ANNIVERSARIES AND JUBILEES
in Ethnologia Europaea
Author:
Ruth-Elisabeth Mohrmann
Ruth-Elisabeth Mohrmann
Münster University ruth.mohrmann@uni-muenster.de
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Every minute, somebody, somewhere is celebrating something. When did customs of celebrating jubilees become a matter of course in festive culture and why and when did we actually start to celebrate them? With the institution of the Holy Year in 1300 an interval of 50 years, later of 25 years, as a celebratory cycle was found which is observed in both secular and Christian celebrations up to the present. Secular jubilees or private anniversaries have a much shorter history. With a few exceptions in early modernity it was not until the nineteenth century that the number of occasions for “celebrating something” started to grow and the differences of celebratory customs broadened.1