5 timeless things that are actually surprisingly recent

The right to be the sole owner and beneficiary of your own Intellectual Property is quite young. In fact, most classic novels and works of art are public domain, which means that they can be bought and sold by anyone.

It was only as recently as the 20th century that clear laws were put in place to expand author’s rights over their work. In fact, Intellectual Property didn’t even exist until the 1700s.

The weekend is such a huge part of global human culture that we can’t even imagine there was time when it wasn't a thing. But it really wasn't, and for quite a long period of history! The 5-day work week was only introduced in the early 1900s when Industrial factories started employing Jewish workers who observed the Sabbath.

Anyway, it seems that as people living of the modern world we only got the shorter end of the stick. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors only “worked” to get food a few hours each week. The rest of the time was spent at leisure.

Christmas decoration started in Germany around the 16th century. And it was initially a pagan tradition, not a Christian one. This is actually one of the reasons that it wasn’t fully adopted in America until the late 19th century. American settlers were deeply religious and saw it as an ungodly practice.

While children always went through puberty, they weren’t always called teenagers. In fact, before a 1944 Life magazine cover, the term teen was not in use. All minors were children and everyone else was simply an adult. So, this important distinction in the cycle of life was basically invented by marketing specialists and journalists.

Turkeys are such a dominant thanksgiving symbol that the United States president pardons one every year. They are almost inseparable from this Holiday.

You’ll be surprised to know that Thanksgiving and turkeys were not a package deal. While the first Thanksgiving was historically celebrated by pilgrims and native Americans in 1621, turkeys didn’t enter the scene until the 19th century. This tradition was popularized by the author Sarah Josepha Hale and has been going strong ever since.