Some historical perspective on the season

With all the fuss about God and why the Pilgrims came to America and the importance of God in our government, I decided to do some research.

The Pilgrims did not celebrate Christmas or Easter. “These holidays were invented by man to memorialize Jesus, and are not prescribed by the Bible ... It seems too much for any mortal man to appoint, or make an anniversary memorial for Christ,” taught the Pastor John Robinson.

Not only that, Puritans found saying Merry Christmas, lighting a candle or exchanging a gift were fined five schillings, quite a bit in the 1600s. Christmas celebrations were outlawed from 1659 to 1681, and work as usual was the custom of the day. Congress worked on Dec. 25, 1789, and every year thereafter for the next 65 years. I think they lived by that original belief in the separation of Church and State — that belief that the fundamental right seems to have misinterpreted and are misquoting for their own agendas.

There were no celebrations, no trees in the state buildings, no tree lightings and no Christian prayer invoking of God, not on Christmas and not on Thanksgiving, a secular holiday that actually was first celebrated in Florida many years before the Massachusetts meal.

Did you know that Christmas was not even a federal holiday until June 26, 1870?

Oh, and just a quick aside: Our founding Christian Pilgrims, Puritans, believed that marriage was a contract and was to be handled by magistrates, not clergy. A belief that Massachusetts Supreme Court recognized in their ruling on marriage equality.

Here is to putting some reason back in the season.

Deeya Roberts

Lake Zurich