1607 The Thames is frozen over: Many fanciful experiments are daily put in practice; as certain youths burnt a gallon of wine upon the ice, and made all the passengers partakers. But the best is, of an honest woman (they say) that had a great longing to encrease her family on the Thames.
1621 Game playing on Christmas Day is banned in Plymouth colony by Governor William Bradford. On the day called Christmas Day, the Governor called [the settlers] out to work as was usual. However, the most of this new company excused themselves and said it went against their consciences to work on that day. So the Governor told them that if they made it [a] matter of conscience, he would spare them till they were better informed; so he led away the rest and left them. When Bradford returned and found them still playing games, he confiscated their equipment and sent them indoors.
1628 Japanese Jesuit Michaël Nakashima Saburoemon is martyred by being scalded to death.
1638 Baghdad is taken after a siege of 40 days by the Ottomans under Sultan Murad IV who, with his army of over 100,000, drives out the Persians on the 118th anniversary of his great-great-great-grandfather Suleiman’s conquest of Rhodes.
1644 The English Parliament meets on Christmas Day to set an example for neglecting seasonal celebrations. It has commanded that December 25 be kept as a fast rather than a celebration – because it may call to Remembrance our Sins, and the Sins of our Forefathers, who have turned this Feast, pretending the Memory of Christ into an extream Forgetfulness of him, by giving Liberty to carnal and sensual Delights, being contrary to the Life which Christ led here on Earth, and to the Spiritual Life of Christ in our Souls, for the Sanctifying and Saving whereof Christ was pleased both to take a Human Life and to lay it down again.
1667 In Bayárcal, Spain, Juan Muñoz, a tailor from Santander swore that at midnight, he saw a cross, behind which there was a banner, followed by four lights like wicks that flashed on and off. His neighbours too saw strange lights in the sky and all concluded that the only possible explanation was that God sent them as signs to commemorate the lives of martyrs from the area.
1672 Sir Charles Fawcett is astonished to discover no churches open for Christmas services in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India. When I returned to the Carmelite Fathers, I did not fail to express my astonishment at this to the Father Superior, who, being French, knew well with what solemnities and crowds of worshippers we celebrate Christmas in our churches in France. He laughed at hearing my complaints of the want of devotion I had found that day in Goa; and told me that I must not be surprised, as it was the custom of the Portuguese. They sat up on the night of Christmas Eve for the Midnight Mass, and considered that God owed them a day’s rest after this effort, and therefore passed Christmas Day in repose or in feasting in their houses – laity as well as priests – which was the reason why so few people were in the streets and the churches were shut. He also told me that high-born ladies, if they were zealous and pious, and wished to hear Mass on that day, had an altar raised in their bedrooms and brought in a priest to say Mass at the foot of their beds. They stay in bed all day, in case of an indisposition which they feared might result from the hard work they had undergone in keeping awake in order to attend Midnight Mass. In this state they received visits from relations and friends, who came to pass the day in feasting with the doors shut.
1680 Manchu soldier Dzengseo’s diary records an astrological event which he believes portends well for an end to fighting a Chinese rebellion. On the night of the fifth a star appeared in the west; it had a white mist that spread across an area of over 20 da [c. 30 meters]. One could see that in shape it resembled a sword, and it was red at the base. Everyone said that if it advanced towards the imperial palace it would be a bad omen. [But] this was an auspicious sign for the pacification of Yunnan. This has been identified as the “Great Comet” that astonished European astronomers.
1683 Paying for his failure to capture Vienna, the Turkish vizier Kara Mustapha Pasha is executed. He is stripped of his imperial seal, the banner of Muhammad, and keys to the ka’aba, signs of imperial favour. He removes his turban and orders the executioner to enter. After being strangled by a silken noose, his head is cut off and sent to Mehmed IV in Edirne. It will placed at the palace gate to serve as a warning to others of the price for disappointing the emperor.
