28 Jan 11 Housewarming: The Origin

Everyone enjoys a nice housewarming party when they purchase a new home or residence, but do you know the origin of the term? If you are anything like me, you are clueless on where this term comes from and why it has become such an integral part of our society. Drop the party supplies, stop planning out your party decorations, and take a trip with me to a simpler time, when housewarming meant something more than merely a social gathering.

Heating up a housewarming party.

Before the days of central heating, where you can warm up your house with the simple turn of a knob, people had to have active fireplaces at all times. Without a contained fire in the house, there would be no heat. If you ran out of firewood, you ran out of fire, and you could literally freeze to death on a cold night. This, obviously, was not something that you wanted to have happen to you or your family. But, even worse, when you purchased a new house, there were no fires already heating up the house. You had to heat it up yourself, which could take days.

Originally, housewarming was an event when friends and family came over bearing gifts of firewood. This firewood was used to help get the heat going within the house, rather than forcing you to spend time and money on it. Instead of party supplies, people brought dead wood. Instead of party decorations, you had a somewhat cold house with a somewhat rustic ‘feel’ to it. In fact, the only party-like feeling a housewarming event had was the combined effort of everyone trying to light fires in as many places as possible. Times were simpler back in the day, and apparently colder, too.

Switching back to modern times, a housewarming party is one of the best ways to break in a new home. You get your close friends over, you call up some of the family members you actually enjoy, and you have yourself a grand time. Plus, you do all of this without the worry of freezing in a cold, lifeless new house, so what can be better?

If you really want to throw someone for a loop, bring a piece of firewood to your next housewarming party.