10 Beloved Holidays with Surprising Dark Origin Stories

So much for holiday cheer. For this list, we’ll be looking at the surprisingly dark origins behind some of the most cherished, beloved, and widely-practiced holidays. Our countdown includes Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Labor Day, and more! Which of these stories did you find the most shocking? Let us know in the comments below!

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#History
#Education
#Facts
#Holidays
#DarkestHolidays
#Christmas
#Halloween
#Thanksgiving

[WatchMojo]

Which of these stories did you find the most shocking? Let us know in the comments below!

[alessandrogambino]

FACT CHECK:
Día de los muertos HAS NEVER, EVER BEEN CELEBRATED ON THE 31ST...EVER.
It is ONLY celebrated the 1st and 2nd of November. One day for adults, one for children.

[DarthLobitou]

FACT CHECK: Santa Muerte is one entity of cult whose day is celebrated on December 13th and has strong ties to certain religious practices not just in Mexico, but Central America and the Caribbean within the context of cultural syncretism. La Catrina, on the other hand, is a secular (and colorful) representation of Death originated by artist José Guadalupe Posada, which has become both a symbol of death as an equalizer between all living (and, hence, mortal) beings regardless of status, as well as of Mexican identity and folklore. She is, in fact, the actual "face", so to speak, of Day of the Dead, and the celebration takes place on November 1st and 2nd; October 31st has been added to the celebration through our bond with North American secular traditions and, yet again, cultural syncretism. In short, they're separate entities, work differently as symbols, and possess different connotations as a whole. A link could be found, sure, the same way the aformentioned link between Halloween and Día de los Muertos can be found, but nowadays (and for a long time since) each celebration is its own thing.

[kevinshea]

Rob Schneider as Data: "It seems odd to celebrate romance on a day that someone was beheaded"
Tim Meadows as Worf: "To a Klingon, beheadings are romantic"

[magomandrake]

Day of the Death isn't the same day as Halloween. It's on November 1 and 2.

[RCon]

After watching this video, I think the ironic thing was that Charles Dickens wrote 'A Christmas Carol' to display and address most of the same problems in England that Labor Day addresses and commemorates in the US on this list.

[misseselise]

cheat sheet: if it’s celebrated in the US, it probably has a dark backstory

[marcjsolis]

The Thanksgiving we celebrate today has nothing to do with 1621. As a matter of fact, there was no Thanksgiving. The celebration we have on the fourth Thursday of November is rooted in American Civil War. The tradition of giving thanks began in 1863, the bloodiest year of the war. After the Union victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln designated he fourth Thursday of the following November for giving thanks. Then, in 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill to make Thanksgiving a federal holiday. If you ask me, the real story of Thanksgiving is even darker than the two stories commonly believed.

[SolCresta]

This is why I’ve grown more and more distant with holidays. Especially Halloween and Christmas.

[x.invictus]

The fact that you only mention England and America while discussing Christmas and saying that it only began to be celebrated the way we know it in the mid 1800s is ignorant to other cultures to say the least. What about the Germans, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Russians, the Greeks and all the other peoples that celebrate this holiday? Maybe the frequent references to colonialism in other entries confused you and you spoke as if there are no places to mention except other than America and England.

[jimb.]

*I really hope there's no dark story behind Festivus!*

[hazyhalfmoon]

Y’all waited for the Dislike button to be removed for this one didn’t you

[josephbonczyk]

I’ll never take Christmas as the most wonderful time of the year ever again after learning the harsh truth about it.

[otgenesis]

I learned of the true story behind Valentine's Day when I was 16. I haven't had chocolate since then.

[BlenderStudy]

Thank you for the update, WatchMojo..!! Christmas or Saturnalia? Romans used to celebrate a massive pagan festival known as 'Saturnalia' from December 17-25 each year.. Apparently, their celebration was directly related to the winter solstice. There are even people who claimed Jesus's birthday was not in the winter, as shepherds would have been watching their flocks only during the lambing season in the spring.

[alrunarose]

No bonfire night/guy fawkes night that can also be dark

[lesslyrocks]

I am from Mexico and i can assure you that Día Del Los Muertos is NOT celebrated on Oct 31. Please don't confuse my culture for Halloween.

[mlzurligen]

Are you sure you want to do this, Watchmojo?

[SaturdayMorno]

I actually read the history behind Valentine's Day building, Labor Day wish we stayed in high school concerning the Pullman Strike and it was almost similar to the riots last year

[TenaciousDrip]

Christmas is actually a viking tradition called yule
Every December the Vikings would celebrate the Midwinter Solstice, which is when the night is the longest, and the day is the shortest one of the year. They would have big feasts while celebrating for 12 days straight. They believed that Odin, the great God, and father of other gods, would ride across the night sky and visit them in their homes. They called it “Yule”. To this day, the word for Christmas in the Scandinavian languages is “Jul”.
Christianity reached Europe while the Vikings still believed in their pagan mythology, and because of that the Norse traditions would be mixed with the Christian, turning Christmas into what many of us celebrates today.