The Quaker rejection of formalism and ceremony in worship extended to the observances of the church calendar. Resistance to formalism remains today, although Evangelical Quakers celebrate portions of the Christian year.
Quakers have historically rejected symbolism, the observance of special days, and other ceremonies and forms as human inventions. They regard such ceremonies and forms as unnecessary when individual believers can experience the Spirit of God directly. In addition, they believe avoidance of such externals protects believers from the idolatry into which humankind so easily falls.
Early Quakers reacted strongly against the formalism of the Anglican church, maintaining that the Reformation had stopped short, leaving Protestant worship ceremonial and ritualistic. Robert Barclay, in his Apology, stated the case forcefully: “For we find many branches lopped off by them [the reformers], but the roote yet remaining; to wit, a worship acted in and from man’s will and spirit, and not by and from the Spirit of God” (quoted in Friends Worship in a Pastoral Meeting, n.d.). It is not unusual, therefore, to find rules like the following from The Rules of Discipline of the Yearly Meeting. Held on Rhode Island for New England (1856, 27): “We cannot, therefore, consistently unite with any in the observance of public fasts, feasts, and what they term holy days; or such injunctions and forms as are devised in man’s will for divine worship” (quoted by John White in Protestant Worship: Traditions in Transition).
Today, little has changed and Quakers for the most part do not observe the Christian year. There continues to be at least a latent fear of formalism, especially among Evangelical Quakers, though the theological rhetoric of the past is largely absent. Most Evangelical Quakers, like their pulpit-centered church neighbors, celebrate Christmas and Easter, and in some cases, Good Friday. Occasionally one finds observance of the Advent sermon with wreath-lighting and Advent sermons. It is unusual, however, to find any further adoption of the Christian year.