Christmas 1807

[lumsdale]

How was Christmas celebrated 200 years ago. No Santa, No christmas greetings cards, and no tree. If traditionally it was it more of a religious festival, how much of it was Christian and how much Pagan in origin.

[Buenchico]

Eating and drinking, as a form of celebration, seems to be common to a vast number of religions and cultural traditions, so it's impossible to differentiate between Pagan and Christian aspects of the celebrations in people's homes. Clearly, the date of December 25th (in Britain) has nothing to do with the actual date of the birth of Jesus; it was absorbed from Pagan tradition. However, most people would have attended church regularly, so there would have been greater Christian influences in the celebrations than there are for the majority of people today.

This might help:
http://www.infobritain.co.uk/History_Of_Christ mas.htm

Chris

[MustafaTickl]

I think that Buenchico's 1807 Christmas is a bit too glum. The Waltz - the dance that was held to Bring About a Certain Weakness of Body and Mind -had just about entered Britain. For the first time this allowed touching - Good Heavens !! I bet that in reality there was a lot of waltzing going on, not only under the Holly Bush but even in Church when the Vicar wasn't looking.

[dot.hawkes]

in 1807 many people may well have held their wedding or had their children christened, because it was one of the only days off many people had.

[garybfsl]

Marrying on Christmas Day carried on into the 1920's my aunt Florence was married on 25/12/1921. her sister Mabel being married the day before on Xmas Eve.

[jno]

It was originally an entirely pagan festival celebrating midwinter - the shortest day was past, the worst was over (well, not the worst of the weather, or course) and people had something to look forward to. The church wanted to promote a celebration of Christ's birth and so they took over the date when people were already celebrating. This seems to have happened from the 4th century onwards, long after Christ's death.

Nobody knows when he was born, but shepherds didn't usually watch their flocks by night in the middle of the winter, they would probbly have been indoors at that time of the year.