The contrast between October and December 1621 in Plymouth is a telling illustration of culture Pilgrim-style. In October, the Pilgrims held what has come to be called the First Thanksgiving. It lasted several days, featuring marksmanship and other contests in addition to good food. In short, it was about as communal and festive as the Pilgrims could ever be. Two months later, however, on “the day called Christmas Day,” their leader, Governor William Bradford, recorded in his journal that he “called them out to work.”
That was normal. For the Pilgrims, Dec. 25 was a day just like any other. Christmas, they thought, was a “papist” invention. Unlike their feast days, they couldn’t find it in the Bible, so they wouldn’t celebrate it. The previous year, they had spent their first Christmas in Plymouth splitting lumber.
But a year later not everyone agreed. Some newly arrived colonists objected that “it went against their consciences to work” on Christmas. So Bradford grudgingly excused them “till they were better informed” and led the wiser, more veteran colonists away to work. Returning at noon, however, he was horrified to discover the newcomers “in the street at play, openly” engaged in various sports.
By the end of the Commonwealth, we had had quite enough of the kill-joy Puritans, and were relieved to welcome back the extravagant and fun-loving House of Stuart, even if some of the bad came back with the good. The Puritans never quite went away though.
One still hears echoes of the anti-Christmas party though [if party is the right word], even in the church. Of course the Orthodox make much more of the feast of Easter, but we should celebrate the gift of birth, even though death is important as it is accompanied by resurrection. I am happier with Christmas. It looks forward, and Christ taught us how to live. As Charles Wesley’s carol puts it:
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Of course, Christmas IS a papist invention. It was invented out of whole cloth in the 4th century. It remained an obscure mass for monks until around the 11th century when the Roman church allowed Western bishops to co-opt Celtic and Germanic solstice rituals and celebrations to successfully convert pagans. The Protestant Reformation was in many ways a “war on Christmas” and other non-Biblical rituals and celebrations. In Massachusetts, Christmas was banned for only three decades. In Scotland, it was banned in 1650 and remained disestablished and unrecognized by both the church and state for three centuries.