Page "Puritan" Paragraph 49

In modern usage, the word puritan is often used to describe someone who is strict in matters of sexual morality, disapproves of recreation, and wishes to impose these beliefs on others.

This popular image is more accurate as a description of Puritans in colonial America, who were among the most radical Puritans and whose social experiment took the form of a theocracy.

The first Puritans of New England certainly disapproved of Christmas celebrations, as did some other Protestant churches of the time.

Celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659.

The ban was revoked in 1681 by the English-appointed governor Sir Edmund Andros, who also revoked a Puritan ban on festivities on Saturday nights.

Nevertheless, it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.

Likewise the colonies banned many secular entertainments, such as games of chance, maypoles, and drama, on moral grounds.