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Giving gifts for special events and events is a common custom all over the world. Whether it is exchanging Christmas gifts, giving your friends and family presents on their birthday or perhaps celebrating a couple’s marriage with wedding presents, giving people presents has got a long standing tradition in numerous cultures.
In more recent years, many other events have also become synonymous with gift giving, so we currently give Christening gifts and also Anniversary gifts and even gifts for Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day, Valentine’s Day plus life events like graduations and retirements.
It’s believed that the tradition of giving gifts dates back to Roman times. They were the very first to celebrate birthdays with extravagant parties plus birthday gifts, and also they enthusiastically celebrated the festival Saturnalia every December.
This week long event took place between 17 and 23 December and saw the Romans visiting family and friends, enjoying feasts and obviously, giving gifts to one another. Popular presents for guys and presents for ladies included candles, earthenware figures, clothing, books, crockery as well as perfumes.
Saturnalia was among the festivals which led to the origin of Xmas. When Christianity began spreading, customs were taken from numerous ancient and Pagan festivals. Gift giving ended up being taken from Saturnalia, greenery and lighting from the Roman New Year and also foods from Germanic festival of Yule.
The celebration of Xmas transformed dramatically 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 also Christmas gifts were given on New Year’s Day. Throughout the 16th-17th centuries, Christmas changed to include much more magnificent feasts and gifts being given on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Even though the festival was forbidden by Oliver Cromwell in 1647, it still continued to be popular but it was the Victorian time period which saw Christmas grow to be the event we 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 became extremely popular. Victorian gift ideas included both practical as well as ornamental gifts. Christmas gifts for men included slippers, scarves and also cigar cases, whilst females received stationary, aprons and also pin cushions. Personalised gifts and also handmade gifts were extremely popular, with a lot of families spending the dark wintertime evenings creating unique gifts for one another.
Christmas time is not 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 nations. A spouse was given a silver wreath by her close friends to celebrate 25 years of marriage and then a gold one to celebrate a 50th anniversary which is where the current phrases originated from.
Over the years, more dates became eligible for anniversary gifts. From the Victorian period, wood was a popular gift for the fifth anniversary and also 60 years of marriage became known as a diamond wedding anniversary following celebrations of Queen Victoria’s 60th year as monarch. Other significant anniversary dates celebrated with special anniversary gifts range from the 20th (china), 30th (pearl) and also 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 a few see giving gifts as a modern 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 essential as the events themselves!