A Luke Warm Reception

Thanks to Constantine, Christmas was officially a December 25th holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus but it wasn’t an instant success. Despite edicts declaring a date and focus of worship, many Christians still viewed the holiday as a pagan festival and weren’t enthusiastic about participating. Universal acceptance of Christmas did not occur until more recently. During the Middle Ages, the pagan winter festivals had all but faded and the Christian Christmas was what remained. But the holiday of yore was not exactly what it is today; followers went to church on Christmas but then proceeded to party wildly, reminiscent of the how pagan festivals were carried out. The celebration was closer to Mardi Gras than that of modern Christmas practices.

During the Reformation period of the early 16th century, the Roman Church was rejected and a return to scripture as the ultimate spiritual authority took hold. With no explicit biblical support for the celebration of Christmas or citable requirement calling for the observation of Christ’s birth, Christmas was viewed merely as an unsavory event created from the adoption of pagan rituals and thought by the Catholic Church instead of a Christian festival born from the bible. The outcry against Christmas prompted the Catholic Church to begin promoting the holiday as a more religious festival.

In the 17th century, English Puritan Oliver Cromwell helped change the way Christmas was celebrated (or not celebrated) in Europe. Being the extreme faction of the Protestant reformation, the Puritans viewed Christmas as a desecration of the spirit of Christ. Cromwell, who gained power in England in the mid 1600’s, supported the view that any events which included drinking, feasting, decorating, singing, playing –basically anything considered a party or fun-should not be allowed, ever. Puritans were set on ridding England of decadence and heathen activities and therefore Christmas was cancelled by an act of Parliament in the 1640’s. The prohibition remained in effect until the Restoration of 1660 when Charles II was restored to the throne. Although the celebration of Christmas was still frowned upon by some clergy and Puritan leaning church goers, people were once again free to hold public festivities with the same exuberance and revelry as before.