Christmas controversies

A 1931 edition of the Soviet magazine Bezbozhnik, published by the League of Militant Atheists, depicting an Orthodox Christian priest being forbidden to take home a tree for the celebration of Christmastide, which was banned under the Marxist–Leninist doctrine of state atheism[1]

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, which, in Western Christian churches, is held annually on 25 December. For centuries, it has been the subject of several reformations, both religious and secular.

In the 17th century, the Puritans had laws forbidding the ecclesiastical celebration of Christmas, unlike the Catholic Church or the Anglican Church, from the latter of which they separated.[2] With the atheistic Cult of Reason in power during the era of the French Revolution, Christian Christmas religious services were banned and the three kings cake was forcibly renamed the "equality cake" under anticlerical government policies.[3][4][5] Later, in the 20th century, Christmas celebrations were prohibited under the doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union.[6][7][8] In Nazi Germany, Christmas celebrations were propagandized so as to serve the ideology of the Nazi party.[9]

Modern-day controversy occurs mainly in China,[10][11] the United States[12][13] and to a much lesser extent the United Kingdom.[14] In the US, the generic term "holidays" and avoidance of using the term "Christmas" have been denounced by some figures as being concessions to political correctness, specifically in order to allegedly avoid offending minorities that do not celebrate Christmas, such as American Jews.[14][15][16] This often involves objections to government or corporate efforts to acknowledge Christmas in a way that is multiculturally sensitive.[17]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Harper1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Lowe, Scott C. (2011). Christmas. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1444341454. On the mainland, seventeenth-century Puritan New England had laws forbidding the observance of Christmas. The Christian groups who broke with the Catholic Church and the Church of England deemphasized Christmas in the early colonial period.
  3. ^ Christmas in France. World Book Encyclopedia. 1996. p. 35. ISBN 9780716608769. Carols were altered by substituting names of prominent political leaders for royal characters in the lyrics, such as the Three Kings. Church bells were melted down for their bronze to increase the national treasury, and religious services were banned on Christmas Day. The cake of kings, too, came under attack as a symbol of royalty. It survived, however, for a while with a new name—the cake of equality.
  4. ^ Flood, Gavin (2012). The Importance of Religion: Meaning and Action in our Strange World. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4051-8971-2. During the French Revolution in 1793 the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was rededicated to the Cult of Reason, an atheistic doctrine intended to replace Christianity.
  5. ^ Mason, Julia (21 December 2015). "Why Was Christmas Renamed 'Dog Day' During the French Revolution?". HistoryBuff. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016. How did people celebrate the Christmas during the French Revolution? In white-knuckled terror behind closed doors. Anti-clericalism reached its apex on 10 November 1793, when a Fête de la Raison was held in honor of the Cult of Reason. Churches across France were renamed "Temples of Reason" and the Notre Dame was "de-baptized" for the occasion. The Commune spared no expense: "The first festival of reason, which took place in Notre Dame, featured a fabricated mountain, with a temple of philosophy at its summit and a script borrowed from an opera libretto. At the sound of Marie-Joseph Chénier's Hymne à la Liberté, two rows of young women, dressed in white, descended the mountain, crossing each other before the 'altar of reason' before ascending once more to greet the goddess of Liberty." As you can probably gather from the above description, 1793 was not a great time to celebrate Christmas in the capital.
  6. ^ Connelly, Mark (2000). Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema. I.B.Tauris. p. 186. ISBN 9781860643972. A chapter on representations of Christmas in Soviet cinema could, in fact be the shortest in this collection: suffice it to say that there were, at least officially, no Christmas celebrations in the atheist socialist state after its foundation in 1917.
  7. ^ Goldberg, Carey (7 January 1991). "A Russian Christmas—Better Late Than Never: Soviet Union: Orthodox Church Celebration Is the First Under Communists. But, as with Most of Yeltsin's Pronouncements, the Holiday Stirs a Controversy". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 December 2015. For the first time in more than seven decades, Christmas—celebrated today by Russian Orthodox Christians—is a full state holiday across Russia's vast and snowy expanse. As part of Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin's ambitious plan to revive the traditions of Old Russia, the republic's legislature declared last month that Christmas, long ignored under atheist Communist ideology, should be written back into the public calendar. 'The Bolsheviks replaced crosses with hammers and sickles,' said Vyacheslav S. Polosin, head of the Russian legislature's committee on religion. 'Now they are being changed back.'
  8. ^ Luzer, Daniel (26 November 2013). "What a Real War on Christmas Looks Like". Pacific Standard. In 1925, Christmas was effectively banned under the officially atheist Soviets, and was not to return to Russian lands until 1992. ... The state prohibited people from selling Christmas trees. There were even festivals, organized by the League of Militant Atheists, specifically to denigrate religious holidays. Their carnivals were inspired by similar events staged by activists after the French Revolution. From 1923 to 1924 and then again from 1929 to 1930 the "Komsomol Christmases" and Easters were basically holiday celebrations of atheism.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Perry2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Enos, Olivia (20 December 2018). "Chinese Christians Face Intensifying Persecution Ahead Of Christmas". Forbes.
  11. ^ "China's pre-Christmas Church crackdown raises alarm". BBC News. 18 December 2018.
  12. ^ Bazar, Emily (1 December 2005). "Trimming 'Christmas' from Trees Stirs Debate". USA Today. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
  13. ^ Bishop, Tricia (24 November 2006). "Stores Revert to 'Merry Christmas'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
  14. ^ a b "The Brits Have It Right: Forget Happy Holidays, Just Wish People Merry Christmas". The Guardian. London. 16 June 2015.
  15. ^ Jankowski, Paul (16 June 2015). "Is Saying 'Merry Christmas' Politically Correct? Who Cares?". Forbes.
  16. ^ "If We Can't Say 'Merry Christmas' in Canada, Multiculturalism Failed". The Huffington Post. 16 June 2015.
  17. ^ Vyhnak, Carola (14 December 2017). "The war on Christmas past and how the holiday tree came to be". the Toronto Star. Retrieved 9 March 2018.