So, Sarah Palin’s next book is about the “war” on Christmas and the need to put Christ back in Christmas. (Some reaction from social media compiled here.*) Much as she and Fox News like to hype a “war on Christmas,” the tension between secular aspects of the Christmas celebration and the Christian religious version of it is nothing new – it goes back centuries.
Sarah probably won’t bother to read “The Battle for Christmas,” by Stephen Nissenbaum , which explains why the Puritans, when they landed in this country, waged a real ‘war’ against Christmas — they banned it. (Back then, it was a festival with rowdy pagan elements.)
Here’s how famed fundamentalist preacher Cotton Mather described Christmas in 1712, according to Nissenbaum: “The Feast of Christ’s Nativity is spent in Reveling, Dicing, Carding, Masking, and in all Licentious Liberty . . . by Mad Mirth, by long Eating, by hard Drinking, by lewd Gaming, by rude Reveling.”
“The Puritans were correct,” Nissenbaum writes, “when they point out – and they pointed it out often – that Christmas was nothing but a pagan festival covered with a Christian veneer.”
Ironically, it was the commercialization of Christmas, turning it into a family-centered gift-giving extravaganza, that helped purge the rowdy pagan elements from the holiday.
The roots of “Christmas” are in a Roman/pagan festival celebrating the winter solstice. It was appropriated by the Christians despite any evidence Jesus was born on or near December 25.
Sarah won’t read the book above, but she can check out this ‘Cliff Notes’ version I wrote for Huffington Post: “Hey Fox, Here’s What a REAL War on Christmas Looks Like.”
* A Storify site – can’t directly import the content to WordPress or I would have posted it here.
