Mike Parker: Christmas brightened hearts in Kingston
Several years ago, I received a phone call.
“I’ve got an article you might be interested in seeing,” Ernest Jones told me over the phone. “It’s about how folks celebrated Christmas in Kinston in 1762.”
My interest was piqued. Christmas 1762?
What DID Christmas look like around these parts 263 years ago, before the Revolution and our struggle for independence? At that time, this area was part of Dobbs County and pledged its allegiance to King George III. The article, written by Charles R. Holloman, appeared in The Kinston Free Press in January 1963.
The people of this area had reason to celebrate even before Christmas that year. On December 9, 1762, the General Assembly of the Province of North Carolina authorized “Kingston” as a town on the land donated by William Herritage. To get an idea of the initial borders of the City of Kingston, pay attention when you see South Street, North Street, and East Street. Those streets marked the boundaries indicated by their names. The west boundary of the initial land grant was the Neuse River.
However, the town existed well before its official provincial recognition. Ten years earlier, according to Holloman, St. Matthew’s Chapel, an Anglican church, opened its doors. For many of those 10 years, the chapel had been celebrating the midnight mass on Christmas.
People who lived in the Southern colonies, unlike their New England counterparts, brought strong Christmas traditions to the New World. In New England, under Puritan rule, Christmas was seen as a pagan holiday and was banned.
Even though in this area the Church of St. Patrick was the official headquarters of the Church of England in Dobbs County, this “church” had no bricks or mortar. In fact, the Church of St. Patrick was a “church” in name only. The only real church in Dobbs County (now Greene, Wayne, and Lenoir counties) was St. Matthew’s. As a result, the genuine Christmas celebration in these parts occurred in Kingston.
Christmas festivities began on Christmas Eve. During early evening, the people feasted. Friends and family members from outlying areas of the county filled the homes of the people of Kingston.
Some visitors would stay the entire Christmas season, a 12-day period from Christmas Eve through Epiphany, the holiday celebrating the visit of the Wise Men. During that Christmas season, Epiphany came on January 6, 1763. Most visitors left for home on Epiphany since the day was set apart for fasting.
However, these visitors did not leave with tummies entirely empty because January 5, 1763, was “old Christmas” – 11 days after December 25. You see, 10 years earlier, in 1752, the British government imposed a new calendar on its empire – the Gregorian calendar, developed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to realign it with the solar year.
For a while, people in the New World celebrated two Christmases, especially since both dates fell within the traditional 12 days of Christmas. However, debate between the proponents of “old” and “new” Christmas continued for years. Tradition says that those who get up early on “old Christmas” will see farm animals kneeling in reverence for Christ.
As midnight approached on Christmas Eve, the people in Kingston gathered at St. Matthew’s, aglow with candles within and lightwood-knot torches without. By midnight, all adults in the community packed the chapel for a worship service.
The next day, the celebrations began, complete with music and dancing, visiting and feasting, giving and receiving gifts – although not on the scale we have today. I am sure they sang many of the traditional carols we still sing– “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Away in a Manger” to name but two. Perhaps musicians then, as now, filled the air with strains of Handel’s “Messiah,” first performed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1742.
One thing is sure: Christmas was a thoroughly religious holiday for the citizens of Kingston and Dobbs County. Their faith in the birth of Christ brightened their lives, especially at Christmas time.
May we celebrate this Christmas season with the same enthusiasm and faith as theirs.
Mike Parker is a columnist for the Neuse News. You can reach him at mparker16@gmail.com.
