Did the Puritans dislike Christmas pudding?
Last fall while speaking at Hespeler Baptist Church on the Puritans a friend gave me a page she had found in the catalogue of a British firm that shipped various British foods overseas. This particular page advertised Christmas pudding.
Part of the ad ran thus: “Christmas pudding should be so wickedly good it makes you feel like repenting. That’s the effect it had on the Puritans, who, back in Britain in 1664, banned the rich dessert as a lewd tradition. Thankfully, King George gave in to temptation and removed the ban in 1714.”
Pasing by the incredible statement of the first line, it seems as if this ad derived its historical data from this webpage of BBC2: “Traditional Christmas Pudding” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A660836), where we are further informed that the Puritans’ argument against the pudding was that “mainly due to its rich ingredients” they deemed it “unfit for God-fearing people.” When George reintroduced it, according to this web page, the Quakers objected, calling it “the invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon.” Doing a quick check, it appears that a number of places on the Web have similar information and the same dates.
There are some obvious problems here. First, the Puritans, if we mean the English Puritans, had no power to be banning anything in 1664 since the Restoration in 1660 had led to their complete removal from the halls of power. Then, the Quakers are not to be confused with the Puritans. King George of the ad is presumably George I (r.1714-1727). George, who spoke virtually not a word of English—he was a Hanoverian from Germany—became king in August of 1714. And it was that December he reinstated the Christmas pudding.
Well, someone who loves the Puritans needs to research this and find out the truth. This would make a very good term paper!
This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 12:25 am and is filed under 17th Century, 18th Century, Puritans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Hi,
Some of the problems you mention can be resolved if you take it this way:
“It grew in popularity until, in 1664, the Puritans banned it as a ‘lewd custom’.”
Comment:
It doesn,t say they banned it for everybody.
Maybe it was just among themselves…But maybe they influenced others around themselves and that caused the decrease in it,s popularity. It doesn’t say they extinguished the custom by some legal way.
“It remained in obscurity until 1714 when George I, who developed a taste for plum pudding, re-established it as part of the Christmas feast. This was despite the fact that the Quakers objected, calling it ‘the invention of the scarlet whore of Babylon’.”
Comment:
The author doesn’t say that the Quakers are the same persons as the Puritans who are mentionned previously. To me it means the Quakers had probably banned it too and that they, and not the Puritans, called it that lovely way…
It could have been clearer but it’s not a complete nonsense to my mind.
As for King Georges.
I’m not an historian at all and would not dare commenting on that.
Hope this interesting research will be a piece of cake for some keen student one day!
It could actually become a good subject for a Christmas Christian tract and that could be used to evangelize.
A very practical way to use historical research for the growth of God’s kingdom!
January 28th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
Sister:
Thanks for the comments. Food (no pun intended) to chew on!
February 1st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Hi Michael,
Heather O. sent me this. Smart lady, she figured out who gave you the article. I enjoyed reading what you said. Don’t think I want to do a research paper on it though.
Would be interested to know how to use this for evangelism as per comment above.
Linda
February 1st, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Dear Linda:
Well it would be a good idea to use it for evangelism. Not sure I have the time right now to figure out how it could be used. Any ideas?
Regards to Neil.
Michael.