Pagan was originally a term
used by early Christians to describe citizens
of the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism or
any other local religions not rooted in Judaism. Over time we've
started using the word to refer to
basically any beliefs that predate the major
contemporary religions, also as an acronym for people
against goodness and normalcy, but only when referring to
the 1987 movie comedy Dragnet. So maybe not
super-relevant here. Today we're taking a look at
everyday activities that can be traced back to pagan culture. But before we do that, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel and let us
in the comments below what other old or new god topics
you'd like to hear about. Now, time to take
the pagan challenge. [DRUMBEAT] Until the 20th century,
no one would have really described themselves as pagan. It was used by
Christians initially as a kind of put-down,
referring to people they viewed as believers in false gods. The term derives
from the Latin word "pagus," which refers to
a rural region inhabited by country-dwellers. So right there it's sort
of implying that you're an uncivilized bumpkin. In modern times,
various polytheists, those who practice
nature worship, and others who embrace
spirituality but reject the world's largest religions,
have reclaimed paganism as a concept and made
the word their own. So when we refer
to paganism here, we're not talking about a
single coherent set of beliefs that any one group in one
part of the world held. But we're referring to generally
all the collective things people believed in
ancient times, that didn't involve Abraham, Isaac,
the Torah, or Jesus, and stuff like that. Most famously, these
cultures and faiths started celebrating many
of the same holidays that we still take
off work today. Halloween, for
example, dates back to the Celtic festival of Sawan. Wait, who's taking
Halloween off work? In Sawan, the veil
separating the worlds of the living and the dead
was believed to break down, allowing souls to cross over. It was probably also
influenced by festival of the dead celebrated
in ancient Rome, during which people would
bring offerings of food to their loved ones' graves
to keep their memories alive. Valentine's Day also started
as a Roman fertility festival celebrating the god
Lupercus, who protected farmers and shepherds. Lupercalia, as it was called,
was held in mid-February to ensure a fruitful
and fertile year, and found celebrants feasting,
making ritual sacrifices of goats and dogs-- oh, man, not dogs-- and even running
naked through town while being flogged with
strips of flayed goat skin. Oh, the things we do for love. Commemorating birthdays
was fairly uncommon in early Christian culture. So a lot of our modern-day
traditions around the event derive from earlier practices. In some Germanic
cultures, evil spirits were believed to cross over into
our world and attack children on the anniversaries
of their births. That's not a cool
birthday surprise. Believers placed lit candles
on a birthday cake, one for each year of life, to keep
these angry demons at bay. Wedding celebrations also owe
a debt to pagan traditions. Some historians
and anthropologists think that the practice of
wearing wedding rings or bands dates back to the Third
Dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, when the exchange of rings more
generally indicated a binding agreement between two parties. Greeks and Romans also
believed that the fourth finger was special and contained a vein
that ran directly to the heart. It was sometimes known
in these cultures as the medicated finger, used
to stir up mixtures and potions, as its special
connection to the heart would immediately warn the
apothecary of the presence of a toxic ingredient. Hey, why don't you just keep
your finger out of my drink. Wearing a wedding ring
on the medicated finger, therefore, indicates an added
layer of commitment, love, and sentimentality. The pagans also
gave us bridesmaids and other traditions associated
with the wedding party, though they actually
had a role to play aside from taking the bride to
Vegas and getting her wasted. Some cultures
believe that it was helpful to have other women
around during a wedding ceremony, all dressed
alike, in order to trick evil spirits
into attacking them instead of the bride herself. Those are pretty
gullible spirits. Even some contemporary
Christian holidays had their origins
in pagan culture. Easter was originally named for
Eostre, a West Germanic spring goddess who was feted for
bringing longer, brighter days, when food started to grow
once more in abundance. Eostre was frequently
symbolized by a hare, which remained closely connected
to the Easter holiday even after the
event was repurposed to commemorate the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christmas, as well, originated
as the pagan festival of Yule, a nature
ritual celebrating the continuation
of life on earth even during the darkest and
coldest months of the year. Many yule traditions,
like lighting a yule log, giving gifts to
family and friends, and decorating your home
with wintry green plants like mistletoe,
holly, and ivy are now baked into our annual
Christmas celebrations. [BELL RINGING] Whether you like them or not. Still we promised
everyday activities that can be traced back to pagan
culture, not annual events. And it doesn't
get more every day than the actual names for the
days of the week, nearly all of which have pagan origins. Monday derives from the
Anglo-Saxon word Monandeg, meaning moon's day. It was set aside for
rituals giving homage to the goddess of the moon. Tuesday is associated
with both the Germanic God Tiu and the Norse God Tyr. Wednesday is derived from
Woden's day, a celebration of the old Norse God Odin. Thursday was named
for Odin's son, Thor, the old Norse god
of thunder and Hemsworths, also lightning. Friday is associated with
another Norse god, Freya, the wife of Odin, and mother
of Thor, while Saturday takes its name from Saturn, the
Roman god of wealth and plenty. The pagan versions
of the seven-day week were first established
in ancient Babylon sometime before 600 BC, and
was adopted by early Christians hundreds of years later under
the Roman Emperor Constantine. There were some attempts
around this time to replace the pagan names
with Christian references, such as the names
of the sacraments or Christ's apostles. Wonder which five
apostles got screwed. But ultimately tradition won out
and we kept the pagan origins in place. The same thing happened again
in the months of the year. Today, we follow the
Gregorian calendar, which was introduced by
Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. But it had its own roots
in the Julian calendar first proposed by Julius Caesar
in 46 BC, when he was still a Roman consul. So the month names mostly have
Roman origins, many of which are associated with their
polytheistic religion. January is named
for the Roman god Janus, the protector
of gates and doorways, like a superhero doorman. February takes its title from
Februalia, a Roman festival of purification and atonement. In the ancient world,
military campaigns often paused for the winter
and started back up again in spring, which likely
influenced the decision to name March after Mars,
the Roman god of war. May refers to Maia, who
oversaw the growth of plants, while June is named for
the Roman goddess Juno, reflecting her connections to
the sky, marriage, and rebirth. June remains associated with
getting married right up to the present day. Beyond just names and
dates, many social practices from pagan societies have
remained with us today, passed down through thousands
of years of human history and dozens of civilizations. Wearing jewelry was common
in the ancient world, and just as it does
today, was often used to signal someone's
social position or status. Viking men wore
elaborate jewelry that denoted their overall
rank and significance in their community's hierarchy,
while Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans commonly
wore jewels adorned with spiritual and
religious symbols. Prominent ancient Egyptians were
buried alongside their jewels in the hopes that they
could bring them along into the afterlife. Amulets featuring hearts,
scarabs, the fingers of Horus, and serpent
heads, are frequently found in Egyptian
burial sites, as it was believed they would provide
protection in the next world. In ancient Rome, gold rings
specifically indicated political status and
were worn exclusively by senators and nobles. After his memorable defeat
of the Romans at Cannae, Carthaginian general
Hannibal famously sent home six dry
gallons of gold rings taken from the hands of slain
Roman officers and politicians. [MUSIC PLAYING] Decorating one's face
and body with makeup also dates way back to
some of the earliest human civilizations. In ancient Egypt, eye
makeup specifically was seen as very important. Cosmetics made from
combinations of lead, copper, and other common
items, often colored in dark grays and
greens, were frequently used to adorn humans
with the eye of Horus, a symbol of power,
protection, and wealth. Both women and men in ancient
Egypt wore eye makeup. But women would additionally
make their cheeks appear redder and their faces whiter, along
with painting their nails and even applying early
forms of lipstick. These products were
made from materials like animal fat,
plants, herbs, and oils, and were used for
both decoration and to signal a woman's
affluence and social status. Keeping animals around
the house as pets was also a common practice
in many pagan societies, some of which believed that
certain species provided their masters with spiritual
or supernatural powers. A number of pagans believed that
animals, including cats, dogs, and toads were
intimately connected to fairies or other
spiritual creatures, making them a vital link with
the unseen world of magic. Some even thought the
animals themselves had supernatural powers,
particularly cats, who were sometimes
associated with shapeshifting or other physically
impossible forms of mischief. In the popular imagination,
cats have maintained some of this
mystique and continue to be associated with witches,
bad omens, and the afterlife. A lot of superstitions
and social cues from early human
history have persisted into our modern world,
even after people stopped believing in the root
causes of these practices. For example, yawning was poorly
understood in the ancient world and was thought to imperil
your health by either allowing diseases to enter
the body or, even worse, allowing your vitality and
life force to escape the body. People started
covering their mouths when they yawn to either
block admittance for illnesses or ensure that their
soul remained intact and on the inside. Today we think of crosses as
specifically Christian imagery. But many pagan societies also
had positive associations with them, using them as
symbols for luck or unity. So making the sign of the
cross with your fingers for good luck, you
know, crossing them, could theoretically date
back to the pagan culture. There is disagreement among
historians and experts about this, though. Many believe that the practice
of crossing your fingers for good luck was
specifically associated with the early
Christians, and a time when their religion was still
outlawed throughout the Roman Empire. Theoretically, Christians might
have shared crossed fingers or made other
discreet hand signals to identify one another in
situations when they couldn't openly speak about their faith. Crossing your fingers
when telling a lie may have also had early
Christian origins. The sign of the
cross was believed to protect an individual
from God's wrath. So forming a cross
with your fingers before breaking one of
the Ten Commandments may have been a superstitious
insurance policy. Knocking on wood also has its
roots in the ancient world. The Celts believed that
spirits lived within trees. So it's possible that they
thought tapping or knocking on the trees could invoke the
protection of these beings, or that creating the noise
could keep evil spirits at bay or prevent them from hearing
human thoughts and desires. Traditions surrounding
the Tooth Fairy likely also have origins in
pre-Christian culture from Northern Europe. In Viking and early
Norse societies, children's teeth were a thought
to bring good luck in battle, prompting warriors to
sometimes buy them from kids and wear them in strings
around their necks. This led to the tradition of
a tooth fee paid to a child upon losing their first tooth. It's also possible that
our current understanding of the Tooth Fairy is an
amalgamation of traditions from many different cultures,
all being mashed up together. Unlike a lot of other characters
from Western folklore, the Tooth Fairy varies
widely depending on the region, appearing as
both male and female, a child with wings, a pixie, a dragon,
a flying ballerina, two old men, a bat, a bear, and a
variety of other forms. So what do you think? What pagan ritual do
you like the most? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
