Where did the tradition of giving silver as a christening gift originate?
I’m sure there are many customs, but here’s one explanation: From Caudle Cups ” it is not a far cry to Christening Cups, which have been given to those who were christened in the church from the very, earliest days of the Christian era. This custom has been copied from the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held a great ceremonial feast on the tenth day after the child was born to imply that no one could thereafter impute illegitimacy (there were no Registrars of Births in those days). All the invited guests and relatives brought presents, and to the godparents fell the expense of providing the more costly ones! Later it became the custom for the sponsors to offer silver – gilt spoons to the child on his or her Christening day; these spoons were known as apostle spoons, by reason of them having figures of saints carved at the end of the handles, opulent sponsors giving a dozen or more, poorer people perhaps only giving one, which usually exhibited the figure of the saint in whose honour th
