A short history of giving gifts
Giving gifts for special occasions and occasions really is a common tradition all around the world. Whether it is exchanging Christmas gifts, giving your friends and family gifts on their birthday or perhaps celebrating a couple’s marriage with wedding presents, giving presents has got a long standing tradition in numerous cultures.
In more recent years, other occasions also have become associated with giving gifts, so we currently give Christening gifts as well as Anniversary gifts and even gifts for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Valentine’s Day and life events such as graduations and also retirements.
It is thought that the custom of giving gifts extends back to Roman times. They were the first to celebrate birthdays with extravagant parties as well as birthday gifts, and they also enthusiastically celebrated the festival Saturnalia every single December.
This week long celebration happened between 17 and 23 December and saw the Romans visiting friends and family, enjoying feasts and obviously, giving presents to one another. Popular gifts for guys and presents for women included candles, earthenware figures, clothing, books, crockery and perfumes.
Saturnalia was among the festivals which led to the origin of Xmas. When Christianity began spreading, traditions were taken from various ancient and Pagan festivals. Gift giving ended up being taken from Saturnalia, greenery and lighting from the Roman New Year and food items from Germanic festival of Yule.
The celebration of Xmas changed drastically during the Middle Ages. At the start of the period, it involved eating, drinking and also 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 time evolved to include much more luxurious feasts and gifts being given on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Although the festival was forbidden by Oliver Cromwell in 1647, it still continued to be popular but it was the Victorian period which saw Christmas grow to be the event which we all know today. Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert brought over the custom of Christmas trees from Germany, and the giving of Christmas presents to the entire household became extremely popular. Victorian gift ideas included both practical as well as ornamental gifts. Christmas gifts for men included slippers, scarves as well as cigar cases, whilst females received stationary, aprons and pin cushions. Personalised gifts and handmade gifts were very popular, with a lot of families spending the dark winter evenings creating unique gifts for each other.
Christmas isn’t the only occasion to involve giving gifts, and also many other traditions have a rich history of showing affection through presents. Anniversary gifts are believed to go back to the Middle Ages in Germanic countries. A woman was given a silver wreath by her friends to commemorate 25 years of marriage and they got a gold one to celebrate a 50th anniversary which is where the modern terms come from.
Over the years, far more dates became eligible for anniversary gifts. From the Victorian period, wood became a popular gift for the 5th wedding anniversary and six decades of marriage turned out to be referred to as a diamond wedding anniversary right after 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 40th (ruby), and now there are modern gifts recommended for just about every wedding anniversary, from the 1st (clocks) to the 100th (10-carat diamond).
Although some see gift giving as a present day trend, the exchanging of presents has been done for 100′s of years and the traditions behind giving gifts on special occasions are just as important as the events themselves!
