Did Oliver Cromwell Ban Mince Pies?

What the 1647 law actually says

The text survives in the Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, which British History Online publishes. "An Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals," dated June 8, 1647, ends the observance of the Feast of the Nativity, Easter, Whitsuntide and the other holy days in England and Wales. In their place, scholars, apprentices and servants got a day of recreation on the second Tuesday of every month.

Pies, puddings and feasting are not mentioned anywhere in it. English Heritage's Sam Bilton calls the idea that Cromwell banned Christmas and mince pies a myth.

Where Cromwell fits

Cromwell was a Puritan, and The Ferret's 2021 fact check says he was likely supportive of the measures and enforced them once in power. But he did not introduce the 1647 law, which came six years before he became Lord Protector in 1653.

The pressure on Christmas started even earlier. The Ferret notes that Parliament had made the last Wednesday of each month a fast day, and in 1644 that fast fell on Christmas Day, so the day was officially for fasting, not feasting. In those years a mince pie on December 25 was off the menu because the holiday was, not because the pie was.

Is it still illegal to eat a mince pie on Christmas?

No. That claim circulates on social media every December, and The Ferret rated it false. The anti-Christmas laws were never formally repealed; they lapsed in 1660, when the monarchy was restored, and some had never received royal assent in the first place. None survive today.

A pie that used to be meat

The pie the Puritans frowned on was not quite the one in the bakery case now. Bilton traces it to a 14th-century recipe in The Forme of Cury, a tart of minced pork, figs, raisins, honey, cheese and spices. Gervase Markham's 1615 "The English Huswife" used mutton instead, and the pastry case was called a coffin.

Bilton adds that some Puritans objected to pies decorated with sacred figures. Whether pies were really shaped like the manger is less certain: some 1600s pies, maybe. English Heritage says rectangular pies came to be linked with the manger, while Wikipedia says the crib story has little support and its earliest reference is from the 17th century.

The meat faded in the 1800s. Eliza Acton's 1845 mincemeat still used ox tongue, and Mrs Beeton's 1861 book gave one recipe with meat and one without. The fair summary: mostly gone by 1900, except the suet. Our British mince pies keep that suet, from a Royal Collection Trust recipe. Find them with our holiday pies and Christmas recipes.

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