day-9

12 days of Christmas: Traditions of the Holidays

Most people for the holidays are going to be heading home, hoping to see a white Christmas, referring to snow, not the necessarily the movie. The traditions of Christmas have developed over centuries. Believe it or not, at one time, Christmas in America was illegal.

Among the people who founded traditions in our country were the Puritans. In an article from www.livescience.com, called The Surprising Truth: Christians once banned Christmas by Remy Melina, Christmas was abolished for decades because of its Pagan roots.

The discourse elaborates the holiday was banned in Boston, from 1659, to 1681 and the Plymouth colony had declared its practice a criminal offense. Christmas trees were considered to be unholy pagan rituals, and foods such mince pies and pudding were off-limits.

The ban prevailed among New England colonies until 1856, and Puritan influence continued to prevail until 1870. Influence was taken from the Bible in Jeremiah chapter 10: 2-4, where instructions are given not to do as the heathen, who nail trees to the wall and decorate it with silver and gold.

Among other reasons mentioned in Live Science, Puritans banned the practice because of dancing, drinking, singing carols and merry making.

As unorthodox as all of that sounds, Christmas has been embraced and inhibitions to its practice in history are not widely known. Today, new traditions have sprung up in the stead of the old and traditions of the past have taken on new meaning.

Everywhere in Logan, lights are strung up and trees are decorated with ornaments with presents laid in care for the 25th.

Katie Shirk a sales associate with USU catering and her coworker Sarah Riggs believes Christmas is about family and unity. Among those activities are games and spending time together.

“We play bingo on Christmas night,” says Shirk. “It’s really fun, and a family oriented time.”

Alan Anderson, the director of dining services would go out with his children to buy ornaments every year.

“They have ornaments every year since they were babies, and they would write their names on them. By the time they were adults, they had a travel log of their life,” says Anderson. “What I want at my new house is a Christmas tree outside. We are going to plant a tree out there and decorate it. I saw it on a Hallmark movie once and it was awesome.”

Charles Pope, an exchange student from Australia hasn’t had a set of consistent traditions on a while. Mostly because every year has been different.

“When I was a kid, we would go on a picnic or a hike,” Pope says. Because of course its summer in Australia, so people are doing something outdoors. At this point, I can’t put a consistent label on anything.”

Christmas has become a symbol to many people, whether it is to spend time at home with family, travel, or simply take a break from daily life. Christmas changed a lot of the course of the centuries, and may change again. Only time will tell.

— fallrush92@gmail.com