In case you missed it, below is the Christmas story Attorney Sandy Sanderson wrote for The Sampson Weekly this week: A LEGAL CHRISTMAS The legal history of Christmas in America has been a reflection of the way Americans have viewed Christmas. Much of it is surprising to those not familiar with the evolution of the holiday. We know that the Puritans who first settled in America were deeply religious. You may assume that, because of this, they celebrated Christmas in their churches and with their families as the most important day of the year. You would be wrong. The Puritans had a number of objections to Christmas. Foremost among these was that they did not like the date. They felt that Jesus was probably born in September instead of December. The date of December 25th was first officially used as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ when it was declared to be His birthday by Pope Julius I in the 300’s. The Puritans did not accept this as historically accurate and refused to celebrate it as the date on which Christ was born. Further, Puritans were known for their conservative nature in general and were not prone to ostentatious celebrations and felt this should be especially true regarding celebrations of Christmas. This feeling of Christmas by the Puritans was widespread enough in New England that Christmas was outlawed in Boston for 22 years, from 1659 until 1681. During this period, you could actually be fined for displaying Christmas spirit. The fine could be as much as 5 shillings, which was a hefty penalty at the time. The ban on Christmas was lifted after 22 years, but not due to a change of heart by the Puritans. The colonies were still under English rule and the King put pressure upon Boston to lift the ban. However, the Puritans continued to boycott Christmas in their families and churches for years after. The anti-Christmas spirit in New England continued through the American Revolution. Many New Englanders associated Christmas with yet another thing forced upon them by the King of England. In the South, Anglicans did celebrate Christmas and never had the disdain for the holiday that New Englanders had. In fact, some Anglicans in the South had lavish Christmas celebrations. However, the celebration of Christmas was not significant enough among the general public for there to be a push for the date to be a legal holiday. At the time of the founding of the United States, Christmas was neither a federal holiday nor a legal holiday in any state. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under the United States’ new Constitution. It was not until 1836 that any state made Christmas a legal holiday. The first state to do so was Alabama. By 1865, only five states had made Christmas a legal holiday. Not surprisingly, Southern states were the first to do so. On June 26, 1870, our federal government made Christmas a legal federal holiday. North Carolina was one of the last states to make Christmas a legal state holiday, not doing so until 1881. So what brought about the change of heart? What prompted Christmas to go from outlaw status to indifference to legal holiday? Many historians point to the power of the writers of the 1800’s to move people to feel the Christmas spirit and be inclined to want to celebrate it. Charles Dickens is widely given the most credit on this front. In 1843, his novel A Christmas Carol was published and was an immediate success. For several years after, he published Christmas themed books. It is undisputed that his works helped transform the way Christmas was celebrated at the time, but it is also clear that A Christmas Carol would not have been the success that it was had the people of the time not identified more with the Cratchit family than with Scrooge. For this reason it is obvious that the people of the time were not totally devoid of Christmas spirit. The Civil War also played a huge role in the spread of Christmas celebrations in America. At the time there was a sharp divide in how the holiday was celebrated and, in fact, whether it was celebrated at all depending upon the denomination and the geographic location of the people in general. For several Christmases in the 1860’s, soldiers from different places and denominations spent Christmas together. Many took these “new traditions” back to their families when the Civil War was over. Families in the North and South used Christmas to help heal the wounds of the War in the years after. The legal history of Christmas in America is one of extremes over time. Although no one in our country is forced to celebrate Christmas, it is now a legal holiday in which every citizen is allowed to celebrate.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 15:21:30 +0000
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