Giving gifts for special events and events is a popular custom all over the world. Whether it’s exchanging Christmas gifts, giving your friends and family gifts on their birthday or celebrating a couple’s marriage with wedding presents, giving presents has got a long standing tradition in several cultures.
In more recent years, many other occasions also have become associated with giving gifts, therefore we now give Christening gifts and also Anniversary gifts and even presents for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and life events like graduations and also retirements.
It’s thought that the traditions of giving presents goes back to Roman times. They were the first to celebrate birthdays by having extravagant parties as well as birthday gifts, and also they enthusiastically celebrated the festival Saturnalia every single December.
This week long occasion happened between 17 and 23 December and it saw the Romans visiting family and friends, enjoying feasts and obviously, giving gifts to one another. Popular presents for men and gifts for women included candles, earthenware figures, clothes, books, crockery and also perfumes.
Saturnalia was one of the festivals that contributed to the foundation of Christmas. When Christianity began spreading, traditions had been taken from various ancient and Pagan festivals. Giving gifts was taken from Saturnalia, greenery and lighting from the Roman New Year and food items from the Germanic festival of Yule.
The celebration of Christmas changed drastically during the Middle Ages. At the start of the period, it involved eating, drinking and carolling for the whole duration of what we know now as Advent and Christmas gifts were given on New Year’s Day. Throughout the 16th-17th centuries, Christmas changed to include more lavish feasts and gifts being given on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Even though the festival was banned by Oliver Cromwell in 1647, it still remained popular but it was the Victorian time which saw Christmas develop into the event which we all know today. Queen Victoria’s partner Prince Albert brought over the custom of Christmas trees from Germany, and the giving of Christmas presents to the entire household grew to be extremely popular. Victorian gift ideas included both useful and also ornamental gifts. Christmas gifts for men included slippers, scarves and cigar cases, while girls received stationary, aprons in addition to pin cushions. Personalised gifts and handmade gifts were extremely popular, with lots of families spending the dim wintertime evenings creating unique gifts for each other.
Christmas isn’t the only event to involve giving gifts, and also many other traditions have got a rich history of showing love by way of presents. Anniversary gifts are thought to go back to the Middle Ages in Germanic countries. A woman was handed a silver wreath by her close friends to commemorate 25 years of marriage and a gold one to commemorate a 50th anniversary which is where the modern terms come from.
Over the years, more dates became eligible for anniversary gifts. From the Victorian period, wood became a common gift for the fifth anniversary and six decades of marriage became known as a diamond wedding anniversary following celebrations of Queen Victoria’s 60th calendar year as monarch. Other significant anniversary dates celebrated with special anniversary gifts include the 20th (china), 30th (pearl) and also 40th (ruby), and now there are actually modern gifts recommended for every single wedding anniversary, from the very first (clocks) to the 100th (10-carat diamond).
Although some see giving gifts as a modern phenomenon, the exchanging of presents has been done for 100′s of years and the customs behind giving gifts on special occasions are just as essential as the events themselves!