But before we get to talking of pagan festivities, let’s take a little detour to another springtime celebration: Passover – I promise, if you stick with me, it will all tie in together in the end.

The Time of Year Easter is celebrated is related to the celebration of Passover

Around the Spring time, Jews celebrate the holiday of Passover
(in Aramaic: פסחא or Pascha). Part of the Passover story is that the blood of sacrificial lambs was used to indicate to God to pass-over the God-abiding Jewish houses, to protect them from the plague that God cast over the area. Early Syrian Christians living alongside the Jews saw a connection between the blood of the sacrificial lambs in the Passover story and the figurative sacrificial lamb of Jesus Christ, so they celebrated the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ at the same time of the year as the Jewish celebration of Passover.

This ancient Easter-Passover-connection explains why in many non-English countries, the word for Easter is a variant of the word “Pascha” (Passover).
Examples of these related names for Easter:
Bulgarian: Paskha
Danish: Passke
Dutch: Pasen
Greek: Pascha
Italian: Pasqua
Finnish: Pääsiäinen
Indonesian: Paskah
Portuguese: Páscoa

How celebrating Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection at this time of year led to the naming of “Easter”

Ok, so what does this Passover connection have to do with pagans and the very different looking word “Easter”?

Well, around 325 AD, Christian bishops held a council (“the Council of Nicaea”) to help set a standard date to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Prior to this council meeting there had been some confusion amongst Christians regarding when the holiday should be celebrated and Christians in different countries held the celebration at different times. The Passover-related date that was being used in Syria and Alexandria, helped determine that the celebration should be held in the spring time.

It would seem understandable that the fact that spring time and the Spring Equinox is a time of rebirth for plants and flowers may have helped tie in the symbolic link to resurrection, though this is speculation and there is no evidence that the bishops in the council took this into consideration.

In any case, the result of this council meeting was that the holiday celebrating the resurrection of Christ should be celebrated in the spring time, on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.

Meanwhile, in Northern Europe and in Anglo-Saxon England, another festival was being held around the Spring Equinox: The festival of Eostre.

Thanks to an ancient English scholar called Bede, who lived around 673-735 AD, we know that Anglo-Saxon English pagans worshipped a pagan goddess called “Eostre” (sometimes called Estre, Estara, Eastre or Ostara) and Eostre’s festival was celebrated in the Springtime during the Spring Equinox. Eostre was the goddess of dawn (the rebirth of a new day), fertility and spring (rebirth of plants & flowers), and it is believed that the word Easter originates from her name.

It is likely that since the Christian celebration of Christ’s resurrection was also celebrated during this time of year, Christians who were living alongside pagans, were influenced in seeing this time of year as being the time of the festival of Eostre. And so the name of this Christian holiday that was celebrated alongside Eostre’s festival, came to be called Easter.

Since the 1960s, the Bank of England has been printing significant people from British history on the official British banknotes. Most of us handle bank notes every day, but if I were to ask you to close your eyes and tell me who the people on the British bank notes are, would you be able to name them?

Even upon digging into wallets and pulling out the notes, most people may be surprised to find that they don’t recognise some of the historic figures honoured on English bank notes. But fear not! The answers are close at hand!

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£5 Note

The lady who has been on the £5 since 2002 is Elizabeth Fry and she’s not going to be on the fiver for very much longer – just until 2016. She was honoured for her philanthropy, humanitarian and social reform work in the 1800s. Throughout her life, she endeavoured to help the poor, the homeless and the needy. She is perhaps most famous her work with prisoners; fighting for the rights of female prisoners, campaigning for them to be treated in a more humane way and campaigning to improve their living conditions. Opposite her portrait on the banknote is an image of her at work, surrounded by women and children. Her work was appreciated by the highest of high society, and she is said to have even been granted an audience with Queen Victoria on more than one occasion. On an interesting side note, she was also a mother to 11 children!

In addition to her own meaningful work in society, my own personal speculation is that perhaps the fact that both her parents were important in the banking world may have helped her chances to get on a bank note. Her mother was from the Barclay family that founded Barclays Bank and her father was also an important bank man, being a partner at the then-well-respected Gurney’s Bank in Norwich, which later merged with Barclays Bank.

In 2016, the plans are to replace the Elizabeth Fry fiver with a new Winston Churchill five pound note, to honour his role as Prime Minister of the UK during World War II. You can see the image of this new banknote in this Guardian newspaper article.

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£10 Note

The current £10 note was first issued in the year 2000, and has an image of a man who most people would probably recognise: Charles Darwin; biologist and founding father of the theory of evolution. Alongside his portrait there are images of his ship, the HMS Beagle, that he used to travel the world to gather biological specimens and observations which helped him develop his great theory. The note also depicts a tool Darwin used: his magnifying lens, and some flora and fauna that he may have come across on his travels.

In 2017, the current plans are to replace the Darwin tenner with a £10 honouring the author Jane Austen, for her contributions to English literature. You can see the proposed design of the new ten pound note in this article here.

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£20 Note

The £20 note that was first published in 2007 shows a portrait of Adam Smith, a Scottish philosopher and economist from the 1700s; a man often cited as “the father of modern economics”. Besides his portrait is some text about one of his most famous contributions: his thoughts about the “division of labour”. His simple but then-groundbreaking idea was that if you divide up the labour efficiently between various specialized workers in a factory, efficiency would rise and a “great increase in the quantity of work” would result.

There are plans to replace Adam Smith on the banknote around 2018-2020.

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£50 Note

The £50 note that’s been in circulation since 2011 has two people on it: engineer and scientist, James Watt, and manufacturer Matthew Boulton. (You can see the image of this note here). Together they are both honoured for their roles in developing steam engine technology in the 1700s. Steam-driven machinery is particularly relevant to the banking industry because it was steam-driven machinery that had an important role in the minting of coins at Boulton’s Soho Mint.

- – -

Other people who have been honoured on bank notes in the past include:
(I’ve linked each name to an image of the relevant banknote that I found online)

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In post-Confucian ancient China (around 500BC – 200AD), at a time when scholarship was well-respected, it was believed to be uncivilized to serve meat at the table as a whole carcass that still looked like the animal. What’s more, it was considered rude to subject your guests to having to dissect the animal at the table like an aggressive warrior or violent barbarian. This way of thinking is well represented by this quote from Confucius that states: “The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table.”

As a result, long before Europeans started chopping up their meat pre-being served at the table, in China the custom of dicing up food into small pieces was already established.

In order to easily eat the pre-cut food, chopsticks were developed as delicate, civilized tools perfect for picking up the dainty food pieces.

After the habit of eating with chopsticks was established in China, it slowly spread to other parts of Asia including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

But where did the chopsticks come from?

Chopsticks had been around before they started being used as eating utensils. The earliest chopsticks that have been found date from around 1200BC and they seem to have been used to stir the fire, to serve food or to seize food rather than having their later purpose of picking up tiny food morsels.

It is likely that the first chopstick-like sticks developed as tools in food preparation over a fire, and these early tools probably arose from sticks and twigs primitive people found in their surroundings. Eventually these sticks evolved. Over time they started being carved out of more materials including bone, ivory, metal, jade, porcelain, bamboo, wood and eventually plastic. They gained more refined functions until they reached their famous purpose as the eating utensils that we’re familiar with today.

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With the popularity of emails, SMS messages, online chat and the TV show Gossip Girl, it’s very common to see people signing off with “x kisses” or xoxo hugs and kisses. But have you ever stopped to wonder the origin of the xoxo hugs and kisses symbols?

X kisses: Why does X stand for a kiss?

There are two main theories about why X stands for a kiss:

Theory 1: X kisses evolved from Christian traditions

Since the Greek word for Christ is ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Xristos), which starts with the letter “x”, and since the letter “x” also resembled the Calvary cross on which Jesus was crucified, this letter was often used as a holy symbol amongst Christians. Because of its association with Christ, the letter “x” soon evolved to have new purposes.

Around the Middle Ages, most common folk on the street didn’t know how to read and write, so if there was a document or important contract they had to sign, they would be unable to write their name. Instead they would draw the letter “x” since it had an association with being a holy symbol that was closely linked to Christ. This seemed appropriate particularly in documents that involved the need to promise something by “swearing to God” with the utmost sincerity. To demonstrate that the “x” they drew was drawn with earnestness, the cross would often be kissed to show that their intention was heartfelt. The habit of solemnly kissing holy artefacts like the Bible or a crucifix was also already a well-practised tradition.

Eventually the “x” became so closely associated with the kiss that is became the symbol for being a kiss.

Theory 2: X looks like two people kissing

I’m not sure about the validity of this theory but some have suggested that X came to symbolize a kiss after someone in history decided that the letter X looks like two people touching lips in a kiss, and this idea caught on:

. . .

O Hugs: Why does O stand for a hug?

The origin of the letter “o” as a hug is not so clear, though its use in the famous “hugs and kisses xoxo” seems to have arisen in North America.

Some suggest that it got its meaning from resembling the arms encircling someone in a hug.

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Have you ever wondered why the Queen wears a crown? Would you be surprised to hear it has a religious origin?

If you’ve ever seen religious art, you’ll be familiar with the halos that are often painted around the heads of holy people and deities. This custom of painting golden halos around heads has been customary for centuries and can be seen in art depicting pagan deities from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as in artwork from Ancient Asia.

During these ancient times, Emperors, Kings and Queens were believed to have been given the gift to rule by the grace of God, so that it was generally believed that they had a relationship with God that made them closer to being holy than your average Joe on the street. Some even went so far as to claim direct familial links with deities. For example, the Pharaoh of ancient Egypt was believed to be the son of the Sun god, Ra and the Japanese Emperor was considered to be a descendant of the Sun goddess, Amaterasu. I need to research this further but seeing that sun gods were amongst the earliest pagan deities, I wonder if the sun-god connection may be linked to the sun-like rays that were drawn around royal and holy heads in paintings.

Here are a few images of deities and holy figures that have been pictured with different forms of halos:

To symbolize their privileged relationship with the divine, Emperors, Kings and Queens sought to emulate the “halo effect” that is so often seen in paintings by giving themselves a real life halo in the form of a crown.

Early crowns were made of feathers or (more famously) of gemstones and precious metals like gold.

To this day the British monarchy has retained the tradition of wearing a crown made of shiny precious metal and gemstones.

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• The GR post box
• The ER post box.

What is the meaning of these letters on the postboxes?

. . .

On many postboxes, the clue to the meaning of these letters is on the postbox itself because you’ll often find these letters seen right next to a crown.

The letters are called the “Royal Cypher” and they signify the King or Queen that was the monarch at the time when the postbox was erected.

A GR post box was put up during the era of King George (G stands for George, R stands for Rex, which is King in Latin). If there are no more letters around the GR, then it’s likely from the period of King George V, and if it’s from the era of King George VI you may notice a little “VI” next to the GR.

An ER post box was set up either during the rule of King Edward or during the time of Queen Elizabeth (E standing for Elizabeth or Edward, and R standing either for Rex or for Regina which is Queen in Latin). To know the exact monarch the postbox is honoring, have a look at the accompanying numbers. For example, if you notice a little “II” near the ER it indicates the postbox was installed in the era of Elizabeth II rather than in Edwardian times. Likewise, a “VII” or “VIII” after the ER indicates the E stands for Edward. You’ll never see a postbox from Elizabeth I’s era since she reigned between 1558-1603, long before the first red pillar post box was put up (in 1853).

Although GR and ER postboxes are perhaps the most commonly seen post boxes, you may also spot a VR on occasion. Next time you’re next to a post box, look out for these letters to work out when it was installed:

• VR post box – Queen Victoria (postbox put up between 1853-1901)
• ER VII post box – Edward VII (postbox put up between 1901-1910)
• GR post box – George V (postbox put up between 1910-1936)
• ER VIII post box – Edward VIII (postbox put up between 20 January 1936 – 11 December 1936 before he abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson)
• GR VI post box – George VI (aka Bertie from the King’s Speech: postbox put up between 1936-1952)
• ER II post box – Elizabeth II (postbox put up between 1952-recently)

. . .

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When you start seeing pumpkins showing up in unusually copious amounts everywhere, you can safely bet that Halloween is round the corner!

But what’s with all the pumpkins? And how did the whole Halloween pumpkin carving / Jack-o’-lantern tradition start?

Once upon a time it was turnips rather than pumpkins that took center stage on Halloween!

It may be a bit funny to imagine it, but when the vegetable-lantern tradition first started, the vegetable of choice was not the pumpkin but the humble turnip!

And it wasn’t just the turnip that was turned into lanterns either. Swedes (aka rutabagas), beets and even cabbage stems were also used. These vegetables were used because these were commonly found in Ireland and Scotland where the Halloween vegetable-lantern tradition first began.

When Irish immigrants migrated to America in the 1800s (many coming to escape the famous Potato Famine of 1846), they brought with them their Halloween traditions but since turnips were not as prevalent in the United States as they were in Ireland, a new vegetable was used to form the lantern: the pumpkin. Pumpkins were larger and easier to carve as well as being readily available in America. In fact, even before Halloween was brought over to the United States, pumpkins were already the traditional October-time vegetable since they were abundantly seen in farmer’s market stalls around this time of year. After years of being used as the new vegetable-of-choice for Halloween Jack-o’-lanterns, word of the pumpkin’s use for Halloween was popularized in books, poems, artwork and later on also on TV shows, etching its place in history as the official Halloween vegetable.

But why on earth would you want to turn a vegetable into a lantern in the first place?

Why are pumpkins carved and lit on Halloween?

It all has to do with why Halloween is celebrated: Halloween is based on the ancient Celtic/Irish Pagan holiday of Samhain: a holiday marking the end of summer and the beginning of winter. Since the onset of winter is accompanied with the death of greenery and reduced cheery sunshine, this time of year was closely linked to death in general by the Celts. The Celts believed that at Samhain the spirit world and the human world came closer together, increasing the risk of spirits crossing over into the human world and getting up to ghostly mischief.

To help with ghostbusting, the Jack o’lanterns were invented. The idea behind the vegetable lanterns was that the (often scary) faces carved into the vegetables would scare away naughty or evil spirits and ghosts that were believed to get up to all sorts of tricks during Samhain. The lantern’s light also helped to repel the spirits of darkness.

Along a similar theme, in the original Samhain celebrations, bonfires were often lit to ward off the spirits and people dressed up in costumes to confuse the spirits so that they wouldn’t be able to recognize them thus protecting them from being harmed for any personal reasons. Later when Ireland was Christianized (around the 8th century), Samhain became a part of the new Christian holiday called All Hallow’s Eve, or Halloween, and with the passing of time this holiday eventually lost much of its religious bearing to become a popular secular holiday.

Why are Halloween pumpkins called Jack-o’-lanterns?

We’ve established why vegetable lanterns were made and why pumpkins are today carved on Halloween, but where did their name, the “Jack-o’-lantern” come from?

The term “Jack-o’-lantern” was derived from an Irish folktale featuring a character called Jack (also known as Stingy Jack or Drunk Jack). There are several versions of this folktale but this version is my personal favorite:

There was once a poor man called Jack who loved to sit at the pub and drink more than anything else in the world… even though he didn’t really have the money to keep up this habit and had a long overdue pub tab to pay. The pub owner was threatening to cut him off from the bar altogether if his bar tab wasn’t paid soon.

Years passed and eventually, as with all humans, Jack’s time came and he died. But since he wasn’t exactly Heaven material, Jack found himself reunited with the Devil upon his death. The Devil reminded Jack that he made a promise not to take his soul and therefore could not admit him into Hell. Instead Jack was condemned to be a lost soul, forever wandering through the twilight world. Before sending him off on his journey, the Devil gave Jack a little ember from the fires of Hell to light his way through the darkness ahead. Jack stored the ember in a turnip (or a Jack-o’-lantern!) and forevermore traveled through the twilight world with this lamp lighting his way.

Superstitious Celts believed that whenever they saw a spooky-looking light in the darkness with little explanation of its origins, it’s likely to be the ghost of Jack and his Lantern.

It is based on this folktale that turnip lanterns were called Jack-o’-lanterns, and when pumpkins started being used instead of turnips, the term was transferred to pumpkins too. Part of the reason they are lit is so that their light and carved faces repel lost soul ghosts like Jack from bothering them.

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Every time the World Cup or Euro Cup soccer is on, I find myself wondering why the Italian football shirts are blue. Common sense dictates that it should be green, white or red like the flag – so where did blue enter the equation?

This year whilst watching the Euro 2012 final between Italy and Spain, I finally resolved to investigate and here’s what I found:

How the color blue relates to Italy:

The answer all relates to Italy’s history: Did you know that Italy once had a king? In 1861 and up until 1946, Italy was ruled by the House of Savoy (sometimes spelled House of Savoia). Most royal families have their own coat of arms and the Italian royal family was no exception. There were a few versions of their coat of arms, but it’s generally something like this:

It features a shield with a red and white flag of Savoy (where Savoy is a region of Switzerland from which the royal family hailed. You’ll notice that the Savoy flag is quite similar to the Swiss flag). The emblem also features a sky blue border. I have been so far unsuccessful in finding out *why* they chose blue as the color of the border (if you know please let me know in the comments below ). Some say it represents Italy’s blue skies and sea.

Whatever the reason, this blue part of the coat of arms became the official color of the Italian royal family and the color that the nation adopted as the national color of Italy, known as “Azzurro Savoia” or Savoy Blue.

Even though the Italian royal family was overthrown in 1946 and the Savoy coat of arms was taken off the Italian flag, the blue national color stuck and to this day it still features as the national uniform color for Italian teams in various sports including soccer / football, ski and basketball.

The Italian soccer team is even nicknamed the “Azzuri” which means “the blues”.

What happened to the Italian royal family?

If you’re wondering where the Italian royalty disappeared to, they are actually still around and despite losing much of their influence over the country, they have retained some of their titles. There still exists a Duke of Savoy, a Prince of Naples, a Prince of Piedmont and a Duke of Aosta and their titled families.

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Since the late 1800s when the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club was founded there has been a strict dress code: competitors in their Tennis Championship games could wear any color… as long as it was white! But every time I watch Wimbledon I can’t help but wonder why this rule was established. Why do tennis players wear white at Wimbledon?

It seems that there are quite a few theories in circulation regarding this time-honored tradition. The following four reasons are the most often touted ones:

Reason 1: White masks sweat

In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was considered extremely unladylike and ungentlemanly to show signs of perspiration. As a result, white tennis outfits were encouraged because the color white is particularly good at masking any dreaded sweat marks. (Atkin 2010)

Reason 2: White reflects the summer heat

The Wimbledon Tennis Championships occur in the summer months so one often-suggested idea is that the white dress code is a practical matter to ensure the competitors keep cool as their clothes reflect the sun’s heat more efficiently.

Considering that in the early days of tennis long sleeves, long pants and ankle-length dresses were expected to be worn by gentlemen and ladies, the white color was particularly important as the main method to relieve heat.

Reason 3: The high standard of the club was reflected in the high standards and requirements from club members

Some sources suggest that the all-white dress code at Wimbledon was strictly adhered to in order to create an exclusive, high-class feeling at the Tennis club. Crisp, white clothes carried an underlying implication that all their members were well-kept, clean, civilized, respectful of rules and generally “high-class”.

To this day critics are heard saying that the white clothes rule adds an air of classiness to the Wimbledon Championships.

Reason 4: Tennis players wear white because it’s become a tradition

After a while, the rule that tennis players wear white at Wimbledon became a tradition, which lent yet another reason for the dress code: adhering to it simply to respect the history of the Wimbledon Tennis Club.

. . .

Tennis players wearing white through the ages

Although the color code hasn’t changed much over the years, the fashions have changed immensely! Check out some of these earlier tennis outfits worn at Wimbledon in the late 1800s and early 1900s:

Men’s tennis fashion in 1880:

Image Source: Wikipedia

Yes, in the early days long white pants were worn to play tennis! The first man to wear shorts at Wimbledon was Bunny Austin in 1932.

Women’s tennis fashion in 1884:

Image source: www.wimbledon.com

I know it doesn’t look like it but these women holding the rackets are dressed for tennis! The first women who played tennis at Wimbledon had to wear a white heavy flanel-like material, bustles, hats, corsets and some even opted for furs! The tennis fashion remained conservative for many years. Here’s another picture from 29 years later in 1913:

It was only in 1919 that corsets vanished and lighter calf-length frocks with short-sleeves were introduced to Wimbledon, as can be seen in this 1920s photograph:

We’ve come a long way since then!

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- Why do we call zero “love” in tennis?

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References

Atkin. R. 2010. AELTC, The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club official website. Fashion at Wimbledon.

These days, with an emphasis on saving energy and on being more aware of our environment, inventions like LED Christmas lights are being used more and more. Because LED lights use up less energy, don’t get hot like traditional lights and last longer, their use has changed the face of Christmas lighting and lighting in general. But when did the idea to put lights up for the holidays first arise?

History of Christmas lights

The idea of using lights as decoration at Christmas was something that had been taking place for some time.

The first illuminated Christmas trees were lit with candles, but even before the age of Christmas, light played an important part in ancient festivities that took place around this time of the year. Sun-worshiping pagans lit candles during the festivals of the Winter solstice, which coincide with the modern Christmas period, because they hoped that providing light from candles and bonfires would encourage the sun’s warmth and light to return after the cold, dark winter.

With the Christianization of pagan holidays, the candle-lighting tradition was incorporated into Christmas customs although it seems that this tradition really regained major popularity after the 18th century.

Around the 18th century it became a popular tradition in many Protestant upper-class German homes to honor Christmas by decorating their Christmas trees with many small miniature candles. The candles were sometimes glued to the tree with melted wax and at other homes they were attached to the trees with pins.

Because of the fire hazard that the flickering candles presented, by the early 1900s lantern-like glass balls were used to hold the illuminated candles, and after the invention of the light bulb, eventually the glass balls of light evolved into the traditional Christmas lights we know today. In spite of the modernization of Christmas lights there are still some places in the world that continue to utilize the old-fashioned candle lights.

What do the Christmas lights symbolise to Christians?

Regardless of their pagan origins, the Christmas lights have amassed new symbolism and meaning since becoming a Christian Christmas tradition. What do the Christmas lights symbolise in Christianity?

I did have a chuckle when I heard the joke that the Christmas lights are put up to help Santa Claus find your house and easily locate the tree in order to put presents under it, but the Christmas lights also have a more meaningful religious symbolism:

• Symbol of the starry night on which Christ was born:
  Some people like to think of the lights representing the Star of Bethlehem, the sign that marked that Christ was born.
• Symbol of the light of Christ:
  In Christian tradition, candles are a symbol for Jesus and the light he brings to earth even in the darkest times. Some believe that the light is symbolic of the eternal light of Jesus’ spirit that is particularly kept in mind over Christmas. Different colored candles also represented different qualities, for example a white candle represents the purity of Christ whilst a pink candle represents joy.
• Symbol of the light, hope and good in the world:
  The Christmas lights also served to remind good Christians to provide light to others.
• Symbol of following the enlightened path:
  Some suggest that the Christmas lights are a reminder to follow the way of Christ. The path of lights that wind around the tree leading to the star at the top may be symbolic of the enlighted path to salvation.

Credits:
Article contributions from Robert Lobitz

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You may enjoy the other articles in the culture section of saywhydoi.com, especially the Christmas articles like:
- Why do we put up Christmas wreaths?
- Why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25th?
- Why do we eat Turkey at Christmas?
- Why are robins on Christmas cards?

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