The Christmas Anticks: St. George and the Mummers Visit Boston

Up until the mid-1800s Christmas was a hotly debated holiday in New England. The middle and upper classes, along with the government and church authorities, were virulently anti-Christmas; the lower classes, fishermen, and sailors tended to be pro-Christmas. Even though Christmas was not an official holiday and the government discouraged it, these folks still found ways to celebrate it.

For example, during the 1700s groups of laborers and lower class men would don disguises and travel door-to-door in Boston at Christmas time performing skits and asking for money. Bostonians called these performers the Anticks. Of course, the wealthy people whose houses they visited didn't want to see the skits or give out any holiday cheer, but they felt powerless to do anything for fear of reprisal. Better to hand out some beer and coins than to find all your windows broken in the morning!

Samuel Breck, a wealthy Bostonian who lived in a large house on the corner of Winter and Tremont streets, recalled visits from the Anticks when he was a child.

The only way to get rid of them was to give them money, and listen patiently to a foolish dialogue between two or more of them. One them would cry out, "Ladies and gentlemen sitting by the fire, put your hands in your pockets and give us our desire." When this was done and they had received some money, a kind of acting took place. One fellow was knocked down, and lay sprawling on the carpet, while another bellowed out,

See, there he lies
But ere he dies
A doctor must be had.

He calls for a doctor, who soon appears, and enacts the part so well that the wounded man revives.

Although Breck doesn't mention this, the Boston Anticks were actually performing a mummer's play, a centuries old form of British seasonal folk-theater. They were most likely performing of the many skits about St. George where he is slain and then resurrected magically.

British mummers, from this site.

Samuel Breck had a very "Bah! Humbug!" attitude towards the Anticks, and many other upright citizens felt the same way. But although they ostensibly shared Breck's opinion, the police claimed it was hard to arrest the Anticks because they wore disguises, and police officials suggested private citizens arrest any Anticks who harassed them. It sounds to me like the police really had little interest in shutting the Anticks down and were just passing the buck. Who knows? Maybe they had friends or family members who were part of the Anticks, or just enjoyed seeing the wealthy people squirm.

This information comes from Stephen Nissenbaum's excellent book The Battle for Christmas. If you are interested in the history of Christmas in America this book is it!

Have a great Christmas, and if any Anticks come to your house make sure to give them a little cash.

Don't Forget the Christmas Tip!

In the 18th century Boston had several newspapers, which were delivered to people's homes by young men who were generally from the lower class. Although Christmas was not widely celebrated in New England at this time, the newspaper boys still relied on ancient traditions of Yuletide charity to get tips from their customers.

Many newspapers provided pre-printed fliers that their newsboys could give to their customers as a reminder about Christmas tips. Here is one example the Boston Evening Post gave out in 1764:

The Boy who Weekly Pads the Streets,
With all the freshest News he meets,
His Mistress and Masters greets.

Christmas and New-Year, Days of Joy,
The Harvest of your Carrier Boy,
He hopes you'll not his Hopes destroy...

That his generous Patrons may inspire,
By filling up his Pockets higher!

Boys who delivered the Massachusetts Spy, another Boston paper, asked this from their customers in 1771:

Kind Sirs! Your gen'rous bounty show
Few shillings on your Lad bestow,
Which will reward his pain,
Who piercing Winter's cold endures,
And to your hands the SPY secures,
And still his task maintains.

Not many people get newspapers delivered these days, but be sure to tip your postman or other service person in your life. Keep up the ancient tradition and have a great Christmas!

(All this information is from Stephen Nissenbaum's excellent book The Battle for Christmas.)

Christmas Trees on New Year's

Christmas Eve, 1836, by Herman Bokum. From the American Antiquarian Society.

Tonight is New Year's Eve, and the Christmas season is coming (sadly) to an end. No more parties, no more presents, no more trees!

However, in the early 19th century, when Christmas trees first became popular in the United States, many New England families decorated them and exchanged presents on New Year's, rather than on Christmas itself. (This, according to Stephen Nissenbaum). New Year's is now more of an adult holiday, while Christmas day is focused on children and gift giving.

However, the first printed image of a Christmas tree in the U.S. was titled "Christmas Eve", and was engraved by Herman Bokum, a German immigrant who taught at Harvard. It appeared in 1836 in The Stranger's Gift, a Christmas gift book. Amazingly, you can see a facsimile of the entire book online at Google Books!

Twelve Days of Weather Predictions

Here's a way to predict the weather for the upcoming year.

According to one of Clifton Johnson's 19th century informants, the weather on each of the twelve days of Christmas predicts what the weather will be for the coming twelve months. I'm assuming they mean only in terms of sunshine, precipitation and cloud cover. Otherwise, for this system to work January 1st would have to be hot and humid to accurately predict August weather. Even with global warming that's not going to happen (yet)!

Christmas in the past, according to Stephen Nissenbaum, used to be an amorphous season that sometimes lasted for months. I'm not sure where the concept of twelve days of Christmas first originated, but there are lots of significant twelves in the world: twelve months, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve apostles, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Olympian gods, twelve imams., etc. I recall learning that there was once a numerical system based on the number twelve, from which we get twelve inches in a foot, twelve items in a dozen, and twelve dozen in a gross. Wikipedia (of course) has an article about the number twelve.

The Drunken Christmas of Old

Christmas today is a family-focused holiday. When you think of Christmas, you think of kids around a Christmas tree opening presents delivered by Santa.

According to historian Stephen Nissenbaum, Christmas in the past was a very different holiday. Instead of kids opening presents, rowdy bands of drunken laborers roamed from house to house, singing songs and demanding gifts of food, money and alcohol. Sometimes they wore costumes and performed skits (a practice known as mumming), sometimes they would just sing songs that demanded gifts (an ancestor of modern Christmas caroling known as wassailing).

The Puritans discouraged the celebration of most holidays in New England, but particularly Christmas, claiming it was too disruptive and did not have basis in the Bible. From 1659 - 1681 it was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts, but long after that law's repeal (under pressure from England) Christmas celebrations were still frowned upon. Massachusetts didn't legally recognize Christmas as a holiday until 1855.

But many people still celebrated Christmas, despite disapproval from political and religious leaders. An article in the Journal of American Folklore from 1896 describes a visit by Christmas mummers in the 1700's, a time when "Christmas was not kept." The article is based on recollections of a woman who was born in 1752.

Men wearing masks and carrying swords came to her parents' house, and performed a skit involving combat, a miraculous cure for the injured combatant, and nonsensical questions. The skit featured these lines:

Here comes I who never came yet
Great head and little wit,
And though my wit it is so ill,
Before I go I'll please you still.

From the description, it seems as though the men were performing a version of a traditional British play about St. George.

No Thor's Day in Boston

I've started reading Stephen Nissenbaum's The Battle for Christmas again. Probably one third of the book covers what Christmas was really like in New England before the industrial revolution. It's a very eye-opening book! Not a lot of sleigh-riding and merrymaking went on back then, but there was some drunken rioting and class warfare.

One interesting factoid I picked up: the New England Puritan's omitted the names of weekdays from their almanacs, since they referred to pagan Germanic gods. For example, Thursday is derived from Thor's Day, Wednesday comes from Woden's Day.

Did they give the days new names, or just leave them blank? I searched the Web for an answer, but only found more mysteries. According to this author, the Puritan almanac makers also omitted the names of months for the same reason. For example, March is named after Mars, and January is named after Janus. No pagan influence allowed!

I'd love to know if they gave months and days new names, but its possible they just assigned numbers instead. Either way, it must have been confusing.