No More Christmas December 23rd, 1652

1653 Illustration of Old Christmas being rejected by the Puritan from London and welcome from the rustic from Dorset
1653 Illustration of Old Christmas being rejected by the Puritan from London and welcome from the rustic from Dorset

23rd December 1652 Resolved by Parliament. : ‘That no Observation shall be had of the five-and-twentieth day of December, commonly called Christmas-Day.’

This was one of several bans on Christmas that Parliament introduced. (Parliament not Cromwell). It banned Christmas Services and ordered that shops be kept open, but it was, at least, inside people’s homes, largely unenforceable.

The logic for banning it was that Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible and was thus a Catholic superstition.

2 Replies to “No More Christmas December 23rd, 1652”

    1. I guess the answer is that it probably never worked. They, the Puritans, passed several Christmas control bills and so the fact that they kept needed to pass the same thing, suggests it did not stick. But the other answer is 1660 when King Charles II was restored to the throne and the Maypole was raised aloft again after a 100 year pause.

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