2023-12-29 15:22:44
The festive periods of the year rhyme with gifts. New Year gifts on January 1st were also part of this gift-giving tradition, synonymous with good omens for the year to come. These gifts were reserved for everyday staff such as building caretakers or even postmen and custom dictated that 10% of the rent be donated to them.
From now on, the custom has been lost and donations have decreased, notably due to the economic situation of the French. According to France Infothe average donation is between €30 and €70 for building caretakers and between €25 and €50 for cleaners, far from a tenth of the rent.
Heritage of Roman Antiquity
The etymology of the word “gifts” could derive from “Strena” or “Strenia”, the name of the Roman goddess of health – and the wood associated with her – and who is celebrated on January 1st. According to tradition, the Romans went to pick verbena in this wood – a plant already appreciated for its medicinal properties.
Other linguists associate the etymology of this word with the Latin “strena” meaning “omen”. In France, according toFrench Academy, the word strenna has been known there since the 12th century and meant “a gift”. From the 13th century, this term was increasingly used in the plural and designated “a gift given on the occasion of the New Year”.
According to legend, it was King Sabin Titus who was the first to get into the habit of picking verbena from this forest for the greats of the empire. Little by little, the Romans all adopted this tradition and offered plants to the magistrates of their cities for the new year.
The type of gifts offered has gradually evolved. Plants have been replaced by sweet foods such as dates, figs and even honey. We could also offer precious objects or even furniture. Finally, it was also customary to associate a silver coin with one’s gifts.
A custom with mixed appreciation
The Catholic Church for a time expressed its disapproval of this practice considered pagan. It was Saint Augustine in particular who made official the rejection of the practice of New Year gifts in Catholicism in one of his sermons: “They (the pagans) give gifts; you give alms”he wrote.
Then, in the 6th century during the first canon of the Council of Auxerre, the fathers of the Church decided to officially reject this practice known as“devil’s gift”. In the 18th century, the National Constituent Assembly of November 29, 1789 in turn prohibited this custom for state agents, associating it with corruption.
In Paris, a prefectural decree dating from 1955 and signed by Richard Pouzet, the former prefect of the Seine, also opposed the quest for gifts from public officials such as ” garbage men “ or some “sewers”. The decision – still in force in the capital – recalled “that municipal service agents are prohibited, under penalty of disciplinary sanctions, from carrying out such collections”.
The Paris town hall has also emphasized again in a post published in November 2023 that municipal agents do not “could do these quests” and warned against “usurpers”.
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