Have you ever stopped to think about the origins of many of the customs and traditions we hold dear? Most of these customs and traditions feel like they have been around forever, but many have existed for less than 200 years and originated with the Victorians. The Victorians popularized many holiday traditions including the Christmas tree, Valentine cards, Easter candy and Halloween parties.
New Year’s
Think throwing a New Year’s bash is a recent tradition? Think again. In the Edwardian era, just like today, people celebrated the coming year with a party.
Foods: Cultures around the world eat foods thought to bring good luck in the new year or circular foods that symbolize the year coming full circle.
Singing “Auld Lang Syne”: Written in the 18th century and set to a folk song melody, this Scottish poem is sung in English-speaking nations at midnight as a send off to the old year. In Scotland and areas with a large Scottish population, the song is often accompanied by a dance.
Dropping the Ball: The tradition of dropping a ball in Times Square, New York, dates back to 1907. The ball was lit by 100 incandescent bulbs. Once the ball dropped, it tripped a circuit which lit up a New Year’s sign. The owner of The New York Times wanted a showstopper to replace the popular firework show he founded in 1904 after the city banned the display.
Parties: Parties became popular in the early 20th century. They were generally joyous celebrations with family and friends. Party-goers expected to have a good time and often kissed at midnight.
Father Time/Baby New Year: The duo began appearing in cartoons in the 19th century. The baby represents the promise of the New Year while old Father Time represents aging or death of the old year.
The Toast: Generally expresses hope for the coming year.
Cards: The Edwardians sent cards at New Year’s.
Ringing in 1920
January 1, 1920, people were celebrating the start of what would be dubbed the Roaring 20s in the United States. What should have been a cause for celebration was slightly tempered. This was the last New Year celebration before Prohibition would go into effect on Jan. 16, 1920.
In Boston, revelers gathered at cafes and hotels. “Some glum as they drink cider,” a headline in The Boston Globe said. The cider, along with ginger ale, was sold for 40 cents to 50 cents a bottle. Cocktails and hard liquor were brought to establishments from home.
Bars were crowed, the Globe reported, and “did thriving business all the evening in dispensing half of one-percent beer and cider.”
The lack of hard alcohol was pretty much the only noticeable difference between this and any other new year celebration. Establishments provided partyers with noise-makers, confetti and paper caps. Music, dancing and singing was commonplace. Some parties continued until 2 a.m.
Downtown Boston Celebrates
Celebrations downtown also were dry. The Colonial restaurant hosted hundreds of people at $5.15 a plate for a celebration that lasted from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.
A man dressed as Father Time entered the party just before midnight. He told the crowd that although he wasn’t able to see into the future, they should focus on their desires and he would do his best to make them come true. He was followed by a young woman holding flowers, representing the new year, and the crowd sang a round of Auld Lang Syne.
Other downtown establishments hosted large parties. The Quincy House entertained nearly 4,800 people and was forced to turn people away at door. A 12-piece jazz band and Scottish pipers and drummers were the feature at the Bird Cage. Guests were given novelty souvenirs and noise-makers. Women received a doll that cried for 30 minutes when pressed.

Boston Globe Jan. 1, 1920
Celebrate While the Going is Good
“The New Year celebration in the theatres and up-town hotels proved an event that will long be remembered in the days of drought that are to follow,” the Globe said.
Men and women dressed up for the occasion, and the clothing was “by far the most attractive of any worn to a public celebration during the past year.”
Liquor flowed like water just after midnight at uptown hotels. Probably the final time the establishments would hear the popping of champagne corks, the newspaper lamented.
The cost of living soared in 1919 and people danced with the hope and promise that 1920 would be a better year, and “if partners were exchanged by mistake in the general shuffle, no one minded it very much.”
Parties in uptown included not only music, noise-makers, silly hats and souvenirs, but fortune tellers and balloons.
At midnight, the lights in the party rooms were turned off, and electric signs reading “1920” were illuminated. A new decade of momentous change had begun.
Valentine’s Day
The first commercially produced Valentines were made in the 1830s in Britain and the 1840s in the United States. Prior to this, valentines were homemade. The first cards were elaborately decorated with lace, hearts, cupids and ribbons. As time went on, they became even more elaborate and included fabric flowers, glazed paper, mirrors, envelopes and trinkets.
Valentines were given to a person’s sweetheart and because they could be sent through the mail, they also could be sent anonymously. This meant that some cards contained racy prose.
By the end of the 19th century, the best Valentine cards cost as much as $25. They were decorated in fringe, paper cutouts, feathers, beads, seeds and tinsel. They could even include wax flowers and glass. Highly elaborate cards didn’t stay in vogue for long and fell out of favor by the early 20th century.
The new century brought with it simpler card designs and new innovations such as stand-up cards, pull tabs and layers of honeycomb.
The Language of Flowers
The tradition of giving flowers, chocolates and other gifts came later in the century. Flowers were more than beautiful gifts. The type of flower given, even how the flowers were arranged, sent messages in a secret code. This is known as florigraphy, the language of flowers.
The purpose of these secret messages was to express emotions that society dictated could not be spoken out loud. The messages were decoded with the aid of flower dictionaries. At the peak of florigraphy, there were more than 400 floral dictionaries on the market, and sometimes a flower had a different meaning depending on the dictionary consulted.
It was popular to give others small floral arrangements called tussie-mussies or nosegays to convey messages. The arrangements were worn or carried as a fashion accessory. In addition to the flowers, they contained a doily and a ribbon.
These are a few examples of flowers and their meanings:
- Baby’s Breath: Innocence
- Begonia: Beware
- Stripped Carnation: No
- Dandelion: Faithful, Happy
- Dead leaves: Sadness
- Fern: Magic
- Grass: Homosexual love
- Purple hyacinth: I’m sorry
- Calla lily: Beauty
- Morning glory: Affection
- Nuts: Stupidity
- Olive branch: Peace
- Poppy: Eternal Sleep
- Pink rose: Happiness
- Red rose: Love
- Yellow rose: Friendship
- Tall sunflower: Pride
- Variegated tulip: Beautiful eyes
- Verbena: Pray for me
- Wisteria: Welcome
- Mixed Zinnia: Thinking of an absent friend
As important as the flowers chosen was their method of delivery. If a bouquet was delivered upright, the message was positive. Delivered upside-down, the message was negative. Handed to someone with the right hand, it meant “yes.” Handed with the left hand, it meant “no.”
Easter
Most of society’s Easter traditions are centuries old. Some traditions — such as candy and egg hunts — are much newer, arriving on the scene when many of our modern traditions did, during the Victorian era.
Mass produced sweet treats made specifically for Easter made their appearances in the 19th century. Cadbury cream eggs were first sold in 1875. The first chocolate bunnies were produced in the early 20th century, thanks to mold technology.
Children participated in egg hunts and games involving eggs such as egg toss and egg croquet. Eggs varied from colorful to elaborately decorated. The first White House egg roll was held in 1878. The first rolls, however, were held at the Capitol building grounds. The tradition was outlawed after it took a toll on the landscaping. White House egg rolling was suspended during World War I.
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is a holiday born near the dawn of the 20th century. It was conceived by a woman who later degraded the holiday as too commercial and tried to stop it. Anna Jarvis, mourning her mother, wanted a day that acknowledged mothers’ sacrifices.
The first Mother’s Day event was held in a West Virginia church in 1908. The event was successful, and Jarvis started a letter-writing campaign to get the observation instated as a national holiday.
In 1914, the second Sunday in May became Mother’s Day in the United States. Mother is singular possessive because it is meant to signify a particular family’s mother, not every mother. The holiday also is celebrated around the globe at various times of the year.
It didn’t take long, however, for Jarvis to see her holiday transformed into a moneymaker for card companies, florists and shop keepers. This was not what Jarvis envisioned. She saw a day for church services and social visits, a day in which all mothers would wear white carnations. Beginning in 1920 until her death in 1948, Jarvis worked tirelessly to stop the holiday.
The holiday was not without precedent. Since antiquity, motherhood has been celebrated in some form. The ancients celebrated mother goddesses and Christians celebrated Mothering Sunday. The latter began as a religious day that was part of Lent but transformed into a secular day for giving mothers gifts. After the American Civil War, a day was recognized for the mothers of soldiers. Throughout the late 19th century, other mothers’ days were declared by the temperance movement and by suffragettes.
Victoria Day
The holiday commemorates the birthday of Queen Victoria who was born May 24, 1819. It did not become a federal Canadian holiday until after the queen’s death in 1901, but unofficial observances began in the mid-19th century.
So what was a Victoria Day celebration like before 1901? It included:
- Picnics
- Parades
- Music
- Lighting displays
- Athletic competitions
- Gun salutes
- Cheers for the queen
- Fireworks
The holiday became a patriotic one by the 1890s and included displaying and waving the Union Jack. After 1901, other parts of the British Empire celebrated Empire Day on May 24. In Canada, however, it remained Victoria Day.
“Canada honoured Queen Victoria as a ‘Mother of Confederation’ who encouraged Canadian unity and self-government and selected Ottawa as ‘the Westminster of the wilderness,’” the Canadian Encyclopedia explains.
In the 21st century, the holiday is celebrated on the Monday preceding May 24. It is considered the unofficial start of summer. Contemporary Victoria Day is still celebrated with parades, food and fireworks.
Father’s Day
Father’s Day had a humble start, beginning as a day of remembrance for fathers who had passed away.
In 1908, a Methodist congregation in West Virginia held a service to honor the 250 fathers who died in a mining accident. Two years later, the first event to be held on the third Sunday in June was held in Spokane. Sonora Smart Dodd organized the event. Her Civil War veteran father had been a single parent who raised six children. That same year Father’s Day was proclaimed a holiday in the state of Washington.
A bill introduced in the United States Congress sought to make Father’s Day a recognized holiday. It had President Woodrow Wilson’s support, but Congress voted against it.
The celebration was often mocked in the press, with critics claiming merchants just wanted to replicate the retail success of Mother’s Day. But it wasn’t just the press who mocked the holiday. So did many fathers who felt their manliness was being domesticated. In addition, they disliked the idea of a gift-giving holiday when they, as the breadwinners, would be paying for their own gifts.
Retailers during the Great Depression used Father’s Day as an excuse to boost sales of ties, sporting goods, pipes and other products. The celebration was given a patriotic twist during World War II and used to honor servicemen.
Father’s Day was celebrated informally until it finally became a federally-recognized holiday in 1972. Today, the holiday is celebrated throughout the world with the date varying from nation to nation.
Summer
Ah, summer. For many of us, it’s our favorite season, and one that in the dead of winter feels like it will never arrive. But what was summer like in the 1910s? Many activities we enjoy today such as fairs, picnics, outdoor sports, ice cream and amusement parks also were enjoyed. The air reeked of horse manure. The arrival of the automobile helped alleviate this problem, but there were still many horse-driven vehicles. The odor is one of the reasons the wealthy leave the city to travel to their summer homes.
Ice Delivery
There were no refrigerators. People had ice boxes to keep food cool. The ice man delivered ice to homes and businesses via a cart. The ice was nothing like the shredded pieces you can buy in a 21st century grocery store. It was an ice block, measuring approximately 24 inches by 18 inches and removed from the cart using a large hook.
Ice was harvested by ice houses during the winter months, stored in large buildings and transported to populated areas via boat or railroad. It was sold by the pound.
On rural properties, an underground room that stayed cool enough year round was used to preserve food and dairy.
Sleeping Porches
During the first half of the 20th century, air conditioning was primarily found in public buildings. Homes, especially the upper floors, could be extremely hot during the summer. To solve this problem, many properties had sleeping porches. The porches were screened and roomy enough to accommodate full-sized beds. These are built in the back of the house because they were intended to be seen only by the home’s residents.
In addition to being more comfortable for sleeping, the porches were thought to be more hygienic, providing fresh air to tuberculosis patients and others who are ill.
Apartment dwellers obviously didn’t have porches, but the fire escape made a good substitute on summer nights.
Halloween
During the Victorian and Edwardian areas, Halloween became a holiday for children.
There were a number of regional traditions. Some traditions, such as dances, haven’t survived the test of time. Among the affluent, masquerade balls were the first social event after returning to the city from their summer homes. Some communities hosted trick or treating.
Children and young adults would play tricks on Oct. 30 to celebrate Mischief Night. Communities became increasingly concerned about safety and held parties to prevent vandalism. Churches, schools and civic organizations hosted the festivities. Party games included blow out the candle and bobbing for apples.
Halloween was considered a rustic holiday, and decorations were inspired by nature. Common decorations included leaves, cornstalks, tree branches and vegetables. Jack o’ lanterns were carved and lit with candles.
Costumes were homemade and worn by adults and children. Patterns and costume ideas appeared in magazines. Costumes generally followed standard conventions: ghosts, witches, fairies and the like. They also reflected a Victorian fascination with exotic and foreign cultures.
Thanksgiving
Finding something to be thankful for was difficult during World War I. Despite wartime hardships, millions of Canadians and Americans gathered to give thanks for the same things people do today – friends, family, health, opportunity, jobs and possessions. In 1918, they added one more thing to the list — peace.
In 1903, the Sioux City Journal in Iowa asked the city’s school children to pen an essay on Thanksgiving turkeys.
A sampling of the essays were published on Nov. 26, 1903. They were written by second and third graders at Armstrong and Bancroft schools. The published selection, the paper said, were “the most excellent” essays.
“When Thanksgiving comes the turkey does not like it very much, because we kill him and eat him.” – Martlia McGinnis
“People eat turkeys for Thanksgiving… People eat turkeys and punkin pie for dinner. The turkey’s head is chopped off at Thanksgiving. The turkey does not like it very well.” – Donald Bruce
“The turkey is a big bird that struts like a proud lady. It has a big butful tail and a long neck and a thing that hangs over its bill.” – Eugene Rice
“The Turkey is very fat when yow lay him owt he lays flat. When yow take him to the bauarn he screak like a storm. Whem he is feis his best he does not think he is going to be dress.” – Jean Dager
“I like the turkey for dinner. He comes to visit us. He makes a good feast. The peopel suff him with dressing.” – Lawrence Kirke
“Turkeys have beautiful feathers… Turkeys catch people some time. Some turkeys are called gobblers because they gobble.” – May Flournoy
“First the turkey is killed. Second the turkey is cooked. Third the Hard girl puts in a platter and rushes to the table. People have minced pie for dinner. The have sauce, cranberries, turkey and then the all gobbled it down. We have preserve things too.” – Nathan Reingold
“Papa gave me a turkey and I thank him very much for the turkey and he said your welcome. I like Thanksgiving day because we have good things to eat. I like Thanksgiving very much, don’t I? We can have company and ants, uncles and Grama and Grampa.” – Ella Waitt
Canada
The first Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada was in 1578. When it became a national holiday in 1879, it had no fixed date but was normally celebrated in October or November.
The traditional meal is a familiar one, including turkey, pumpkin pie, vegetables, cranberry sauce, stuffing, potatoes and yams. The menu was brought to Canada by Loyalists during the American Revolution.
Church services also were attended on the holiday.
During the first half of the 19th century, days of thanksgiving were proclaimed to celebrate specific events. In the later part of the century, the holiday often was held in November with each Thanksgiving having a different theme. In the 1920s, Thanksgiving was linked with Armistice Day.
Things like parades and football were added to the tradition in the 20th century. Today, the holiday is celebrated on the second Monday of October.
United States
Celebrated to commemorate the Pilgrims bringing in their first North American harvest, Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863.
The holiday menu and traditions are shared with Canada, although football became part of the holiday as early as the 1890s.
World War I military personnel celebrated Thanksgiving where they were stationed. On the home front, the holiday became an occasion for patriotic sentiment. Cooks took rationing into account when meal planning. Government campaigns urged households to save on staples like sugar, cereal and fruit.
“The family can substitute chicken, pale American cheese, and other becomingly simple dishes, and not only secure the same number of food calories as in the more expensive repast, but have just as much to eat and just as good a time eating it,” the San Jose Mercury News said in November 1917.
Christmas
Our holiday traditions were firmly established by the 1910s: Families, communities and businesses set up Christmas trees. People exchanged cards. Caroling was popular. Lavish meals were served. And it was boom time for retailers.
Our contemporary version of Santa Claus also was established by the 1910s, thanks to the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” and newspapers printed children’s letters to Santa.
“Dear Santa Claus,” a Kansas girl named Iva Brenner wrote in 1910, “I want a doll bed and a doll buggy. Some candy and nuts, a hair ribbon and some handkerchieves [sic].”
“Dear Santa,” an Indiana boy named Roe Funderberg said in 1915. “Will you please bring me a doll and a game of doctor Busby and a game of old maid and a Jack in the box and some candy and nuts? And one box of paints and a paint book.”
Holiday Decorations
The first electric Christmas lights were manufactured in the 1880s, but they weren’t commonplace until mass production made them affordable. Instead families decorated trees with lit candles. This was a great fire hazard, so buckets of water were kept nearby.
Typical decorations included:
- Paper chains
- Tinsel
- Cookies
- Ribbon
- Fabric, glass or wax balls and figures
- Cranberry and popcorn chains
- Painted walnut shells
Kissing under the mistletoe was a fond tradition. Each berry on the mistletoe representing a kiss. When all the berries had been plucked, no more kisses were allowed.
Commercialized Holiday
Retailers began taking advantage of the holiday in the late Victorian period, and the tradition of decorating department store windows began. Sometimes the displays had movable parts meant to wow passersby. The retailers encouraged people to shop instead of giving homemade gifts.
Christmas carolers became part of the retail trend. They encouraged the sale of sheet music while performing on crowded sidewalks. Carolers who went door-to-door hoped to be rewarded with a warm drink.
Cards and postcards also were mass-produced and featured colorful, holiday scenes.
The Day’s Activities
Christmas Eve was a time of merriment. Activities including singing, plays and unwrapping gifts.
On Christmas Day, families attended church services, ate lavish dinners and visited friends. The traditional meal included roast beef, chicken, goose, oysters, chestnuts, pheasant, and stuffing, and by the 1910s, turkey. The stuffing was made of sausage, chestnuts and apples.
Games were a large part of the holiday. People played kissing games, charades, snatching brandy-soaked raisins out of flames and blind man’s bluff. Ghost stories were told.
During the holiday season, families went to music programs and pantomimes and attended balls and parties.
Popular Bygone Era Gifts
A sampling of store ads from 1890-1920.
1890
Readers of The Boston Globe on Dec. 21, 1890, found deals in an ad from Houghton & Dutton, located at Tremont and Beacon Streets. The shop’s ad took up nearly a third of the page and included these gift ideas:
- English seal sacques (sacks), $25
- Holiday aprons, between 19 cents and 98 cents
- Music boxes, starting at $1.98
- Children’s rubber boots, 17 cents
- Photo albums, 59 cents and 94 cents
- Hand dipped coconut bonbons, 15 cents a pound
“Patrons in search of something for a present that always has a place in the home will do well to visit this department,” the ad said of upholstery.
1895
The Palace in Nashville promised shoppers “Extra values for the holidays. Here is where low prices reign.”
The store’s ad was published Sunday, Dec. 22, 1895, in the Nashville American with the guarantee that Monday and Tuesday would have the best prices. Deals included:
- Dolls, from 10 cents to $10
- Fur trimmed beaver capes, $1.75
- Combination purse and card case, 75 cents
- Ostrich feathered boas, $4
- Shaving sets, 50 percent off
- Boys double breasted suits, $3.75
“Suitable Christmas gifts for young and old at half regular price. Read, think and act,” the Palace told shoppers.
1900
An ad in The Weekly Tallahasseean on Dec. 20, 1900, urged shoppers to visit Wight & Brother, Druggists for “the most beautiful assortment of goods ever offered to the public.” Shoppers were told “feast you eyes on this splendid collection” and be “dazzled and delighted.”
Gift ideas included (no prices given):
- Fireworks
- Pipes
- Celluloid novelties
- Toilet water
1905
John M. Smyth Co. was a Chicago furniture dealer.
“The hour has struck – the dreaded eleventh hour of the holiday trading season has arrived,” the retailer said Dec. 17, 1905, in the Chicago Tribune.
Even though Christmas is nearly here, the retailer warned, “there is no occasion for making purchases pell-mell and in a whirl of hurry and excitement.”
Pieces for sale included:
- Combination bookcase and writing desk, $8.75
- 20th century talking machine (phonograph), $8.25
- Pedestal, $3.95
- Parlor lamp, $3.25
1910
Diamond & Bros. Boston Store in Phoenix offered “the right kind of merchandise, coupled with low prices and excellent store service,” an ad in the Arizona Republic on Dec. 20, 1910, said.
The week of Christmas would be unusually crowded and shoppers were instructed to come early, especially in the mornings.
Holiday sales included:
- Ladies waists (shirtwaists), 25 percent off
- Willow plumes, 25 percent off
- Silk kimonos, $7.50
- Ladies rubber coats, $10
1915
The Kaufmann Store in Richmond, Virginia, was clear it was better to not give any gift than to give a “carelessly chosen” one. It appears that the Dec. 21, 1915, ad (published in the Richmond Times Dispatch) was speaking directly to men because the only goods for sale in the advertisement were women’s skirts.
Plaid or linens skirts were sold for $2.49. The linen skirts featured detachable belts, pearl buttons and other details while the plaid skirts were in “conservative colorings, such as even the most quiet taste will be suited.”
1920
Furs coats were the big draw in an ad for Aaron’s on Dec. 22, 1920, in the New York Daily News. Coats ranged from $60 to $725.
“The difference between the best quality furs and pelts of other grades is great,” the retailer said, “One is an economy – the other an extravagance.”
WW1 Care Packages
For the men and women serving overseas during World War I, care packages might have been their only means of celebrating the holiday season.
When the war began, there was widespread belief that it would be over quickly. Even Kaiser Wilhelm II held this belief. He told Germany’s troops, “You will come home before the leaves have fallen from the trees.” By Christmas, it was clear the war would drag on into the foreseeable future.
Princess Mary Christmas Tin
Princess Mary was the teenage daughter of Britain’s King George V. For Christmas 1914, she wanted to supply each soldier serving overseas with a gift from the British people. Her solution was to create the Soldiers and Sailors Christmas Fund and to solicit the public for donations.
The public responded enthusiastically, and enough money was raised to supply each service person with a brass, embossed box.
Those who qualified for a box included:
- All servicemen on the front line
- Nurses
- Soldiers in hospitals or on leave
- Parents and widows of those killed in service
The fund had one month to deliver the tins on time, and 355,000 were delivered before Christmas. As the war dragged on, however, brass became scarcer and some tins weren’t delivered until 1919.
The contents of the packages varied somewhat. Nurses, for example, received chocolates while Indian troops received spices and sweets. Packages typically contained:
- A Christmas card or, if delivered after Christmas, a New Year’s Card
- A photo of Princess Mary
- Smokers: Tobacco, cigarettes, a pipe and lighter
- Nonsmokers: Sweets and a bullet pencil
By the end of 1918, the fund had collected $303,649 for Christmas packages.
Red Cross Parcels
The Red Cross provided care parcels to prisoners of war. The contents and distribution of the packages depended upon the soldier’s nationality. In some nations, soldiers or their families had to pay for the parcels.
In general, these parcels contained any of the following:
- Sweets
- Condensed milk
- Cheese
- Tobacco
- Canned meats
- Tea or coffee
- Sugar
- Soup
- Shirts
- Underwear
- Soap
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Oatmeal
- Jam
- Canned vegetables
- Socks
- Towels
- Bread
- Sewing kits
- Shaving brush and soap
By the war’s end, millions of packages had been delivered.
Christmas Truce of 1914
Many Christmas carols speak about peace on earth, but rarely does it ever happen. One notable exception is the Christmas truce of 1914. It started with a declaration by Pope Benedict XV that a temporary cease fire should be called in celebration of Christmas.
“Pope Benedict XV is urging that an understanding be arranged between the warring factions,” American newspapers said Dec. 8, “under which a truce will be possible during the Christmas holidays. It is said, however, that his holiness has little hope for the success of his efforts.”
Indeed, his plea fell on deaf ears. No nation made an official holiday truce.
On Christmas Eve, in various locations around the Western Front, Allied and German soldiers began singing Christmas carols. The following morning, some Germans left the safety of their trenches and ventured across No Man’s Land shouting Christmas greetings. The Allies were nervous at first, but soon they also emerged from their trenches. That day, the enemies engaged in conversation, joked, exchanged small gifts, sang together and buried their dead. There is also one documented case of a soccer game.
Silence Heard Around the World
So remarkable was the Christmas truce, it made headlines around the world.
“I have always been struck, and never more so than this Christmastide, with the large-hearted, tolerant attitude our men have adopted towards [sic] the German soldiers,” a correspondent for the London Guardian said.
“‘We only want to meet him and beat him on a purely sporting basis,’ said a non-commissioned officer to me this morning, and so saying epitomises the creed of his comrades in the field.
“Malice finds no place at all in the British military equipment, and that is why a season consecrated to goodwill and fellowship finds the hand and heart of the British soldier in sympathy with the Christmas spirit.”
Unfortunately, the event was never repeated. Even in 1914, it didn’t last long. In most locations, the truce lasted only until Dec. 26, but in a few locales, it lasted until New Year’s.
Hostilities began again, sometimes with decorum and firing warning shots in the air. Within a short time, men began dying again on the Western Front, including many of the men who participated in the Christmas Truce.
“The Christmas truce is not the fiction it reads and sounds,” journalist David Arnold said in 1988. “Documented in diaries and personal letters shelved in the archives of the Imperial War Museum in London, the incident is as real as the bullets and gas that subsequently killed many of its participants.”
Boxing Day
Boxing Day, Dec. 26, is no longer celebrated in most of the United States, although it continues in other English-speaking countries.
The holiday originated as the day when churches distributed alms to the poor. Its name comes from the tradition of giving Christmas boxes, Christmas gifts or gratuities paid during the holiday season. The name also is derived from the church collection box.
Servants were given a day off for having worked Christmas. Servants also were given small gifts, and tradesmen received gifts from their employers. The holiday dates from the 1830s, but the tradition of giving servants and employees gifts at Christmas dates back to the 17th century.
People visited friends and enjoyed ham, holiday leftovers and light lunches. Among the affluent, especially in Britain, it was a day for fox hunting.
Today, Boxing Day is a day for seeking the best after-Christmas sales, making returns and watching sports. In some nations, it is a federal holiday and can be celebrated on the 27th if the 26th is a Sunday. Employees are given the day off, and those who must work receive holiday pay.
Birthdays
The first birthday parties were celebrated in ancient times among nobility. Pagans believed surrounding oneself during periods of change with friends and family helped keep evil spirits away. Because of this connection to paganism, birthdays weren’t part of the Christian tradition until the Middle Ages. It should come as no surprise that male birthdays were celebrated for centuries before women and girls also had their birthdays commemorated.
On a more morbid level, birthdays were the celebration of someone having lived for another year. This isn’t something we think much about today, but was an accomplishment in a day-and-age with no medical care.
Parties as we think of them today started to take shape in the mid-19th century when the middle class began to incorporate many upper-class traditions into their lives.
Cake and Candles
The ancients lit candles as symbols of light penetrating the darkness, as tribute to their gods or to chase away evil spirits.
The Germans began the tradition of Kinderfeste in the late 18th century. It had some aspects in common with a modern birthday party – namely a cake with the number of candles corresponding to the child’s age.
Once baking powder was invented in the mid-19th century, it became possible to produce layer cakes. Bakeries also began selling pre-baked cakes to customers.
Singing Happy Birthday
Although the song may have been a variation of an earlier tune, “Happy Birthday” has been attributed to Patty and Mildred Hill. The sisters, who were teachers, wrote a song called “Good Morning To All” in 1893 that was intended to be sung at the beginning of the school day.
The song underwent several variations and eventually became “Happy Birthday.” Variations of the song appeared in songbooks in the early 20th century.
The tune has undergone a number of copyright battles to determine who owns rights to the work. The Hills sued for copyright in 1935 and won.
Most recently, Warner Bros. held the copyright and claimed it didn’t expire until 2030. The company was sued by the filmmaker producing a documentary on the song “Good Morning to All.” She claimed Warner Bros. falsely held its copyright.
A judge ruled in 2015 that Warner Bros.’ copyright claim was invalid. The 1935 copyright only applied to a single arrangement of the song, not the entire song. In 2016, “Happy Birthday” became public domain after a court ruling.
Cards
While people have exchanged Valentine’s and Christmas cards for nearly 200 years, birthday cards are the newest tradition on this list. They date back only a little more than a century.