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"Bradford’s comments reflected Puritans’ lingering anxiety about the ways that Christmas had been celebrated in England. For generations, the holiday had been an occasion for riotous, sometimes violent behavior. The moralist pamphleteer Phillip Stubbes believed that Christmastime celebrations gave celebrants license “to do what they lust, and to folow what vanitie they will.” He complained about rampant “fooleries” like playing dice and cards and wearing masks." https://theconversation.com/why-the-puritans-cracked-down-on-celebrating-christmas-151359 #History #Histodon #Histodons #Christmas #Xmas #Christianity #Religion #NewEngland #America
@bibliolater
It's easy to forget because it's so deeply baked into our culture today, but the modern celebration of Christmas is really recent. In fact, many Protestant christian denominations (including the branch I was raised in) didn't recognize Christmas at all, and actively preached against the traditional Christian calendar, until the mid-20th century. (Think about it this way, most traditional "Christmas Carols" kids learn and sing at school Christmas concerts are still well within their copyright periods.)
The thing we call #Christmas today was really invented in the late 1800s and wouldn't be recognizable at all to any Christian in the 1700s or earlier.