Do you know that the Christmas customs that British people and even the world are actually the products of Victorian ? For example, the classic images on Christmas cards: robins in the snow, sacred scenes, evergreens, country chapels, and classic customs: giving gifts, decorating Christmas trees, Christmas dinners, Santa Claus, watching mute dramas And Christmas cannons.
To celebrate Christmas in 2016, the Victoria and Albert Museum (VA) in the UK planned a full month of celebrations, including displays, installations, parent-child activities, theater performances, etc., and invited StudioXAG to design a Christmas tree to put on it. In the museum, people can celebrate the arrival of the new year together while reviewing the history of Christmas. The series of activities will continue until January 6, 2017.
This year's Christmas tree at the VA Museum was designed by StudioXAG. (The pictures in this article are from the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
Until the mid-to-late 19th century, no one had Christmas—at least, not in the way we are now familiar with. Many merchants don't even regard it as a festival. Gifting is a New Year’s custom, but that only changed as Christmas became more and more important in the Victorian era. At the end of the 19th century, Christmas became the most important celebration day on the British calendar, and the all-round development of technology, industry and public facilities in the Victorian era made Christmas a festival that more British people could enjoy.
The most prominent one of the Christmas customs that was born in the Victorian era is Christmas cards. Since its establishment, the VA Museum has had a special interest in collecting and displaying New Year’s cards. Among the more than 30,000 cards it collects, more than half are Christmas cards. The first curator, Sir Henry Cole, was the first person to introduce Christmas cards to the UK. In 1843, he commissioned the artist J.C. Horsley to design a festive scene for his New Year’s greeting cards.
Holsley's first Christmas card, with his self-portrait and signature in the lower right corner.
In the Christmas card designed by Hosley, there is a scene where three generations of the Cole family raise their glasses toast, surrounded by hand-painted decorative frames, and the pictures on both sides are about celebration and love. Later, Cole commissioned a printing master to print the design on the card, printing 1,000 copies, and people can send it to different friends as long as they handwritten different blessings. On the card that Hosley sent to Cole, he drew a small self-portrait in the lower right corner to replace the signature, and signed the date "Xmasse, 1843".
1848 Christmas card pencil draft designed by William Maw Egleys
The more than one year Christmas cards were sold to the public at a price of 1 shilling per piece. It was not cheap for the time, and the results of the sale were not satisfactory. However, as Prince Albert brought some Christmas traditions from German society to the UK, the situation gradually changed.
1860-1890 is the most popular period for Christmas cards, thanks to the development of new printing technology, which combines tools and methods such as color, gold powder ink, inlay, die-cutting, and so on to make exquisite and beautiful cards.
A Christmas card from the 19th century
These cards full of "aesthetic interest" are considered to be full of artistic tastes, usually only available in bookstores and stationery stores, and are expensive. Basically, only the middle class will buy them. Occasionally, some publishers will come from Germany. Buy cheap Christmas cards. In 1879, a design product called "penny basket" appeared with 12 cards, which were placed in tobacco shops, cloth shops and toy shops, which were very popular. The cheap price of "The Half Penny Post" launched in 1894 further promoted the promotion of Christmas cards.
A Christmas card with a religious color, about 1870
At first, Henry Cole only wanted to make things convenient for himself, but now Christmas cards have become a retail phenomenon of millions of pounds. Nowadays, a large number of Christmas cards are sent out in the UK every year. In 2013, the first greeting card commissioned by Cole at that time was sold for £22,000.
Christmas cannon packaging box and gadgets in cannons, 1948.
The rapid modernization has allowed the new middle class to have more surplus money. The market demand for Christmas toys, decorations and some novel products is increasing, and Christmas cannons is one of them. It is said that confectionery owner Tom Smith first invented the Christmas cannon in the 1804s, and he was inspired by some kind of French candy seen on a trip to Paris. It was not until the 1860s that Smith perfected it so that this candy-shaped cannon could make a "bang" explosion that Christmas cannon gradually became the main product of Christmas. And the gifts are everything from whistles or small dolls to jewelry.
Two children are playing with cannons on the Christmas card, about 1880.
The Victorian era attaches great importance to family, so Christmas is mostly celebrated with family at home. For many, the newly built railway system makes reunion possible, and those who are far from their villages looking for job opportunities in the city will return to their hometowns on Christmas to share happy times with their loved ones. In fact, Queen Victoria itself is the best example of family life. She and her husband Duke Albert have 9 children. One of the most important customs in Christmas - decorating a gorgeous Christmas tree, was introduced to England by Albert.
1848 The picture of Queen Victoria's family surrounding the Christmas tree was published in the London Pictorial.
The custom of decorating Christmas trees in the interior comes from Albert's birthplace Germany. In 1848, the Illustrated London News published a painting in which the Queen's family celebrated around a beautifully decorated tree. So the act of decorating Christmas trees spread rapidly, and people began to decorate trees with various bright colors and shiny substances indoors.
Mechanized production and continuously lean printing technology mean that decorations can be mass-produced to meet the increasing consumer demand. In 1853, the first advertisement for Christmas tree decoration appeared. In the Victorian era, people liked to put shiny ornaments with candles and homemade trinkets together and tied them to branches with ribbons.
年多官网站, 1903
年多年多年多网站, and the commercialization of Christmas has also been moving forward with the development of the publishing industry. More Christmas gifts and souvenirs that people can afford are attracting the growing middle-class society. Writers of the time also documented the craze, with Charles Dickens writing some Christmas-themed stories for two publications, Household Words and All the Year Round, and in 1843 " Christmas Carol " was published. By the 1870s, the Christmas craze had already formed.
A list of characters in the pantomime "Dick Whitington and His Cat" in the 1840s
In addition, in the late 19th century, watching pantomime performances with family on Boxing Day gradually became a custom, and at that time, the London Theater was the most luxurious The production can last up to 5 hours, including some exquisite stage mechanisms and gorgeous costumes.
1900-1903, glass Christmas decorations in Germany
Today, the candles on the Christmas tree have been replaced by small colored lights, and Christmas cards have also become electronic blessings. We are more likely to find some plastic gadgets in the cannon pulling. Not jewelry. Christmas customs are still changing with the advancement of science and technology and the modernization of society. People buy Christmas decorations online or talk to their families through Skype to express blessings, these new customs are still rooted in Victorian Christmas.
