Of Whales and Wassail: Christmas Traditions Come Alive in County’s Historical Village

COLD SPRING – “These things are not just important to us as Americans – they are part of your own history,” Jim Stephens said as he arranged the quill pens lying on the wooden table. 
Glass bottles, full of freshly made blueberry ink, caught and reflected the afternoon light Dec. 3 as Historic Cold Spring Village celebrated “Wassail Day.”
Stephens, deputy director, who serves as education and interpretation coordinator, welcomed all who entered the schoolhouse and offered the chance to write with a quill pen to everyone.
Stephens shared not only the importance of connecting with the past but also of understanding and appreciating where many Christmas traditions began. Though public images are ingrained in America’s collective conscience, many traditions have surprising roots.
Some of those roots sleep with those who rest in the Cold Spring Presbyterian Cemetery, harking back to when whales swam in the depths of Delaware Bay and the early colonists struggled to make a home in the wilderness.
According to Stephens, the Christmas holiday was not widely celebrated in the original colonies during the 1600 and 1700s.
“It was celebrated more in the South,” Stephens said, explaining that religious beliefs, held by New Englanders and those in the Mid-Atlantic region, curbed the celebration.
Outlawed in England, Oliver Cromwell, who led the forces of Parliament against King Charles I during the English Civil War, forbade the age-old tradition of “wassailing” (caroling) and other expressions.
Considered rowdy and irreverent, Christmas Day would have passed quietly in most English villages and homes. Fines were imposed on those who broke the ordinance, and this practice came with the English to the New World.
Stephens commented how Christmas would have been more of a “gathering for family and friends” instead of the usual celebration we think of today. “It (Christmas) would have been more like our Thanksgiving,” said Stephens.
Many of the early English settlers in Cape May County came from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and were direct descendants of those who sailed on the Mayflower in 1621.
Called Separatists because they left the Anglican Church of England, the colonists came to the shores of the Delaware Bay for whaling during the winter season.
Eventually, in the later 1600s, the men brought their families and settled in what is Lower Township. Did those settlers begin celebrating Christmas after leaving Massachusetts? The answer rests with them in the cemetery.
As the years went by, and America gained its independence from Great Britain, the Christmas traditions of the Old World, once frowned upon, gained interest and momentum once again.
German immigrants brought the idea of Christmas trees with them to America in the 1840s. Many Americans began adopting the festive tree after seeing an illustration in a magazine of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and her husband, Prince Albert, with their tree.
“He (Prince Albert) was German,” Stephens explained, “and Americans caught on.”
Since the young Queen Victoria held “celebrity” status on both sides of the Atlantic, the Christmas tree became part of the American celebration.
Novels and poetry also helped the celebration take root. According to Stephens, Clement Moore wrote “Twas the Night Before Christmas” in the 1820s, giving Americans a glimpse of St. Nicholas.
The idea of Santa Claus came later in a drawing by illustrator Thomas Nast, who gave the kindly saint his red suit, full white beard, and spectacles.
Popular author Charles Dickens, an Englishman, spread the concept of an English Christmas in his tale “A Christmas Carol” in the 1830s. Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Ghost of Jacob Marley became part of American’s imaginations, including the idea of a Christmas dinner complete with a roast turkey and plum pudding.
Stephens told the Herald that he sees a definite trend in people, of all ages, wanting to know how their ancestors lived and celebrated their holidays.
“We have the simpler lives,” Stephens said, “they had the more complex.” Although life for many was hard, they came to Cape May County and made a life for themselves.
Industry and technology improved lives and changed the face of young America forever, yet one could hear a rustle in the veil of time on Dec. 3 and the past no longer seemed so distant in the holly and ivy.
To contact Rachel Rogish, email rrogish@cmcherald.com.