Why was Scotland not allowed to celebrate Christmas?
Scotland banned Christmas for nearly 400 years, from 1640 until 1958, because the strict Presbyterian Church (the Kirk) viewed it as a Catholic, extravagant festival with pagan roots and unbiblical traditions, a belief solidified by the Scottish Parliament's 1640 act making "Yule" celebrations illegal, shifting focus to Hogmanay (New Year) instead.
Before the Reformation in 1560, Christmas in Scotland had been a religious feasting day. Then, with the powerful Kirk frowning upon anything related to Roman Catholicism, the Scottish Parliament passed a law in 1640 that made celebrating 'Yule vacations' illegal.
Some Puritans objected to the celebrations as there was no mention of such things in the Bible, and therefore couldn't be justified as they were not rooted in scripture. Many also felt that the Christmas festivities had simply become too drunken and debauched. Presbyterians in Scotland had outlawed Christmas in 1640.
Did you know that Christmas was outlawed in Scotland until the 1950's?
Which country forbids Christmas?
Christmas is not an official holiday in Saudi Arabia. Until around the early 2010s, Christmas was banned in Saudi Arabia as it was and still is considered haram by Islamic authorities. A display of decorations can be found in certain indoor markets and malls.
In 1659, the Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted a law called Penalty for Keeping Christmas. The notion was that such “festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries” were a “great dishonor of God and offence of others.” Anyone found celebrating Christmas by failing to work, “feasting, or any other way…
Muslims should only celebrate the 'Eid al-Fitr and 'Eid al-Adha. All scholars agree that celebrating Christmas in Islam is Haram and not permissible because it is a Christian celebration.
These countries don't celebrate Christmas: Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (excepting Hong Kong and Macao), Comoros, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, ...
Christmas tree decorations, gift-giving, family and other social gatherings, feasting, etc. Christmas was largely erased from the Russian calendar for much of the 20th century due to the Soviet Union's anti-religious policies, but many of its traditions survived, having been transplanted to New Year's Day.
In June 1647, the feast days of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun were all abolished by Parliament. Soldiers of the New Model Army were sent to break up church services and festivals, as well as to stop secular celebrations in public places.
Back in 1647, Christmas was banned in the kingdoms of England (which at the time included Wales), Scotland and Ireland and it didn't work out very well. Following a total ban on everything festive, from decorations to gatherings, rebellions broke out across the country.
In Scotland, Christmas is traditionally called Yule, derived from Old Norse for winter feasts, and remains a common term for the festive season, though modern Scots also use "Christmas," with "A Blithe Yule" meaning Happy Christmas and "The Daft Days" referring to the festive period. While banned for centuries after the Reformation, modern Scotland now celebrates Christmas similarly to the rest of the UK, but with unique traditions like "first-footing" and "Sowans Nicht".
When was the last time Scotland had a white Christmas?
Scotland had an "official" white Christmas in 2022, with snow falling at stations like Edinburgh's Gogarbank, but the last widespread, classic "card" white Christmas with significant lying snow across much of the UK (including Scotland) was in 2010, though 2017 and 2020 also saw reports of some snowfall in Scotland.
In England that is typically split into 20 days general holiday + 8 days bank holidays. If an employer in Scotland provides all 9 bank holidays (which is not required), then the employee will only have 19 days of (legally mandated) holiday remaining*. The number of days holiday remains the same.
The most popular theory links it to the Old French word “hoginane”, meaning "gala day" or a gift given on New Year's Eve, likely arriving in Scotland via Mary Queen of Scots on her return from France in 1561.
In the 1560s Scotland split from the Catholic Church and the holiday was banned being deemed to flamboyant and excessive as well as being “to papist”. By the 1640s, Yule celebrations were declared officially illegal by parliament leading to potential imprisonment for simple acts of sining carols or baking Yule bread.
Afghanistan, Algeria, Yemen, Libya, Mauritania. In these countries, Christmas is not officially observed, and December 25 passes as a regular day, reflecting religious demographics rather than explicit bans.
Whether Muslims can say "Merry Christmas" is debated, with some scholars allowing it as a general greeting of goodwill (especially in secular contexts) as long as it doesn't affirm Christian beliefs about Jesus' divinity, while others advise avoiding it to prevent endorsing a religious festival contrary to Islamic tenets, suggesting neutral phrases like "Happy Holidays" instead. The core issue is balancing kindness and social harmony with core Islamic beliefs, particularly the strict monotheism (Tawhid) that rejects Jesus as God's son, which Christmas celebrates.
Muslims and Christians share a deep respect for Jesus, but their beliefs about him differ. For Christians, Christmas celebrates Jesus' birth and divinity, while for Muslims, Jesus is a beloved prophet whose teachings guide their lives but whose birth is not marked with a holiday.
Christmas is celebrated on 25th December in Scotland. The tradition of celebrating Christmas was banned here for nearly 400 years until the 1950's. In the 1580's, this magical festival was obliterated from the list of Scottish festivals as it was seen to be supporting Romanism.
No, the Bible does not say Christmas is December 25th; it doesn't mention the date of Jesus' birth at all, with early Christians not celebrating birthdays, and the date was chosen later (around 336 AD) by the Roman church to coincide with pagan winter solstice festivals like Saturnalia. This placement was likely to ease conversion by offering a Christian alternative to existing popular holidays, according to the Biblical Archaeology Society and Wikipedia.
