Sorry, late again with yesterday’s entry. Busy with the north Devon branch of Devon Family History Society’s annual Christmas Quiz. Not quite the taxing nature of The Christmas Puzzle but taxing enough. My team came somewhere unshamefully near the middle. Photos have arrived from Thursday’s talk. So here I am, not exactly showing my best side but instructing my victim volunteer in the art of the seventeenth century curtsey.

Today’s entry, or strictly of course yesterday’s, is Puritans – so as Mistress Agnes I shouldn’t be celebrating Christmas at all!

Puritans

The Puritans are notorious for abolishing Christmas. A directive of January 1645/6 stated that only Sundays were to be celebrated as holy days. Increasingly restrictive legislation meant that from 1652-9 businesses were expected to open as usual on Christmas day. In Canterbury, during what became known as the Plum Pudding Riots, market traders refused to open and played a mammoth ball game instead.