One Christmas day in America:
~Crowds of Americans rioting in the streets.
~Two opposing groups shout loudly, vying to have their messages heard and heeded.
~Confrontation ensues.
~Fistfights break out.
~Church windows are smashed.
What are these rioters fighting about? Observing Christmas. One group favors celebrating Christmas, the other opposes all Christmas observances.
This isn't an imaginary event, it is history. It happened in Boston on Christmas day in 1706.
Christ Mass was only one of many special masses and feasts of the Roman Catholic Church celebrating key events in Jesus' life or the birthdays of saints. The three main Protestant movements that ultimately came to America had three different reactions to this situation.
(1) Anglican. Although the Anglican Church developed a Protestant theology, it kept much of Catholic liturgy, including festivals celebrating aspects of Christ's life and the feast days of many saints. It gave special emphasis to the celebration of Christmas.
(2) Lutheran. After Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517, special liturgical observances began to be frowned upon. The Lutherans thought that the celebrations of saints' days were too much and so cancelled them. But they still emphasized observing events in Jesus' life, and so continued with joyous [non-religious] Christmas festivities.
(3) Evangelicas/Calvinists, In Switzerland any Christian holy days not mentioned in Scripture were banned. That approach meant that the Sabbath was acceptable, but nothing else. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and other celebrations were to be treated as normal days with nothing special about them. This position came to be quite influential in Great Britain, even though it never altered the position of the Anglican Church. John Knox brought Calvinism to Scotland as Presbyterianism where Christmas was banned in 1583, while the Puritans brought Calvinism into England. During the Civil War in 1647, Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan followers outlawed Christmas observance. It was brought back in 1660 at the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II.
From England, BOTH sides brought their Christmas beliefs to America. The Puritans (later becoming Congregationalists) were joined by Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists and Baptists on the anti-Christmas side, while the Anglicans dominated the pro-Christmas side, and were later joined by the Lutherans and the Dutch Reformed. In Boston, the Puritans outlawed Christmas in 1659, and reinforced the ban in 1689.
What was the American objection to celebrating Christmas?
(1) Theologically, it reflected the “pagan” character of Catholic worship. Christmas was not a biblical holiday and had not even become a Christian festival before the late 300s; it was a creation of the church, not of Christ.
(2) Practically, the holiday was accompanied by extensive reveling. Celebrations were NOT worshipful, but involved feasting, game playing, heavy drinking, shooting, and gambling. For the over-indulgers, it brought out the worst of their excesses. Since the holiday celebrated the Savior's birth, such immoral behavior was seen as sacrilegious.
Over time, however, Christmas observance began to be more accepted. Church-goers turned their attention to purifying the holiday of its excesses, rather than rejecting it altogether.
~By 1750, Christmas carols were being added to hymnals
~By 1800, Christmas was observed with an emphasis on family and children.
~By 1836, Alabama made Christmas Day a legal holiday (Oklahoma was the last state in 1907)
~By 1900, with the large influx of Roman Catholic Irish/Italian immigrants and shifting demographic, Christmas as a religious celebration - often largest attendance of the year - gained popularity
[With our modern love-affair with Christmas, this seems foreign to our concept. Religion Editor P.V. Flesher at the University of Wyoming, whose editorials are the source of the above, is trying to help us understand history and evolution of our church's modern attitude]
~Crowds of Americans rioting in the streets.
~Two opposing groups shout loudly, vying to have their messages heard and heeded.
~Confrontation ensues.
~Fistfights break out.
~Church windows are smashed.
What are these rioters fighting about? Observing Christmas. One group favors celebrating Christmas, the other opposes all Christmas observances.
This isn't an imaginary event, it is history. It happened in Boston on Christmas day in 1706.
Christ Mass was only one of many special masses and feasts of the Roman Catholic Church celebrating key events in Jesus' life or the birthdays of saints. The three main Protestant movements that ultimately came to America had three different reactions to this situation.
(1) Anglican. Although the Anglican Church developed a Protestant theology, it kept much of Catholic liturgy, including festivals celebrating aspects of Christ's life and the feast days of many saints. It gave special emphasis to the celebration of Christmas.
(2) Lutheran. After Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517, special liturgical observances began to be frowned upon. The Lutherans thought that the celebrations of saints' days were too much and so cancelled them. But they still emphasized observing events in Jesus' life, and so continued with joyous [non-religious] Christmas festivities.
(3) Evangelicas/Calvinists, In Switzerland any Christian holy days not mentioned in Scripture were banned. That approach meant that the Sabbath was acceptable, but nothing else. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost and other celebrations were to be treated as normal days with nothing special about them. This position came to be quite influential in Great Britain, even though it never altered the position of the Anglican Church. John Knox brought Calvinism to Scotland as Presbyterianism where Christmas was banned in 1583, while the Puritans brought Calvinism into England. During the Civil War in 1647, Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan followers outlawed Christmas observance. It was brought back in 1660 at the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II.
From England, BOTH sides brought their Christmas beliefs to America. The Puritans (later becoming Congregationalists) were joined by Presbyterians, Quakers, Methodists and Baptists on the anti-Christmas side, while the Anglicans dominated the pro-Christmas side, and were later joined by the Lutherans and the Dutch Reformed. In Boston, the Puritans outlawed Christmas in 1659, and reinforced the ban in 1689.
What was the American objection to celebrating Christmas?
(1) Theologically, it reflected the “pagan” character of Catholic worship. Christmas was not a biblical holiday and had not even become a Christian festival before the late 300s; it was a creation of the church, not of Christ.
(2) Practically, the holiday was accompanied by extensive reveling. Celebrations were NOT worshipful, but involved feasting, game playing, heavy drinking, shooting, and gambling. For the over-indulgers, it brought out the worst of their excesses. Since the holiday celebrated the Savior's birth, such immoral behavior was seen as sacrilegious.
Over time, however, Christmas observance began to be more accepted. Church-goers turned their attention to purifying the holiday of its excesses, rather than rejecting it altogether.
~By 1750, Christmas carols were being added to hymnals
~By 1800, Christmas was observed with an emphasis on family and children.
~By 1836, Alabama made Christmas Day a legal holiday (Oklahoma was the last state in 1907)
~By 1900, with the large influx of Roman Catholic Irish/Italian immigrants and shifting demographic, Christmas as a religious celebration - often largest attendance of the year - gained popularity
[With our modern love-affair with Christmas, this seems foreign to our concept. Religion Editor P.V. Flesher at the University of Wyoming, whose editorials are the source of the above, is trying to help us understand history and evolution of our church's modern attitude]
