New details are emerging about the death of Queen Elizabeth and why Princess Catherine (aka Kate Middleton) was not present.
25.12.2023 - 09:35 / dailyrecord.co.uk
Now that it is finally here, people all over Scotland will be enjoying spending Christmas Day with their nearest and dearest. And while you are going through your usual festive rituals and traditions, take a moment to think what the end of the year would be like with no Christmas.
It sounds like something out of a kids' movie, but that was the reality in Scotland for hundreds of years. To understand why this was the case, you need to go back in time to the mid 16th century.
This was around the time that Scotland formally split from the Papacy and Catholic Church, in a period that is known as the Scottish Reformation. Back then, Yuletide festivities — a combination of Viking Yule celebrations and Christian Christmas — were all but cancelled by the Church of Scotland.
This is because the Church affiliated the holiday with the lavish celebrations of Catholicism, and instead wanted to impose a more simple, strict, and 'pure' way of living.
From then on, as the country adopted more Protestant views during the Reformation, publicly celebrating Christmas became increasingly frowned upon. In fact, if you were caught engaging in Yuletide festivities, you could have faced excommunication or been ordered to publicly repent.
Tensions continued to escalate until 1640, at which time an Act of Parliament of Scotland officially made celebrating Yuletide illegal. Once this law was enacted, it was strictly enforced, with those caught violating it potentially being sent to prison.
During this time, Scots were obviously afraid to engage in Christmas activities such as singing carols, and so the holiday was successfully eradicated from the country — for a time. Instead, people started to shift their focus to Hogmanay, which is why Scotland has
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