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Show Christmas Marked. In Early Colonies By Jollity, Feasting Early American colonies along the Atlantic seaboard could have been located on different continents, so far as their Christmas celebrations were concerned. Many of the customs of England were followed by the southern colonies colo-nies of Georgia, Carolina, Maryland and Virginia. Here the Christmas season was a holiday in the true sense of the word. Feasting and merrymaking were common, but religious re-ligious worship and prayer were not forgotten. In sharp contrast to this happy celebration was the manner in which Christmas was marked in New England. Puritan leaders did their best to create a different conception concep-tion of the day. Celebrations were declared pagan in origin, and it was believed such rites were out of keeping keep-ing with the true spirit of the day. Their efforts were overcome after a number of years and New England Eng-land yuletides gradually assumed a character more like those of old England. Christmas in the middle colonies of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania and Delaware was celebrated cele-brated in the manner that the colonists col-onists followed in their countries of origin. In addition to England, these colonies were populated by people from Germany, Holland and Sweden. Swe-den. The Germans, for example, brought to America the custom of using the Christmas tree, but the Quakers of Philadelphia limited their observance to religious ceremonies. cere-monies. Family reunions marked the season sea-son in both the middle and southern colonies. Houses were crowded with welcome guests who were treated to the best of fowls, wines and sweetmeats. Along the frontier Christmas was a season of active merrymaking which in places verged on rowdyism. rowdy-ism. As time went on, Christmas in the various sections of the colonies became fused until there is today a considerable similarity of practices prac-tices throughout the United States. |