Here s a bit of Christmas controversy. It s controversy dad!
Alright, alright, haud yer reindeer. The point is that in recent years there
s been a heated debate about whether Scotland and the rest of the UK
are distinct or the same. When you look at history there
can be few things that illustrate the division more than Christmas.
Does that surprise you? because they don t talk about that.
If you re interested in the people places and events in
Scottish history then click the subscribe button at the bottom right of the Screen
In the meantime, let me tell you the story I almost didn t use those opening lines,
because I wanted to avoid controversy Controversy!
at this family time of year yet it s hard to avoid how
much Christmas has been a mark of difference between those north and south of the border.
Just think for a minute when Christmas was finally imposed
as a national holiday in Scotland and where that decision was made
Whilst you re doing that I m going to talk to the Jews and the Muslims.
Look I know you guys have had your differences over the years
just like the folks in the other camera. I m kind of hoping we can put all that behind
us and just tell the historical tale. If you guys are cool with that,
then I ll try to keep them happy, but first, I m going to let the Buddhists and the Hindus in
so there ll be an elephant in the room
probably WITH four extra arms and maybe smoking a hookah hash pipe ,
or is that just me? I don t know Let s see how this goes.
Once upon a time Christmas was harmonious and happy.
There was fun, feasting and frivolity. People sung carols and celebrated the birth
of the baby Jesus. Not you, I know.
Then the Reformation happened. Some Christian folks thought that
things had strayed away from the original meaning of the faith.
Instead of a body of worshippers, the church had become an institution
with top-down dictated rules and customs without any real connection to God
Some people wanted to get back to faith, piety and Godliness
and they were prepared to kill anyone who would stop them
There was a lot of killing . but I don t need to tell you guys about that
Now the Reformation in Scotland happened quite late and with some fervour.
People should go back to the word of God and put aside the frippery of saints and saints days,
and feast days that were never mentioned in the Bible.
Whenever you read pre-Reformation accounts of events in history,
they always happen on the day after this saint s day , or two weeks before that feast day . CR
All these saint s days were mince and havers and good Scots Presbyterians saw them for
the abomination that they were. Of course, even in God s country
there were the sinful, who clung to these superstitions like papists or
Episcopalians from the south, rather than hold to the true kirk
and it s higher calling. Well, there was a remedy for them
those found `playing, dancing and singing filthy carols on Yule day`
That s not me exaggerating. That s a quote from the kirk session
of Aberdeen in December 1574. On December 26th 1583
the Glasgow Kirk Session sentenced five people who had held Christmas
celebrations to public repentance , to sit at the front of the kirk on
the `black stool` to be admonished with the fornicators and adulterers
Now James VI tended a bit towards the Episcopalean , for good political reasons.
Better for the king to appoint bishops and control the church as was done in England,
rather than the church electing it s leaders bottom up, like in Scotland.
When James moved south to become King of England in 1603
you can imagine how far he strayed from the straight and narrow path
that lead s all good men to God. In 1617 James reinstated Christmas.
He d have us behave like all his heathen English subjects in those Godless southern lands
Though I dare say there are some good puritans amongst them
but there s talk of them sailing off to the Americas.
Now when James died his son Charles became king. I don t need to tell you that things went badly
for him and it ended with English Civil War
But I am going to give you a little factoid you probably didn t realise.
Now the English Civil War started in 1642 but its roots were in Scotland in 1638.
The struggle between the Episcopalianism of English kings imposing bishops
and Scottish Presbyterianism got worse with Charles I,
and came to a head when the English prayer book was read out in St Giles Cathedral on
Sunday, 23 July 1637. Now there s no point in me going into all this.
I ve covered it in several videos on my channel including
Scottish Causes of the English Civil War and the one about The Covenanters:
The Anti Jacobites Covenanters were the
guys who signed a covenant to say that the King wasn t above the Scottish church
and couldn t impose bishops and all those English ways.
It led to The Bishop s Wars between 1638 and 1640 When Covenanters got the better of Charles
s forces, he went looking for money and opened an English parliament that turned
out to be the Pandora s powder keg of the English Civil War.
I thought this was about Christmas you say, and it is.
You see not only did Charles end up with a Parliament in England that opposed him,
But in June 1640 the Covenanters in Scotland held a Parliament in defiance of the absent king,
during which they passed 65 pieces of legislation in 10 days:
establishing the Committee of Estates, strengthening the powers
of parliament against the king, issuing letters of fire and sword
against royalists in Scotland, making plans to invade England AND HERE S YOUR FACTOID
abolishing Christmas. Invading England and abolishing
Christmas went hand in hand. It was the same thing!
The Act Discharging the Yule Vacance made on 2nd June 1640 said .
"... the kirk within this kingdom is now purged of all superstitious
observation of days... therefore the said estates have discharged
and simply discharge the foresaid Yule vacation and all observation thereof in time coming,
and rescind and annul all acts, statutes and warrants and ordinances
whatsoever granted at any time heretofore for keeping of the said Yule vacation,
with all custom of observation thereof, and find and declare the same to be extinct,
void and of no force nor effect in time coming.") Santa got the sack
and it would be empty for years to come. Five years later, the General Assembly of
the Church of Scotland forbade schools and colleges from taking a Christmas holiday.
The students were raging and started `bar-the-door` days,
where headmasters were locked out by their pupils as a protest
but December 25th was a normal working day in Scotland
and the Kirk would punish folk taking holidays like those heathen English.
On January 29th 1650 the Dunfermline kirk session summoned
Bessie Coupar, Bessie Sands and William Malcolm `for taking superstitious holidays on Yule day`
They probably would have got off with the charge if they d carried a lucky rabbit s foot.
Now interestingly the first Union between Scotland and England brought a turn up for the books.
A lot of folks will bang on about the Union between Scotland and England in 1707,
not realising that this was the second time a Union had been imposed on Scotland.
The first time was under Cromwell at the end of those civil wars that raged
throughout the three kingdoms of the British Isles
but Cromwell took the same stance on Christmas as the Scots,
and banned Christmas everywhere. So even the Anglican apostates would
have to come into line. Now I m sure you know that
when Cromwell died, Charles II came back from the continent to be king.
He unwound Cromwell s laws, so that first union between
Scotland and England was abolished and life returned to normal.
Those southern Philistines went back to their superstitious celebrations
and we pious Scots could return to dreary,
mundane, upright and Godly Presbyterianism.
That was a narrow escape. We were now free of Christmas.
But Charles II DID interfere with the Scottish church
with Bishops and ordinances and putting himself above the church
and persecution of Covenanters that was so harsh these became known as The Killing times but worse
than all the killings and Episcopalianism was the creeping incursion of Christmas
If you doubt just how political Christmas was, the next big event was when Charles
s brother that followed him was ousted by Willliam of Orange.
The so-called Glorious Revolution must be one of the most significant political events in the
history of these islands. At the behest of the
Scottish parliament in 1690, William and Mary signed another
Act Discharging the Yule Vacance reiterating the one made in 1640.
Now if you re in Australia or New Zealand here s something for you to take down.
I ll be bringing a live history and comedy show, Stories of Scotland down under in 2023.
I ll be in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane Dunedin and let me know if you d like me to
come to your town. Then I come back to
Scotland to tour the show back home. I ll leave a link for all the dates and tickets,
home and away, in the description Anyway, five years after the second
Scottish English union, in 1707, that new Westminster parliament made
Christmas a Britain wide celebration in spite of the so called independence
of the Scottish church. Are you serious?
Of course, the Scottish church still discouraged this English
Christmas as a religious celebration. But the relentless pressure of Victorian Britain
and Prince Albert and Christmas trees and Charles Humbug Dickens and changing mince pies
from savoury to sweet. Who can resist them,
with cream, ice cream or custard? Damn you heathen English invaders!
do you want a mince pie? Oh, don t mind if I do.
Evil Sassenach
In 1871 that London Parliament used the Bank Holidays Act
to make Christmas Day a Bank Holiday in Britain. You just knew the bankers would be involved eh?
The Dunfermline Press of December 23rd 1871 read `We in this land of Wishart and Knox,
of `Confessions` and `Covenants` have not yet learned to welcome
Christmas with the same warmth of feeling as our brethren in the sister country.
But the day is not far distant, we believe, when this great national festival of the Church
will be observed with equal honour on both sides of the Tweed`
Not whilst I ve got anything to do with it! Bunch o Yoons!
Excuse me Mmmmmm,
lovely My aunts who, for a long time brought me up,
related that Christmas day for them was a normal working day.
Gifts would be exchanged at New Year a far more Godly time of year.
Of course as if the English weren t bad enough, the Americans got in on the act
making films like A Wonderful Life . Sneaky
Then in 1958 Christmas became a public holiday in Scotland;
and when I was born, six years later,
I grew up never realising that Scotland had been any different from England
and our journey towards the dark side was comlplete.
When I was a kid New Year was still the bigger celebration,
but throughout my lifetime that has been changing as well.
Very soon nobody will remember that things were different.
They don t tell you that about a Scottish Christmas.
Now I m going to take a couple of weeks off and I ll see you in the new year,
but another historic festive Scottish video is coming up on screen now.
Share this and watch that... and of you want to support the channel
click the link top right and become a Pateron member, or buy me a coffee in
the description below. In the meantime
Nollaig chrieall a huille duine agus Bliadna math ur. Slainte