Controversy and criticism
Main article: Christmascontroversy
Throughout the holiday's history, Christmashas been the subject of both controversy and criticism from a wide variety of different sources. The first documented Christmas controversy was Christian-led, and began during the English Interregnum, when England was ruled by a Puritan Parliament. [107] Puritans (including thosewhofledto America) sought to remove the remaining pagan elements of Christmas. During this brief period,the EnglishParliament banned the celebrationofChristmasentirely,consideringit "a popish festival with no biblical justification", and a time of wasteful and immoralbehavior. [108]
Controversy and criticism continues inthe present-day, where some Christian and non-Christians have claimed that an affront to Christmas(dubbed a "war on Christmas" by some) is ongoing. [109][110] In the United States there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays. [111] Groups such as the AmericanCivil Liberties Union have initiated court cases to bar the display of images and othermaterialreferringtoChristmasfrom public property, including schools. [112] Such groups argue that government-funded displays ofChristmasimageryand traditions violate the First Amendment tothe United States Constitution, which prohibits the establishment by Congress of a national religion. [113] In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch vs. Donnelly that a Christmasdisplay(which included a Nativity scene) ownedanddisplayedbythe city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island did not violate the First Amendment. [114] In November2009,the Federalappeals court in Philadelphia endorsed a schooldistrict's ban on the singing of Christmas carols. [115]
In the private sphere also, it has been alleged that any specific mention of the term "Christmas" or its religious aspects was being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a numberof advertisers and retailers. In response, the AmericanFamilyAssociation and othergroups have organized boycottsofindividual retailers. [116] In the United Kingdom there have been some minorcontroversies, one of the most famous being the temporarypromotion of the Christmas periodas Winterval by Birmingham City Council in 1998. There were also protests in November 2009 when the city of Dundee promotedits celebrations as the Winter Night Light festival, initially with no specific Christmas references. [117]
History
Pre-Christian background
Dies Natalis Solis Invicti
Main article: Sol Invictus
Dies Natalis Solis Invicti means "the birthday of the unconquered sun".
Modern scholars have argued that the festival was placed on the date of the solstice because this was on this day that the Sun reversed its southward retreat and proved itself to be "unconquered". [citation needed] Some early Christian writers connected the rebirth of the suntothe birthof Jesus. [7] "O, how wonderfullyacted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born...Christshould be born", Cyprian wrote. [7] JohnChrysostom also commented onthe connection: "They call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered'. Who indeed is so unconquered as OurLord . . .?" [7]
Although Dies Natalis Solis Invicti has been the subject of a great deal of scholarly speculation,. [citation needed] the only ancient source for it is a single mention inthe Chronography of 354, and modernSolscholarSteven Hijmans argues that there is noevidencethat the celebration precedes that of Christmas: [27] "[W]hile the winter solstice on or around the 25th of December was well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a religious celebrationofSolonthat day antedated the celebrationofChristmas, andnone that indicates that Aurelian had a hand in its institution." [27]
Winter festivals
Main article: List of winter festivals
A winter festival was the mostpopular festival of the year in many cultures. Reasons included the fact that less agricultural work needs to be done during the winter,as well as an expectation of betterweather as spring approached. [74] Modern Christmascustoms include: gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; and Yule logs and various foods from Germanic feasts. [75]
Pagan Scandinavia celebrated a winterfestival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. [citation needed] As Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, its pagan traditions had a major influence on Christmas, especially Koleda, [76] which was incorporated into the Christmas carol. Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul. In English, the word Yule is synonymouswith Christmas, [77] a usage firstrecorded in 900.
Christian feast The New Testament does not givea date forthe birthof Jesus. [7][78] Around AD 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote that a group in Egypt celebrated the nativity on25 Pashons. [7] This corresponds to May 20. [79] Tertullian (d. 220) does not mention Christmasas a major feast day in the Church of Roman Africa. [7] However, in Chronographai, a reference work published in 221, Sextus Julius Africanus suggested that Jesus was conceived on the spring equinox, popularizing the idea that Christwas born onDecember 25. [80][81] The equinoxwas March 25onthe Roman calendar, so this implied a birth in December. [82]
In 245, the theologian Origen of Alexandria stated that, "only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod)" celebrated their birthdays. [83] In 303, Christian writer Arnobius ridiculed the idea of celebrating the birthdays of gods. However, since Christmas does not celebrate Christ's birth"as God" but "as man", this is not evidenceagainst Christmasbeinga feastat this time. [7] Moreover, the fact that the innovation rejecting Donatist Church of North Africa celebrated Christmas suggests that the feasthad been established before the living memory of thosewhobegan that Church in 311.
Feast established
The earliest known reference to the date ofthe nativity as December 25 is found inthe Chronographyof354, an illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome. [84] In the East, early Christians celebrated the birthofChristas partof Epiphany (January 6), although this festival emphasized celebration of the baptism of Jesus. [85]
Christmas was promotedinthe Christian Eastas partofthe revival of Catholicism following the death ofthe pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced to Constantinople in 379, and to Antioch in about 380. The feast disappeared after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned as bishop in 381, although itwas reintroduced by JohnChrysostom in about 400. [7]
Middle Ages
In the Early Middle Ages, ChristmasDay was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in the westfocused onthe visitofthe magi. But the Medieval calendar was dominatedby Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St. Martin" (which began on November 11, the feastof St. Martin of Tours), now known as Advent. [15] In Italy, former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent. [15] Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 – January 5); a time that appears in the liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days. [15]
The prominence of ChristmasDay increased gradually after Charlemagne was crownedEmperoron ChristmasDay in 800. King Edmund the Martyr was anointed on Christmasin 855 and King William I of England was crownedon Christmas Day 1066.
By the High Middle Ages, the holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely notedwherevarious magnates celebrated Christmas. King Richard II of England hosted a Christmasfeastin1377at whichtwenty-eightoxen and three hundred sheep were eaten. [15] The Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmasfeasts. Caroling also became popular, and was originally a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemnedcaroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form. [15] "Misrule"—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there was special Christmas ale. [15]
Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated ivy, holly, and otherevergreens. [86] Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord. [86] The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting,andcard playing escalated inEngland,and by the 17th century the Christmasseason featured lavish dinners, elaborate masques and pageants. In 1607, King James I insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games. [87] It was during the Reformation in 16th–17th centuryEurope that many Protestants changed the giftbringer to the ChristChild or Christkindl, and the date ofgiving gifts changedfrom December 6 to ChristmasEve. [63]
Reformation into the 19th century Following the Protestant Reformation, groups such as the Puritans strongly condemnedthe celebrationofChristmas, considering it a Catholic inventionandthe "trappings of popery" or the "rags of the Beast." [18] The Catholic Church responded by promotingthe festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentryto return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old style Christmas generosity. [87] Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England's Puritan rulers banned Christmasin1647. [18]
Protests followed as pro-Christmasrioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. [18] The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants",andcarolsinging. [88] The Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 ended the ban, butmany clergymen still disapproved of Christmascelebration. In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church ofScotland also discouraged observance of Christmas. James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, howeverattendance at churchwas scant. [89]
In Colonial America, the Puritans of New England shared radical Protestant disapproval of Christmas. Celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681. The ban by the Pilgrims was revoked in 1681 by English governor Sir Edmund Andros, howeveritwas not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmasbecame fashionablein the Boston region. [19]
At the same time, Christian residents of Virginia and New York observed the holiday freely. Pennsylvania German Settlers, pre-eminentlythe Moravian settlers of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz in Pennsylvania and the Wachovia Settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The MoraviansinBethlehemhadthe first Christmas trees in America as well as the firstNativity Scenes. [90] Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the American Revolution, when it was considered an English custom. [91] George Washington attacked Hessian (German) mercenaries on Christmas during the Battle of Trenton in 1777, Christmasbeingmuch more popularin Germany than in America at thistime.
By the 1820s, sectarian tensionhadeasedinBritain and writers, including William Winstanly, began to worry that Christmas was dying out.These writers imagined Tudor Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration, and efforts were made to revive the holiday. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A ChristmasCarol, that helped revive the 'spirit' of Christmasandseasonal merriment. [16][17] Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion. [92]
Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity,in contrast to the community-based and church-centered observations, the observance of which had dwindled during the late 18th century and early 19th century. [93]
Superimposing his secular vision of the holiday, Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings,seasonal food and drink,dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit. [94] A prominent phrase from the tale, 'Merry Christmas', was popularized following the appearance of the story. [95]
The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, with 'Bah! Humbug!' dismissive of the festive spirit. [96] In 1843, the first commercial Christmascard was produced by Sir Henry Cole. [97] The revival of the ChristmasCarol began with William B. Sandys ChristmasCarols Ancient and Modern (1833), with the first appearance in printof 'The First Noel', 'I Saw Three Ships', 'Hark the HeraldAngels Sing' and 'God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen', popularized in Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
In Britain, the Christmastree was introduced in the early 19th century following the personal union withthe Kingdom of Hanover, by Charlotte ofMecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen to King George III. In 1832 a young Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmastree,hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it. [98] After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became more widespreadthroughout Britain. [50]
An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, created a sensation when it was published in the Illustrated LondonNews in 1848. A modified version of this image was published in the United States in 1850. [51][99] By the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common inAmerica. [51]
In America, interest in Christmashad been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmasfestivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, [100] and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. [87]
In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known byits firstline: Twas the Night Before Christmas). [101] The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance. [102] This also started the cultural conflict of the holiday's spiritualism and its commercialism that some see as corrupting the holiday. In her 1850 book"The FirstChristmasinNew England", Harriet Beecher Stowe includes a characterwho complains that the true meaning of Christmaswas lostina shopping spree. [103]
While the celebrationofChristmaswas not yetcustomaryin some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmashere in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feelingprevents itfrom being a cheerful, hearty holiday; thoughevery year makes it more so". [104] In Reading, Pennsylvania, a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterianfriends whohave hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas— threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior's birth". [104]
The First Congregational Church ofRockford, Illinois, 'although of genuine Puritanstock',was 'preparing fora grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864. [104] By 1860, fourteen states including severalfrom New England had adopted Christmasas a legalholiday. [105]
In 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States Federal holiday, signedintolawbyPresident Ulysses S. Grant. [105] Subsequently, in 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans.He has beencalledthe "father of the AmericanChristmascard". [106]
