Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm to blaying a chuck reboarding,
Speaker 1: and it's getting a pretty close to Christmas, so we
Speaker 1: thought we would provide you with a fun holiday episode.
Speaker 1: Last year, Katie and I did something on Saturnalia and
Speaker 1: that was a blast. So this year we're going to
Speaker 1: focus on Christmas. And a year ago, to Smithsonian Magazine
Speaker 1: put together this list of real life of Grinches. It's
Speaker 1: really fun. It included everybody from the British officer who
Speaker 1: ended the Christmas Truths in nineteen fourteen to DJ Dick
Speaker 1: whitting Hall of CAMPC in Los Angeles, who refused to
Speaker 1: play Elvis's Christmas album even when it was a big
Speaker 1: smash hit. That's just mean. Yeah, but the number eight
Speaker 1: entry on the Smithsonian's US did a lot more than
Speaker 1: just refused to play Elvis hits because it might corrupt
Speaker 1: the nation's youth. This guy canceled celebrations Christmas celebrations for England, Ireland,
Speaker 1: Wales and Scotland and enacted a band that lasted for
Speaker 1: years and years. Yeah, we're talking about Oliver Cromwell. But
Speaker 1: the thing is he really didn't actually do it, yeah,
Speaker 1: at least not personally. But we still want to find
Speaker 1: out why would someone cancel Christmas? Yeah? Why? So to
Speaker 1: understand that, we've got to go back a little bit
Speaker 1: and at least provide a general background on what was
Speaker 1: going on in the mid sixteen hundreds in England, because
Speaker 1: of course we have civil wars, we have the king
Speaker 1: being executed, We famously have Cromwell himself ruling for a
Speaker 1: time before the restoration. So we're gonna go back and
Speaker 1: sort of cruised through that and take things from the
Speaker 1: perspective of our Smithsonian ranked grinch. Oliver Cromwell. He was
Speaker 1: born in fifteen nine, the son of minor nobility, and
Speaker 1: in his youth he experienced kind of a crisis of
Speaker 1: faith and emerged a Puritan. Yeah, and he toyed with
Speaker 1: the idea of immigrating to New England for a time, um,
Speaker 1: but that fell through, and eventually he was elected partly
Speaker 1: because of these Puritan connections he had made to the
Speaker 1: short Parliament representing Cambridge. And before we go on from there,
Speaker 1: I feel like I should give a little explanation about
Speaker 1: the short parliament would be good, I can get kind
Speaker 1: of confusing. So so the King would call the parliament,
Speaker 1: and for a long time the King, Charles the first
Speaker 1: chose to not call the parliament. He just didn't want
Speaker 1: to deal with them. But eventually it came to the
Speaker 1: point where Charles, who by the way, is the grandson
Speaker 1: of Mary Stewart, had to call parliament because he needed money,
Speaker 1: and he needed money for wars, and he was hoping
Speaker 1: that parliament could alec gets some money for him. But
Speaker 1: but the parliament had other issues on its agenda, and
Speaker 1: so soon the short Parliament was followed by the Long Parliament,
Speaker 1: which had this awesomely terrible power of being the only
Speaker 1: body that could dissolve itself, so it basically it could
Speaker 1: go on as long as it needed to without the
Speaker 1: King saying anything at all. So this kind of means
Speaker 1: trouble for the king and a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of possible wars brewing. So the division between the King
Speaker 1: and this parliament started in sixty two, and it was
Speaker 1: Cromwell who emerged from this division as a really strong
Speaker 1: political and military leader. So it's kind of surprising in
Speaker 1: the midst of this possible civil war brewing that one
Speaker 1: of the things on Parliament's agenda was to clamp down
Speaker 1: on Christmas celebrations, and their main point was that Christmas
Speaker 1: should be kept as a day of fasting and a
Speaker 1: day of reflection, not as feast day, and certainly not
Speaker 1: is this holiday that's stretched on and on and on
Speaker 1: for well over a week. So why why did they
Speaker 1: have an issue with Christmas in the first place. Well,
Speaker 1: as the Anglican reverend Henry Borne of Newcastle put it
Speaker 1: pretty concisely much later, Christmas was a pretense for drunkenness
Speaker 1: and rioting and wantonness. Yeah, that was the way he
Speaker 1: put it, So that was basically the reasoning behind it.
Speaker 1: And those pagan incorporated traditions that might have helped attract
Speaker 1: Christian converts centuries earlier. Feasting, dancing, singing, all these things
Speaker 1: were looking pretty sinful to some seventeenth century Puritans, especially
Speaker 1: because of that name Christ's Mass, which had a lot
Speaker 1: of Catholic undertone. Catholic So seventeenth century English celebrations, Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, if we're gonna go with what Henry Bourne
Speaker 1: of Newcastle says, it sounds like things were pretty bad,
Speaker 1: but they weren't too different from how a lot of
Speaker 1: us celebrate Chris since today, December twenty five was kept
Speaker 1: as both a religious and a secular holiday. You know,
Speaker 1: people would take time off from their normal work, they
Speaker 1: might attend religious services, they'd visit with their family and friends.
Speaker 1: They'd feast, they drink, you know, they'd have a good
Speaker 1: time for a few days. Decorations, yeah, and the party
Speaker 1: would go on until twelfth night, So all twelve days
Speaker 1: of Christmas, with some intermittent shop openings and clothings in there. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, there are a few elements that you
Speaker 1: can you can see the Puritans maybe honing in on gambling,
Speaker 1: for instance, and something called mumming mumming which was basically
Speaker 1: a cross dressing and going door to door indulging in
Speaker 1: various devices, kind of like a Halloween variation. I'm imagined
Speaker 1: what it sounds like to me. Um. So, you know,
Speaker 1: the Puritan parliament was looking to make some changes here.
Speaker 1: And that's even though Charles the First, who was still
Speaker 1: king at this point, supported traditional Christmas festivities, traditional celebrations.
Speaker 1: So these changes they start to suggest. One is that
Speaker 1: Christmas get rid of the math part. Christmas could be
Speaker 1: christ Tide, which is kind of difficult to say. Maybe
Speaker 1: why I didn't catch on doesn't really sound very good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that doesn't ever really catch on. Um. The best way
Speaker 1: to celebrate christ Tide was by reflecting and by fasting.
Speaker 1: So stop feasting, stop drinking, start fasting, and they could
Speaker 1: also start fastening the last Wednesday of every month. The
Speaker 1: idea behind this, according to the Cromwell Association, was that
Speaker 1: eventually christ Tide would just be another fast day, kind
Speaker 1: of blend into the background. Um. Okay. So Cromwell proved
Speaker 1: remarkably successful in his military command, and by three he
Speaker 1: had persuaded the House of Commons to form a new army,
Speaker 1: which is called the New Model Army, to fight the
Speaker 1: Royalists try to end these civil wars. And meanwhile, Parliament,
Speaker 1: which was getting more and more control, waged its own
Speaker 1: battle against this christ Tide celebration that was very stubborn
Speaker 1: and persisted, and because they had more power, they were
Speaker 1: starting to actually pass ordinances by this point. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: kept getting stricter and stricter. Definitely in sixty three. To
Speaker 1: emphasize the fact that December twenty was not a time
Speaker 1: for celebration and leisure, the long Parliament met on Christmas Day,
Speaker 1: so like we're working, you shopkeepers should keep your shops open.
Speaker 1: In labors, you should just go to work like always exactly.
Speaker 1: And then the next year, Christmas fell on the last
Speaker 1: Wednesday of the month, which was a mandated fast day
Speaker 1: as we mentioned before, and Parliament reminded the country that
Speaker 1: Christmas was just for fasting and remembering the sense of
Speaker 1: people who had turned it into a feast day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and by early sixty five, the new Directory of Public
Speaker 1: Worship ruled that all feast days, so Christmas, Easter, Saints Days,
Speaker 1: they were all illegal and the only true Holy days
Speaker 1: were Sundays. But that was the only day that you
Speaker 1: should um take time off from work and observe. So
Speaker 1: later that same year, later in the First Civil War
Speaker 1: finally ended when the last of Charles's Field armies were defeated. Um,
Speaker 1: at that point Parliament is thinking, well, we don't need
Speaker 1: Cromwell's army anymore, and they tried to disband the army,
Speaker 1: and they tried to do so chiefly, and Cromwell, if anything,
Speaker 1: was incredibly loyal to his own soldiers, so he wasn't
Speaker 1: happy about this, and he stood by his men. He
Speaker 1: left London, you know, had this, had this break with Parliament,
Speaker 1: left London and spent the next year trying to reconcile
Speaker 1: this now three ways split the army, the King in Parliament,
Speaker 1: and Cromwell was seriously afraid that England might plunge into
Speaker 1: anarchy if these parties couldn't be brought to terms. Right,
Speaker 1: he also kind of loses respect for King Charles when
Speaker 1: the King escapes honorable custody and seeks help in Scotland. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Cromwell has sort of been putting his faith in Charles,
Speaker 1: you know, like if you go along with these negotiations,
Speaker 1: I'll go along with him. Um. At that point, you know,
Speaker 1: Charles a lost cause for Cromwell, and Cromwell ends up
Speaker 1: being one of the many men who signed Charles's death warrant.
Speaker 1: So all right, at that point, the British Isles became
Speaker 1: a republic or the Commonwealth, and Cromwell spent the next
Speaker 1: few years trying to end the Civil Wars and squashing
Speaker 1: out the extreme Puritan rebellions and launching these sometimes very
Speaker 1: bloody campaigns against the Irish and the Scots and the
Speaker 1: long Parliament. Meanwhile, I mean, I don't want to make
Speaker 1: it sound like they didn't do anything else, but the
Speaker 1: long Parliament is back in London still reinforcing these bands.
Speaker 1: On Christmas UH sixteen seven there was an ordinance confirmed
Speaker 1: um and that abolished the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitson,
Speaker 1: which was like a summer festival. But also there were
Speaker 1: a few concessions made to the occasional party loving working
Speaker 1: man and that was that the second Tuesday of each
Speaker 1: month was a non religious, secular holiday, so they did
Speaker 1: get their their time to let loose a little bit.
Speaker 1: If you you had the second Tuesday of each month free,
Speaker 1: you could throw a little feast for yourself. I guess
Speaker 1: these these days are so random that you know the
Speaker 1: second Tuesday of each month the last Sunday. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. It seems like it would be hard
Speaker 1: to get into it. Um. So anyways, by sixteen fifty three,
Speaker 1: Parliament had been purged and they handed over the power
Speaker 1: to Cromwell himself as Lord Protector, and Cromwell ruled England
Speaker 1: with help from a Council of State and from a
Speaker 1: parliament um And although we don't have evidence that he
Speaker 1: himself helped pass this Christmas banning, legislation. The rumor persisted,
Speaker 1: and as Lad Protector he certainly did support the band,
Speaker 1: support the existing ordinances that had already come into effect
Speaker 1: and their reinforcements. But not everybody was into these bands.
Speaker 1: We we shouldn't assume that just because these laws were
Speaker 1: being passed people went along with them. Right. Truth be told,
Speaker 1: most people were still clandestinely celebrating Christmas, or sometimes not
Speaker 1: so clandestinely. In sixteen fifty six, some MPs complained that
Speaker 1: they slept poorly on Christmas Eve because of all the
Speaker 1: preparations of their neighbors and because all the shops were
Speaker 1: in fact closed and they were on their way to work.
Speaker 1: I think those might be their real grinch list guys.
Speaker 1: The shops were closed and it's Christmas. Um. The Lord
Speaker 1: Mayor of London was often asked to ensure that the
Speaker 1: city shops stayed open December twenty, and it was apparently
Speaker 1: a difficult task because people had other plans they didn't
Speaker 1: want to work every single day. UM. So Cromwell held
Speaker 1: onto this position as Lord Protector for a few years. UM.
Speaker 1: He even refused to accept this offer of the Crown,
Speaker 1: and he finally died in sixteen fifty eight and after
Speaker 1: that things kind of fell apart without him under the
Speaker 1: leadership of his son. By sixteen sixty one, Charles the
Speaker 1: Second was restored to the throne. So the monarchy is back.
Speaker 1: And of course at that point we get a clean slate.
Speaker 1: Charles Second wipes out all of the Protectorate era legislation
Speaker 1: and including the Christmas legislation of course, and um he
Speaker 1: returns to celebrating Christmas the old fashioned festive way. Um.
Speaker 1: But I mean we've got to give Cromwell a break too,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, definitely. I mean, he wasn't a total gridge.
Speaker 1: He readmitted juice into England. That was very nice. He
Speaker 1: also said an extremely high standard of conduct for clergy
Speaker 1: as well as educators, and he opposed capital punishments for
Speaker 1: all but the most serious crimes. Yeah, it's interesting. He's
Speaker 1: a developed Puritan and one of his goals was to
Speaker 1: set up a Puritan church. But he was very tolerant
Speaker 1: of other religions. He didn't have a problem long as
Speaker 1: he didn't celebrate Christmas. Um. And despite that reputation and
Speaker 1: some of you know, I mentioned the brutality and Ireland,
Speaker 1: especially in Scotland. Um, he raised the international profile of
Speaker 1: England a lot. He he definitely had the country's interests
Speaker 1: in mind when he was negotiating internationally. Yeah, but he
Speaker 1: also managed in there to raise the international profile of Puritanism.
Speaker 1: So if you thought that Christmas in England sounded like
Speaker 1: a big downer, then just check out what we've learned
Speaker 1: about Christmas in Massachusetts Bay. Yeah, so in colleges it sounded.
Speaker 1: It sounded bleak in Massachusetts Bay Colony. In sixteen fifty nine,
Speaker 1: it's General Court ordered that people found celebrating Christmas would
Speaker 1: be fined five shillings celebrating by taking time off for
Speaker 1: feasting or doing something like that. And the band lasted
Speaker 1: for twenty two years, but effectively it existed throughout New England,
Speaker 1: and it lasted a lot longer than twenty two years.
Speaker 1: I think Boston didn't really recover from this band for
Speaker 1: about a hundred years. And according to Christmas scholar Stephenissenbaum,
Speaker 1: just for an example of some of the strife that
Speaker 1: went on between the people living there, the band occasionally
Speaker 1: led to some violence. Um In sixteen seventy nine, four
Speaker 1: men from Salem Village caroled in a guy named John
Speaker 1: Rowden's orchard for some pair wine, and he refused, and
Speaker 1: they didn't take it so well. Yeah, I think they asked, like,
Speaker 1: was our singing, where's some perry? And he shouts out, no,
Speaker 1: it's not um. So I'm not sure if this is
Speaker 1: like a great example of Puritan Christmas in Salem, or
Speaker 1: maybe just like a case of really bad caroling. I
Speaker 1: guess we'll never know. I guess we'll never know. So
Speaker 1: this is kind of unfortunate that we have to mention it.
Speaker 1: It's probably the least festive way to end a Christmas episode,
Speaker 1: but unless you're a fan of the podcast, and then
Speaker 1: you're a fan, maybe it's a totally appropriate way. If
Speaker 1: you like exhamations, keep listening. If you're ready to go
Speaker 1: celebrate or eat your dinner, should probably stop listening now.
Speaker 1: So when Cromwell died in sixteen fifty eight, his body
Speaker 1: was supposed to be interred at Westminster Abbey, but the
Speaker 1: bombers did such a bad job when they were preserving
Speaker 1: his body and they were going to there was gonna
Speaker 1: be months between his death and the state funeral. He
Speaker 1: had to secretly be interred well before the actual ceremony. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the coffin was put in Westminster this date funeral
Speaker 1: in November eight but it might have been empty or
Speaker 1: maybe somebody else was in there. Um So after the restoration,
Speaker 1: Charles the Second obviously was not going to let Cromwell
Speaker 1: stay in Westminster Abbey, where we have great leaders buried.
Speaker 1: Um so he had somebody and I mean that is
Speaker 1: two separate word. Maybe crowmo body, maybe Cromwell's body, maybe not.
Speaker 1: Cromwell exhumed from the abbey, hung a tie burn and
Speaker 1: beheaded and the body part was buried under the galas.
Speaker 1: Whoever it was. The head parts really gross y'all. The
Speaker 1: head was put on a pole and it topped Westminster
Speaker 1: Hall for the rest of Charles the Second's reign. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I'd rather have a light up Santa on
Speaker 1: the roof for my festive celebrations. I would have to
Speaker 1: agree with that. Um Well, I guess that's about it
Speaker 1: for yeah, but happy holidays. I know that's such a
Speaker 1: cheery way to end it, so um yeah, Happy Hanukkah.
Speaker 1: Actually it's Tonica when we're recording right now. Happy Kwanza,
Speaker 1: Happy New Year's, Happy Saturnalia, whatever you celebrating. Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: I think especially to people living in the former Massachusetts
Speaker 1: Bay colony Mary Christmas, I live it up, enjoy yourself.
Speaker 1: So if you have any weird Christmas traditions or interesting
Speaker 1: Christmas traditions as the case, happy if you can out
Speaker 1: do mumming or singing outside someone's house to get wine.
Speaker 1: Um anything that you practice or just Noah that you
Speaker 1: want to share with us, hit us up. Um. We're
Speaker 1: on Facebook and on Twitter at Miston History or send
Speaker 1: us an email at History podcast at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Yeah, and if you want to learn a
Speaker 1: little bit more about Christmas and where a few Christmas
Speaker 1: traditions came from, I wrote an article of few years
Speaker 1: back called how Christmas Works, and you can find it
Speaker 1: on the homepage by typing in how Christmas Works at
Speaker 1: www dot how stuff works dot com. For more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. To learn more about the podcast, click on
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