When the war on Christmas started

[RecycleMichael]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/the-puritan-war-on-christmas.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

EACH year, as wreaths and colored lights are hung on any structure that can support their weight, another holiday tradition begins: the bemoaning of the annual War on Christmas.

The American Family Association has called for boycotting Old Navy and the Gap for, out of political correctness, not using the term "Christmas" in their holiday advertising. Parents have criticized schools for diminishing Christmas celebrations by giving equal time to Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. And the Catholic League used to have a Christmas "watch list" for naming and shaming "Christmas kill-joys."

Anxiety over the War on Christmas is, in other words, an American tradition. But few realize how far back that tradition goes. The contemporary War on Christmas pales in comparison to the first — a war that was waged not by retailers but by Puritans who considered the destruction of Christmas necessary to the construction of their godly society.

In the early 17th century in England, the Christmas season was not so different from what it is today: churches and other buildings were decorated with holly and ivy, gifts were exchanged and charity was distributed among the poor.

Also much as it is today, it was a period of carousing and merriment. The weeks around Christmas were celebrated with feasting, drinking, singing and games. Mummers would blacken their faces and dress up in costumes, often in the clothes of the opposite sex, to perform plays in the streets or in homes. Carolers, too, would sing door to door as well as in the home. Wealthy lords threw open their manors, inviting local peasants and villagers inside to gorge on food and drink. Groups of young men called wassailers would march in and demand to be feasted or given gifts of money in exchange for their good wishes and songs.

Puritans detested these sorts of activities, grumbling that Christmas was observed with more revelry than piety. Worse, they contended that there was no Scriptural warrant for the celebration of Jesus' birth. Puritans argued (not incorrectly) that Christmas represented nothing more than a thin Christian veneer slapped on a pagan celebration. Believing in the holiday was superstitious at best, heretical at worst.

When the Puritans rebelled against King Charles I, inciting the English Revolution, the popular celebration of Christmas was on their hit list. Victorious against the king, in 1647, the Puritan government actually canceled Christmas. Not only were traditional expressions of merriment strictly forbidden, but shops were also ordered to stay open, churches were shut down and ministers arrested for preaching on Christmas Day.

The Puritans who came to America naturally shared these sentiments. As the Massachusetts minister Increase Mather explained in 1687, Christmas was observed on Dec. 25 not because "Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian" ones. So naturally, official suppression of Christmas was foundational to the godly colonies in New England.

On their first Christmas in the New World, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony celebrated the holiday not at all. Instead they worked in the fields. One year, the colony's governor, William Bradford, yelled at visitors to the colony who, unaware that Christmas was celebrated more in the absence than in the commemoration, were taking the day off. He found them "in the streete at play, openly; some pitching the barr, and some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports." After that incident, no one again tried to take off work for Christmas in the colony.

The Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony went one step further and actually outlawed the celebration of Christmas. From 1659 to 1681, anyone caught celebrating Christmas in the colony would be fined five shillings.

Well into the 18th century, those who attempted to keep the tradition of wassailing alive in New England often found themselves arrested and fined. Indeed, the Puritan War on Christmas lasted up to 1870, when Christmas became a legally recognized federal holiday. Until then, men and women were expected to go to work, stores were expected to remain open, and many churches did not even hold religious services.

So the next time someone maintains that they are defending traditional American values by denouncing the War on Christmas, remind them of our 17th-century Puritan forefathers who refused to condone any celebration or even observance of the holiday. In America, our oldest Christmas tradition is, in fact, the War on Christmas.

[guido911]

It's the "Christians" war on Christmas we should be thinking about, got it. Wonder how those Puritans would have celebrated Kwanzaa?

[Townsend]

Wonder how those Puritans would have celebrated Kwanzaa?

How to celebrate Kwanzaa:

http://www.wikihow.com/Celebrate-Kwanzaa

[RecycleMichael]

I love kwanzaa messages.

December 26: "Umoja" — Unity
December 27: "Kujichagulia" — Self-determination
December 28: "Ujima" — Collective work and responsibility
December 29: "Ujamaa" — Cooperative economics
December 30: "Nia" — Purpose
December 31: "Kuumba" — Creativity
January 1: "Imani" — Faith.

These are traits I want in my children.

[sauerkraut]

Kwanzaa was invented in 1966, but it did not become popular until the late 1990's. I saw a house with a sign out front that read "In this house we say Merry Christmas"... Anyhow, It's more like a war against the Christian faith it goes on all the time..

[Townsend]

Kwanzaa was invented in 1966, but it did not become popular until the late 1990's. I saw a house with a sign out front that read "In this house we say Merry Christmas"... Anyhow, It's more like a war against the Christian faith it goes on all the time..

OK, explain the "war against the Christian faith".  Knock my socks off.

[Hoss]

OK, explain the "war against the Christian faith".  Knock my socks off.

Prepare to keep your socks awhile...

[Townsend]

Prepare to keep your socks awhile...

He's obviously preparing a well thought out statement.  Give him a chance.  I'm sure there's going to be something amazing placed on our screens to sate our thirst for knowledge.

[Hoss]

He's obviously preparing a well thought out statement.  Give him a chance.  I'm sure there's going to be something amazing placed on our screens to sate our thirst for knowledge.

You may have to wait until his next trip to the library.

[guido911]

I love kwanzaa messages.

December 26: "Umoja" — Unity
December 27: "Kujichagulia" — Self-determination
December 28: "Ujima" — Collective work and responsibility
December 29: "Ujamaa" — Cooperative economics
December 30: "Nia" — Purpose
December 31: "Kuumba" — Creativity
January 1: "Imani" — Faith.

These are traits I want in my children.

And once again, here's Karenga.

In 1971, Karenga "was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and false imprisonment".[14] One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman claimed to have been stripped and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga's former wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that he sat on the other woman's stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.

A May 14, 1971, article in the Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women:

    "Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters."

Karenga explained his actions by saying that one of the women he had tortured had attempted to assassinate him, but he had no evidence.[14][15][16]

Karenga argues that his imprisonment was political.[17] Some scholars have raised similar questions.[18][19]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Karenga

[sauerkraut]

This thread seems more like it's a war on Sauerkraut.. and off topic. Anyhoo, I have noticed more stores are saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays". If a store clerk  says "Happy Holiday" to me I ask her "What Holiday are you talking about"? It must be remembered that Christ is the reason for the season, and it is a church holiday~ a Christian church holiday at that, and sorry if that offends anyone but it is what it is...  It's  not a "Winter Fest" it's not a "Santa Holiday" or anything else... Is it any wonder we in Tulsa  now have to have two Christmas Parades one for the PC crowd so as not to offend anyone with thin skin, and the other Parade is the real  Christmas Parade  with Christ as the focus.

[Hoss]

This thread seems more like it's a war on Sauerkraut.. and off topic. Anyhoo, I have noticed more stores are saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays". If a store clerk  says "Happy Holiday" to me I ask her "What Holiday are you talking about"? It must be remembered that Christ is the reason for the season, and it is a church holiday~ a Christian church holiday at that, and sorry if that offends anyone but it is what it is...  It's  not a "Winter Fest" it's not a "Santa Holiday" or anything else... Is it any wonder we in Tulsa  now have to have two Christmas Parades one for the PC crowd so as not to offend anyone with thin skin, and the other Parade is the real  Christmas Parade  with Christ as the focus.

I don't care if someone says Happy holidays or what have you, I say Merry Christmas.  I sure don't into a huge tizzy and ask people 'what holiday are you talking about' when they tell me Happy Holidays.

Let's remember one of the big reasons why this nation got started.  Religious persecution.  Let's also not forget that technically, Christmas is a Pagan holiday having roots in the Roman holiday Saturnalia.  In the 4th century, Christians tried (and evidently successfully) to hijack the holiday to bring new Christians into the fold.  So when you tell people Christ is the reason for the season..uhh...not so much.  It's the Romans.

And I'll leave it there.

[RecycleMichael]

If a store clerk  says "Happy Holiday" to me I ask her "What Holiday are you talking about"?

Why you gotta be so antagonistic? Being rude to people doing their job makes you feel superior?

They said happy holidays to you to be nice. You act as if they threw a bomb at you (like in a war).

If there is a war on Christmas, you started it.

[RecycleMichael]

This thread seems more like it's a war on Sauerkraut..

Posters on this forum represent all the spectrum of political and philosophical viewpoints. When nobody agrees with you, take a hint that you might be in the minority on this topic.

[Townsend]

If a store clerk  says "Happy Holiday" to me I ask her "What Holiday are you talking about"?

That's when the clerk rolls her eyes and starts thinking about calling security because you come off as a scary individual with issues.