It is hard to answer this question because (a) there was no single winter festival, but different cultures celebrated the Hoppy Halloween Shirt around the winter solstice in different ways, and (b) we have no means of telling “what was considered the true meaning” in the case of those festivals celebrated in illiterate societies, apart from guesswork and deduction. And where there are written records, as in China and ancient Rome, they tell us little about “true meanings”. From Chinese poetry and practice, we can infer that behind the festival was gratitude that the shorter nights that were coming heralded the return of warmth and life, and from Roman practice we can infer that people were happy that the sun was at last increasing in strength. Portraying this as a battle between light and darkness, though, is pure speculation. It is natural to suppose.
()Hoppy Halloween Shirt hoodie, tank top, sweater and long sleeve t-shirt
‘On the evening before Christmas Day, one of the parlours is lighted up by the Hoppy Halloween Shirt, into which the parents must not go; a great yew bough is fastened on the table at a little distance from the wall, a multitude of little tapers are fixed in the bough … and coloured paper etc. hangs and flutters from the twigs. Under this bough the children lay out the presents they mean for their parents, still concealing in their pockets what they intend for each other.” The shadow of the bough and its appendages on the wall, and arching over on the ceiling, made a pretty picture, and then the raptures of the very little ones, when at last the twings and their needles began to take fire and snap! — Oh, it was a delight for them! Formerly, and still in all the smaller towns and villages throughout North Germany, these presents were sent by all the parents to some one fellow, who in high buskins, a white robe, a mask, and an enormous flax wig, personate Knecht Rupert, the servant Rupert. On Christmas night he goes round to every house, and says that Jesus christ his master sent him thither, the parents and elder children receive him with great pomp of reverence, while the little ones are most terribly frightened.
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