Banned in Boston
The festive scene is straight out of Dickens--merry
crowds wandering down narrow streets, past stately, paneled doors with
giant
brass knockers worthy of Jacob Marley's ghost, and quaint, old shops.
Candlelit
windows display baskets of fruit, fine old silver, Chippendale
furnishings,
twinkling crystal and stained glass that sparkle like the Crown Jewels.
Everywhere, holly and laurel abound. The crisp, cold air is thick with
carols
and scented with roast chestnuts and cinnamon. But this is Christmas in
Boston,
where in 1910, Mrs. Ralph Adams Cram and friends (later "The Chestnut
Street Christmas Association") began to bedeck the Beacon Hill District
for the holidays.
It seems strange that such a tradition should be
found in a place where the very observance of Christmas was at one time
forbidden. The founding Puritans were, in fact, bitterly opposed to it,
and in
1659, passed a law in Massachusetts which read: "Whosoever shall be
found
observing any such day as Christmas, or the like, either by forbearing
of
labor, feasting in any other way, shall be fined 5 shillings." Oliver
Cromwell passed a similar law in England
during his ascendancy. With apologies to Scripture (Who are you to
judge
someone else's servant...He who regards one day as special does so to
the
Lord... Romans 14:4-6) the Massachusetts
law remained in place for over 20 years.
Although, outlawing Christmas
didn't actually keep Anglicans (Episcopalians), Catholics, Lutherans
and others
from celebrating the holidays, it did put a considerable damper on the
festivities. The playing of games was reason enough to be threatened
with jail.
Mince pie was even decried as "idolatrie in crust," " (a)
hodge-podge of superstition, (and) Popery..." [sic] for it
traditionally symbolized
the gifts of the Wise Men. The offending pie was baked in the form of a
manger, with a
lattice-work crust (if the cook was up to it) representing a haystack.
Believe
it or not, Christmas was not a legal holiday in that New England colony
until
the 19th century.
Acknowledgments:
17, 50
© Russ Brown, 1998