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Oliver Cromwell

Definition: The original scrooge.

 

The original scrooge.

By Dickens' time, Christmas was not much of a holiday. In fact, for most people it was still a work day. The Industrial Revolution meant fewer days off for everyone, and Christmas was considered so unimportant that no one complained. This was thanks to none other than Oliver Cromwell, the Lord and Protector of England in mid seventeenth-century England. Cromwell had toiled to eradicate Christmas altogether because the holiday had no scriptural basis; the Bible mentions no "holy day" other than the Sabbath and certainly doesn't exhort Christians to celebrate Jesus' birth on December 25.

Furthermore, Cromwell knew that the date of December 25 was shrewdly chosen by early Christian officials who wanted to replace pagan rituals with Christian ones. The day was selected because of its association with two pagan holidays, Yule and Sol Invictus (the birthday of the Unconquered Sun). Both were celebrated in conjunction with the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. On this night, the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds were considered particularly permeable. It was believed that spirits would return to Earth to finish unsettled business - exactly what Jacob Marley does in A Christmas Carol.

Resources:

  external linkWhy Did Charles Dickens Write Ghost Stories for Christmas?

 

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