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Though at its core a religious holiday, Christmas is now widely celebrated by people of all faiths or even no religious faith. In Kenya, it is just one of the few religious holidays sanctioned by law as a public holiday for all people.
Yet it is during this season that some of the gravest public law and public order challenges are felt at their highest in the number of road traffic accidents due to drunken and careless driving, outright lawlessness and acts such as murders.
While people in Kenya and most countries in Africa can take Christmas for granted as a public holiday, this is not necessarily the case in all countries.
There are countries in which celebrating Christmas was illegal. An example would be Albania, where religion of any kind was banned by the communists when Albania was declared an atheist state. Christmas was not celebrated openly in that country, until the fall of communism in 1990.
On the other hand, countries of a Judeo-Christian stance such as England have also had to prohibit or ban the celebration of this important holiday at one time or another and for different reasons from the communists.
In 1643, England passed a law encouraging Christians to treat Christmas as a solemn holiday rather than a celebratory feast. This did not deter celebrations in the manner that puritans considered to have eroded the spiritual essence of the holiday.
In 1657, Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans banned the celebration of Christmas altogether. Their reasoning was that the feasting, revelry and merriment attending the sacred day was immoral and against scriptural dictates on gluttony, drunkenness and other unchristian forms of immodesty. This law was not enforced with gusto and was repealed when Cromwell and the Puritans lost legislative power in 1660.
The Puritans in the State of Massachusetts in the United States also made the celebration of Christmas illegal in 1659. This was subsequently changed to impose a fine on those who insisted on celebrating the occasion but was repealed altogether in 1681.
Therefore, two different approaches to laws on Christmas have emerged. The first are laws passed to compel observance of the occasion as a religious feast requiring utmost piety. The second set of laws sought to actively prohibit actions that would dilute the religious essence of the occasion.
An example of the first set of laws is that passed in England by Charles II in 1677, which made it illegal for any person whatsoever to exercise any worldly labour, business or work of their ordinary calling.
This basically banned work on that day. This would appear to be the reason for the closure of all roads in the city of Caracas in Venezuela on Christmas day so that people travel around the city on roller skates. In most countries, Kenya included, certain legal actions are prohibited on public holidays generally. These include the service of court summons (that is a notice informing a person that he or she has been sued).
Even the enforcement of a court judgement would not be deemed lawful on that day. In the south of Finland, on Christmas Eve at noon, the Declaration of Christmas Peace is read out in a formal ceremony which declares that any behaviour which upends the joy of the holiday will be met with the full force of Finnish law.
In the US state of Louisiana, an 1837 law made Christmas day a graceful occasion with regard to payment of debts so that if a debt was due to be paid on Christmas day, it would be paid on the following day without interest being levied on the Christmas day. The state of Arkansas passed a law in the following year which made a debt that would otherwise be payable on Christmas day become due a day earlier, thus depriving the creditor of the right to interest on Christmas day.
On the laws that seek to uphold the religious flavour of Christmas, Arkansas has a law that abolished the sale of alcohol on that day. In England, William IV had in 1831 assented to a law which expressly stated that “No person shall kill or take any dog, gun, net or other instrument for the purpose of killing or taking any game on Christmas day”, thus seeking to ensure that no work was done on the day. This was followed by the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. The law prohibited the Poor Law Commissioners from serving extra food to the poor on Christmas. The rules under that law went ahead to state expressly that “No pauper shall be allowed to have or use any wine, beer, or spirituous or fermented liquors unless by the written direction of a medical officer”.
The laws did not only regulate or control alcohol, they went further even to victuals. A law by William IV under the Peoples’ Charter of 1836 made it illegal for any restaurant or hotel to serve anyone a dinner of more than three courses on Christmas day – again to limit gluttony on a sacred holiday. The laws have gone beyond human conduct to Christmas accessories as well.
In Canada, a local law requires that residents who live in a corner plot must restrict the height of a snowman to 30 inches at the maximum. This may have something to do with visibility of traffic on corners. While in New York, the law prohibits retail stores from having natural trees within the stores. Rather the law requires that any Christmas trees within shops should be artificial.
In appreciating that the season is short and sweet, the laws in San Diego California require that all Christmas trees and lights be removed from public display by second February and by 15th January for the state of Maine.
But there are laws relating to Christmas which do not adhere to the restrictions. They appear to appreciate the essence of Yuletide as a time for goodwill and sharing. One such law is the one on Christmas Bonus. Employees living and working in Italy, France, Chile, Mexico and Brazil happen to be on the good side of Christmas laws.
In these countries, the law compels employers to give their employees who have provided a year’s service a bonus equivalent to a month’s salary in December of each year.
In Mexico, the law requires that the bonus be paid by 20th December, just in time for Christmas celebrations.
The writer is Head of Legal, Nation Media Group PLC
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