VII
(p. [158])
Christmas in England during the Commonwealth
Christmas was abolished in England in the seventeenth century during the reign of the Puritans, and its prohibition was strictly enforced. In 1644, after the overthrow of the monarchy, when the Puritans came into power, an Act of Parliament forbade all observance of Christmas, for it was held that Christmas was not originally a Christian festival at all, but was of heathen origin. Parliament directed that the 25th December, “which had hitherto been commonly called Christmas Day,” was to be kept as a fast. This law remained in force for sixteen years, and during this period the enactment was repeated and made still more stringent. No church dare be opened, no service of any kind held; the law expressly enacted that on Christmas Day everyone was to go on as usual with his work, and every merchant who shut his shop on this day was brought before the judge and punished. Markets were held on this day which had hitherto been held on other days, merely to make it impossible to keep the day as a festival. Plum-pudding and mince pies were branded as heathenish inventions. The soldiers were charged to break into houses in order to see that no one had food in his home such as used to be eaten at Christmas and when anything of this kind was discovered, the soldiers were to seize it and the people were punished into the bargain. There were naturally some who refused to abstain from the celebration of Christmas in obedience to these directions of the Parliament; many ministers performed service in their churches and several of them were taken before the judge and punished. In different places disturbances broke out, especially owing to the orders of Parliament that markets were to be held on Christmas Day while they were forbidden on other days of the week. In Canterbury, for instance, there was a general riot; the whole town was divided into two parties—those who observed Christmas and their opponents, and the festival of peace ended in a general row; many houses of the town were totally destroyed and some set on fire. Charles II. made it his aim to revoke as quickly as possible the laws passed during the Commonwealth, and so before long Christmas was once more observed as before. The Nonconformists, however, long held by their determination not to celebrate Christmas, and they kept a sharp look-out that at least their ministers should eat no Christmas pudding or mince pies; they called Yuletide Fooltide. In Scotland, Christmas is still regarded as something heathenish; the Presbyterians will have nothing whatever to do with its celebration, and throughout the country no special notice is of it as a religious feast. [This, of course, only refers to the Protestants of Scotland. Trans.]