Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Invention of Christmas

The invention of tradition
Eric Hobsbawm

Roman winter holidays (Saturnalia, Festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun)
Germanic winter holiday (Yule)
Winter Solstice (December 21 or 22)
Epiphany (January 6)
St. Nicholas Day (December 6)

Colonial America
1659 Massachusetts Bay Colony forbids Christmas

19th Century America
1820s The Rise of A Bourgeois Christmas
Charles Dickens
Christmas Misrule
The Knickerbockers
Washington Irving
John Pintard, The St. Nicholas Society
Clement Moore, "A Visit From St. Nicholas"
Godey's Magazine
1836-1861: 26 states make Christmas a legal holiday
1870s: Rise of Department Stores

20th Century America
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1939): Robert May, Johnny Marks

No comments:

Post a Comment