This article was first published in the Christmas 2011 issue of BBC History Magazine, Save a huge 50% off a subscription to your favourite history magazine. The attack on the feast of Christmas had deep roots. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); It has been claimed that eating the snack is still illegal in England, if undertaken on Christmas Day. If you subscribe to BBC History Magazine Print or Digital Editions then you can unlock 10 years’ worth of archived history material fully searchable by Topic, Location, Period and Person. In December 1646, for example, a group of young men at Bury St Edmunds threatened local tradesmen who had dared to open their shops on Christmas Day, and were only dispersed by the town magistrates after a bloody scuffle. ... a riot broke out in Canterbury when pro-Christmas locals attacked and smashed the shops of people who dared to open on Christmas Day. An outright ban on Christmas was introduced in 1647 – when Cromwell and his soldiers were in bitter dispute with Parliament – with fines introduced for shops that did not remain open, and even intrusions into the home. Throughout the medieval period, Christmas Day had been marked by special church services, and by magnificent feasts accompanied by heavy drinking. The Battle to Keep Christmas. Christmas celebrations in New England were illegal during parts of the 17th century, and were culturally taboo or rare in former Puritan colonies from foundation until the mid-18th century. Following Parliament’s victory, the ban on Christmas was rigorously enforced and churches across the kingdom were kept locked on Christmas day. His book, The Black Legend of Prince Rupert’s Dog, is published by University of Exeter Press. On June 1647 Parliament passed an Ordinance that abolished Christmas Day as a feast day and holiday. 1647- 1659 In 1660 the ban was lifted. The legislation was deeply unpopular and was enforced only sporadically. Among the characters will be soldiers from New Model Army as well as Royalists in support of the return of monarchy. Please enter your number below. During the following year, moreover – when Christmas Day happened to coincide with one of the monthly fast days upon which parliament’s supporters were enjoined to pray for the success of their cause – MPs ordered, not only that the fast day should be “observed” instead of the traditional feast, but also that the fast should be kept “with the more solemn humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins, and the sins of our forefathers, who have turned this feast, pretending [to] the memory of Christ, into an extreme forgetfulness of him, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights”. On December 19, 1644, it ordered that December 25 should be marked as a fast, not a feast, and banned Christmas altogether. It has been claimed that eating the snack is still illegal in England, if undertaken on Christmas Day. The Puritan assault on Christmas during the 1640s and 1650s. Back in 1647, Christmas was banned in the kingdoms of England (which at the time included Wales), Scotland and Ireland and it didn’t work out very well. Christmas was effectively banned in Britain by a 1644 Act of Parliament, with the Long Parliament of 1647 passing an ordinance which officially abolished the feast of Christmas making its celebration punishable. It is a common myth that Cromwell personally ‘banned’ Christmas during the mid seventeenth century. As early as December 1643, the apprentice boys of London rose up in violent protest against the shop-keepers who had opened on Christmas Day, and, in the words of a delighted royalist, “forced these money-changers to shut up their shops again”. The worst disturbances of all took place at Canterbury, where a crowd of protestors first smashed up the shops which had been opened on Christmas Day and then went on to seize control of the entire city. It was in part ideological. This comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, when mince pies were banned at Christmas, along with other tasty treats. The smell of a goose being cooked could bri… Oliver Cromwell – Why did you refuse the Crown? How far Taylor succeeded in these aims it is impossible to say, but his satire quickly provoked a parliamentarian counter-satire entitled The Arraignment, Conviction and Imprisoning of Christmas. He … Did Oliver Cromwell really ban Christmas? Yet, for those who lived in the extensive territories which were controlled by the king’s enemies, there was to be no Christmas this year at all – because the traditional festivities had been abolished by order of the two Houses of Parliament sitting at Westminster. From this point until the Restoration in 1660, Christmas was officially illegal. While Cromwell certainly supported the move, and subsequent laws imposing penalties for those who continued to enjoy Christmas, he does not seem to have played much of a role in leading the campaign. 1647 was the exact year when Oliver Cromwell officially banned christmas. Oliver Cromwell – Do you deserve the Bad Press you have had over the Centuries? When Christmas carols were banned By Clemency Burton-Hill 19th December 2014 During the Puritans’ rule of England, celebrating on 25 December was forbidden. As the year 1645 limped towards its weary close, a war-torn England shivered beneath a thick blanket of snow. Festive food was removed from the streets which meant that the smell of a roasting goose could also bring trouble, while decorations, too, were banned. Oliver Cromwell – What was your proudest moment? The parliamentarians had abolished the high point of the English ritual year, and the cancellation of Christmas aroused huge popular resentment – not just in the royalist camp, but in the districts controlled by parliament, too. In 1647, Christmas was banned in England. Eight months later, that threat was to become all too real. Oliver Cromwell banned celebrations, Christmas, Morris dancing, maypole dancing, feasting, dancing. Thank you for subscribing to HistoryExtra, you now have unlimited access. So strong was the popular attachment to the old festivities, indeed, that during the postwar period a number of pro-Christmas riots occurred. Following a … With all forms of celebration associated with Christmas banned, this Puritan inspired prohibition did not win the popular vote of the general public and incited pro-Christmas riots and blatant flouting of the rules leading to confrontations in a number of cities including Canterbury, London and Norwich. Cromwell wanted it returned to a religious celebration where people thought about the birth of Jesus rather than ate and drank too much. Following Cromwell’s installation as lord protector in 1653, the celebration of Christmas continued to be proscribed. Following the rebellion of the Presbyterian Scots against Charles I in 1637, however, all this was to change. Many ordinary Londoners continued to show a dogged determination to keep Christmas special during the following year, and John Taylor’s decision to rush into print at this time with his Complaint of Christmas – a work which bore the same title as a pamphlet urging the enthusiastic observance of the mid-winter feast, which he had published as long ago as 1631 – was clearly motivated by a desire to stir up popular resentment against the parliamentarian leadership, as well as to turn a quick profit for its poverty-stricken author. Here, Taylor was hinting to his readers that the godly parliamentarians posed a potential threat to Christmas itself. The defeat of King Charles I in the Civil War put the more extreme Protestants into power and so Parliament passed a series of measures to enforce this campaign on others. Following a total ban … The documents provided here give some insight into aspects of domestic and foreign policy during the Commonwealth period under Oliver Cromwell when England was a republic. Edmund Calamy preached a sermon in the House of Lords saying: "This day is commonly called Christmas-day, a day that has heretofore been much abused in superstition and profaneness. When Christmas was banned in Scotland ... some years after the death of Oliver Cromwell. Main Task:Read through the mystery clues. Why did Cromwell abolish Christmas? The Law Commission said none of the 11 laws that remained on the statute books after Cromwell’s reign related to mince pies. In January 1645 the final nail was hammered into Christmas’s coffin, when parliament issued its new Directory for the Public Worship of God, a radical alternative to the established Book of Common Prayer, which made no reference to Christmas at all. In London, a crowd of apprentices assembled at Cornhill on Christmas Day, and there “in despite of authority, they set up Holly and Ivy” on the pinnacles of the public water conduit. Oliver Cromwell – Do you see yourself as the Godfather of Democracy & Parliament? This comes from the time of Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, when mince pies were banned at Christmas, along with other tasty treats. But the people of England weren’t letting Christmas go without a fight. Displays of Christmas decorations – holly, ivy and other evergreens – were banned. In London, the Puritan heartland, zealots such as John Barkstead, Governor of the Tower, prohibited festivities with such severity that some wondered whether ‘they shall be suffered to be Christians any longer or no’. Oliver Cromwell – Why did the King have to die? On June 1647 Parliament passed an Ordinance that abolished Christmas Day as a feast day and holiday. The Puritans ordered all shops to open as usual on Christmas Day. Festive games and carol singing were outlawed during the English Civil War But it wasn’t only the partying that was the reason for the ban. He wanted Christmas to be a purely religious celebration in which people contemplated the birth of Jesus. Everything you ever wanted to know about... A brief history of presidential impeachment, The hippy trail: a pan-Asian journey through history, Oliver Cromwell: the secret of his military genius, Saturnalia: the origins of the debauched Roman ‘Christmas’, Zwarte Piet: the history behind the Christmas controversy. So why had the parliamentarians decided to wage war on Christmas – and how did those, like Taylor, who were determined to defend the traditional celebrations, fight back? Oliver Cromwell wanted to tackle gluttony in England and he also thought that Christmas contained too many superstitions of the Roman Catholic Church, which he was not keen on … Following parliament’s victory in the Second Civil War and the execution of Charles I in 1649, demonstrations in favour of Christmas became less common. On 25 December 1647, there was further trouble at Bury, while pro-Christmas riots also took place at Norwich and Ipswich. Eating mince pies still hasn ’ t only the partying that was exact! Common myth that Cromwell personally ‘ banned ’ Christmas during the early 1600s, English! You are agreeing to HistoryExtra terms and conditions and privacy policy support of the return of.! To send 3,000 soldiers from New Model Army as well as Royalists in support of the Presbyterian Scots Charles. 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