Why do we give presents at Christmas? Blogmas#14

 While looking for a topic for this post, I found the idea of gifts and immediately remembered that maybe there is a history of gift-giving and here is an explanation from the internet, maybe you never remembered it. 

25 December hasn't always been about gift giving

In various parts of the world, 25 December is the most popular day of the year for gift-giving. It is linked to the Christian celebration of the Christmas season and gifts on this day are a central part of Western culture.

However, this custom is relatively young and people have not always associated it with 25 December. Historically, the birth of Jesus was not celebrated on 25 December until the 4th or 5th century.

It began with the Roman feast of

One of the reasons why this feast was moved to 25 December was the desire to Christianise the Roman feast that was celebrated at that time. Between 17 and 23 December, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture and harvest. During these days, they gave gifts to each other. Also on the first day of the New Year, 1 January, the Romans exchanged gifts in honour of the god Janus.

Outside Rome, there were Celtic gift-giving customs associated with the winter solstice and various pagan gods. These Roman and Celtic customs were eventually Christianised, some of them retaining the custom of gift-giving, but in a new Christian context.

From St. Nicholas, Epiphany and Santa Claus

Later, as Germanic lands were Christianised, the veneration of St Nicholas, whose feast day is celebrated on 6 December, became increasingly popular.  The good saint was famous for leaving a gift in his stocking for his impoverished sisters on his feast day, and this custom also became very popular with the people.

In some countries, the central day for mutual gift-giving was 6 January, the day of the Holy Three Kings, who brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus.

Then, in the 19th and 20th centuries, emigrants from these European countries came to the United States. This was the birth of the popular Santa Claus character, who was strongly influenced by the song Twas the Night Before Christmas and the Coca-Cola advertising campaign.

Over the years, the different immigrant traditions have merged into a new celebration of Christmas, centred on gift-giving and the arrival of Santa Claus on the night before Jesus' birthday. Although the giving of gifts on Christmas Day is a relatively new custom, it has been enthusiastically embraced by many Christians as it reminds them of the gifts of the Three Wise Men, but above all it marks the greatest gift to humanity, the birth of God incarnate.

That concludes today's post and we will read it again tomorrow!