{"id":2072,"date":"2020-12-17T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T19:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/why-the-puritans-cracked-down-on-celebrating-christmas\/"},"modified":"2024-10-29T18:23:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T01:23:07","slug":"puritans-christmas-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/puritans-christmas-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3378-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3378-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n      <div class=\"image-caption\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  \u2018Going To Church,\u2019 N.C. Wyeth (1941). (Image source: Archival photograph, Brandywine River Museum library, Edward J. S. Seal Collection.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=faculty\">Faculty<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Controversy about celebrating Christmas is nothing new, the Puritans were opposed to Christmas celebrations as well. <strong>[4\u00bd min read]<\/strong>\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Peter C. Mancall<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">December 17, 2020<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      <\/span>\n                        <a class=\"a2a_button_copy_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"\/#copy_link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"Link\">\n            <span class=\"a2a_svg a2a_s__default a2a_s_copy_link\">\n              <svg height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 19 19\" width=\"19\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m7.43475275 9.52380952-2.17490843 2.26076008c-1.08745421 1.058837-1.68841575 2.518315-1.68841575 4.0350275 0 1.5167124.60096154 2.9475732 1.68841575 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xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"m8.14285714 9.42857143c-.17142857 0-.34285714 0-.51428571.08571428l7.28571427 6.34285719c.3428572.2571428.6857143.2571428.9428572 0l7.2857142-6.34285719c-.0857142-.08571428-.2571428-.08571428-.4285714-.08571428zm-1.28571428 1.11428567v.1714286 8.5714286c0 .6857143.6 1.2857143 1.28571428 1.2857143h14.57142856c.6857143 0 1.2857143-.6 1.2857143-1.2857143v-8.5714286c0-.0857143 0-.0857143 0-.1714286l-7.2 6.3428572c-.7714286.6857143-1.8857143.6857143-2.6571429 0z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" transform=\"translate(-6 -9)\"\/><\/svg>\n            <\/span>\n            <span class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>When winter cold settles in across the U.S., the alleged \u201cWar on Christmas\u201d heats up.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, department store greeters and Starbucks cups <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/the-goods\/2018\/11\/2\/18052550\/starbucks-holiday-cup-explained-2018-controversies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">have sparked furor<\/a> by wishing customers \u201chappy holidays.\u201d This year, with state officials warning of holiday gatherings becoming superspreader events in the midst of a pandemic, opponents of some public health measures to limit the spread of the pandemic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2020\/12\/04\/tucker-carlson-brings-back-war-christmas-maybe-thats-good-thing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are already casting them as attacks on the Christian holiday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But debates about celebrating Christmas go back to the 17th century. The Puritans, it turns out, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/122132\/the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum\/\">were not too keen on the holiday<\/a>. They first discouraged Yuletide festivities and later outright banned them.<\/p>\n<p>At first glance, banning Christmas celebrations might seem like a natural extension of a stereotype of the Puritans as joyless and humorless <a href=\"https:\/\/media.newyorker.com\/cartoons\/5fb44c558e27531302a6e768\/master\/w_2560,h_2068,c_limit\/201130_a23576.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that persists to this day<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-complicated-legacy-of-the-pilgrims-is-finally-coming-to-light-400-years-after-they-landed-in-plymouth-145002\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">as a scholar who has written about the Puritans<\/a>, I see their hostility toward holiday gaiety as less about their alleged asceticism and more about their desire to impose their will on the people of New England \u2013 Natives and immigrants alike.<\/p>\n<h2>An aversion to Christmas chaos<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/24950\/24950-h\/24950-h.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The earliest documentary evidence<\/a> for their aversion to celebrating Christmas dates back to 1621, when Gov. William Bradford of Plymouth Colony castigated some of the newcomers who chose to take the day off rather than work.<\/p>\n<p>But why?<\/p>\n<p>As a devout Protestant, Bradford did not dispute the divinity of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Puritans spent a great deal of time investigating their own and others\u2019 souls because they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cornellpress.cornell.edu\/book\/9780801490415\/visible-saints\/#bookTabs=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">so committed to creating a godly community<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Bradford\u2019s comments reflected Puritans\u2019 lingering anxiety about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historytoday.com\/archive\/christmas-under-puritans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the ways that Christmas had been celebrated in England<\/a>. For generations, the holiday had been an occasion for riotous, sometimes violent behavior. The moralist pamphleteer Phillip Stubbes believed that Christmastime celebrations <a href=\"http:\/\/tei.it.ox.ac.uk\/tcp\/Texts-HTML\/free\/A13\/A13086.html#index.xml-body.1_div.6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gave celebrants license<\/a> \u201cto do what they lust, and to folow what vanitie they will.\u201d He complained about rampant \u201cfooleries\u201d like playing dice and cards and wearing masks.<\/p>\n<p>Civil authorities had mostly accepted the practices because they understood that allowing some of the disenfranchised to blow off steam on a few days of the year tended to preserve <a href=\"https:\/\/earlymodernnotes.wordpress.com\/2004\/08\/31\/carnival-and-the-carnivalesque\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an unequal social order<\/a>. Let the poor think they are in control for a day or two, the logic went, and the rest of the year they will tend to their work without causing trouble.<\/p>\n<p>English Puritans objected to accepting such practices because they feared any sign of disorder. <a href=\"https:\/\/public.wsu.edu\/%7Ecampbelld\/amlit\/purdef.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">They believed in predestination<\/a>, which led them to search their own and others\u2019 behavior for signs of saving grace. They could not tolerate public scandal, especially when attached to a religious moment.<\/p>\n<p>Puritan efforts to crack down on Christmas revelries in England before 1620 had little impact. But once in North America, these seekers of religious freedom had control over the governments of New Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut.<\/p>\n<h2>Puritan intolerance<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/press.princeton.edu\/books\/hardcover\/9780691179995\/the-city-state-of-boston\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Boston became the focal point<\/a> of Puritan efforts to create a society where church and state reinforced each other.<\/p>\n<p>The Puritans in Plymouth and Massachusetts used their authority to punish or banish those who did not share their views. For example, they exiled an Anglican lawyer named <a href=\"https:\/\/yalebooks.yale.edu\/book\/9780300230109\/trials-thomas-morton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Morton<\/a> who rejected Puritan theology, befriended local Indigenous people, danced around a maypole and sold guns to the Natives. He was, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/24950\/24950-h\/24950-h.htm#a1627\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bradford wrote<\/a>, \u201cthe Lord of Misrule\u201d \u2013 the archetype of a dangerous type who Puritans believed create mayhem, including at Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>In the years that followed, the Puritans exiled others who disagreed with their religious views, including <a href=\"https:\/\/constitutioncenter.org\/timeline\/html\/cw01_11804.html\">Anne Hutchinson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/history\/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280\/\">Roger Williams<\/a> who espoused beliefs deemed unacceptable by local church leaders. In 1659, they banished three Quakers who had arrived in 1656. When two of them, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, refused to leave, <a href=\"https:\/\/nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu\/content\/quakers-fight-religious-freedom-puritan-massachusetts-1656-1661\">Massachusetts authorities executed them in Boston<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This was the context for which Massachusetts authorities outlawed Christmas celebrations in 1659. Even after the statute <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/news\/when-massachusetts-banned-christmas\">left the law books in 1681<\/a> during a reorganization of the colony, prominent theologians still despised holiday festivities.<\/p>\n<div class=\"news-image-right news-image-portrait\">\n<figure style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/increase-mather-3378.jpg\" alt=\"Increase Mather poses wearing a black cape.\" width=\"300\" height=\"362\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Minister Increase Mather loathed Christmas celebrations. (Image source: Getty Images.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 1687, the minister Increase Mather, who believed that Christmas celebrations derived from the bacchanalian excesses of the Roman holiday Saturnalia, <a href=\"https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/cgi\/t\/text\/text-idx?c=eebo2;idno=A50236.0001.001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">decried those consumed<\/a> \u201cin Revellings, in excess of wine, in mad mirth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The hostility of Puritan clerics to celebrations of Christmas should not be seen as evidence that they always hoped to stop joyous behavior. In 1673, Mather had called alcohol \u201ca good creature of God\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/e\/evans\/N00124.0001.001\/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">and had no objection to moderate drinking<\/a>. Nor did Puritans have a negative <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonmagazine.com\/arts-entertainment\/2016\/10\/18\/puritans-and-sex-myth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">view of sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>[<em>You\u2019re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation\u2019s authors and editors.<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/us\/newsletters\/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&amp;utm_medium=inline-link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-text&amp;utm_content=youresmart\">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n<p>What the Puritans did want was a society dominated by their views. This made them eager to convert Natives to Christianity, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.natickhistoricalsociety.org\/naticks-beginnings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">which they managed to do in some places<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/1917047?seq=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">They tried to quash what they saw as usurious business practices<\/a> within their community, and in Plymouth <a href=\"http:\/\/mayflowerhistory.com\/crime\">they executed a teenager who had sex with animals<\/a>, the punishment prescribed by the Book of Leviticus. When the Puritans believed that Indigenous people might attack them or undermine their economy, they lashed out \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nlm.nih.gov\/nativevoices\/timeline\/208.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">most notoriously in 1637<\/a>, when they set a Pequot village on fire, murdered those who tried to flee and sold captives into slavery.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison to their treatment of Natives and fellow colonists who rebuffed their unbending vision, the Puritan campaign against Christmas seems tame. But it is a reminder of what can happen when the self-righteous control the levers of power in a society and seek to mold a world in their image.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/151359\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/peter-c-mancall-313858\">Peter C. Mancall<\/a>, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/usc-dornsife-college-of-letters-arts-and-sciences-2669\">USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>This article is republished from <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/why-the-puritans-cracked-down-on-celebrating-christmas-151359\">original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/on-the-naughty-list-beware-krampus-is-coming\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >On the naughty list? Beware, Krampus is coming!<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/legacy-of-pilgrims-comes-to-light-on-400th-anniversary\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >The complicated legacy of the Pilgrims is finally coming to light 400 years after they landed in Plymouth<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/thanksgiving-why-the-pilgrims-survived\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Why the Pilgrims were actually able to survive<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Controversy about celebrating Christmas is nothing new, the Puritans were opposed to Christmas celebrations as well. <strong>[4\u00bd min read]<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,533,83],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","tag-holidays","tag-peter-mancall","tag-the-conversation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/puritans-christmas-crackdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why the Puritans cracked down on celebrating Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Controversy about celebrating Christmas is nothing new, the Puritans were opposed to Christmas celebrations as well. [4\u00bd min read]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/puritans-christmas-crackdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-17T19:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-30T01:23:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-3378.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1064\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Liu\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uscdornsife\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" 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