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RIOTS FOLLOWED ENGLAND’S WAR ON CHRISTMAS

Friday, December 15, 2023

In today’s newsletter, we learn that riots followed an early war on Christmas, discover an inspiring (and missing) ancient Wonder of the World, get new insights from Jesus' purported tomb ... and find out about an early inspiration for the latest Emma Stone movie.

A Puritan rebuking children for picking holly—one of many Christmas customs that Puritans targeted in their quest to purify the Church of England.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HULTON ARCHIVE, GETTY IMAGES

England’s Puritans were aghast at the nation’s 12 days of Christmas in the early 1600s. They saw it as a pagan-inspired perversion of the birth of Christ—an excuse for gambling, drunkenness, and general disorder. (Above, an illustration of one Puritan rebuking children for picking holly.)

Puritan pressure prompted towns to stop shop-owners from closing on December 25. That did not go down well.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

A contemporary rendering of the Zeus sculpture depicts its massive scale

RECREATION BY LOOK AND LEARN/BRIDGEMAN/ACI

This missing Wonder of the World sparked countless imitations (Above, a contempory rendering of the famed sculpture of Zeus.)

See Nat Geo’s most compelling images of the century (so far)

This psychoactive plant could save lives—and everyone wants to cash in

BOOM! How the moon was made

Your acai bowl has a hidden cost

What archaeologists can tell us about the real Jesus

What is white lung syndrome? Here's what to know about pneumonia

Your body needs whole grains. Here’s how to find the most effective ones.

See our stunning Pictures of the Year

This Nat Geo Explorer seeks to revive the Amazon’s depleted soil

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre

PHOTOGRAPH BY ODED BALILTY, AP FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Survival: This holy site's legacy has survived despite its destruction 1,000 years ago. That’s according to recent findings from Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre (above), once identified as the burial place of Jesus.

LAST GLIMPSE

The monster, played by Boris Karloff (right) has a tense encounter with his inventor in the 1931 movie Frankenstein, based on Mary Shelley’s novel.

JOHN KOBAL FOUNDATION/GETTY IMAGES

How Frankenstein began: A teenage girl had a nightmare. It became Mary Shelley’s classic novel about a scientist and his child-like ”monster”—a theme that has reverberated in storytelling and film (above) up to the just-released Emma Stone movie Poor Things. In this Nat Geo History story, we discover Shelley’s idea really did begin on a dark and stormy night.

Today’s soundtrack: Monster, Shawn Mendes, Justin Bieber

Happy weekend! This newsletter has been curated and edited by Nancy San Martín, Jen Tse, Nishita Naga, and David Beard. Know someone who might want our newsletter in their inbox? Here’s the signup.

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