OCR Text |
Show Christmas MarkedIn MarkedIn Marked MarkedIn In Early Colonies Colontes ColoniesBy ColontesBy By Jollity , Feastin FeastingEarly Feasting - " " ' " Early American colonies colonle eolonies . along alone the theAUanUc theAtlantic t Atlantic AUanUc seaaoard aeaboard seaboard could have lave ! been beenlocated beenlocated b located oa on different difterent dilTerent continents gontnents cont 1ents , , 10 so 10far sofar far as u taeir tbelt their Christmas Chd.tma Chdtma Qiriatsnas . . celebrstic celebration ce brationa brationawere . were conceraed concerned . . . Many , aC of the cmtoms cuatotnl customs of EnllaDcI England Englandwere EnllaDcIwere ICngla . were followed foUowe4 followe4 b by the southern aouthem colo- colo coin- coin colonie coinriles co conies - - nie nies riles . of Georgia , . Carolina CaroUoa , Mal'71and Mal71and Maryland Marylandand ' . and Virginia VItI'fnJa VItIfnJa ' , . : flcra Hen ifere the christmas christmasseason amatm . .e8l0n e8l0n season . was a hollda holiday , la In the true true.ense truesense .ense ense sense . of the word FeuUn ITeaiting Feasting and andmerrymaldn andmerrymaking a ; merrymaldn merrymaking were common . , . but ro- ro roligioul re- re religlous i - - ligioul liglous worship worahip and prayer were notforgotten not notforgotten r forgotten . . In sharp contrast to thu this thU hapPJ happy hapPJcelebration happycelebration celebration was the manner in V'hlch Vhlch v'hlcb vhlcb V'hlchChristmas ' v'hlcbChristmas ' ( " ' Christmas was marked in NewEngland New NewEngland Ni NiEngland England Puritan leaders leaderl did their theirbest theirbest tb < best to create a different difterent concep- concep conception conceplion - - tion lion of the day Celebrations Celebration , were weredeclared weredeclared declared pagan paian in origin . , . and It wa was wasbelieved . believed such rites ritel were out of keep- keep keepIng keeping ke - - Ing with the true spirit of the day dayTheir da ) ' Theil Their ' efforts e1forta were overcome after aftera a number of years and New Eng England England land yuletlde yuletides yuletide * . gradually iradually .awned awned assumed . a acharacter acharacter character more like those of oldEngland old oldEn.land En.land Enland England . En.landChristmas Englandhristniaa Christmas hristniaa in . the middle colonlel colonies colonlelof coloniesof coloni of New York . . : New Jersey Jeraey , . Penn Penn.ylvanla Pennsylvania .ylvanla ylvanla sylvania . and Delaware was tele- tele teleI odin- odin telebrated odinbrated ( eelbrated - - I brated in the manner that the eol-I eol I eolIonista cal- cal calonists cionicts - ' onista onists followed in their countries countrlel of oforigin origin origin In in addition to England , . these the ; . - - colonies were from Germany , Holland and Swe- Swe Sweden Sweden Sw Swden - - den The Germans Gel'ffianl Gelffianl ' , . for ( or examplebrought example examplebroueht brought broueht to America the custom of ofusln ofusing ! usln using the Christinas Christmas tree , . but the theQualCera theQuakers Quakers QualCera of Philadelphia limitedtheir limited limitedtheir * their observance to religious ceremonies cere- cere ceremonies - - moniesFamily monies Family reunions marked the sea seaIon seaIon se : son Ion in both the middle mJddle and southern southerncolonies southerncolonies colonies House Houses * were crowded with withwelcome withwelcome wi < j ; , welcome guests llueSU who were treated treatedto treate treateto , to the best of fowls wine wines * and andsweetmeats and.weetmea ar . sweetmeats .weetmea weetmea ts tsAlong Along the frontier Christmas ChristIna ! ws wa was wasa . a season of active merrymakin merrymaking merrymakingwhich merrymakingwhich merrymakinwhich - which in place places * verged on rowdy rowdyism rowdylam rowd rowdIsmAs ism lam IsmAs lamAs As time went on Christmas Christmasthe in inthe inthe the various sections of the colonies coloniesbecame coloniesbecame colon ! became fused until there is today todaya tod a considerable similarity of prac practlces practices pra ' tlces tices throughout the United States |