how-to gift
This same period saw marriage being Christianized and transformed into an unbreakable commitment (a sacrament of the Church). New traditions of love developed in songs, stories and other forms of art. These conventions influenced broader cultural notions of emotion: love letters were written, grand acts of service were celebrated, and symbols of love were given. Rings, brooches, girdles (belts), gloves, gauntlets (sleeves), handkerchiefs or other personal garments, combs, mirrors, purses, boxes, utensils and pictures – and even fish – were among the romantic gifts given in the late Middle Ages. As seen in the records.
In stories, gifts can be imbued with magical powers. In his 13th-century History of the World, Rudolf von Ems recorded how Moses, when forced to return home and leave his first wife, Tharbis, an Ethiopian princess, made two rings. The ring he gave to Therbis was to make her forget him. He always wore the second ring so that its memory was always fresh in his mind. Outside of stories, gifts can have legal significance: the wedding ring, which has been important since the 13th century, can prove that a marriage took place with the intention and consent of the giver and recipient.
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art of love
Like Chaucer, 20th-century German psychologist Erich Fromm thought that people could learn the art of loving. Fromm thought that love was not only an act of giving material things, but also associated with one’s pleasure, interest, understanding, knowledge, humor, and sadness. While these gifts may take some time and practice, there are more straightforward ideas from history. Manufactured cards have dominated since the Industrial Revolution, replacing other traditional gifts such as flowers, jewellery, intimate apparel and consumables (now more often chocolate than fish). All can be personalized for that intimate touch. Of course, there are strange examples of love gifts, such as when Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton exchanged rosaries containing silver pendants that were smeared with each other’s blood.
Artist Dora Maar was so upset when her notoriously bad lover, Pablo Picasso, complained that she had given away one of his paintings in exchange for a ruby ring to give him, she promptly threw the ring into the Seine. Picasso immediately gave her a second ring which appears in Mar’s portrait. A good gift given as an expression of love can long live the emotion it was given: a flower pressed into a book, a trinket at the bottom of a box, a faded card or A soulful song that takes you back to those good old days. In this way, the meaning of gifts can change as they become just a memory and time goes on.
Source: navbharattimes.indiatimes.com
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