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PAGE 4-B—THE BULLETIN, December 24, 1960 THE FEAST THAT WOULD NOT DIE By Kieran Dugan The irony of having to put Christ back into Christmas is surpassed only by the irony of Christians having taken Him out of Christmas in the first place. Our Puritan forefathers did not intend this to happen. They did not want to take Christ out of Christmas, but to take Christmas out of the calendar. Their aim was not a Christmas without Christ, but Christ without a birthday. They nearly succeeded. But Christmas not only survived nearly three centuries of sup-' pression and silence in the United States, but emerged late in the last century strong er than ever. CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH The Evangelical sects carry ing on the Puritan tradition, faced with a feast which would not die, had no choice but bid it live. They did not have to descend to Catholic fripperies, however. Some therefore bid it live “stripped, as it should be, of all pre tensions of religious sanctity.” If the joyous sound of carol ing . was heard in our land three centuries ago, it was more likely to have been from the lips of savages reached by a French or Spanish Cath olic missionary than from those of the English Protestant settlers with whom Americans more usually identify them selves. captain John Smith cele brated Christmas in Virginia in 1608, but he celebrated with a restraint imposed by two circumstances: he was living with not particularly friendly Indians, and his Cnurch, the Church of England, was in the midst of a dispute over trie celebration of Cnristmas which left Anglicans temporarily dangling between a hesitant smile and a guarded frown. The Separatists from the Church of England who land ed at Plymouth in 1620 suf fered no such delemma. They greeted the day with an un equivocal frown. Smith’s mod est celebration was parade A MERRY CHRISTMAS E. J. McMahon & Company Plumbing and Heating Contractors 540 Bohler Ave. Augusta, Ga. Phones PA. 4-3506, PA. 4-3507 and fireworks compared to that of these Calvin-Sobered Englishmen to. whom, Ameri cans are most accustomed to trace their patriotic linage. The Mayflower anchored off Plymouth on December 16, 1620. The Pilgrims spent a week looking over the land by day and going back to the ship at night. On December 23, a Saturday, they cut some tim- oer witn which to begin put ting up their first building. The next day, December Z% being Sunday, tney did no worK. r mally, on December 25, just a piain old Monday, they decided to end tne dallying and get on with the building in earnest. They worked an day. Their supply of beer had been running low and tney also decided that this was as good a day as any to do with out the beverage. (Mr. Joans, the Captain of the Mayflower, a dissenter among dissenters, disagreed, broke open a keg of beer, and treated some of the men to a Christmas toast.} 'PAPIST DEVICE' There was nothing igenuous or accidental about tne Pil grims’ failure to celebrate their first Christmas in Amer ica. They considered Christ mas a "papist device” based on the pagan Saturnalia -and not on the Eible. Perhaps more important, they identified the celebration of Christmas with the Church of England, whose domination they were fleeing. When a call to Work was is sued on the Pilgrims’ second Cnristmas in Plymouth Colony, some young men who were new to the Colony, having ar rived only the month before on the little ship Fortune, ob jected on grounds of con science. Governor Bradford re leased them from work, but when he found them playing games later m the day he re primanded them and sent mem norne to celebrate in soli tude and without scandal. In relating the incident in his journal, Bradford identified the occasion, in the non-com- mital Pilgrim manner, as “ye Season’s greetings and our thanks to all our friends whose patronage we value so highly! We’re all aglow with warm wishes for a holiday full of love, joy and good cheer! MERRY BROTHERS BRICK & TILE 00. Face Brick — Common Brick — Roman Brick Norman Brick — Jumbo Brick — Structural Clay Tile AUGUSTA, GEORGIA — ESTABLISHED 1399 — • USE CLAY MASONRY AND ELIMINATE CRACKING WALLS ^ ippfest nouaa 1 jjreefittp to all T"or every- -one, we wish a Christmas Season glowing with good f<S\ cheer, enduring friendships and cherished memories. Obtain a useful and aiiractive free gift by opening a savings account of $150 or more al AUGUSTA FEDERAL SAVINGS & LOAN ASS'N. 4% CURRENT RATE ® INSURED 767 Broad Street, Augusta, Georgia day called Christmas-day.” Ten years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the Puritans arrived to settle Massachusetts Bay, a little to the north. Theoretically not as extreme as the Pilgrims, these Englishmen in practice re pudiated liturgical tradition more completely and efficient ly- There was no wishy-washy bending to Christmas nonsense with them. “Anyone who is found observing, by abstinence from labor, feasting, or any other way, any such days as Christmas day,” the general Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony decreed in 1659, “shall pay for every such offense five shillings.” As Puritan domination ex tended to Connecticut, Maine and New Hampshire, so did tne Blue Baws extend whicn prohibited even mince-pies. 'PROFANE THE DaY' The Puritan suppression of Christmas relaxed a lntie dur ing tne 1680’s, when tne Eng- lisn government' and the Churcn of England stepped in firmly — but briefly. But the spirit continued. Judge Sewell (who was a few years later to be among those who con demned to death at the Salem “witch” trails such poor and simple people as the Irish woman, Ann Glover) noted with satisfaction in his diary on Christmas, 1685 that “carts came into Boston . . . shops were open as usual ... the body of people profane the day.” In the first half of the 18th century, while the Great Awakening re-fired Congrega- tionalists, Presbyterian and Baptists throughout New Eng land and, to a lesser extent, the South with a zeal anti pathetic to the Christmas mes sage of Divine love in tender human terms, others were keeping the feast alive. Although generally opposed to the use of ornament and flowers, the Anglicans, parti cularly in Virginia and the South, decked their churches with evergreens and candies on Christmas Eve. New York, where the Dutch had arrived in a ship figure headed with St. Nicholas and celebrated the feast for a month — from the feast of St. Nicholas to Epiphany — was a notable refuge for Christ mas. In Pennsylvania, where the Quakers did not celebrate but tolerated celebration, the large number of German settlers re membered Christ’s birthday. Although records vary, about one thousand of these Pennsylvania Germans appear to have been Catholics. These were also about 400 Irish Catholics celebrating Christ mas in Pennsylvania in the middle of the 18th century. There were several thousand Catholics in Maryland, a cou ple of hundred in New Jersey, about a thousand in New York. There were few Catholics in any other colonies, particular ly in the Puritan heartland of New England, whose hostility to Christmas was exceeded by its hostility to the particular Christmas-celebrators known as Roman Catholics. What few Catholics there were in Massachusetts had to go without Mass and the Sac raments. A 1647 law had ex cluded priests from the Col ony, and Catholic refugees from Nova Scotia (Acadia), given refuge there in 1755, found that things hadn’t changed since 1647. Another Catholic who settled in Massachusetts in 1755 has passed on to us a picture of Christmas there at that time. Martin Hughes, living on a piece of land he had bought, was threatened by Indians. He ignored- the threats until, on the day before Christmas, he saw a neighbor’s house going up in flames. He quickly put his wife and children on two horses and fled, riding all day without even stopping to feed hrfstmas Doris Jewelry Store 913 BROAD STREET : AUGUSTA, GA. Season A Cjeeelin Established 1837 Platt’s Funeral Home 721 Crawford Avenue Augusta, Georgia Merry Christmas MULHERIN LUMBER COMPANY INCORPORATED 625 THIRTEENTH STREET — AUGUSTA, GA. his family and himself. THE CHRISTMAS MAN It was snowing heavily when they reached a small town on the edge of the settlement. They stopped at an inn for the night. Hughes told the land lord he wished to purchase a turkey. The landlord asked him why. Hughes said that it was Christmas. “Are you a Christmas man?” asked the landlord. When Hughes re plied that he was, the land lord told him to get out. The word must have spread, be cause when Hughes, knee-deep in snow, trudged from house to house seeking shelter, the door of each was closed to him and on-lookers jeered, “There goes the Christmas man!” The Christmas of 1776 is well known to Americans as the one when our side, by not taking time out to celebrate Our Lord’s birthday, but cross ing the Delaware instead, de feated the Hessians, who had taken the Eve off. (The Hes sian and Tory celebration of Christmas did little to enhance its status with Yankee Puri tans.) Opposition to Christmas be came somewhat less militant after the Revolution, but Puri tans and Evangelical sects con tinued to ignore or frown upon it during most of the next century. The Scripture lessons published by the Prot estant American Sunday School Union in 1826 were so arranged that Nativity ma terial did not coincide with December 25. The Union’s Magazine, Youth's Friend, did not men tion Christmas during the first half of the century. Sunday School World did not mention it until 1869. The New York Baptist Register in its Christ mas issue, 1843, exhorted gen erosity toward the poor in "this season of Thanksgiving." December issues of the Baptist Young Reaper from 1867 through 1874 completely ig nored Christmas. In Boston, Christmas was a work-day through 1855. Cath olics who tried to get to Mass on Christmas morning before work were thwarted by fac tory owners who moved the beginning of work to 5:00 A. M. Public schools in Boston held classes on Christmas un til 1870, and absentees faced punishment or dismissal. COMMERCIALIZATION Two things happened to Christmas during the 19th cen tury, however, which burgeon ed its celebration beyond any hope of continuing Puritan- Evangelical suppression. The first was commerciali zation. Newspapers began car rying advertisements for Christmas gifts early in the century. One such paper was the Boston Recorder — which ran editorials denouncing Christmas the while. Late in the century the business of Christmas cards began (in Bos ton, no less). The second and more for tunate was Irish and German immigration of large propor tions beginning in mid-cen tury. These immigrants, Cath olic and Lutheran, besides swelling the strictly religious observance of the feast, sym bolized in the crib, also esta blished the use of the colorful, lighted tree. Even Evangelical easterners emigrating west could no long er find a spot where December 25 could be treated as mean ingless. Evangelicals settling in southern Minnesota in the middle of the century, for ex ample, found to the north of them an honoring of Christ mas imparted to the Indians long before the French mis sionaries, and adapted to it. If Evangelical Protestant leaders chose theoretically to ignore Christmas, their flocks could and did not ignore it. Typical was a mother who wrote to the editor of the Con- gregationalist children’s maga zine, The Well-Spring, aftei Christmas, 1845, saying that she and her seven children had been disappointed not tc find a Christmas story in the December issue. The editor ir the February issue pointed out the foolishness of expect ing “a Christmas story in addi tion to a Thanksgiving story.’ Readers failed to see the light, however, and persisteo in demanding that Decembei 25 be treated as Christmas Legally, the states follo-wec the lead of Alabama, which made Christmas a legal holi day in 1836. By 1870 Christmas had become a legal holiday ir all existing states. Having no alternative, the Christian foes of Christmas ai last capitulated. But just a: two currents had burgeonec the observance of Christmas so might one, if he chose, see two sides of Christmas. Evan gelical leaders had no choice but bid Christmas live, bu: many chose the middle course of bidding one-half of it live — the secular half. The editor of The Bapiisi Teacher exemplified this mid dle course in the December, 1875 issue of his magazine. After stating for the record “the dangerous connection” of the feast “to the Church of Rome,” he condescended to say of Christmas: “Stripped, as it should be, of all preten sions of religious sanctity . . . we welcome its coming with a hearty ‘All hail’ and wish all our readers a very Merry Christmas.” Before arriving at their pre sent full acceptance of Christ-, mas, most Presbyterian, Bap tist, Congregationaiist and Methodist Churches went through an adjustment period during which they held serv ices on the Sunday nearest December 25 but not on the 25th itself. The only Protestant denomi nation opposed to the celebra tion of Christmas today is Jehovah’s Witnesses. Oh Him who is God and man art thou the Mother, Vir gin before (His) birth, Virgin in birth, Virgin after birth. -—St. Cyril of Jerusalem Queen of the world . . . the tabernacle of God, the celes tial ladder by which the King of Heaven is descended to earth, and man to Heaven. —St. Peter Damian SMILING MADONNA In this unusual statue Our Lady seems to be happily inviting the shepherds (and all of us) to come and adore her Son with her. Dating from the 14th cen tury the sculpture stands in the Toledo Cathedral in Spain, 'I ijerrij (Christmas F. E. FERRIS & CO. Clothiers and Haberdashers 752 BROAD STREET AUGUSTA, GEORGIA REALTORS REAL ESTATE AND RENTING INSURANCE - MORTGAGE LOANS AUGUSTA, GEORGIA Merry Christmas THOMAS H. BRITTIHGHAM & COMMIT Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning Contractor 919 Twelfth Street Augusta, Georgia Good Tidings “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men.” . . . May your holiday be filled with the true spirit of the sea son. To all a very Merry Christmas! it. B. BEVERAGE COMPANY Augusta, Georgia