EPISODE · Dec 15, 2021 · 23 MIN
When Boston Banned Christmas
from The Harvard Religion Beat · host Harvard University
‘Tis this season of peace and goodwill, of traditions, both familial, and religious, and to some, it’s the time of year to freak out about the so called “War on Christmas.”A rallying cry for certain sectors of the media, Christmas, apparently, has been under siege for decades, with liberals and the non-religious doing everything they can to take Christ out of Christmas. But is Christmas really under threat? Even taking into consideration the constitutional separation of church and state, you can’t go anywhere in America during December and not be reminded that it’s Christmas. Decorations and ornaments, garland and lights, Christmas trees, even the media that surrounds us across any and all platforms, reminds us that Christmas is everywhere. So, if there’s a war on Christmas, then surely it’s being lost by whomever is waging it. Now, if you want to wage a real war on Christmas, as far as I can tell, the best way to do it is to just make it illegal, which is exactly what happened from 1659 to 1681 here in Boston, Massachusetts, when anyone caught celebrating the holiday would be subject to a fine of 5 shillings. And do you know who was responsible for canceling Christmas? Was it some anti-religious group or a bunch of pagans? Was it liberal policymakers or a rogue state official? Nope. It was one of the most pious groups of people at the time: the Puritans.I’m Jonathan Beasley, and this is the Harvard Religion Beat, a podcast examining religion's underestimated and often misunderstood role in society.Today, I’m speaking with David F. Holland, who is the John A. Bartlett Professor of New England Church History here at Harvard Divinity School. I wanted to get Professor Holland’s insight into two specific questions: Why did the Puritans ban the celebration of Christmas, and did that ban set the stage both for future similar laws, and even a particular New England way of life?
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What this episode covers
Did you know that Christmas was illegal in Massachusetts from 1659 to 1681, and anyone caught celebrating the holiday would be subject to a fine of 5 shillings? And who was responsible for canceling Christmas? Was it pagans, or liberal policymakers, or the anti-religious? Nope, it was one of the most pious groups of people at the time: the Puritans. "Puritans abided by what's sometimes been called the regulative principle of Biblicism, which is that not only do you need to do what the Bible enjoins you to do, but you should avoid establishing, as practices of spiritual significance, things that the Bible does not expressly endorse," says HDS Professor David F. Holland. “And so the absence of Christmas in scripture was the primary source of the kind of Puritan concern about it and condemnation of it.” But there was also another big reason for the ban, namely that Christmas had a tradition of being a time of social disorder, similar to Carnival. And that disorder, drunkenness, irreverence, and often sexual licentiousness, was something Puritans found unacceptable. Even though anti-Christmas sentiment and culture was still very much prevalent in New England until the mid-nineteenth century, Christmas became a national holiday in 1870 thanks to one particular phenomenon. “What really kind of gives Christmas it's propriety or its legitimacy in the culture of New England is the rise of a kind of cult of domesticity in the early nineteenth century and what some scholars have referred to as the birth of childhood,” says Holland, “the recognition of childhood as a distinctive stage of human development that deserves a certain kind of indulgence and a certain kind of happiness.”
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When Boston Banned Christmas
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