Ben Jonson's Masque of Christmas

paulrace · Post by **paulrace** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:09 pm

In 1616, it was becoming politically incorrect to celebrate Christmas in England, but writer Ben Jonson produced a silly play for James I that made fun of the haters, and was just fun, period.

http://familychristmasonline.com/ceremo ... istmas.htm

Oldlioness · Post by **Oldlioness** » Mon Nov 17, 2014 8:21 am

This is worth passing around in my neck of the woods....as there is a small--thankfully--core group of folks here who seem to resent any kind of Christmas connection, period. Here's an example; we have a large beautiful pine tree in a village park called Vassallo--named after Sam Vassallo, a former Croton mayor.

Every year it is lit with a certain measure of fanfare. But one year, when the event was advertised on the village gov't website, was it called a Christmas tree? No. It was called a "Peace Tree"--since then it is called a "Holiday Tree Lighting"--as if the word Christmas must not be uttered.

No I've got nothing against peace--especially at Christmas(!)--but calling it a Peace Tree did not make me happy---as minorly annoyed as I was, it was nothing compared to the outcry of neighbors--one of them, a member of the local temple remarked what is next? Calling a menorrah a candle-abra! Let 'em just try that!

So I calmly said to one of my officials at the time, even Washington calls it The National Christmas Tree when they do their lighting---why is it a Peace Tree here?

Long story short: Apparently the pc crowd resented that any village funds were being used to promote--let alone pay for the electricity--for a "Christmas" Tree.

The end result: It's back to being called a "Holiday Tree"...

Now in the scheme of things, for those of us--most of us anyway--who celebrate Christmas--this stuff is just plain silly...but as one neighbor said, I won't let it spoil my joy!

Ditto.