It's amazing to think that one simple folktale shaped how we celebrate Christmas today.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is a staple of the Christmas season. The story has been told and retold an infinite amount of times. It has been performed the traditional way that has remained close to the original story, it has been done with puppets, as a cartoon and it has been brought into the modern era as movies with a modern twist on the classic. However, with all these versions of the story being told is it possible that we have forgotten the significance of this folktale?
To find the answer to this question we have to go back in time, back to England in the mid 17th century during the time of the Protestant Reformation. The parliament was ruled by a Protestant political party. Amongst many of their opinions on society they felt that Christmas was too materialistic and promoted unholy things. Though the Catholic Church tried to counteract this belief along with King Charles I (who was pro Christmas) Christmas was banned in 1647. This led to “Pro-Christmas” riots in many parts of the country. For example halls were illegally decorated with holly and royalist slogans were shouted by these protestors, cities such as Canterbury were under the control of rioters. The ban on the holiday lasted for thirteen years until 1660. By the 1820’s the holiday nearly died out. Even in the United States Christmas was not a popular holiday to celebrate, it was seen as being an British holiday, which was not a good thing by a people who were striving to find their own cultural identity.
It was at about this time that Charles Dickens’ story came out. As with much of Dickens work, it is a commentary on the economic and cultural state of England at the time. There is a clear cut line between the “haves” and the “have nots”. For example Scrooge is a very wealthy man. He has the ability to be able to put food in his belly, cloths on his back, coal in the fire with money to spare. However, his employee that works in the very next room could barely provide for his family no matter how hard he worked he couldn’t make ends meat. In the world of Charles Dickens the ones that had all of their material desires lacked what Dickens believed truly mattered; love, joy and family.
It was this perception that when all the materialism was gone the true riches of life were revealed that not only hit home with many of the common people of England but also helped shape the holiday that we know today. In “A Christmas Carol” the principles of giving to your fellow man, appreciating your family and simply enjoying the world around you were the main themes and are the current themes that bombard us at this time every year. It was these themes that revived the Christmas Holiday and launched it into the position that it is now within our society. It’s not just Christmas that it helped launch into this permanent sacred position but the whole season itself.
http://folktalesmyths.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_christmas_carol
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