Gifts and religion
Gifting, attention and symbolism are totally mixed and tangled in religion. As religion is a social institution that provides devotion to the traditions, customs, canons, dogmas, so, it is more faithful to the old rules. The first presents have been created in pre-historic time in the form of the amulets and even now, in the modern world the gifts prolong symbolic meaning of any religious event.
The eastern and western religions are very different, but any of them does not deny the presents for the very special occasions. Usually the religious people value these gifts as a guarantee of future wellness. Actually every present for a religious holiday contains some idea or theory that is aimed into the future.
One of the most popular religious holidays of the Western world is the Christmas. It is the time when everybody should bring only warmest, brightest and more sincere feelings to every house and every soul. So, it is common to make the presents for this holiday, but this gift is to be the most remarkable and generous one. It is not used to think of evil things. On the Christmas Eve it is used to think not only of our dearest and nearest, but also of the people who need our attention and support. Every good Christian person is to make something good for another person, perhaps a total stranger.
The star on the Christmas tree is a symbol of coming happiness that a Holy Baby brings. So, it is an important decoration of a holiday tree and an appropriate present.
Everybody knows about an oldest present to the people – wine and bread, but there were other holy gifts. Now they are known as the Easter eggs. For the Easter it is used to exchange with the colourful painted eggs as a symbol of future life and roots of life which are hidden in an egg.
It seems to me that most Christian presents contain more symbolic and mental meaning than something material. But it does not concern the holy tradition of a baby christening. It is one of the most expensive events of a baby's life. The Godparents are to pay for the ceremony and present the self-made gifts – a special towel, a shirt. An important part of the ceremony is a silver spoon. It will be the first spoon of a baby. It has symbolic meaning as well – Godparents wish a baby to be healthy and live for a long time.
There are also the non-official, non-religious presents, but they are made out of the church and represent the goods, cloth, jewellery and others.
The presents for the friends, the relatives and even strange people are regarded in any religion as an important component of the social customs, relationships between people, offers to the higher people and chivalry towards lower people, inner joy and outer realization of it. It units people and makes them a little bit alike in desire to make good actions and see smiles, better attitude or continuation of strong and desirable relationships as an answer to the presents and attention. A religious present could be an appeal to a real person or to God. A present embodies not only material value of it, but it could be mental, like a pray on a special holiday when every person believes that God's ears are open for every word. People want to believe in the universe that makes human mind stronger in the daily life and relationships.