This is Oliver Cromwell.
The man that overthrew King Charles I in the English civil war.
But Cromwell was also embroiled in a lesser-known controversy.
He and his fellow members of parliament made celebrating Christmas illegal.
The greenery, the feasting, the dancing, the drinking … basically anything that
indicated it was a holiday was banned.
So people were cross.
There were uprisings, huge fights in the street.
The ban in England only lasted for around 17 years but it had a profound impact
on how we celebrate Christmas and conversely helped Christmas become one of the most resilient
and flexible of all the holiday festivals.
In the mid-17th century, there were lots of similarities to how we celebrate Christmas now.
Drinking, exchanging presents, singing and dancing
people feasted on roast meats, fruit pies
and special ales.
But the Protestant Puritans of the time saw the whole concept of celebrating Christmas as illegitimate.
So in 1643, parliament banned Christmas.
And from this point until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660
celebrating Christmas was officially illegal.
Shops and businesses were forced to stay open on Christmas Day.
It was illegal just to attend the Christmas service.
Even food being prepared for Christmas celebrations were seized.
The need was to say this is an ordinary day.
If it's an ordinary day, you don't have greenery, you don't get drunk …
well, maybe …
You don't eat to excess, you don't do all
of the various elements which mark out Christmas.
It wasn't long until people took to the streets and pro-Christmas riots broke out.
The legislation applied throughout the English territories.
Weirdly, the Scots had to endure the ban for longer than anyone else.
In 1957, Christmas was still formally illegal in Scotland.
It had officially been banned for 250 years.
So, what did Cromwell and his fellow Puritans have against Christmas?
Their main argument was that there was no biblical reason or reference
reference for celebrating the Nativity on 25 December.
The whole point was that the Bible is the actual and literal word of God.
There isn't a sentence in the Bible that says Christ was born on 25 December
and this is what the problem was for those who felt that Christmas
was not biblically sanctioned.
The Bible doesn't say exactly when Jesus was born
but it does offer some clues.
There are details that we know Mary giving birth,
the shepherds in the field who see the angel, they travel to see the child and
so on and so forth.
It's worth noting that the gospel of James says Mary gave birth
in a cave and even though it is not part of the modern canon of the New Testament,
it is still relevant and we'll come back to why later.
What isn't in the Bible is any indication of when this takes place.
If it's December even in the Middle East, why are the sheep out, freezing in the fields at night?
This doesn't happen in winter.
The best estimates for Jesus's birth, according to biblical scholars,
are either 17 April, 29 May or 15 September.
So, if Jesus wasn't born on 25 December, then
how did we end up celebrating on this day?
Well, the date of Jesus's birth wasn't the only problem that the Puritans had with Christmas.
There were also a few too many similarities with Roman festivals.
During the time of the Roman empire, the end of December was full of celebrations.
You have Saturnalia, which was a gift-giving and a feasting holiday.
It ran for a week from 17 December.
At the other end you have the Kalends,
the New Year holiday.
It's feasting, it's processions, it's small gift-giving,
there's greenery, you're beginning to see where all our elements are coming from.
In the middle of those two, 25 December, the Day of the Unconquered Sun,
you have the solstice holiday.
It was one of the biggest events of the year.
The celebration was marking the birth of a god.
This god was called Mithras.
When the god Mithras is born, he emerges from a cave, which is coincidentally or not
observed by two shepherds.
So there are parallels that accreted to the Christian religion from Mithraism,
just as the celebratory elements accreted from
Saturnalia, from the Kalends.
I think that by the time the church settled on a
celebration of the nativity, this is a convenient time of year. It's useful.
So, the Puritans were correct in a lot of ways but the ban actually had the effect
of making the festival more popular.
In a way, it clarified what Christmas was for people.
'It's winter, we're depressed as hell, please could we have a party?'
And by keeping businesses open, which of course includes taverns, inns, pubs,
it meant people could meet and drink and feast in a way that was harder when Christmas was
observed and everything was closed.
So it actually increased the sociability element.
And the Christian dimension of Christmas also thrived after the ban.
What the church has done with its element of the holiday,
it took on elements of the family focus and religious and secular
together worked for charitable ends to say this is a lovely holiday of family
but if you're cold and hungry or on the streets, it's perhaps a little less lovely
and so together let us help those who are less fortunate and that was very much
religious as well as secular.
The charitable, family-centred Victorian-style Christmas has become so quintessential
of the festive holiday we know today.
My main source for this video was Judith's book, Christmas: A Biography.
Check it out, there's loads of great information in there that we didn't have time to cover.
If you celebrate Christmas or any other festival at this time of the year,
tell us what you do and if you like the video please like and subscribe.
Thanks for watching.