I have always been fascinated by the past. When my oldest kiddo was a baby, I loved pushing his stroller through the cemetery and wondering what the lives of those buried there must have been like. It was from that thought that the premise of In Her Dreams was born.
Naturally, I’m curious about what holidays were like in different time periods so I wanted to share a bit about that with you this month.
I didn’t know this until I researched it, but Christmas as we celebrate it today was largely influenced by the Victorian Era. For thousands of years, many people celebrated midwinter festivities associated with paganism and when Christianity was introduced, it was mixed with these festivals. But it wasn’t until the Victorans, and specifically Queen Victoria, that the Christmas holiday formed the way it is today.
Christmas wasn’t a day that workers had a holiday from work until the wealth of the industrial revolution allowed people in England and Wales to take two days off to celebrate. And the publication of Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol, encouraged the wealthy to give money and gifts to the poor.
The Victorians also established that it was a holiday for the family. Feasting, giving gifts, decorating and playing games was all a part of it.