No feasting. No drinking. No celebrations. Ian Morton explores what the festive period was like when Oliver Cromwell’s Christmas clampdown gripped the nation.
Why do we celebrate Christ’s birth in late December? All ancient cultures recognised the winter solstice. The Romans spent the seven days of Saturnalia in feasting and carousing, upending normality with masquerades, slaves posing as masters and masters posing as slaves. Norse communities lit bonfires and…
