always good to be the king!)
Yes and no. Puritans, who got their name for good reason, did not believe in celebrating Christmas because the Bible does not tell us that the disciples or apostles celebrated Christmas. The Bible does, however, speak of a celebration of the birth of Jesus. The wise men and the shepherds and even an angel or two celebrated the birth of Christ when he was born. Presents were even involved (though the Bible says nothing of gift wrapping and the OT inveighs against having a tree indoors).
Catholics and Orthodox of the time, who were also Christians and each of whom also considered themselves the only true Christians celebrated Christmas, though those two denominations celebrated Christmas on different days (Epiphany, too). So, unless we want to be in charge of decidiing who were the true true (sic) Christians and who weren't, we must remain neutral about who was right about celebrating or not celebrating Christmas.
The Puritans were very proud, haughty, even, of being purer than the Papists. The Bible, Proverbs Chaper16, verse 18 of the King James Version, to be exact, says "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." And, the Puritans indeed "fell" out of existence long before the "Papists" and Orthodox who did celebrate Christmas with special Christmas church services, if nothing else and who are still around.
As time passed, even things in the colonies got more lax. With a wink and a nod, colonials "celebrated Thanksgiving" (also not in the Bible!) for weeks. And, to this day, if you visit the Paul Revere home on the first Saturday in December, you can enjoy a "non-Christmas celebration," with cookies, punch and harpsichord music. An orange, danged hard to come by in Boston in colonial times, will probably be on the dining table, too, to signify celebrating.
Technically, though, colonial non-Catholics derided Papists so much that they refused for a long time to adopt the "Papist" Gregorian calendar, sticking instead to the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar, of course, was named after Julius Caesar, who brought the calendar back from Egypt, after hooking up with Cleopatra. Julius, of course, was a pagan who once declared himself God. How following his calendar was more pious than adopting a calendar prepared by scientists commissioned by celibate Pope Gregory, who, at a minimum, believed in Jesus, escapes me, but that's what happened. To this day, it complicates the job of genealogists and historians. (Orthodox Christmas and Epiphany have something to do with the Julian calendar, too, but don't ask me for details.)
Of course, while there was indeed at least one Biblical precedent for celebrating the birth of Jesus, there was no Biblical precedent whatever for observing the sabbath on Sunday because Jesus and the apostles celebrated it on Saturday, as did all Jews. So, the Puritans certainly had their own interpretations of what was Biblical and what wasn't, bless their hearts. And there was Biblical precedent for the Apostles celebrating Passover. Even Jesus did that, but Puritans did not, so go figure. I don't remember if there is Biblical precedent for celebrating Easter, but the Bible tells us that the apostles celebrated Pentecost.
Eventually, human tendencies and commerce outlasted the Puritans. By 1780, the English--and maybe colonials too-- were singing a carol about the twelve days of Christmas. In 1840, Queen Victoria married Albert, a Saxon who celebrated Christmas with a vengeance and a Victorian Christmas became legendary and aspirational. Dickens' A Christmas Carol about a man celebrating Christmas after his redemption, was first published in 1843.. Manufacturers, importers, retailers and crafters never looked back.
The whole thing may have folded back in on itself somewhat when, for a time, Plimoth (sic) Plantation served a Victorian dinner on Thanksgiving. (I just checked the website. They didn't do that in 2016, sticking instead to things like "Indian" pudding.)
The modern war on Christmas began, I think, when some people, whether atheists or those who believe in a religion other than Christianity, finally began voicing opposition to spending tax money on creches and Christmas trees in public buildings and outdoor spaces in possible violation of the Establishment Clause. They also were unhappy about being wished a "Merry Christmas" whether it offended their beliefs or not. So, some people who try to be sensitive to others, instead of offending them for no good reason, switched to "Happy Holidays" instead, while others defiantly sent their Jewish friends Christmas cards. At least, I believe those were the opening shots in the modern war on Christmas.
I always forget to start preparing for the war on Christmas soon enough, so I just usually surrender from the off.
I hope you each and all all have a happy whatever doesn't offend you.