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St. Ann
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From Rev. Francis Weiser's The Christmas Book I am learning so much. For example the original definition of "merry" as in Merry Christmas does not mean jolly, happy, gay but rather peaceful and prayerful. Fr. Weiser gives the example of the song "God Rest ye Merry, Gentlemen", the postion of the comma shows that "Merry" is not an adjective for gentlemen. What I understand is that the song means God rest ye prayerfully/peacefully, Gentlemen.
I never knew that the celebration of Christmas Day was illegal in New England until the mid 19th century!!!
Someone mentioned earlier on another thread that some faithfilled protestants don't attend services on Christmas day. ?an inheritance from the puritans????
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JodieLyn
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I know that there's a number of people who are against celebrating a day for Christmas when you're supposed to "celebrate it every day". Same with Easter. They feel that we should not elevate any particular piece (birth, resurection, crusifiction, etc) any more than any other at any time.. so to celebrate Christmas, and Easter and Good Friday etc would be doing just that.
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St. Ann
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JodieLyn wrote:
| I know that there's a number of people who are against celebrating a day for Christmas when you're supposed to "celebrate it every day". Same with Easter. They feel that we should not elevate any particular piece (birth, resurection, crusifiction, etc) any more than any other at any time.. so to celebrate Christmas, and Easter and Good Friday etc would be doing just that. |
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Jodie, they aren't Catholic are they?
When one is left on their own to figure out how Jesus wants us to live, one can come up with some pretty ... funny ideas.
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Stephanie
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JodieLyn
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No, they're not.. protestant of some variety.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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CrunchyMom
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St. Ann wrote:
From Rev. Francis Weiser's The Christmas Book I am learning so much. For example the original definition of "merry" as in Merry Christmas does not mean jolly, happy, gay but rather peaceful and prayerful. Fr. Weiser gives the example of the song "God Rest ye Merry, Gentlemen", the postion of the comma shows that "Merry" is not an adjective for gentlemen. What I understand is that the song means God rest ye prayerfully/peacefully, Gentlemen.
I never knew that the celebration of Christmas Day was illegal in New England until the mid 19th century!!!
Someone mentioned earlier on another thread that some faithfilled protestants don't attend services on Christmas day. ?an inheritance from the puritans???? |
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There is a Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small where Siegfried keeps on yelling to the children caroling outside about how it is "God rest ye merry..." It is very funny.
And they say you don't learn anything from watching television 
And yes, so much of the American Christmas tradition is inherited from the Puritans. Even though Europe is not really more religious than America, it is clear that their traditions are more firmly rooted in Catholicism, especially regarding the celebration of Advent and having Christmas extend through to the Epiphany.
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JennGM
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CrunchyMom wrote:
St. Ann wrote:
From Rev. Francis Weiser's The Christmas Book I am learning so much. For example the original definition of "merry" as in Merry Christmas does not mean jolly, happy, gay but rather peaceful and prayerful. Fr. Weiser gives the example of the song "God Rest ye Merry, Gentlemen", the postion of the comma shows that "Merry" is not an adjective for gentlemen. What I understand is that the song means God rest ye prayerfully/peacefully, Gentlemen.
I never knew that the celebration of Christmas Day was illegal in New England until the mid 19th century!!!
Someone mentioned earlier on another thread that some faithfilled protestants don't attend services on Christmas day. ?an inheritance from the puritans???? |
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|
There is a Christmas episode of All Creatures Great and Small where Siegfried keeps on yelling to the children caroling outside about how it is "God rest ye merry..." It is very funny.
And they say you don't learn anything from watching television
And yes, so much of the American Christmas tradition is inherited from the Puritans. Even though Europe is not really more religious than America, it is clear that their traditions are more firmly rooted in Catholicism, especially regarding the celebration of Advent and having Christmas extend through to the Epiphany. |
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I just love Father Weiser! I had my son take down The Christmas Book and Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs (here's a scanned version to enjoy for free.) so I could refresh myself!
I was going to chime in and say that America has had too much influence from Puritan tradition in many places.
Further reading on your point, Stephanie, I found this 1996 article, Christmas in New England, 1620-1820: Puritanism, Popular Culture, and the Printed Word. I haven't read through it all yet.
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St. Ann
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Thanks for the new resources, Jenn. I just got a Kindle Paperwhite as a gift and am wondering if I can read these files on a kindle???? That would be very practical.
Lindsay, we are big fans of "All Creatures Great and Small" and have the big collection, but unfortunately the Christmas specials must not be included. We haven't stumbled upon them yet.
About the puritan influence... I think it is so strong that even many faithful Catholics are not willing to break with its hold, it would "hurt" too much.
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Stephanie
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Erin
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It's actually not just the Puritans, a number of my closest Protestant friends do not celebrate Christmas, Easter etc so I am well versed in this. Not Puritans here in Australia, the roots of this is actually strong Calvinism (though I suppose that is the roots of Puritans??)
My friends belong to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Eastern Presbyterian Church of Australia. Also my Mennonite friend doesn't celebrate either (and Mennonites are not common in Australia).
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JennGM
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Yes, Calvinism is the main root of Puritanism.
The article I linked above was written in defense of the Puritan way, so there is definite bias, but interesting to read.
Stephanie, I think you can read PDF files on Kindle.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: What I learned today...Christmas
