History of The Holidays - Documentary

[Music] hello and welcome to fire of learning i'm justin what's your favorite holiday is it the one where you wear green clothing and pinch anyone who doesn't or is it the one where you dress up like a zombie and go around asking your neighbors for candy or perhaps it's the one where you put a tree in your house and put lights on it so that the man in the red suit who enters your house through your chimney at night knows where to put the presents he has for your family most of you especially those of you from the western world know exactly what i'm talking about here these things are normal to us even if we don't personally partake in some of them we've experienced them our whole lives but when you put it like that it does reveal how strange these customs can really be why do we do these things in the modern world we'd perhaps celebrate these holidays with greater and greater enthusiasm but we've also largely forgotten the origins of some of them especially the more ancient ones well ladies and gentlemen as the man once said if you've never wondered where holidays come from i'd say it's time you begun in this video we will be exploring the history and the origins of many major western holidays why we do these things who started doing them when they started what the point of all of it is and more now i can't cover every single holiday in human history in an hour or so as great as that would be i will branch out a bit but our focus will largely be on holidays celebrated in the western world secondly i'll be focusing on holidays with deep history and or ambiguous origins thirdly i'm anticipating comments along the lines of what i didn't talk about frog on a pineapple day that's one of our most sacred traditions here in chestinghamton sir hampton sherhampton sure bloody danks don't know nothing about history i understand these local holidays and traditions can be very fascinating themselves but again i can't cover every single one if this video is well received then i will be happy to expand more in that direction in the future in discussing the holidays we learn not simply about the days themselves but we can learn quite a bit about things like history mythology and even date keeping in general furthermore above all it reveals quite a bit about people by understanding the things a culture chooses to celebrate and venerate we gain insight into the things which it values and wishes to preserve so if this sounds interesting to you then i'd say it's time to get in the holiday spirit which one all of them before we begin i would like to thank brian pearl alexander tsivi dylan remembering truth eli gerzone matthew anderson orion coulter lens jason chad four brent boniak lori robertson ruth fanon greg finn drew detmer noob delivery brian oxley diane smith autisticus and ethan provost for being our most recent supporters on patreon they join these supporters who make these videos possible now then let's get to it the term holiday comes from the anglo-saxon holy day meaning holy day as you might expect it of course originally referred to any day of religious importance but has since come to refer to any day of relaxation or celebration be it of a religious cultural or national significance the year technically begins and ends with a holiday the new year's eve and day celebrations as you well know the year on the gregorian calendar begins on january 1st on the evening before december 31st the last day of the year people gather with friends and family in their homes or in the streets amid a bustling crowd or sometimes are alone comfortably asleep in bed and who could blame them they socialize they celebrate they have a good time they often discuss their memories of the past year and hopes for the new one indeed these two days are an important time of reflection a time to think about all we've done in the past year and our plans to make the new one as best as possible whatever may come many take the coming new year as an opportunity to dedicate themselves to meeting a certain goal a new year's resolution as it has become known this practice may be quite ancient dating all the way back to the oaths which the norse took around their holiday of yule around the same time which we'll discuss later these oaths were taken quite seriously for some though new year's eve is just a night to party and wake up the following afternoon into what's really just another day no judgment here the parties gatherings and events last varying degrees of time as many people have these days off of work and may include various activities ranging from a couple good friends gathered around a tv to watch the famous ball drop in new york city to citywide parades and fireworks in several western countries like canada and the netherlands they have a tradition of running into freezing water to celebrate the new year called a polar bear plunge but in most every new year's celebration around the world the last few minutes before midnight draw in everyone's attention as people joyously count down the last seconds of the year together the prior year fades into history and the new one enters with great celebration and a sense of a new beginning it seems like a fairly straightforward holiday but what is this gregorian calendar and why did this grey guy decide january 1st should be the first day why not march or september 1st the answer takes us all the way back to ancient rome knowing a little bit about the history of the calendar by the way will be very useful actually in understanding several holidays the romans did not date their calendar with terms like bc before christ and a.d anodomini latin 4 year of the lord as they of course had no idea who christ was yet rather they used auc aburbe condita meaning the years since the city's foundation which began with the year on which they believed the city of rome was founded 753 bc on our calendar their calendar had 355 days but still 12 months like ours with the latin versions of the names of our months however an extra month was sometimes inserted in between februarius and martius to correct for the fact that the calendar drifted quite a bit away from the solstices this calendar system might have worked decently if the pontific's maximus the chief roman priest didn't intentionally use the flexible additional months to increase or decrease the amount of time certain politicians spent in office in 709 auc or 45 bc this had become out of control this was the age of julius caesar however and he endeavored to do something about it he introduced a new calendar with greek and egyptian influence the julian calendar which was much more stable and consisted of 365 and a quarter days in the 12 roman months the quarter is important as the earth does not orbit the sun once every 365 days exactly and so every four years an extra day was added a leap day 365.25 days was much closer to the 365.2422 days that the earth's revolution takes but it still was not close enough and over time that small difference built up in the middle ages they began to notice and by the 16th century the church then led by pope gregory xiii found it intolerable as they were off by several days and were concerned that they were celebrating easter on the wrong day astronomers christopher clavius and aloysius lilius worked to fix this issue they solved it with the gregorian calendar making it so that every year divisible by four was to be a leap year such as the year 2020 but years cleanly divisible by 100 such as the year 1900 would not be leap years unless they were divisible by 400 such as the year 2000. this reform was implemented across the catholic world quite quickly and to fix the error thursday october 4th 1582 was followed the very next day by friday october 15th 1582. protestant countries however like britain much of germany and scandinavia and orthodox countries like russia were concerned about catholic influence and remained on the julian calendar for centuries britain and its colonies finally adopted the gregorian calendar in 1752 about 200 years after this which will be important later on so why january 1st well this too dated back to the romans the roman year began when the new consul took office this was originally in the spring but by the mid-100s bc it had become january 1st europe partially retained this tradition but not everyone did and it became common to start the year in the christian world on christmas or in the british empire apart from scotland on the annunciation march 25th january 1st would eventually be recognized as a natural date however as it was quite close to the winter solstice when the days start to become longer and so the christian world began moving the beginning of their year to this date in the early modern era alright well that was an unusual amount of math and technicality for a holiday but we've made it some people like to point out that new years is a rather arbitrary holiday it wouldn't matter when we celebrated the new year many other calendars such as the jewish islamic and chinese ones have different beginning dates maybe it is just a matter of arbitrary time keeping but we humans i think need these kinds of holidays we need milestones and to feel like there is order to the universe the celebration of the new year is the product of the collective need for these things the year though my friends has only just begun there is still much to celebrate [Music] we jump now to february 14th to talk about saint valentine's day this holiday is all about love much of it the romantic kind though not all of it in fact the majority of the famous valentine's day cards given out each year are not given to a romantic partner but to other family teachers and people like this still though there is a heavy emphasis on making this a day to celebrate with your significant other spending the day or evening with them having a special dinner together gifting them candies flowers or the aforementioned cards and in general showing affection commitment and love there's a common tradition of asking another person to be one's valentine on this day for an established partner this world is generally a given but many nervous teenagers use the day to work up the courage to finally ask out their high school crush a moment of silence now for all the teenagers out there whose lives are like so totally like over forever because they get turned down on this day you'll get over it anyway what's the history of all of this who was saint valentine well once again to answer this question we must venture all the way back to rome the 3rd century a.d the roman empire has been plunged into a period of crisis disorder and instability which lasts for decades appropriately called the crisis of the 3rd century in a 49-year period from 235 to 284 a.d there were at least 26 people who claimed the position of emperor many of them were military dictators who waged bloody civil wars in an attempt to usurp the throne in the madness the roman empire began to break apart and many feared that the very end of the empire had come it was in this chaos that valentine lived although truthfully very little is known about him there were multiple people named wallentinus active around this time who were canonized as saints and there is little reliable information about this specific saint valentine history gets blurry when things get tumultuous according to legend however valentine was a christian priest active during the reign of claudius gothicus who reigned from late 268 a.d to early 270. this was a time in which the empire was still pagan and christians were a persecuted minority it is believed that saint valentine stood up to this persecution possibly by defying the emperor's supposed ban on marriage claudius the cruel as he is known is said to have banned marriage because men could use it to dodge the draft it's highly unlikely that he actually banned marriage across the empire but it is possible that he did do something along these lines valentine is said to have married christians in secret for this reason or another he was sent to jail while in jail it is said he was visited by multiple couples whom he had wed and was given gifts and notes describing their gratitude at one point his jailer mysterious wanted to test the power of his god and asked him to prove his power by healing his daughter's blindness valentine was able to restore her vision and fell in love with her in his remaining days according to a legend from the 18th century on the day of his execution february 14th 269 a.d he left her a note signed from your valentine the truth about this figure may never be known but the legends had a powerful effect on people's hearts and minds in 496 a.d after christianity had largely replaced paganism pope galazias the first established the feast of saint valentine on that date in honor of his martyrdom it was in the later middle ages that many legends about this character became more popular and the date became more strongly related to courtship by the 19th century the modern version of the holiday was coming into existence becoming a more secular holiday and incorporating symbols such as cupid the roman god of desire there have been claims that the establishment of this holiday was to replace the roman pagan festival of lupercalia occurring on the same day the church did indeed christianize many pagan holidays and traditions as we will see but valentine's day became a genuine tradition long after christianity had become dominant in europe so many scholars are skeptical it seems there's much more chaucer than caesar to save valentine's day the day is celebrated throughout the americas except for some countries like brazil and colombia much of europe specifically western europe and in parts of the rest of the world although many non-western countries and especially non-christian countries are reluctant to celebrate it and may even be hostile towards it which is also not uncommon as we will see we now come to march 17th to celebrate saint patrick's day the day focusing on the famous saint of ireland for whom people need to wear green or risk being pinched once again the story of saint patrick takes us to ancient rome st patrick would be very important to ireland but he was not actually himself irish rather he was a roman specifically a romano britain it is in britain in the 5th century a.d then that our story begins the romans ruled over the southern portion of britain for centuries and their rule very much changed it they romanized the celtic inhabitants of the island one aspect of this romanization was the relatively recent introduction of christianity but now their rule is ending in 410 a.d roman forces were recalled to the mainland to deal with pressing issues there they may not have fully realized it yet but the empire was collapsing in the chaos distant territories like britain were left to fend for themselves it was here a bit before this event in the late 4th century that a child named maewyn sukhot was born very little is known about his life though the son of a deacon maewin is said to have become irreligious either a pagan or an atheist in his teenage years he would have been quite surprised with the future that lay ahead of him in this age gaelic pirates from ireland taking advantage of the roman weakness raided across britain looting destroying and capturing slaves one of those slaves was maywen he was captured and brought back to ireland and forced to work as a shepherd for six years his captivity was brutal while a slave it is said he began to think about the christian religion with which he had been brought up and tried to reach out to god more and more eventually god obliged and in either a dream or a vision directed patrick to attempt to escape his captivity and return to britain he did so eventually successfully returning home he would retain this newfound devotion to god and adopted a christian name patrick and joined the clergy a few years after this patrick had another dream in it he heard the irish people calling out to him asking him to return to ireland he took this as a sign that the irish people needed him to bring them to christ knowing full well the dangers that awaited him across the sea patrick made the decision to return to ireland as a missionary indeed he was not immediately welcomed and was treated quite harshly but over time he was able to convince many people to listen to him he was a powerful and influential speaker and was able to convince many people to drop their pagan ways and embrace christianity as he began the process of converting the irish it is said he drove the snakes out of ireland this seems to have been a metaphor for the druids and other pagans patrick would continue to live among the irish and bring them to god dying according to legend on march 17th at the age of 120 it's said that the sun remained in the sky for 12 days straight after his death and that he will one day return was saint patrick a real person yes in fact it is generally agreed that he was the author of two books the confessio and epistola which give details about his life however the detailed truth of the events in his life are less clear like so many figures and events from this time things are easily confused invented and forgotten and so it's hard to say what's true and what's not either way it is this figure and his work that the irish people and people of irish descent around the world celebrate on this day by the middle ages st patrick was revered as the patron saint of ireland many tales and myths about his life became famous and his feast day was celebrated across the island but it remained still mostly just an irish thing that is of course until the 19th century when irish immigrants fled hardships on their own island to far off lands like canada the united states australia new zealand and other parts of the world abroad they lost things like their language but retained many cultural and religious traditions like their saint patrick's day celebrations on this holiday the irish and descendants of irish immigrants who now far outnumber the irish irish carry on celebrating their heritage and religious faith today the day is celebrated with many events both public such as parades and private such as parties lenten restrictions are lifted on this day which allows groups like catholics to drink alcohol the majority of irish are catholic and saint patrick is an important catholic figure but it is not exclusively a catholic holiday as he is revered in other denominations as well the day is celebrated in protestant northern ireland although i have known some northerners who tell me that they don't celebrate it due to its association with the catholics which is not uncommon in places like america people who are neither irish nor christian often join in on the holiday and indeed there have been some cultures which have celebrated the holidays such as japan simply for the fun of it it's far from common outside of the christian world however and indeed a number of people are concerned by the holiday drifting from its christian origins the color green has been associated with saint patrick's day since the 1600s and ireland itself well before this the festival was temporarily associated with the color blue in the 18th century but this association did not stick the shamrock is another famous symbol of the day it comes from an apocryphal tale that st patrick used to plant which has three leaves but is still one plant to explain the holy trinity to the pagans in ireland itself they have a custom of putting shamrocks at the bottom of a drinking glass and drinking a toast to saint patrick when they finished they throw the shamrock over their shoulders for good luck and why are you pinched if you don't wear green well it's quite simple really leprechauns are very active on st patrick's day and they will pinch you if they see you however the color green makes you invisible to them after march ends we come to april 1st a day on which a holiday not really a holiday like the others is observed there aren't really any festivals or celebrations or anything of that nature related to this day it's not very major at all most people in fact forget about it which makes it even better because as you see this is a day held specifically for pranks practical jokes and all manner of mischief despite the simplicity and poor reality of the holiday its origins lie hundreds of years back in history and there are many equivalents throughout history and throughout the world recall how people used to celebrate the new year on dates such as easter or march 25th well in france in the 16th century they began to gradually not suddenly as is often believed make the transition to january 1st the first reference to this holiday comes from eloy domerval in 1508 who used the term poisson davril meaning april fish the french equivalent to this day in fact the french retain that term and pin paper fish to the backs of unsuspecting victims the term april fool or fish may have developed as a way to mock people who still celebrated new years on the wrong day when and why this holiday turned into one focused on prankery is unknown but pranks may have been played on the people who refuse to conform to the new date the first recorded april fool's day prank came from england in 1696 when a group of people were tricked into going to see some lions being washed at the tower of london of course upon their arrival there were no lions however new year's day was celebrated on march 25th until 1752 by the english so it couldn't have begun there for the reason of a calendar change it may therefore have spread from france or may have different origins than we realize such as a connection to the roman festival of hilaria the holiday became more common in the 18th century and remains popular to this day one of the most famous april fool's day pranks happened in 1957 when the bbc aired a story about a swiss spaghetti harvest showing footage of swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees the harvest was bountiful they claimed as they had finally exterminated the spaghetti weevil the bbc then evidently received numerous calls from viewers who were interested in learning how to grow a spaghetti tree in their defense spaghetti wasn't very popular in britain yet very briefly i would like to take a moment to shamelessly self-promote i've started a second youtube channel called lusinox where we focus on science i've recently made a documentary about extraterrestrial life if that's something that might interest you after you're finished here there will be a link to it in the description if not that's fine alright moving on easter is of course the commemoration of the resurrection of jesus from the dead in christian belief the most important event in the christian religion keep in mind however there is variation and how different christian groups observe the date easter is called a movable feast as it does not have a fixed date in either the julian or gregorian calendars the rule on deciding when easter will be has been heavily debated and changed throughout its long history but today it occurs on the first sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon which occurs on or closest after march 21st meaning it can fall on any sunday between march 22 and april 25th on the gregorian calendar in ecclesiastical full moon and the ecclesiastical march equinox are different from the actual astronomical ones and are based off of the luna solar calendar employed in determining the date as an important note the eastern orthodox church in places like russia still uses the julian calendar for holidays even if at the civil level they've adopted the gregorian so they celebrate it later on the week before easter is regarded as holy week and includes holy thursday commemorating the last supper good friday which commemorates jesus's crucifixion and holy saturday more broadly it is preceded by a 40-day period excluding sundays of increased religious piety and penitence called lent which begins on what's called ash wednesday it is then followed by a 50-day celebratory season beginning on easter called the easter tide this ends with pentecost sunday or the feast of the ascension in the orthodox church however the full easter tide is mostly just a religious observance and the holiday itself is mostly about easter sunday just to add in another more minor holiday related to this the tuesday right before lunch begins is called fat tuesday or in french mardi gras this holiday developed as a way to get all of the hedonism out of one's system before the rigid requirements of lent it is popular among various types of christians namely catholics although many non-christians celebrate as well the american tradition was originally brought over by the french while a holiday originally related to religion the modern celebration in places like new orleans are renowned for being lacking in anything which could be considered christian some traditions may have developed from the roman holiday of saturnalia which we'll talk about in a bit it's also called carnival the word carnival comes from the latin carne levare meaning to take away meat a reference to lent anyway back to easter most languages have a word for this holiday related to posca which originally referred to the jewish passover a holiday commemorating the exodus to which easter is linked and from which many traditions derive the word easter in english comes from the old english iostermonas meaning month of aoster the equivalent of april a yoster was actually a pagan goddess the germanic goddess of spring and fertility we know of her specifically primarily from the works of bead and some do debate her existence it is highly unlikely by the way that she or easter in general is related to the sumerian goddess ishtar there may have been a long festival dedicated to her in the spring among dramatic peoples similar to the many other springtime celebrations in europe it seems to be the case that though the christian celebration replaced the pagan one the pagan name was kept at least in english furthermore certain easter symbols and celebrations while today christian may also have been pagan in origin easter eggs for example historically they were painted red to symbolize the blood of jesus shed on the cross and the eggs themselves were symbols of jesus's tomb however they may also have been pagan symbols of fertility in spring and egg painting is a custom which seems to be found outside of christianity and may also predate it the same is true of rabbits who breed like rabbits and thus are symbols of spring and fertility the pagan symbolism here may have undergone what's often referred to as baptism this was a common practice used by the early church to help convert pagans to christianity and is the reason why certain pagan customs have survived into modern christian holidays like easter the converts were allowed to keep certain pagan symbols and traditions so long as they did not contradict church doctrine and were redirected to honor and symbolize christian religion this is where it gets complicated as a result not all christian groups celebrate easter the same is true of christmas and various other holidays or even all holidays some groups are reluctant to celebrate anything with any pagan influence the response to this by those who do celebrate is often that the paganism was rooted out of the traditions and that the holidays were as i said baptized and became fully christian some particularly devout groups however believe that if the bible does not say a holiday should be celebrated then it is wrong to celebrate it generally these debates just end with each side just claiming that the other aren't real christians i'm not going to attempt to answer the question nor say that either side is right or wrong it's just necessary to comment on this debate as it's why you see some devout christians condemning the celebration of holidays altogether and other devout christians enthusiastically celebrating basically all of them there are by the way some similar debates which occur in other religions as well among the various denominations groups like catholics tend to party-hearty while groups like jehovah's witnesses abstain from just about everything even holidays like the 4th of july however there is debate within denominations as well notably among the various kinds of protestants some might also call these holidays papist or catholic inventions but keep in mind their modern forms were heavily influenced by the united states which is mostly protestant the exact origins of the easter bunny louis mam are fairly unclear but he likely comes from 18th century germany stories of a rabbit who laid colored eggs called the osterhaza were often told the children who left carrots out for it and made nests for it to lay its eggs in as time passed this character was also said to leave treats and various other gifts these tales naturally spread along with the german immigrants who came to places like the us and canada some say easter egg hunting may have evolved from easter egg rolling said to symbolize the rolling away of the stone which covered christ's tomb others say that the hunt itself originated with the protestant reformer martin luther who said that the joy of discovering a hidden easter egg could teach children of the joy of discovering christ's empty tomb some areas like bessiere france go crazy with eggs and are known for their giant omelet festival it's said that this dates back to more recent times the age of napoleon who was stopped by the village one day and ate an omelet there which he enjoyed so much that he asked the villagers to make one for his entire army [Music] birthdays not so much a holiday unless you're a very important figure who has his or her birthday celebrated by society but a holiday for every individual a day which they and those close to them may observe if they would like to commemorate the anniversary of their birth and celebrate their very existence such as yourself you were after all according to my records born on september 16th [Music] i wonder how many people i just got if i guessed it correctly it's not because i'm psychic that's just statistically the most common day for a birthday in the u.s in fact september in general is the most common month for birthdays in the united states huh about nine months after christmas and new year's parties right anyway birthdays however are fairly evenly distributed and of course occur on all 366 days of the year a special shout out to any of you lieblings out there born on february 29th the least common day of birth after that is december 25th which is coincidentally also the date of the most widely celebrated birthday party in the world birthdays are important to people they represent a kind of personal new year often they are seen as important milestones and may grant certain privileges to others however much like new years it is just another day and they may even sardonically comment one year closer to death one of the most important birthdays in most cultures is the one which marks the coming of age the transition from childhood to adulthood in the u.s and many western countries this is often marked by the birthday on which you become a legal adult the 18th birthday in many latin american countries quinceaneras are celebrated on a girl's 15th birthday marking the transition from girlhood to womanhood in judaism boys have their bar mitzvahs at 13 and girls have their bat mitzvahs at either 12 or 13 depending on the exact practices at this age in jewish law they become accountable for their actions in japan there is a collective coming-of-age day held on the second monday of january to celebrate all those who have reached the age of 20 in the prior year the celebration of birthdays like most of these holidays has origins which are a bit murky as the practice is quite ancient the ancient egyptians and greeks tended to celebrate the birthdays of their gods but not themselves the oldest known reference to a birthday comes from about 3000 bc in the book of genesis which discusses the birthday of an egyptian pharaoh though to clarify this was the celebration of his coronation and deification rather than actual physical birth the ancient persians were enthusiastic about their birthdays reportedly using the event according to herodotus to consume a feast with no shortage of sweets our modern versions of birthdays were heavily influenced by the greeks and romans the greeks as mentioned celebrated the birthdays of their gods including artemis the goddess of the moon on her birthday they baked cakes in tribute to her and placed candles on them so that they would resemble the glowing light of the moon when they blew the candles out they made a wish and believed that the smoke would carry the wish all the way to her this may have influenced our traditions it's hard to say as we will see this kind of tradition was not unique to them it was the romans who decided that the common man and men only for the most part should be allowed to celebrate their birthdays as well and they did so quite enthusiastically when christianity replaced the pagan ways there was disagreement over how to treat birthdays exactly which lasts to this day in fact birthdays in the middle ages were celebrated to an extent by the upper classes while it was not uncommon for people of the lower classes to celebrate the birthday of the saint after whom they were named as a matter of fact up until only the past few centuries a substantial number of common people would forget when exactly they were born and how old they were by mid-adulthood in places like 18th century germany and austria children sometimes had birthday celebrations which included cakes called a kinder festa these german kinder got one candle placed on their cake for each year of their age plus another one for good luck at an unknown point from somewhere at some time it's not very clear the tradition of the birthday cake spread the practice of giving the first piece of cake to the individuals celebrating their birthday became a tradition and way of bringing good luck oh and the birthday song the tune possibly came from the american sister musicians paddy and mildred hill in 1893 from their song good morning to all the tune is actually technically copyrighted and will remain so until 2030 in the u.s by late october the signs of the year's ending are unmistakably clear as the sun sets on october 31st a special kind of feeling a mix of fear and festiveness fills the air and the spookiest night of the year begins on this night people gather for a variety of activities trick-or-treating parties haunted houses and more they often dress in scary costumes of ghosts ghouls zombies and the like though not all of them are scary you may very well see a man dressed like a cupcake or something on this night as well houses and buildings are adorned with orange purple and green lights pumpkins are hollowed out have faces carved into them and have candles placed inside them candy is distributed widely and all sorts of activities take place for some though this holiday is not merely one of festivity in games it's a part of the all hallow tide it is a time to remember those whom we have lost to visit their graves to pray for them and perhaps light a candle for them halloween seems like a modern invention and in some ways it is but other aspects of this holiday are very ancient going back thousands of years halloween is a conglomeration of multiple different cultural religious and traditional influences and beliefs much of which focus on the darker aspects of reality the things which scare us frighten us even death itself the vast majority of cultures around the world have had some sort of festival holiday or some sort of time to focus on the deceased not to celebrate death itself usually but to remember and honor their forebears and ancestors those whom they have lost and who have moved on into whatever they believe comes after death generally it makes sense to have such holidays in autumn when the world around you seems to be dying especially for early peoples who were heavily in touch with nature the earliest known origins of halloween come from the pagan gaelic festival of solon celebrated on october 31st until the sunrise of november 1st the word sawin literally means november or summer's end and indeed that was the point of it it was placed roughly in between the autumn equinox and winter solstice to mark the end of the harvest this was an important time for the people of ancient ireland and other parts of the celtic world which naturally drew people together for a celebration they also took the opportunity to use this time to discuss new laws banish lawbreakers and end the season of war this was not merely a day of pastoral or political significance however nor merely a time to party it also had a profound religious significance in the ancient beliefs this was a liminal time one of two such events in the celtic year where the barrier between the living and the dead was removed and spirits especially those who had died within the past year roamed free among the earth likewise if you weren't careful you could wander into their world it was best to try to keep safe and keep your distance from these spirits often this was done by lighting fires giving animal and crop sacrifices to the gods and sticking together many also dressed in frightening costumes to attempt to either blend in with the spirits or ward evil ones off especially spirits who may harbor a grudge against you specifically not all spirits were malevolent however and often food was left out for passing family members and friends if these spirits were appeased they would grant you good fortunes in the coming year meanwhile elsewhere in europe other types of pagans were influencing halloween a fairly similar festival took place in the germanic world around this time and the romans gave us things like apple bobbing and the tradition more common in europe of leaving an offering of milk on a grave perhaps you see some potential origins of our halloween traditions in the traditions of these peoples while there is a clear relation we aren't exactly sure what took place on sawin and how it influenced our modern halloween furthermore halloween is not solemn and a purely pagan festival would not have survived 1500 years of christianity around the 5th century a.d britain and ireland thanks to figures like saint patrick were increasingly exposed and converted to christianity much like we discussed earlier the church did not seek to root out every single last pagan custom and tradition rather the practices were simply converted into christian ones this helped set the stage for what would become halloween as we shall see christianity would also play a major role in the development of halloween and historians do not exactly know which traditions are pagan christian or secular in the 7th century the holiday of all saints day began to be celebrated in honor of the deceased saints which was held in may to replace the roman pagan festival of lemuria in the 8th century they moved this holiday from may to november 1st possibly to replace solomon but the move was a germanic idea not a celtic one so it was more likely moved to replace a very similar germanic holiday related to sawhan by a far more ancient indo-european common ancestor holiday this day was known as all hallows day the night before it then october 31st on which a vigil was held became all hallows evening much later on in scotland this phrase was shortened to halloween november 2nd furthermore was turned into all souls day in remembrance of all the souls of deceased christians with special attention to those souls still in purgatory together these three days are known in the christian religion as the all-hallow tide or halamis many events and practices developed throughout the centuries and europe with respect to the all hallow tide bells were rung in mourning of the dead across cities churches encouraged parishioners to dress up as their favorite saints and parties were even held these parties sometimes saw people of all social classes joining together in dances called a dance macabre a dance which developed from a medieval christian artistic allegory meant to remind everyone that they were equal in death it was not uncommon for christians to believe that the dead actually arose on this night to perform this dance there was also the tradition of souling where children especially the poor would go door to door asking for soul cakes a kind of spiced cake with a cross imprinted on it this helped fulfill the christian obligation of charity on one end and in exchange on the other the poor offered to pray for the souls in purgatory in fact they may have at times even dressed like the souls of the dead it was believed by some that the dead came back down to earth on this night from purgatory before making their journey to heaven not all of these spirits were friendly however perhaps influenced by very ancient traditions in britain and ireland faces were carved into turnips to ward off evil spirits one such evil spirit who wandered the earth on this night was jack of the lantern as christianity began to split during the protestant reformation observance of the all hallow tide began to vary but many denominations continued to observe it or at least tolerate certain traditions christianity canada that the modern version of halloween would arise in the 19th and 20th centuries these countries received a large influx of scottish and irish immigrants who brought with them many traditions both religious such as the aforementioned souling and secular such as children using a night around this time to perhaps imitate the more nefarious spirits by vandalizing pranking and causing trouble concerned communities sought a way to rein in the children on this night and direct their energies away from destruction and more towards something fun and eusocial the autumn parties which developed mixed with the traditions of all halo tide with more ancient traditions and with more recent inventions such as the tales and stories of gothic literature and the contemporary fascination with such things the celtic immigrants replaced turnips with pumpkins souling and extorting candy bribes from people who did not want to be vandalized into trick-or-treating and the various traditions of geysing into the modern version of costume wearing the end result halloween today halloween is very popular in both america and canada as well as in the uk and ireland it has been spreading throughout other parts of the western world and beyond in recent decades but many people outside northern america are averse to it and view it as an americanization of their cultures if you're interested in learning more about halloween i've done a whole documentary on this holiday alone which you can check out on my channel now then let's move into november when we americans think of the history of thanksgiving we immediately think of the interactions between the pilgrims and the native americans indeed it does come from this place in time however the ultimate origins of the holiday can be found before english colonization of the americas as it was common for europeans of all creeds to have a harvest celebration and to set aside events on which to give thanks to god the english had many occasions on which they found it fitting to give thanks to god the most avid supporters of both fasting and setting aside days of thanksgiving were the puritans and the related but separate english dissenters who became the pilgrims they found these practices to be a suitable replacement for the catholic holidays not all of these days of giving thanks were annual traditions however and might have been undertaken in response to the end of natural disasters or after a military victory these thanksgivings typically weren't feasts either but involved prayer and fasting the english brought this custom of thanksgiving to the new world where their harsh and difficult lives made them realize how much they had for which to be thankful the harvest celebration of plymouth in 1621 seems to be the strongest candidate for a modern celebration it appears to have been celebrated in october of that year in response to a bountiful harvest while relations between the native americans and early pilgrims were certainly not always in fact were usually not friendly in this circumstance the harvest was celebrated by both settler and native together as the wampanoag presence had become military allies of the settlers and had given them crucial advice about how to survive in the region the celebration lasted for three days the food eaten on the occasion was as you might expect food largely native to north america corn beans squash and not turkey but venison to this day foods native to north america comprise the majority of the thanksgiving meal now including turkey which does come from america this event or rather these events went down in history and proclamations of further thanksgivings were common in early american history such as during the revolutionary war when the first national one was declared in 1777 by the continental congress however the event was not consistent nor did it begin to take its modern form until a hundred years later during the civil war in 1863 president abraham lincoln decided it would become an annual holiday to be held on the fourth thursday of november thanksgiving celebrations varied from location to location and within just a few decades it became celebrated with other customs apart from the grand feast such as football matches parades and costume wearing the latter tradition being absorbed into halloween due to the association with lincoln for a period of time the south was reluctant to celebrate thanksgiving all the while some other countries adopted the holiday it occurs on the second monday in october in canada which developed both independently and with american influence it also spread to brazil where it is celebrated on the same day as the us strongly owed to american influence in the modern world the friday after thanksgiving is marked by two events the first being native american heritage day a more recent invention intending to celebrate as the name suggests native american heritage the second is black friday black friday is not a real holiday more the name for an event where people who just a day before sat around the table attempting to feel grateful for all they have been given in life storm out into stores and violently compete for discounted items risking life and limb for a television why do they do this well i i don't know what the deal is with the fighting but as for the shopping spree thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season which leads up to the biggest holiday of the year december 24th the night before christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring not even a mouse etc etc the following morning will be the climax of a holiday season regarded by some as the most wonderful time of the year which began with thanksgiving and will end around new year's or in a more religious sense begin on advent sunday and will end on january 5th the 12th day of christmas the holiday in which billions around the world take part is another one which has a very strong religious christian origin it is the day set aside to observe and celebrate the birth of christ a moment of great importance in the christian belief but where do pine trees covered in decorations flying reindeer oversized socks on the fireplace and jolly fat men in red suits who prefer chimneys to doors come into play furthermore is this day really jesus's birthday well we'll start with the latter question probably not the bible doesn't make any claims about when jesus was born and actually in fact suggests that it did not take place in the winter the date of december 25th was chosen by the church in the 4th century why like many things symbolism december 25th is quite close to the winter solstice when the days are at their darkest but starting to become longer at least here in the northern hemisphere jesus's birth therefore is likened to the coming of warmth and life it's also about nine months after march 25th the date on which the annunciation or jesus's conception is celebrated however there were possibly also other motivations to place christmas which comes from the old english christ mass on this date the idea of celebrating a holiday around this time was not unique to early christians and equivalents were being celebrated in the germanic celtic and roman worlds centuries before as is consistent with the trend we've been seeing many traditions which we consider christmas traditions are baptized versions of their traditions although i'd like to reiterate as with most of these holidays our understanding of their origins and how they evolved into their modern forms is often hazy the romans celebrated the winter solstice on december 25th and had a celebration beforehand called saturnalia which lasted from december 17th to 23rd which was the equivalent of the greek cronia this was a non-stop celebration of historic proportions and saw a number of social norms being utterly thrown out of the window for example slaves and masters jokingly changed places during this party week not to a huge degree but to the point at which the master might have served dinner or something a few days later on the 25th a festival was held dedicated to mithras the soul in wictus the unconquerable sun meanwhile in the colder pre-christian germanic world people gathered together in doors around this time and celebrated yule or yuletide a festival which began on the winter solstice and lasted for 12 days about which little is known on these cold winter nights people warm themselves by the eulog which they cut into 12 pieces for each day in these dark times people sought to remind themselves of the continuation of life and often dragged evergreen trees indoors evergreens of course did not become barren in the winter and are therefore perfect symbols of the continuation of life through the winter this was not purely a joyous affair however it was also a time of religious duty when the gods were honored and animal sacrifices were undertaken furthermore it was also potentially dangerous it was believed that in the cold world outside supernatural beasts wandered in the darkness another figure you might encounter at this time was the god odin sometimes called the yule father who rode around in the sky on a flying eight-legged horse on this night sometimes he was said to bring gifts to people other accounts tell however that it was on this night that he decided who would live and who would die in the coming year odin could also potentially be seen leading the wild hunt a kind of mythical hunting party common in indo-european mythology undertaken by supernatural figures which you would do well to avoid lest you be caught up in it and taken back to the spirit world in the 4th century pope julius the first established that the feast of the nativity would be held on december 25th the first known christmas celebration took place in rome in 336 a.d over the next several centuries more and more christians began to celebrate the holiday by the later middle ages celebration was a well-established tradition but it was not exactly in its modern form there were not as many silent nights and peaceful holy mornings as there were loud wild alcohol-fueled parties in the streets it's often said that medieval christmas celebrations were more like modern mardi gras than our christmas and that a few features of saturnalia might have survived in the age of the protestant reformation which began in the 16th century many reformers questioned all traditional celebrations including christmas which they felt was a pagan holiday full of debauchery and sin in a number of protestant countries like switzerland england and scotland it was even outlawed for a time the latter two countries banning it under the leadership of the puritan oliver cromwell who had overthrown the prior king and ruled from 1653-58 many englishmen were opposed to this however and carried on anyway cromwell's regime did not long outlive him and the throne soon returned to the monarchy under charles ii the merry monarch as he is known returned to england its merry christmases though many people in both england and especially scotland remained skeptical of the celebration the split was seen in the american colonies as well where in certain colonies puritan settlers there often forbade celebration with mild punishments american enthusiasm for christmas died down even further during the revolution when it was seen as a holiday tie to the english crown and traditional order which is one reason why george washington had no problem attacking the much more festive hessians at the battle of trenton the day after christmas just as a side note it's not actually clear if the hessians were actually hung over from celebrating the night before ironically about a century later it would be the americans who gave the holiday much of its modern identity though of course not all of it the spirit of christmas was redefined by people like the american author washington irving and the english author charles dickens the story of ebenezer scrooge in a christmas carol is a perfect example of this dickens portrays a cold-hearted businessman who is visited in the night by three ghosts who challenge his pessimism and instill in him an understanding of the value of things like kindness charity and love which should be most prominently remembered on christmas as time passed the victorians would transform christmas from a holiday of wild parties to one which centered around the aforementioned values as well as religion family and peace on earth with the holiday reframed in this light it became much more appealing to protestants who had previously been reluctant to celebrate christmas but who now quite commonly embraced it by the 20th century the christmas spirit held such power over people that it even caused some german french and british soldiers to lay down their arms on christmas of 1914 during the first world war and celebrate together despite having spent the past few months in brutal warfare against each other as time passed christmas trees were turned into symbols of christ's undying love and had candles and apples placed on them to represent the garden of eden prince albert husband of queen victoria is often said to have been responsible for bringing this tradition from the german to the anglo world holly a pagan midwinter decoration became a symbol of christ's crown of thorns gift giving was found in basically all of these festivals but is said to represent the gifts brought to jesus by the magi christmas caroling has its origins in at least the middle ages though many songs were invented in the past few centuries the mistletoe was a symbol of fertility before christian times in both roman and germanic cultures the tradition of a man and a woman who happened to meet under the mistletoe happening to kiss seems to have evolved in 18th century england don't eat the berries though and what about the christmas man himself good ol santa claus there are numerous potential origins for santa claus and the thing's associated with him such as his flying reindeer elves and habit of gift-giving and the fact of the matter is that the figure is probably a combination of several santa claus-like figures which have existed throughout ancient european mythology as well as a real saint and a heavy modern influence perhaps the best place to start would be with the original saint nick saint nicholas of myra was a greek bishop who lived in anatolia in the 4th century ironically born the year after saint valentine died in his age as well roman emperors namely diocletian persecuted christianity and in this persecution he became a well-known defender of his religion he was also known for being especially caring towards the poor and to children there are numerous stories of him anonymously helping both groups saving three girls from prostitution resurrecting three boys who had been murdered and a number of other miracles he is also said to have been fond of giving gifts which he sometimes secretly left in people's socks overnight as they left them out to dry this saint nicholas became a popular character throughout christian europe over the centuries in the middle ages a tradition of gift giving to children on his name day december 6th was established often children left out their shoes and overnight gifts would make their way into them during the protestant reformation reformers took their attention away from the veneration of saints and martin luther himself suggested replacing saint nicholas with the christkind or crist kindle a child form of jesus which caught on in certain areas but did not replace saint nick even among many protestants in the low countries saint nicholas inspired santa claus who delivers gifts on the 6th of december sometimes saint nicholas is accompanied by a figure known as krampus a demonic goat figure who handles the naughty kids other influences include father christmas who originated in england and was featured in a christmas carol as the ghost of christmas present many santa claus-like figures may date back to legends about the aforementioned odin as well and equivalence in other parts of europe ultimately however the modern version of santa claus was developed in the united states with influence from figures like clement clark moore who wrote the famous poem a visit from saint nicholas in it he established the behavior of this jolly man as well as his team of reindeer with the exception of rudolph known for having what is really a very shiny nose and whose famous tale appeared later on over time the image of santa claus developed further until finally the jolly fat man in the red and white fursuit became an unmistakable symbol of christmas and thus after all this we enter the final days of the year we reach new year's eve and at midnight on that night it all starts over again as mentioned at the beginning of the video holidays are the most important days of the year to many people and it is precisely because they are so important that they are subjects of so much debate are we celebrating them correctly should we be celebrating them if so which ones these kinds of questions emerge in various forms around the world for all sorts of holidays for all sorts of reasons here in the modern world one large concern people have regarding many of these holidays is that the traditional elements and values associated with them have been forgotten and that they have become excuses to drink to party and engage in superficial materialism valid though concerns like this may be it is still the spirit of these holidays and the things which they represent which seem to be at the core of them and is what draws people inward and together to celebrate them each year i hope you enjoyed this video if so i invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to see more videos like this in the future i would also recommend once again checking out lucinox if you're interested in our science stuff you can help support the production of videos like this by donating to us on patreon the link to which is in the description i'd like to thank our current patrons once again listed here for their support we are also on instagram and twitter so come check us out there too thank you for watching well generally i like to foreshadow my next documentary for the 10 to 25 percent of you according to my statistics who stayed through the whole credits but i'm not sure yet so here's a picture of some elephants playing in the mud

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 218,124

Rating: 4.8732958 out of 5

Keywords: New Years, Valentines Day, St Patricks Day, Easter, Birthday, April Fools Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Why do we celebrate

Id: suyr2iioiX8

Length: 67min 9sec (4029 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020