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. Oliver Cromwell – What circumstances led to the Civil War? There was a widespread, though minority view, that Christmas should be a fast day devoted to sober religious contemplation. 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. By the early 17th Century Puritans and other firm Protestants were seeing the Christmas jollifications as unwelcome survivors of Catholicism as well as excuses for all manner of sins. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our. Oliver Cromwell banned celebrations, Christmas, Morris dancing, maypole dancing, feasting, dancing. Here, Taylor was hinting to his readers that the godly parliamentarians posed a potential threat to Christmas itself. During early 1646, Charles I’s remaining field forces melted away almost as fast as the winter snow and by April the game was clearly up for the king. 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. He wanted Christmas to be a purely religious celebration in which people contemplated the birth of Jesus. Resistance in some areas, however, was brazen. In 1647, Christmas was banned in England. Oliver Cromwell – Why did you refuse the Crown? A few months earlier, parliament’s New Model Army, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, had routed the forces of Charles I at the battle of Naseby. “No, God forbid I should be so profane,” the ‘lecturer’ goes on, “rather it is a detestation of their blindness that have brought me hither this day, to enlighten you… [and] I give you to understand that the very name of Christmas is idolatrous and profane, and so, verily, are the whole 12 days [of Christmas] wherein the wicked make daily… sacrifices to riot and sensuality”. On 25 December 1647, there was further trouble at Bury, while pro-Christmas riots also took place at Norwich and Ipswich. Eating a mince pie or singing carols was made illegal. Many tried to resist the directive at first, and groups of young men staged pro-Christmas riots in London and Canterbury, smashing the windows of shopkeepers who continued to trade on Christmas Day. The origin of the ban dates back to the beginning of 1642 when England was on the cusp of a civil war that would see it operate as a Republic for a brief period of time under Oliver Cromwell. When King Charles II returned to power in 1660 one of his first acts was to repeal all the anti-Christmas legislation, helping foster his image as the “Merry Monarch”. Thanks! Learning objectives: To understand why Christmas was banned in England. Puritanism was imposed after the English parliament had adopted the Puritan beliefs t… 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. Throughout the medieval period, Christmas Day had been marked by special church … There seems to be a problem, please try again. Many may be surprised to learn that Christmas used to be illegal in America — all thanks to Protestants. It was in part ideological. Oliver Cromwell – Britain’s Greatest Ever General? 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”. Oliver Cromwell – Do you see yourself as the Godfather of Democracy & Parliament? 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. Why did Cromwell abolish Christmas? The smell of a goose being cooked could bri… There were further dark mutterings the next year. A group of Londoners set up holly and ivy decorations and in doing so, had to face down a group of soldiers. 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 … 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. Three months later, a number of Puritan tradesmen in London opened up their shops for business on 25 December in order to show that they regarded this day as no different from any other, while several London ministers kept their church doors firmly shut. Cromwell banned Christmas as people would have known it then. Meanwhile, many MPs turned up to sit in the parliament house, thus making their own disdain for the customary Christmas holiday very clear. Here’s a Reformation indeed!”. The story begins in England, just before Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell came to power. 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. Main Task:Read through the mystery clues. In one passage, Taylor/‘old Christmas Day’ – here described as “an old, old, very old grey-bearded gentleman” – is portrayed sitting dejectedly in the midst of the king’s shrinking territories, while desperately urging “all you that ever think to see Christmas again, stick to me now close!”, Any lingering hopes on the part of the royalists that popular anger at the abolition of Christmas might somehow transform their military fortunes were soon to be dispelled. From this point until the Restoration in 1660, Christmas was officially illegal. By entering your details, you are agreeing to HistoryExtra terms and conditions and privacy policy. 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. When Christmas was banned in Scotland ... some years after the death of Oliver Cromwell. And as political tensions between Charles I and his opponents in parliament rose during 1641 so a handful of Puritan extremists took it upon themselves to abandon the celebration of Christmas. The Law Commission said none of the 11 laws that remained on the statute books after Cromwell’s reign related to mince pies. As Ronald Hutton has observed, this clause encouraged religious radicals on the ground to seize the initiative and to attack those aspects of the traditional ecclesiastical calendar which they disliked. On 24 December 1644, the editor of a pro-parliamentarian news-pamphlet expressed his support for the MPs’ decision to favour the monthly fast over the traditional feast, but admitted that “the parliament is cried out on” by the common people as a result, with incredulous shouts of “What, not keep Christmas? Why did Cromwell abolish Christmas? 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