Magyar Egyház, 1970 (49. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1970-12-01 / 12. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 CHRISTMAS IN AMERICA The celebration of Christmas in the United States is interwoven with the customs and traditions of many lands. In the colonial period — say from 1620, when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, to 1776, the year we declared our independence — Christmas was variously observed in the different colonies. Any formal observance of Christmas was forbidden to the early New England colonists by the strict Puritan code of the Pilgrim fathers. They had come to these shores as refugees from religious persecution in England; and they held to the conviction that their Puritan faith — stern and austere as it was — could not tolerate the feasts and merrymaking that had marked the Christmas season in the old country. This attitude persisted in New England until the early nineteenth century. But a different atmosphere prevailed among their neighbors to the south, the Dutch settlers in what is now New York. Here the appointed day for the celebration and Christmas eve as well, meant for the children a visitation from the genial and generous Saint Nicholas, who was to become known as Santa Claus, and who filled their wooden shoes with gifts and sweets while they slept. For the adults it meant church services and prayers, visits and good wishes from friends and relatives, and a feast that reminded them of the homes they had left in Holland. All down the Atlantic coast, the observance of Christmas reflected the customs of church and home which the colonists had left behind. The Swedes in New Jersey, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, the Roman Catholics in Maryland, the Episcopalians in Virginia — each observed the day according to their traditions. In some of the southern states, Christmas was — and still is — celebrated with fireworks, a custom which was introduced by French settlers in Louisiana, and Italians and Spaniards in Florida. The tradition of setting up in miniature the creche, or crib, with the Holy Family, the shepherds, the Magi, and the farm animals of Biblical times, originally begun in Italy, was established in this country by German settlers who, on Christmas eve in 1741, founded a town in eastern Pennsylvania — and called it Bethlehem. It was the Irish immigrants, who began to come to America in large numbers in the nineteenth century, who brought with them the custom of putting a lighted candle in the window at Christmas time. They had used such candles to light the way of the priest who had come to pray with them on Christmas eve in Ireland. The plenty of the new land provided abundant foodstuffs for the holiday table, and the woodland greens, boughs and assorted cones were used for decoration. It was the Christmas tree, however, symbolic of everlasting light, which was to become the center of almost every Christmas celebration. There are many claims as to when and where Christmas trees first used in the United States. Some think they were used by Hessian troops during the Revolutionary War. Certainly the custom came from and flourished wherever German immigrants settled. It did not become general until the middle of the last century. Early Christmas trees were collected from the wild, and were enjoyed alike by dwellers in the wilderness and the families in city and town. A story is told that in northeastern Wyoming a pioneer’s Christmas tree had a calming effect on a wounded Sioux indián who burst into a widow’s cabin seeking help and food. She was decorating a small tree for her two children. Its beauty aroused the Indian’s curiosity and through sign language, the woman was able to explain in part some of the tree’s significance. She fed and cared for the Indian and was able to take him back to his tribe. Whereupon he, having learned the spirit of Christmas, heaped her with gifts. By the middle of the last century, the Christmas tree was an acknowledged part of American life. In 1856, Franklin Pierce became the first President to have a tree in the White House, decorated for a group of Sunday School children. This custom continues today, and since 1954 has also included a national Christmas tree set up between the White House and the Washington Monument. This year, over 45 million Christmas trees will be set up throughout the United States, most of them grown for that specific purpose on “plantations” ranging from small plots to the large acreage of major growers. Many professional or retired people from every walk of life make growing Christmas trees an avid hobby and spend countless hours caring for their plantings. And so, as 200 million Americans celebrate Christmas this year, they will be enjoying customs and observances inherited from many lands and cultures.
