How did the custom of pulling boys' ears on their birthday come about

Every boy was pulled by the ears at least once on his birthday. Much less often, girls can remember about such a procedure, but this also happens. Usually a comic "execution" is accompanied by the words: "... grow big, don't be noodles." It means that the boy should grow tall and brisk. Many believe that this is an exclusively domestic custom, unfamiliar to other peoples. But this is not the case, and for the first time they did not start pulling children's ears with us and a very, very long time ago.

What we now consider ridiculous child's play is an echo of a serious legal procedure adopted in ancient Rome. Once upon a time, the purchase and sale of movable and immovable property took place in the presence of many witnesses on the market square. Having agreed on the price, the seller and the buyer took up the goods, for example, a horse or a sheep, and in turn shouted loudly: "I sold so-and-so my horse to so-and-so for such a sum" and "I bought so-and-so his horse from so-and-so for such a sum."

Everyone had to announce the deal three times. After that, the seller removed his hand from the goods, and from that moment the transaction was considered completed and legally executed. No papers were required — there were enough people who heard loud statements.

This custom had a name in Roman law — mancipation. It came from the Latin name of the hand "manu". By the way, from here came such words as "manuscript", "manual" and "manual". "Emancipation", that is, the liberation of women from the oppression of men, also has to do with this.

If everything is clear with movable property, then what about immovable property? It was not possible to take hold of a piece of land and declare it to the whole market. Moreover, such a product, unlike a horse or cow, passed into ownership for many years and could be inherited. It was necessary to get confidence that the transaction would have reliable witnesses and that they would keep it in their memory for many years.

Therefore, when selling a house or land, 12 witnesses were chosen. They were brought to real estate and performed the same rite as in the market. The seller, the buyer and the invited people walked around the object of sale. The participants of the transaction also repeated: "I sold..." and "I bought...".

12 witnesses confirming the legality of the transaction were chosen according to a special principle. 6 of them were adult men, and 6 were boys 7-10 years old. The explanation is simple — adult men could not live that long. After the last of them dies, those boys will be able to confirm the right to real estate. Those have their whole life ahead of them, but only children's memory is unreliable.

Therefore, the adult participants of the transaction mocked the child witnesses so that they would remember the significant day well. They were whipped with rods, slapped on the back of the head, pinched and, of course, heartily pulled by the ears. The goal was the same — to bring the child to an extreme degree of disorder, and it is better to cause him a childhood trauma.

Pulling the boys by the ears and slapping them, the citizens of Rome sentenced: "Grow big, but remember what was here." Thus, a boring and not quite understandable event for the child was firmly fixed in the memory along with undeserved insults.