Home > Gift

The background may be:

• someone has more than another
• something bad happened to another
• expression of love or friendship
• expression of gratitude for a gift received
• custom, on occasions (often celebrations) such as
  • a birthday (the person who has his or her birthday gives cake, etc. and/or receives gifts)
  • Father's Day (the father receives gifts)
  • Mother's Day (the mother receives gifts)
  • Christmas (people give each other gifts, often supposedly receiving them from Santa ClausFor places in the United States with this name, please see Santa Claus (disambiguation). Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas Saint Nicholas or Saint Nick is the American, Latin American, and British variant of the European folk myth of Saint Nicho)
  • Saint NicholasSaint Nicholas also known as Nikolaus in Germany and Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, is the common name for the historical Saint Nicholas of Myra, who lived in 4th century Byzantine Anatolia, (now in modern Turkey) and had a reputation for secret gift-giv (people give each other gifts, often supposedly receiving them from Saint Nicholas)
  • a weddingThis article is about the marriage ceremony. For the former borough in Berlin, see Wedding, Berlin. Aswan, Egypt A wedding is a civil or religious ceremony at which the beginning of a marriage is celebrated. In most societies, a number of wedding traditio (the couple receives gifts and gives foodFood is any substance normally eaten or drunk by living organisms. The term food also includes liquid drinks. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin. The study of food is called food scienc and/or drinkThe word drink is primarily a verb, meaning to ingest liquids, see Drinking. As a noun, it refers to the liquid thus ingested. It is often used in a narrower sense to refer to alcoholic beverages (as both a verb and a noun). It can also be used metaphorics at the wedding receptionA wedding reception is a party held after the completion of a marriage ceremony. Some sort of post-marriage party is traditional in most societies around the world, but with considerable variety on the details. In most Western countries, following a meal)
  • a funeralA funeral is a ceremony marking a person's death. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honour. These (visitors bring flowers, the relatives of the deceased give food and/or drinks after the ceremonial part)
  • a birthChildbirth (also called labour birth or parturition is the culmination of pregnancy, the emergence of a child from its mother's uterus. It can be considered the opposite of death, as it is the beginning of a person's life. Age is defined relative to this (the baby receives gifts)
  • passing an examination (the student receives gifts)
  • supplying food and/or drinks to someone invited in the home
  • giving a round of drinks in a bar.
  • lagniappe

The extent to which the clause "without requiring something in return" really applies may vary. Reciprocity is common and often socially almost compulsory. Some economists have elaborated the economics of gift-giving into the notion of a gift economy.

Gifts are an important element of Chinese social relation s and the act of mutually exchanging gifts is intended to increasing social cohesion.

A gift can also be a special talent or ability that was not earned through the usual amount of long and difficult practice but instead comes easily to the recipient in a natural way. A person with such a gift is said to be "a natural" or "gifted" in that field of endeavor. A gift, in this sense, can be thought of as being given by God or by nature: a God-given or natural gift received by one at birth. A fluent and entertaining speaker is said to have "the gift of gab".