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From ReGiftmas - The Holiday That Keeps on Giving
ReGiftmas or Re-Giftmas is an annual holiday season, typically celebrated from the first Monday following Christmas until January 31. As a Moveable Feast, the exact date varies based on tidal calculations, the Leap Year, and discrepancies between the Julian and Gregorian Calendars. The holiday is marked by the sale, recycling or "re-gifting" of unwanted gifts, usually received during the Christmas holiday. Commonly regifted items include sweaters, branded items from Sharper Image, and Claxton fruitcakes. While the practice of regifting is not unknown during other seasons, it reaches its zenith during the post-Christmas glut of unwanted gift items.
ReGiftmas is related by proximity to the more familiar Christian holiday, but the celebration of ReGiftmas is typically celebrated in a spirit of unadorned self-interest. Some celebrants have attempted to turn the holiday into an altruistic celebration and an opportunity to extend the spirit of generosity into the new year. However, one popular song illustrates the most common tone of the festivities: "No More Stupid Stocking Stuffers / No More Frozen Fruitcakes / I'm Getting What I Want This Time / I'll Sell This Ugly Sweater if That's What it Takes."
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Commercialization and Controversy
The traditional holiday has, in recent times, become more commercial. In 2010 USA4SALE Networks, Inc. sought trademark protection for the use of the name in promotion of online listings. (See their ReGiftmas Video.) The company's clear attempt to commercialize the holiday has not been without controversy. Protest groups have used the slogan "Put the Gifts Back in ReGiftmas!" as a rallying cry. Despite the protests, a recent study found that 62 percent of Americans practice some form of regifting throughout the year.
Lizzie Post, spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute in Burlington, Vt., and great-great-granddaughter of etiquette doyenne Emily Post, isn’t a fan of regifting. “I don’t think it supports the spirit of gift giving,” said Post. [Citation Needed]
Wealthy adherents to traditional gift-giving protocol continue to spend vast sums of money on lobbying efforts to ban ReGiftmas. To date their efforts have born little fruit, though Hon. Joseph H. Armstrong, (R-WY), nearly succeeded in adding his "National Do-Not-ReGift List" bill as an amendment to the 2009 Health Care legislation. His amendment would have allowed opponents to ReGiftmas to add their names to a national Do-Not-ReGift List. If a ReGifter would have inadvertently regifted to a person on the list, the ReGifter would have been subject to stiff fines for the first violation. For habitual violators, the ReGifters would have to write "I will not ReGift to People on the National Do-Not-ReGift List" one hundred times for each subsequent infraction.
Common Questions and ReGiftmas Myths
Q. Is ReGiftmas celebrated during the Leap Year?
Yes, except during Leap Years that are also divisible by seven.
Q. What is the record for the most regifted present ever?
Q. Isn't it true that ReGiftmas was invented by a sociology professor at the Florida State University?
This is false. ReGiftmas was invented by an alumnus of California State University at Los Angeles. The holiday combines aspects of traditional cultural celebrations with popular consumerism in an effort to build awareness and appreciation for the regifting community.
Celebration and Traditions
ReGiftmas is celebrated as a minor festival in isolated pockets of the United States, but its popularity as a secular holiday has spread rapidly. Around the world, similar holidays are held mostly as harvest festival celebrations. In the Northwestern Territories, for instance, the holiday is marked by the trading of chickens and other domesticated fowl as well as giving unwanted gifts to laborers. It is closely related to Boxing Day. A recent survey showed its popularity surpassed Arbor Day in the United States. [Citation Needed]
A traditional ReGiftmas dinner in Latin American countries typically consists of churros dipped in ranch dressing, along with fresh honey-baked ham and egg nog spiked with carmenere. In financially prosperous years, mariachi bands are usually employed to provide festive ReGiftmas folk music.
Even in countries where there is a strong ReGiftmas tradition, celebrations can vary markedly from region to region. Some of these Stories of Regiftmas have been collected in our archives.
ReGiftmas Fans Unite on Facebook
During the 2010 ReGiftmas season, loyal fans of the holiday turned to social media to celebrate the spirit of ReGiftmas. The Official ReGiftmas Facebook page is located at http://www.facebook.com/regiftmas
ReGifting in Popular Culture
Although not technically within the timeframe of ReGiftmas, an excellent example of the regifting concept can be observed in the movie Old School, where Will Ferrell's character makes comical attempts to offload a breadmaker he himself received for his own wedding. The scene serves not only as an example of regifting, but also demonstrates the risks involved, such as the embarrassing act of unknowingly returning a gift to the original giver. Source: Charles Reagor
Legendary film actor Chuck Norris was an early proponent of the ReGiftmas holiday. As early as 1997, he was well known in industry circles for his habit of giving bottles of men's cologne (received as promotional samples) to the cast and crew of his action films. Other celebrities with ties to ReGiftmas include Alicia Keys, George Lopez and Mr. T.
History of ReGiftmas
While the name "ReGiftmas" is of relatively recent origin, the practice of surreptitiously disposing of unwanted gifts through person-to-person sales -- or of giving them to an unsuspecting party (see "ReGifting?") -- has a long and colorful history. The earliest known practice dates to Mesopotamia, where Ancient Near Eastern documents unearthed in the late 19th century describe the late 9th century (BCE) practice of "Giving the Unwanted Gift." The practice followed in the weeks after the traditional month-long wedding celebration in which the father of the bride would trade blemished sheep to an out-of-town broker for fermented beverages of comparable value.
In Eastern Africa in the once remote country of Tanzania the natives believe that "ReGifting" enlightens the spirit and opens up the path to the "Holy One" whom they call ABUBAKAR (A-BOO-BACK-ARE)which means "Executioner". It was supposedly a sign that if you could please the person whom you gave your gift ABUBAKAR would grant you access into his holy temple where you would supposedly spend the rest of eternity.
Many people believe that one of the local witch doctors of Tanzania had a vision telling them all about this time to give the unwanted gift. It is popularly known today as ReGiftmas although in their language it is call "Reigh-hieft-meis" which means "time of giving".Europeans first heard of the holiday on the slave ships sent to Africa when the slaves would to each other gifts that did not meet their specific standards. Europeans incorrectly pronounced it ReGiftmas giving us the popular holiday we know and love.
In the Republican period of the Roman Empire, the tradition was revived as "Tribuo Tergum Dies". As the Imperial Period begins, it soon degenerated into what was derogatorily renamed "Viridis Dies" or the "Green Day", when green socks were passed, unwanted, from family member to family member year after year. In Western Culture, the tradition survives to this day in the gifting of fruitcakes. Many modern historians believe "Viridis Dies" contributed greatly to the destruction of three Legions and six cohorts of auxiliary troops by Arminius in the battle at the Teutoburg Forest. Recent forensic study indicates the entire Roman force was suffering from a debilitating condition brought on by the specific dye combination used for "Viridis Dies" gifts, which eventually all found their way into the field for cold soldiers feet in the winter of 9 A.D. - and which the Romans (unwittingly or otherwise) passed on to their allies despite the cold conditions. The Roman tradition passed into obscurity upon the death of Tiberius in 37 A.D. and with the edict of the mad Caligula proclaiming the holiday be reconstituted as "Viridis Equus Caput Capitis" or "Green Horse Heads". As well as being completely insane, it turned out to be very difficult to refit into the lyrics of traditional "Tergum Deis" songs. The observation of the holiday continued in some remote portions of the Empire until outlawed by Justinian in 533 A.D. At this point the tradition of giving fruited cakes became the modified tradition, as the evidence could be eaten when a Centurion banged on your door. (It should be noted this action resulted in the untimely demise of many of the revelers).
In medieval Europe, lower-echelon nobles routinely held the "Feast of Fools," in which they would exchange brightly decorated objects of limited value (often received as tokens from royalty) for favors from tavern hostesses. The "Fools" in these festivals were seen as the royal patrons, and as word of the feasts spread, so too did the wrath of the royal families. In 14th century Denmark, the late winter "Feast of Fools" gave way to the the springtime "Famine of Fools," a royal celebration in which disloyal courtiers were publicly excoriated.
According to amateur historian Dean LaVelle, it's said that the "Feast of Fools" was the proximate cause of Savonarola's "Bonfire of the Vanities." He was, LaVelle reports, clearly no re-Gifter.
In Puritan New England, the celebration of ReGiftmas was banned for short period because of its association with Roman Catholic Church and its implicit rejection of vocational exertion. Those unfortunate few who were discovered practicing the traditions of ReGiftmas were fined 15 shillings and forced to wear a large letter "R" on their garments as a mark of their transgression. In the words of Cotton Mather: "Ah! destructive Ignorance, what shall be done to chase thee out of the World! Surely the gift given twice begets twice the destruction!"
Persecuted practitioners of ReGiftmas eschewed public observance and withdrew from the public eye for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Though widely celebrated in secret, the holiday carried an indelible stigma until the advent of online person-to-person sales made the practice more socially acceptable. The recent growth in the celebration of the holiday can be linked to declining economic conditions, and the concomitant "shift to thrift" seen across demographic categories. The holiday has become a significant season for online classified activity, where regifting can be done with relative anonymity.
Further Reading on ReGiftmas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regift
http://www.sj-r.com/carousel/x63852345/Regifting-The-gift-that-keeps-on-giving
http://www.regiftable.com/Regifting101/Default.aspx
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Advice/12RulesForRegiftingWithoutFear.aspx
http://couponing.about.com/od/seasonalsavingszone/a/regifting.htm
