HAT off TO SATurnalia
Christian Wilhelm Allers, 1888.
I’m from Holland and we do not really have a ‘christmas hat’ tradition. Still, i love dressing up and i’d seen the UK paper christmas hats/crowns turn fabulous and in textile online so i wanted to make one. But first, what do they mean and where do they come from? My fancy hat never materialised (yet!) but what did follow was a dive into christmas traditions and celebration ending up BC.
Source: https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Christmas-Crackers/
All over Britain on Christmas Day, families can be found sitting around their dining tables enjoying a traditional lunch of roast turkey with all the trimmings – and all, regardless of age, wearing coloured paper hats.
So why this quaint tradition? Where do these paper hats come from? The answer is the Christmas Cracker.
A Christmas Cracker is a cardboard paper tube, wrapped in brightly coloured paper and twisted at both ends. There is a banger inside the cracker, two strips of chemically impregnated paper that react with friction so that when the cracker is pulled apart by two people, the cracker makes a bang.
Each person takes the end of the cracker and pulls. Or if there is a group around the table, everyone crosses their arms to pull all the crackers at once. Everyone holds their own cracker in their right hand and pulls their neighbour’s cracker with their free left hand.
Inside the cracker there is a paper crown made from tissue paper, a motto or joke on a slip of paper and a little gift. It is a standing joke that the mottos in crackers are unfunny, corny and often very well known, as the same jokes have been appearing in crackers for decades! Crackers can be made from scratch using empty toilet rolls and tissue paper: the maker can then choose small personalised gifts for their guests.
Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times when in the early 1850s, London confectioner Tom Smith started adding a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package. As many of his bon-bons were bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were simple love poems.
He was inspired to add the “bang” when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire. He decided to make a log shaped package that would produce a surprise bang and inside would be an almond and a motto. Soon the sugared almond was replaced with a small gift. Originally sold as the Cosaque it soon became known by the public as the ‘cracker’.
The paper hat was added to the cracker in the early 1900s by his sons and by the end of the 1930s, the love poems had been replaced by jokes or limericks. The cracker was soon adopted as a traditional festive custom and today virtually every household has at lest one box of crackers to pull over Christmas.
Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times when in the early 1850s, London confectioner Tom Smith started adding a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package. As many of his bon-bons were bought by men to give to women, many of the mottos were simple love poems.
The idea of wearing a paper crown may have originated from the Twelfth Night celebrations, where a King or Queen was appointed to look over the proceedings.
Source: https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Wassailing/
Wassailing/ twelfths night celebration
Anglo-Saxon tradition dictated that at the beginning of each year, the lord of the manor would greet the assembled multitude with the toast waes hael, meaning “be well” or “be in good health”, to which his followers would reply drink hael, or “drink well”, and so the New Year celebrations would start with a glass or two, or perhaps even a drop more! It is likely that such celebrations were being enjoyed many years before Christianity began to spread throughout Britain from around 600 onwards.
Depending upon the area of the country where you lived, the wassail drink itself would generally consist of a warmed ale, wine or cider, blended with spices, honey and perhaps an egg or two, all served in one huge bowl and passed from one person to the next with the traditional “wassail” greeting.
The Wassailing celebrations generally take place on the Twelfth Night, 5th January, however the more traditional still insist in celebrating it on ‘Old Twelvey’, or the 17th January, the correct date; that is before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar messed things up in 1752.
There are two distinct variations of wassailing. One involves groups of merrymakers going from one house to another, wassail bowl in hand, singing traditional songs and generally spreading fun and good wishes. The other form of wassailing is generally practiced in the countryside, particularly in fruit growing regions, where it is the trees that are blessed.
The celebrations vary from region to region, but generally involve a wassail King and Queen leading the assembled group of revellers, comprising the farmers, farm workers and general villagers, in a noisy procession from one orchard to the next. In each orchard the wassailers gather round the biggest and best tree, and as a gift to the tree spirits, the Queen places a piece of wassail soaked toast into its branches, accompanied by songs such as;
“Apple tree, apple tree we all come to wassail thee,
Bear this year and next year to bloom and blow,
Hat fulls, cap fulls, three cornered sacks fills…”
The wassailers then move on to the next orchard; singing, shouting, banging pots and pans, and even firing shotguns, generally making as much noise as possible in order to both waken the sleeping tree spirits, and also to frighten off any evil demons that may be lurking in the branches.
Sources: Wikipedia +
Why do Christmas crackers have crowns?
The paper crown tradition can be traced back to the ancient Romans, who wore festive headgear to celebrate Saturnalia, a festival that took place around the winter solstice. The paper crowns are often brightly colored and ill-fitting—but you still have to wear yours, no matter what. It's tradition!
The winter solstice, also known as the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, marks the shortest day and longest night of the calendar year.
What's the history of winter solstice celebrations?
Some Christmas traditions are actually linked to ancient winter solstice celebrations. Both Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths have roots in Pagan winter solstice rituals. They celebrated a festival called "Yule" that lasted for 12 days.
Ancient Romans also observed the winter solstice with their holiday called Saturnalia on December 17 that lasted for a week. Romans honored the god Saturn during this time and suspended discipline and order. While Romans did plenty of celebrating during this week, the festival also subverted power, so that masters served slaves and wars were interrupted.
SATURNALIA
Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December.
In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labour in a state of innocence. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age.
The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for both slaves and freedmen alike
The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry interpreted the freedom associated with Saturnalia as symbolizing the "freeing of souls into immortality". Saturnalia may have influenced some of the customs associated with later celebrations in western Europe occurring in midwinter, particularly traditions associated with Christmas,
Private festivities[edit]
"Meanwhile, the head of the slave household, whose responsibility it was to offer sacrifice to the Penates, to manage the provisions and to direct the activities of the domestic servants, came to tell his master that the household had feasted according to the annual ritual custom. For at this festival, in houses that keep to proper religious usage, they first of all honor the slaves with a dinner prepared as if for the master; and only afterwards is the table set again for the head of the household. So, then, the chief slave came in to announce the time of dinner and to summon the masters to the table."[43]
Macrobius, Saturnalia 1.24.22–23
-Role reversal
Saturnalia was characterized by role reversals and behavioral license.[5] Slaves were treated to a banquet of the kind usually enjoyed by their masters.[5] Ancient sources differ on the circumstances: some suggest that master and slave dined together,[44] while others indicate that the slaves feasted first, or that the masters actually served the food. The practice might have varied over time.[7]
Saturnalian license also permitted slaves to disrespect their masters without the threat of a punishment. It was a time for free speech: the Augustan poet Horace calls it "December liberty".[45] In two satires set during the Saturnalia, Horace has a slave offer sharp criticism to his master.[46] Everyone knew, however, that the leveling of the social hierarchy was temporary and had limits; no social norms were ultimately threatened, because the holiday would end.[47]
The toga, the characteristic garment of the male Roman citizen, was set aside in favor of the Greek synthesis, colourful "dinner clothes" otherwise considered in poor taste for daytime wear.[48] Romans of citizen status normally went about bare-headed, but for the Saturnalia donned the pilleus, the conical felt cap that was the usual mark of a freedman. Slaves, who ordinarily were not entitled to wear the pilleus, wore it as well, so that everyone was "pilleated" without distinction.[49][50]