Our Most Festive Facts About the Fall and Winter Holidays

One of the Largest Oktoberfest Celebrations in the World Takes Place in Ontario

Cooler weather, shorter days, and changing leaves are small harbingers of one undeniable truth: Oktoberfest is at hand. Most years (except 2020 and 2021) since 1810, the German town of Munich has erected massive beer tents, tapped kegs filled with liquid masterpieces such as helles, Pilsner, and hefeweizen, and held the world-renowned beer celebration called Oktoberfest — the largest beer festival in the world. Although Germany will likely never relinquish its beer-guzzling crown, a few towns around the world hold similar Bavarian bashes that rival the original. One of the biggest is the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, held about 75 miles west of Toronto. Established with only $200 back in 1969, the festival has exploded in popularity in the ensuing decades, and regularly attracts more than 700,000 people — including Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who opened the 2016 festival by tapping its first keg.

The First Oktoberfest Was Actually a Wedding Celebration

On October 12, 1810, Prince Regent Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. Five days later, all the locals were invited to take part in the royal couple’s marital bliss by celebrating at a party complete with a horse race on a large open field outside the city. The gathering was such a success, the town decided to have another party (and horse race) the next year, and then a third one in 1812. By 1818, drink stands began supplying the beer, and those stands had transformed into tents by 1896. While this Bavarian couple isn’t a household name today, their wedding reception, now known as Oktoberfest, is technically the longest wedding celebration in human history. Although at first glance the original intent of the celebration appears lost amid untold gallons of lagers and ales, its legacy lives on: Every year since its inception, the fest takes place on the same stretch of ground that celebrated the royal couple’s union all those years ago. It’s known as Theresienwiese, or “Therese’s fields.”

Halloween Comes From an Ancient Celtic Festival

It’s not exactly clear what ancient Celts did during Samhain, the pagan holiday we now link with Halloween, but historians have some idea thanks to a surviving bronze calendar. The first written mentions of Samhain appeared in Europe around the first century, marking winter’s swift approach and the start of the Celtic new year. Celebrated on October 31, Samhain was a time when the wall between the spirit plane and the living world was thought to be at its weakest, allowing spirits to cross the boundary with ease. In an effort to curb vandalism and mishaps from angsty ghosts, the Celts hosted welcoming bonfires and left food offerings; eventually, the practice transitioned to dressing as ghouls themselves and traveling door to door in search of refreshments and merriment. Modern Halloween has held tight to many Celtic traditions, like fortunetelling and bobbing for apples, but Roman Christian attempts to squash pagan ceremonies starting around 600 CE started the slow transition from religious festival to spooky secular event.

Before Carving Pumpkins for Halloween, People Used To Carve Turnips

Turnips aren’t usually considered fancy fare — over the years they’ve served as livestock fodder and occasionally been used to pelt unpopular figures in public. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, however, they weren’t just begrudgingly served for dinner, but also used as small lanterns. The durable root crop is often harvested as the weather cools, and in Ireland, that was just in time for the Celtic celebration of Samhain. Because ancient Celts believed that the separation between the living world and spirit realm was at its weakest during autumn, it was thought possible for ghosts and demons to cause mischief. To protect themselves and their homes, superstitious folk across the British Isles would carve frightening faces into produce — sometimes potatoes or beets, but most commonly turnips — as a way to ward off harm. With a lit candle placed inside, the illuminated faces acted as old-world lanterns that banished the unwanted and guided the way along dark paths.

Pumpkin Pie Is a Uniquely American Dessert

While apple pie may have misappropriated origins (the first recipe appeared in England around 1381, not in the U.S.), pumpkin pie deserves more credit as a purely American dessert. The spiced autumnal pie that now inspires countless fall desserts and drinks was concocted by early English colonists who encountered native pumpkins for the first time. Accounts from the mid-1600s suggest that newcomers to young America were reliant on pumpkins, brewing them in ale and baking them into pies. Because of their easy-to-grow nature, pumpkins became popular throughout Europe, where countless recipes for the baked squash pies directed chefs to boil pumpkin flesh in milk or mix pumpkin puree with baked apples.

Modern pumpkin pie construction became significantly less laborious around the 1920s, when Libby’s brand launched its first canned pumpkin puree. Most cooks today continue to opt for the store-bought ingredient, though pie purists may just opt to roast their own pumpkins, considering commercial purees actually consist of a sweeter, butternut-like squash. Pumpkin pie may be seasonal, but the tradition of adding your own flair is what keeps it around from year to year — just like every other popular dessert.

A Connecticut Town Once Postponed Thanksgiving Because There Wasn’t Enough Molasses

In October 1705, the Connecticut settlement of Colchester was facing an early winter. While New England was known for its cold snaps, this one was unusually premature and severe, with temperatures so low that nearby waterways froze. The timing was unfortunate; the community had not yet received wintertime provisions, which were typically shipped to them by boat, and a day of Thanksgiving — planned for November 4 — was quickly approaching. (At the time, Thanksgiving was not yet a fixed holiday.) The most important item, molasses, was running low in pantries around town, and without it, residents faced a gloomy situation: Thanksgiving without bread, baked beans, or pumpkin pie. Rather than suffer a paltry holiday spread, town residents voted to postpone Thanksgiving by a week in the hope that a molasses delivery would arrive in time. (Apparently it did.) In the years to follow, the event was dubbed the “Great Colchester Molasses Shortage,” and eventually parodied in poems.

“Black Friday” Once Referred to Employees Calling In Sick After Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving is known for the deluge of holiday shoppers that descends on stores for serious savings. Some will tell you that the term “Black Friday” originally referred to the bottom lines of these stores, as the day of skyrocketing sales sent them out of the “red” (losing money) and into the “black” (making money) — hence, “Black Friday.” However, the origins of the phrase are a bit murkier.

The first known use of “Black Friday” to describe the day after Thanksgiving comes from the November 1951 issue of the magazine Factory Management and Maintenance. In it, a writer hyperbolically describes the day as “a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that’s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when the ‘Black Friday’ comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick … ” In other words, “Black Friday” wasn’t about hordes of shoppers pulsing through stores, but weary (and possibly hungover) factory workers calling in sick.

Although this is the first recorded use of the term, it’s unlikely that this version is what eventually became known across the U.S. as “Black Friday” in the late 20th century. Our modern sense of the term likely originated in the 1950s, when Philadelphia cops began using “Black Friday” to describe the traffic mayhem of shoppers and sports fans descending on the city after Thanksgiving and before the Army-Navy football game on Saturday. Philadelphia stores tried to change the name to “Big Friday” but failed, so instead transformed the day’s negative connotation into a positive one, and the idea of “Black Friday” as a day of financial solvency was born.

Hanukkah Is a Minor Jewish Holiday

Although Hanukkah is one of the most-talked-about Jewish holidays because of its proximity to Christmas, it’s far from the faith’s holiest of days. The two High Holy days for Jews are Rosh Hashanah, which is a new year celebration, and Yom Kippur, or “Day of Atonement,” when Jews seek reconciliation with God for their sins. Even somewhat lesser-known holidays, such as Sukkot, are considered more religiously important than Hanukkah. However, the holiday’s commercialization (in lock step with Christmas) during the 20th century has made it one of the most well-known celebrations of Judaism around the world.

Hanukkah Means “Dedication”

The word “Hanukkah” is a transliteration of the Hebrew word for “dedication.” This is a reference to the historical moment at the heart of the holiday, the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt of the second century BCE. At the time, the Hellenistic Seleucid Empire was forcibly oppressing the Jewish population by trying to eradicate their religious practices; as part of this effort, they defiled the temple and placed an idol on its altar. In 164 BCE, the Maccabees (a group of Jewish warriors) recaptured Jerusalem, cleansed the temple, and rededicated it on the 25th day of Kislev, a month in the Hebrew calendar (and the date used today to mark the beginning of Hanukkah). The eight candles on a hanukkiyah commemorate the moment when Jews relit the temple’s ner tamid (Hebrew for “eternal light”), a lamp meant to burn perpetually in a synagogue. Although they had only one day’s worth of oil, the flame miraculously burned for eight days — enough time to get more purified oil to feed the flame.

Jews Eat Jelly Donuts on Hanukkah

Whether you call it a Hanukkah doughnut or sufganiyot, this deep-fried treat filled with jelly and covered in powdered sugar is delicious in any language. And just as Jews eat matzah and other unleavened breads during Passover, there’s a reason fried foods like sufganiyot are served during Hanukkah: Doing so commemorates the miracle of the oil. This is among the oldest culinary customs of them all, as eating deep-fried pastries during Hanukkah was already considered a long-standing tradition in the 12th century.

As for the name, an Israeli folktale suggests that God gave Adam and Eve sufganiyot to make them feel better after their exile from the Garden of Eden; this interpretation is rooted in the fact that sufganiyah reads similarly to sof-gan-yud-hey, or “the end of the Garden of the Lord.”

Many Cultures Observe the Winter Solstice With a Festival

Winter solstice celebrations often note the passage of time with feasts and gatherings. People in ancient Rome held Saturnalia, a holiday on which social conventions were turned upside down to honor Saturn — the god of the harvest — and the conclusion of the planting season. The Venerable Bede, an English monk who lived in the eighth century, wrote about the Germanic winter solstice festival called Yule; over time, Europeans blended Yule and Christmas traditions. Celebrants of the Chinese festival Dongzhi observe the winter solstice by making holiday foods, including tangyuan (glutinous rice balls served in a sweet broth), wontons, nuts, and soups. Scientists in Antarctica celebrate Midwinter Day in June with a holiday meal, athletic events, and movie marathons.

Other Planets Have Winter Solstices

Each planet in the solar system has seasons determined by the tilt of its axis and the shape of its orbit, just like on Earth. Smaller tilts and more circular orbits correspond with less-noticeable seasons: On Venus and Jupiter, with minimal tilts and roundish orbits, summer and winter are pretty similar. On Mars, the tilt of 24 degrees and oval orbit give it dramatic seasonal shifts. Seasons on the solar system’s outer planets are not well understood, but scientists do know their winters last a lot longer than on Earth — about seven years on Saturn, 20 years on Uranus, and more than 40 years on Neptune.

Santa Has an Official Address

Children have been sending letters to Santa for longer than the United States Postal Service has existed to deliver them, though today, they’re far more likely to get a response. In early America, children’s holiday wish lists were often written out and left by the fireplace or burned in hearths, with the belief that the ashes would rise through the chimney and out to the holiday helper himself. Today, there’s no fireplace necessary — just a stamp — since the USPS gives Santa Claus his own address: 123 Elf Road, North Pole, 88888.

After the creation of the Postal Service in 1775, letters to Santa began flooding mailboxes; local postmasters would sometimes intercept the mail and respond to children themselves (though this is technically mail fraud, most postal workers considered the deed an act of kindness and looked the other way). Eventually, the lack of a specific postal route for thousands of Santa letters became problematic for real-life delivery workers. By 1907, the sheer number of unanswered letters bogged down the Postal Service’s dead-letter office (the home for unclaimed or undeliverable mail), and many ended in incineration. So, the country’s postmaster allowed post offices to give Santa letters to generous individuals and charitable organizations, who then answered letters and delivered gifts. Dubbed Operation Santa in 1912, the program has continued for more than a century. It’s gotten a modern update, however: Wish lists from children and adults are anonymized and digitized, then uploaded to the USPS website, giving holiday do-gooders the chance to play Santa and reply with the kindness of a surprise gift.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties Started With Two Canadians

Ah, the ugly Christmas sweater. Now an ironic-yet-nostalgic mainstay of the holiday season, the look forces even the coolest fashion kids to raid their parents’ closets in search of itchy, unbecoming outerwear. According to the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book: The Definitive Guide for Getting Your Ugly On, two Canadians are actually responsible for the phenomenon. The book credits Vancouver residents Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch as the two young men who threw the first-ever ugly Christmas sweater party in 2002. In an interview on Canadian TV, Boyd and Birch explained that they were hoping to put on a “cheesy, feel-good, festive party, and the sweaters were a main ingredient of that.” In the years since, hipsters and hip, fun-loving bosses alike have jumped on the bandwagon, creating a wholesome custom perfect for revelers of all ages (as well as a booming industry of purposefully hideous knitwear).

Figgy Pudding Goes Back to the 14th Century

Even if you’ve never tried this dessert, you’re probably familiar with the lyric “now bring us some figgy pudding” from “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” While that song possibly dates to the 16th century, figgy pudding itself is at least two centuries older than that. In the 14th century, it was used as a food-preservation technique and resembled a porridge consisting of beef, mutton, wines, spices, raisins, and prunes. It wasn’t until the 1700s, when fruit was more widely available, that figgy pudding became sweet, rather than savory, and much more similar to what we eat today.

You might notice one ingredient conspicuously missing from the original recipe: actual figs. We have the vagaries of Middle English to thank for that, as the word “figgy” (or fygey, ffygey, figgee, and several other spellings) didn’t necessarily imply the use of figs, and its meaning changed along with the various recipes.

Candy Canes Are Also Likely a Centuries-Old Tradition

Candy canes are rumored to have originated in Germany in the 1600s, when choirmasters at the famed Cologne Cathedral would hand out sugar sticks to their choir boys to keep them from being chatty during the Living Crèche (or Live Nativity) ceremony. The bent cane is believed to have been either a nod to the candy’s religious origins or a more practical solution for those who wanted to hang the sweets on their Christmas trees. Interestingly, the original candy canes were all-white; it wasn’t until production was automated around the turn of the 20th century that the iconic red stripes and peppermint flavoring were added (likely for increased marketability).

Kissing Under the Mistletoe Comes From a Greek Myth

Sneaking in a kiss under the mistletoe is as Hallmark as it gets. And the history behind the practice is, fittingly, also classic — mythology-classic, in fact. According to legend, the Norse god Baldur was killed by a sprig of mistletoe; he had woken up that morning afraid that every plant and animal species was out to get him, so his loving mother and wife went out to ask every plant and animal to leave him alone. The women forgot to ask mistletoe, however, and a sprig of the evergreen ultimately killed him. His mother, the goddess Frigga, wept tears that turned into white berries on the mistletoe. She was able to revive him, and in celebration, Frigga proclaimed mistletoe the plant of love. The ancient Druids, Greeks, and Romans all also believed that mistletoe could restore fertility, likely due to the fact that the plant remains green and hardy even in the worst winter weather. And so, the practice of smooching under the mistletoe was born.

Santa Claus Has Appeared on U.S. Currency

The United States and its currency seem inseparably linked, but for much of the country’s history, an official, standardized U.S. dollar didn’t exist. In its place was a Wild West of currencies from competing banks located across several states. In their zeal to earn goodwill and customers, a few of these institutions even minted some rather creative banknotes. These bills didn’t feature the chiseled visage of General Washington or other real-life American leaders, but instead the pudgy, bearded face of St. Nick, among other figures.

For the St. Nicholas Bank of New York City, featuring the bank’s namesake on its currency made some sort of sense. But other banks, seemingly unaffiliated with Father Christmas, also issued Santa money. For example,in the 1850s,  the Howard Banking Company issued its Sinter Klaas note, which depicted a St. Nick scene from Dutch legend. A total of 21 banks in eight states created notes featuring Santa Claus, with seven of them even printing an entire Santa Claus vignette on their currency. These fun funds came to an end in 1863, when the National Bank Act created a national currency in an effort to standardize banking throughout the U.S. While these Santa bills are now considered “obsolete,” the notes remain highly prized in certain collecting circles and are doing much more than just ho-ho-holding their value.

The Holiday of Kwanzaa Was Created in the 1960s

Christmas and Hanukkah celebrate moments that occurred more than two millennia ago, but Kwanzaa is a much more modern invention. In August 1965, the Watts Riots broke out in Los Angeles and left 34 people dead and $40 million in property damage. Horrified by the devastation, a Black activist and scholar named Maulana Karenga decided to create a holiday that celebrated African culture in an effort to unite the community. Karenga pulled influences from “first fruits” festivals across Africa, including Ashanti, Zulu, and Swazi harvest celebrations, and on December 26, 1966, the first Kwanzaa commemorations were held in Los Angeles among Karenga’s family and friends.

Kwanzaa always begins on December 26 and ends on January 1. Although the holiday immediately follows Christmas, Kwanzaa is a nonreligious celebration, the aim of which is only to highlight African culture and communities — and not to replace religious traditions. In fact, many people who celebrate Kwanzaa also celebrate the Christmas holiday on December 25.

Seven Principles Are Central to the Kwanzaa Celebration

The Nguzo Saba, or seven principles, are seven themes of reflection for each day of Kwanzaa. These principles are Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith). Each of the principles is said to be reflected in one candle on the kinara, the seven-candle candelabra used in Kwanzaa celebrations.

In addition to the seven principles, there are also seven important symbols at the heart of Kwanzaa. Mazao (crops) are a symbol of productive labor. The mkeka is a mat that represents the foundation and traditions of African history. The kinara and the mishumaa saba (aka the seven candles) represent the seven principles, as described. The kikombe cha umoja, or unity cup, is what brings the African community together. The muhindi (corn) represents children and the future, and finally, the zawadi are gifts (encouraged to be educational or homemade) given as a sign of commitment. On December 31, families also have a feast called karamu and often dress in traditional African clothing, including dashikis and kaftans.

The First Ball Drops Were Designed for Ship Captains, Not New Year’s Eve

Whether at home on the couch or among the crowds in Times Square, watching the New Year’s Eve ball drop symbolizes a fresh start. But as the ball descends to mark another year gone by, it also harkens back to an era when knowing the exact time was much more difficult. Before the 20th century, timekeeping was significantly less precise; most people noted the time thanks to church bells that rang on the hour, though the system was often inaccurate. For sailors and ship captains, knowing the exact time was key for charting navigational courses, and they used a device called a chronometer to keep track of time onboard ships. That’s why Robert Wauchope, a captain in the British navy, created the time ball in 1829. The raised balls were visible to ships along the British coastline, and they were manually dropped at the same time each day, allowing ships to set their chronometers to the time at their port of departure. At sea, navigators would calculate longitude based on local time, which they could determine from the angle of the sun, and the time on their chronometer.

Time balls emerged as a timekeeping feature throughout the world, though their reign was short-lived. The devices fell out of fashion by the 1880s, thanks to the availability of self-winding clocks. The concept would eventually be co-opted by The New York Times in 1907, when the newspaper’s formerly explosive New Year’s Eve celebrations were barred from using fireworks. Organizers took a chance by looking back at the time ball’s influence, and decided a lighted midnight drop was the perfect way to honor the occasion.

Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Drops Bologna on New Year’s Eve

For more than 25 years, the town of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, has dropped a giant package of bologna for New Year’s Eve. Lebanon is renowned for its bologna, first pioneered by the Pennsylvania Dutch, so the town’s meat-based tradition makes sense. Although it started at the end of 1997, the idea for a bologna drop was bandied about on local radio stations and newspapers for years. Local bologna maker Kutztown Bologna made a 100-pound, 6-foot-long piece of meat for the inaugural celebration, and bologna has been a fixture of Lebanon’s New Year’s celebrations ever since.

Boise, Idaho Drops a Giant Potato

Since 2012, Boise, the capital of Idaho, has stayed true to its state’s starch-filled history by dropping a giant illuminated potato made of resin as the final seconds of the year tick away. The potato, of course, is the official state vegetable of Idaho, and its russet masterpieces are shipped around the world. This is thanks in large part to the state’s volcanic soil, as well as the Snake River, which provides the water and silt that makes Idaho a potato-producing powerhouse. Boise, which is near the Snake River, honors this agricultural heritage with a New Year’s Eve celebration filled with food, music, and 40,000 attendees breathlessly waiting for a crane to drop a massive potato — all in front of the state’s capitol building.

New Underwear Is a New Year’s Tradition in Some Latin American Countries

Bear (bare?) with us — new underwear is a New Year’s thing in Brazil and many parts of Latin America. Guided by the spirit of “ano novo, vida nova” (“new year, new life”), wearing new underwear is rooted in both tradition and superstition. Drop your … hints … before December 31, because underwear that’s a gift is said to be the best luck of all. There’s a color code, as well. Wear white clothing and choose your base layer depending on your wish for the new year: red for passion, green for health, yellow for money, and multicolored if you’d like a little bit of everything.

Meanwhile, Buckwheat Noodles Are a New Year’s Tradition in Japan

Japan has a wealth of traditions welcoming the new year, but toshikoshi-soba (buckwheat noodles) are by far the tastiest. “Year-crossing noodles” are long, symbolizing longevity, but also easily cut, symbolizing cutting ties and letting go of the past year. Other observances include temple bells chiming 108 times. Known as joya no kane, the bells represent the spiritual cleansing of the 108 worldly passions in Buddhist tradition.