Shakespeare's Christmas, New Years, and Easter

bookburn

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Dec 27, 2022, 1:46:43 AM12/27/22

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Before the change in calendars, in the 18th century, the days of celebration were different in Elizabethan England, it appears, according to the article at

https://www.thoughtco.com/shakespeare-new-year-and-christmas-quotes-2984987

Suggestion is that he was cynical about all that?

John W Kennedy

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Dec 27, 2022, 5:01:16 PM12/27/22

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The history of the celebration of Christmas in England is far more
complex than that. During the Interregnum, Christmas was outlawed, but
there were protests—even violence—when it was done, and when Richard
Cromwell fell, Christmas was welcomed back with great rejoicing. And a
careful reading of “A Christmas Carol” shows that, in Dickens’ mind,
Christmas was celebrated with great merrymaking only a generation before.

--
John W. Kennedy
Algernon Burbage, Lord Roderick, Father Martin, Bishop Baldwin,
King Pellinore, Captain Bailey, Merlin -- A Kingdom for a Stage!

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Dec 27, 2022, 9:22:23 PM12/27/22

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Article mentions something about German acculturation in England and resistance, which may have been a factor. Not sure how the Catholic-Protestant factions had attitudes about this. Evidently, it was Easter Sunday that was remembered instead with some.

Margaret

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Dec 28, 2022, 3:45:31 AM12/28/22

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The article missed the most obvious Christmas reference in Shakespeare. Which explains why Christmas Eve is the traditional time for telling ghost stories.

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Christmas Day is a holy day for church and such and then the festivities begin after that. The Christmas season at court (with plays) begins on St Stephen's Day and lasts till Twelfth Night. (But all the way to Shrove Tuesday, on and off, for extravagant James.)

January 1st is when Lizzie gets her New-Year's gifts. But Lady Day (March 25) is when the calendar year starts for Elizabethans, hence all the confusing "1596-7" dates for court performances in some books.

When the English calendar shifts to line up with the Continent, the new year start date is moved to 6th April so the taxman doesn't lose any money for that financial year. The UK still sticks to that.

marc hanson

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Dec 28, 2022, 11:31:38 AM12/28/22

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Hamlet act 1, scene 1

Marcellus.
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes

Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;

And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

marc

John W Kennedy

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Dec 28, 2022, 4:27:51 PM12/28/22

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All small-o orthodox Christians place Easter at the top. But, over the
centuries, Christmas has been anything from not a holiday at all to
second only to Easter.

John W Kennedy

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Dec 28, 2022, 4:38:02 PM12/28/22

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Only for the fiscal year. Since 1752, the civil New Year has fallen on
January 1, as in most of the West.