IN LATE AUGUST 1619, a year and a few days before the arrival of the Mayflower, around 20 Africans from the ship White Lion were sold in Jamestown colony; their arrival was duly recorded by John Rolfe (of Pocahontas fame), the colony’s registrar. They were not the first Africans in what would become the United States, but they (and the hundreds of thousands of Africans who followed) brought with them, in their heads and hands, knowledge and skills that transformed the food of the nascent nation. Their position, and that of their descendants, at the bottom of the established pecking order placed them at the working epicenter of nation-building—and meant that, over the intervening four centuries, their influence in culinary life, agriculture, animal husbandry, brewing, and distilling would create a lasting culinary legacy that is often overlooked.
Establishing a chronology of labor is difficult, but the first work that was done was probably agricultural and domestic, with the newly arrived working in the fields alongside indentured whites. Angolan-born Antonio, one of the original group of Africans, served a term of indenture and became a farmer and a sizeable landowner. Through the work of Antonio and those like him, farming would be transformed by ideas, such as the careful planting of crops, that were a part of African and Native peoples’ traditions. The crops produced from their methods yielded almost five times as much as the scattered-seed method that was common in Europe.
Agricultural practices from the African continent prevailed in many areas, but in none as much as in the cultivation of rice in the Carolina Low Country. From early years, the expertise of enslaved Africans who were from the rice-growing regions of West Africa—Senegambia, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—created extraordinary wealth for the Carolina colony. The Carolina Gold seed itself may have arrived from Madagascar. Other ideas ranging from crop rotation to systems of planting also were transmitted. Crops from Africa like okra, watermelon, black-eyed peas, sorghum, coffee, kola nuts, and sesame were brought across the Atlantic and became staples of the American diet, especially in the South. Some crops, like peanuts, arrived from other parts of the hemisphere via the African slave trade.
Recent studies suggest that not only plants but also animals may share African genesis. The celebrated Texas Longhorn cattle, long thought to be a mix of Criollo and European cattle, actually contain DNA of Fulani cattle from West Africa, and descendants of enslaved Fulani herdsmen were some of the nation’s first cowboys. Indeed, by the end of the Civil War, fully 1 in 4 cowboys was Black.
Agriculture and animal management were not the only areas influenced by Africa and its descendants; the very taste of the new nation was given an African tinge by the myriad African American cooks who toiled in its taverns and kitchens. When many of the founding fathers sat to table, their meals were prepared by Black cooks and served by Black hands. Washington’s chef, Hercules; Jefferson’s chef, James Hemings; and unknown cooks for the signatories of the Declaration of Independence brought African American culinary know-how to the highest levels of the profession. In Star-Spangled Manners, Judith Martin, better known as Miss Manners, goes so far as to suggest that the very nature of America’s much-vaunted Southern hospitality owes more to African customs than European ones.
The scope of influence of African Americans in the beverage industry is still being uncovered, but already findings indicate that in the Colonial and Federal periods, a significant number worked in taverns as servers and were functioning as master brewers, as with Peter Hemings, James’ brother, who occupied that position at Monticello. Nathan “Nearest” Green, who was born enslaved, was the distiller who taught his craft to Jack Daniel. As it was a branch of the service industry, many of the country’s early bartenders were Black, and before Prohibition, most of the bartenders in Washington, D.C., were Black, even founding the Black Mixologists Club, a professional organization. Tom Bullock, who tended bar in St. Louis, wrote The Ideal Bartender in 1917, the first such tome penned by an African American—and one that became a bible for mixologists leading the craft cocktail revolution a century later.
Food also offered a range of possibilities for those with an entrepreneurial bent. Women in Gordonsville, Virginia, saw a market for selling food to passengers on the railroads that crossed the town: They sold fried chicken and baked goods through the train windows to hungry passengers. In 19th-century Philadelphia, Robert Bogle established a group of Black caterers who offered their services to the city’s well-to-do. Around the country, African American street vendors hawked everything from New Orleans calas (rice fritters) to pig’s feet in Harlem. African American eateries large and small have fed all Americans for centuries, from Providence’s first ale and oyster house, opened by Emmanuel Bernoon in 1736, to Edouardo Jordan and Mashama Bailey’s restaurants earning James Beard Awards today.
African Americans have toiled in every aspect of the country’s food—growing it, selling it, serving it, and creating and offering the beverages to accompany it. It’s a 400-year history that is only now in the 21st century being fully understood, researched, and told. It’s about time. —Jessica B. Harris, professor emerita at Queens College, is a culinary historian, consultant, and cookbook author specializing in the food of Africa and its diaspora.
Top left: An early bottle of Jack Daniel’s; the formerly enslaved Nathan “Nearest” Green was the first master distiller at Jack Daniel’s and the first Black master distiller on record in the U.S. Top right: This sort of rice mortar and pestle would have been used by enslaved Africans to hull rice in a West African technique. Bottom left: Fanner baskets, used across the Low Country to winnow rice, are a technology brought to the U.S. from West Africa. Bottom right: This Victorian oyster fork is similar to what might have been used in Thomas Downing’s luxurious Lower Manhattan oyster cellar. Many thanks to the Museum of Food and Drink in New York City, whose exhibit African/American: Making the Nation’s Table opens April 3. For details, visit mofad.org.
A WARM VAT OF RICE sitting on the stovetop is a family’s diagram of prosperity. Scorched-bottom silver pots chart out things you need to know about a brood. The engraved scratches are a remembrance of times of abundance and lack; a Tupperware canister front and center on the countertop is an allegorical sign of having more than you need.
Chef Joseph “JJ” Johnson’s culinary journey took him from fine-dining kitchen brigades to dreaming up FieldTrip, his newest restaurant. His fast-casual rice bowl shop sits in the cradle of Black life—Harlem, USA—offering items like fragrant Carolina Gold rice with barbecue-tinged proteins. His late Puerto Rican maternal grandmother inspired his asopao, a comforting chicken and rice dish, and the only difference is that he cooks his grains before combining the spice and poultry. His grandma Iris’ one-pot method turned out perfect, always.
East and west, north and south, the heart connects to the foot. From enslaved Africans cultivating in the Low Country in South Carolina and Georgia—the ancestors of today’s Gullah Geechee people—to Johnson’s eatery in Harlem, rice is a thread that connects generations of African American kitchens. When the Instant Pot hums or a chef’s culinary voice sings, ancestors are honored. All is well when the electric cord stays plugged into the home. —Nicole A. Taylor is the executive food editor at Thrillist.
AT THE ONSET of the 19th century in New York City, working in the oyster business was commonplace for many African Americans. In 1810, the New York City directory listed 27 oystermen; 16 were Black. When Thomas Downing showed up in 1819, he arrived with deep knowledge of regional fish and bivalves. His hustle muscle and business acumen were also very much intact.
Downing was also an abolitionist, caterer, and entrepreneur. Born to free Black parents and raised along the eastern shore of Virginia, he was adept in Atlantic waters. Less than 10 years after arriving in New York, he opened an oyster restaurant at 5 Broad Street in Manhattan. Like it is today, Broad Street was in a bustling financial district teeming with bankers, traders, and people of means. Unlike the more humble oyster cellars of the day, his space was adorned with a chandelier, fine carpet, and curtains, distinguishing Downing from not only his fellow Black oystermen but also the entire industry. In those days, oysters were so abundant that all you could eat could be had for just six cents. By 1842, oysters swelled to a $6 million industry catering to the elite, and Downing grew wealthy.
Respected by his financial and political clientele, Downing leveraged his social and monetary capital as an abolitionist. He harbored refugees from slavery in his cellars. For Downing, the oyster business, and more broadly the catering business, was about freedom. In 1836, he helped found the United Anti-Slavery Society of the City of New York and campaigned for equitable voting rights.
For today’s Black chefs, Downing’s legacy is living history. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018, 17% of chefs and head cooks were Black, about five percentage points higher than their representation in the entire workforce. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of Black-owned eating and drinking establishments increased by nearly 50%, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Though these numbers suggest broader participation in culinary arts among Black chefs, these chefs are part of a long lineage of independent culinary professionals who’ve taken what was once considered undesirable work and transformed it into a means of income and influence. Though industrialization and the Great Migration of the 20th century took many African Americans out of the kitchen, they are now returning to the industry. Chefs like Ashleigh Shanti, BJ Dennis, and Edouardo Jordan are bringing their full selves and history into their work. Their talents continue to unfold, each beautiful morsel a full-flavored reclamation of a centuries-old story. —Stephen Satterfield is an editor and cofounder of Whetstone Magazine.
IN COLONIAL AMERICA, beef cows were herded by enslaved men, many of whom had been born in cattle-raising areas of West Africa. They brought with them skills inherited from several thousand years of cattle-raising. In the Carolinas, they were known as cow hunters. These men rounded up the animals to secure in the cow pens at night, managed the herd, and butchered stock to be sold. Then as now, beef was an important commodity: Beef, salted in casks, was a significant part of trade to Caribbean sugar plantations, while cattle on the hoof were regularly herded to markets in urban centers.
Before the Civil War, cattle ranching moved ever westward into Texas and New Mexico, and after the war, 25% of American cowboys were Black men. That’s 1 in 4 cowboys—men like Nat Love, Bass Reeves, and Bill Pickett—driving cattle on the two- to three-month journey along the Shawnee Trail, the Chisholm Trail, and the Goodnight-Loving Trail, bringing beef to northern shipping points in Kansas and beyond.
Black cooks also prepared and served beef, laying the foundations of American cuisine. All along the mid-Atlantic by the late 18th century, skilled plantation cooks had adapted English styles of beef cookery to the tastes of the dining elite. The 1824 cookbook The Virginia House-Wife listed no fewer than 18 beef recipes enslaved cooks were skilled at producing. Today, at The Grey in Savannah, Georgia, chef Mashama Bailey articulates this layered legacy in her braised beef shank recipe, flavored with peanut butter and coffee. —Leni Sorensen is a scholar and culinary historian in Crozet, Virginia.
TO MARK THE SHIFT CHANGE between meal services at Benne on Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina, chef de cuisine Ashleigh Shanti leads her team in a focused but relaxed round of ingredient prep. Sometimes they pick crabmeat. Other times, they snap green beans. But often, usually, they strip collards. “We all do it together,” she says of the time they carve out to mentally reset for the evening ahead. It’s part of Shanti’s appreciation for tedious but crucial labor: “It reminds me of my aunt [and] my grandmother, just doing that one thing together.” With collards, it’s not just how you stew, sauté, or season them that matters. The essence of the dish comes forth in its making.
At Benne, the year-old restaurant celebrated for its deferential yet creative approach to telling a Black Appalachian food story, collard greens play sideman—but never second fiddle. They appear in Shanti’s collard green and shaved fennel salad, a raw application that Shanti says goes overlooked too regularly. They are traditionally stewed and served in their potlikker. Shanti often dries the leaves like “hanging britches” on a clothesline, taking a cue from her grandmother, who gave garlic and dragon beans the same treatment. She rehydrates them with buttermilk, cooks them down, and calls the side Buttermilk Britches in homage. Other uses of the brittle iteration get ground to a powder as part of the restaurant’s house seasoning blend with benne seed, mushroom powder, kitchen pepper, Maldon salt, and brown sugar.
African American culture has historically been obscured from how this region is presented, but its influence has been tangible for centuries. On the dining room wall, four prominent portraits of African American women hold court. They are Hanan Shabazz, Mary Jo Johnson, Earlene McQueen, and Mary Frances Hutchinson, all restaurateurs from decades past who fed the historic Black neighborhood The Block, where Benne on Eagle makes its home today. “Collards have shown up on all their menus at some point,” Shanti says of the women whose faces she can see from the open kitchen. “Collards are a dish that everyone in the community loved and can still relate to.” —Osayi Endolyn is a James Beard Award–winning writer living in Gainesville, Florida.
THE HISTORY OF ARACHIS HYPOGAEA, the peanut, originally domesticated in South America, became extremely Black almost immediately upon its introduction to West and Central Africa in the 1500s, during the early period of the transatlantic slave trade. The peanut was kissing cousin to the Bamana groundnut, a native edible that also produced shelled legumes in the ground. More prolific and versatile, used for everything from savory sauces to confections, the peanut spread and became a staple and, in time, crossed to North America on a reverse trip.
Called goobers or gooba peas by some, pindars by others, colloquial names for the peanut in the early American South had an Angolan connection, pointing to a fairly early introduction. Many enslaved Africans grew them in their provision gardens. In time the crop would know crossover appeal; by the 1830s and ’40s, there were peanut plantations exporting the snack to the urban North, and by the Civil War, soldiers were singing, “Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.” Boiled and roasted peanuts, peanut candy, peanut soup, and many other delicacies would join numerous confections, pies, cakes, and ice cream flavors laden with the peanut. And although he was not the inventor of the ancient preparation of peanut butter as many have thought, nobody popularized the peanut and its 300-plus uses more than Dr. George Washington Carver. —Michael W. Twitty is a food writer, historical interpreter, and culinary historian.
“EXPECT NOT GOATS AND COWRIES, for my yams are dry, and the barns are empty,” wrote Kukogho Iruesiri Samson, a Nigerian poet. Yams are considered to be the most common African staple aboard Middle Passage ships; some estimates say 100,000 yams fed 500 slaves, sometimes their only foodstuff.
Contrary to some folks’ conception of holiday pies and marshmallow-studded mash, New World sweet potatoes feature in those dishes, not yams, which are eaten in West Africa, the Caribbean, throughout Latin America, and in parts of Asia and are a different vegetable entirely. Sweet potatoes tend to be long and pointed, with orange flesh, and are fairly sweet, while yams have whitish flesh and are larger and more cylindrical. Sweet potatoes are creamier, yams floury, starchier. In either case, they can be boiled, mashed, fried, or roasted over embers. Yams are honored in West African and Brazilian ceremonies and offerings to the orixás, in song, and in literature. Okonkwo, Chinua Achebe’s tragic hero in Things Fall Apart, reveled in planting yams, deeming them the king of crops and thereby solidifying his manhood and ability to provide. In the New World, enslaved Africans found the sweet potato, which took its place. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man celebrated a Harlem sweet potato vendor’s steaming sugary pulp as nectar. He apologized for his ebullience and Carolina homesickness with every bite.
As the sweet potato takes up the role of the yam—foodstuff for sacred twins and ancestors—it epitomizes the adaptive creativity of the diaspora, a transfer food for Houston chef Jonny Rhodes to embrace in his Sweet Potato Gnocchi at his storytelling restaurant, Indigo. —Scott Alves Barton, PhD, is a chef and culinary educator.
Sugarcane, the bamboo-like grass that yields what one of Alexander the Great’s commanders called honey from a reed, was brought to the Americas by Columbus in 1493. It flourished in the new hemisphere and transformed the agriculture, adding a diabolical twist to the production of sugar: the refinement of a plantation system in which huge tracts of land were worked by enslaved Africans. This system produced massive amounts of the white gold that fed Europe’s insatiable hunger for sugar to sweeten the coffee and tea that were all the rage.
Sugar came late into the United States: The first cane was planted in Louisiana in 1751, and by 1795, Étienne de Boré had produced the first granulated sugar crystals. In 1843, Norbert Rillieux, a free man of color, patented the multiple-effect evaporator that offered a safer, cleaner, and cheaper way of producing sugar than the traditional Caribbean methods. Its adoption was rapid, and by the middle of the 19th century, Louisiana had become a hub of Queen Sugar, producing a quarter of the world’s crop. Work in the cane fields was brutal and produced conditions that were even more harrowing than those cultivating rice, tobacco, indigo, or cotton. The history’s not always sweet, but there’s a lot of it in that small packet that comes with your morning coffee or tea. Think about that while sampling a piece of my mother’s lemon pie. —Jessica B. Harris


Christmas or Christmas Day commemorates and celebrates the birth of Jesus. The word Christmas is derived from Middle English Christemasse and from Old English Cristes mæsse. It is a contraction meaning "Christ's mass." The name of the holiday is sometimes shortened to Xmas because Roman letter "X" resembles the Greek letter Χ (chi), an abbreviation for Christ (Χριστός).
Christmas in the West is traditionally observed on December 25, or January 7 in the Eastern Orthodox Churches. In most Christian communities, the holiday is celebrated with great cheer, song, exchange of gifts, storytelling and family gatherings. The popularity of Christmas is due in large part to the "spirit of Christmas," a spirit of charity expressed through gift-giving and acts of kindness that celebrate the human heart of the Christian message.
Besides its Christian roots, many Christmas traditions have their origins in pagan winter celebrations. Examples of winter festivals that have influenced Christmas include the pre-Christian festivals of Yule, and Roman Saturnalia.
- 1 History
- 2 The Nativity
- 3 Economics of Christmas
- 4 Santa Claus and other bringers of gifts
- 5 The Christmas Tree
- 6 Regional customs and celebrations
- 7 Christmas in the arts and media
- 8 Notes
- 9 References
- 10 External Links
- 11 Credits
While Christmas began as a religious holiday, it has appropriated many secular characteristics over time, including many variations of the Santa Claus myth, decoration and display of the Christmas tree, and other aspects of consumer culture. Many distinct regional traditions of Christmas are still practiced around the world, despite the widespread influence of Anglo-American Christmas motifs disseminated in popular culture.
Origins of the holiday
The historical development of Christmas is quite fascinating. According to the Bible, Jesus' birth was celebrated by many well-wishers including the Magi who came bearing gifts. The early Christians in the Roman Empire wished to continue this practice but found that celebrating Jesus' birth was very dangerous under Roman rule, where being a Christian could be punishable by death. Thus, Christians began to celebrate Christ’s birthday on December 25, which was already an important pagan festival, in order to safely adapt to Roman customs while still honoring Jesus' birth.
This is how Christmas came to be celebrated on the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, and it was from the pagan holiday that many of the customs of Christmas had their roots. The celebrations of Saturnalia included the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia). This holiday was observed over a series of days beginning on December 17 (the birthday of Saturn), and ending on December 25 (the birthday of Sol Invictus, the "Unconquered Sun"). The combined festivals resulted in an extended winter holiday season. Business was postponed and even slaves feasted. There was drinking, gambling and singing, and nudity was relatively common. It was the "best of days," according to the poet Catullus.
The feast of Sol Invictus on December 25 was a sacred day in the religion of Mithraism, which was widespread in the Roman Empire. Its god, Mithras, was a solar deity of Persian origin, identified with the Sun. It displayed its unconquerability as "Sol Invictus" when it began to rise higher in the sky following the Winter Solstice—hence December 25 was celebrated as the Sun's birthday. In 274 C.E., Emperor Aurelian officially designated December 25 as the festival of Sol Invictus.
Evidence that early Christians were observing December 25 as Jesus' birthday comes from Sextus Julius Africanus's book Chronographiai (221 C.E.), an early reference book for Christians. Yet from the first, identification of Christ's birth with a pagan holiday was controversial. The theologian Origen, writing in 245 C.E., denounced the idea of celebrating the birthday of Jesus "as if he were a king pharaoh." Thus Christmas was celebrated with a mixture of Christian and secular customs from the beginning, and remains so to this day.
Furthermore, in the opinion of many theologians, there was little basis for celebrating Christ's birth in December. Around 220 C.E., Tertullian declared that Jesus died on March 25. Although scholars no longer accept this as the most likely date for the crucifixion, it does suggest that the 25th day of the month—March 25 being nine months before December 25th—had significance for the church even before it was used as a basis to calculate Christmas.  By 240 C.E., a list of significant events was being assigned to March 25, partly because it was believed to be the date of the vernal equinox. These events include the creation, the fall of Adam, and, most relevantly, the Incarnation. The view that the Incarnation occurred on the same date as crucifixion is consistent with a Jewish belief that prophets died at an "integral age," either an anniversary of their birth or of their conception.
Impetus for the celebration of Christmas increased after Constantius, son of Emperor Constantine, decreed that all non-Christian temples in the empire be immediately closed and anyone who still offered sacrifices of worship to the gods and goddesses in these temples was to be put to death. The followers of Mithras were eventually forced to convert under these laws. In spite of their conversion, they adapted many elements of their old religions into Christianity. Among these, was the celebration of the birth of Mithras on December 25, which was now observed as the birthday of Jesus.
Another impetus for official Roman support for Christmas grew out of the Christological debates at the time of Constantine. The Alexandrian school argued that he was the divine word made flesh (see John 1:14), while the Antioch school held that he was born human and infused with the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism (see Mark 1:9-11). A feast celebrating Christ's birth gave the church an opportunity to promote the intermediate view that Christ was divine from the time of his incarnation. Mary, a minor figure for early Christians, gained prominence as the theotokos, or god-bearer. There were Christmas celebrations in Rome as early as 336 C.E. December 25 was added to the calendar as a feast day in 350 C.E.
Christmas soon outgrew the Christological controversy that created it and came to dominate the Medieval calendar.
The 40 days before Christmas became the "forty days of Saint Martin," now Advent. Former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent. Around the twelfth century, these traditions transferred again to the "twelve days of Christmas" (i.e., Christmas to Epiphany).
The fortieth day after Christmas was Candlemas. The Egyptian Christmas celebration on January 6 was adopted as Epiphany, one of the most prominent holidays of the year during Early Middle Ages. Christmas Day itself was a relatively minor holiday, although its prominence gradually increased after Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day in 800 C.E.
Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, and its pagan celebrations had a major influence on Christmas. Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul (Yule or Yultid), originally the name of a 12-day pre-Christian winter festival. Logs were lit to honor Thor, the god of thunder, hence the "Yule log." In Germany, the equivalent holiday is called Mitwinternacht (mid-winter night). There are also 12 Rauhnächte (harsh or wild nights).
By the High Middle Ages, Christmas had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates "celebrated Christmas." King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and three hundred sheep were eaten. The "Yule boar" was a common feature of Medieval Christmas feasts. Caroling also became popular. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd (largely due to overtones reminiscent of the traditions of Saturnalia and Yule). "Misrule"—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there was special Christmas ale.
The Reformation and modern times
During the Reformation, Protestants condemned Christmas celebration as "trappings of popery" and the "rags of the Beast." The Catholic Church responded by promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. When a Puritan parliament triumphed over the King, Charles I of England (1644), Christmas was officially banned (1647). Pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities. For several weeks, Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. The Restoration (1660) ended the ban, but Christmas celebration was still disapproved of by the Anglican clergy.
By the 1820s, sectarian tension had eased and British writers began to worry that Christmas was dying out. They imagined Tudor Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration, and efforts were made to revive the holiday. Prince Albert, from Bavaria, married Queen Victoria in 1840, introducing the German tradition of the 'Christmas tree' into Windsor castle in 1841. The book A Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens played a major role in reinventing Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion (as opposed to communal celebration and hedonistic excess).
The Puritans of New England disapproved of Christmas and celebration was outlawed in Boston (1659-1681). Meanwhile, Christians in Virginia and New York celebrated freely. Christmas fell out of favor in the U.S. after the American Revolution, when it was considered an "English custom." Interest was revived by several short stories by Washington Irving in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819) and by "Old Christmas" (1850) which depict harmonious warm-hearted holiday traditions Irving claimed to have observed in England. Although some argue that Irving invented the traditions he describes, they were imitated by his American readers.  German immigrants and the homecomings of the Civil War helped promote the holiday. Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States in 1870.
Washington Irving writes of Saint Nicholas "riding over the tops of the trees, in that selfsame waggon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children." The connection between Santa Claus and Christmas was popularized by the poem "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (1822) by Clement Clarke Moore, which depicts Santa driving a sleigh pulled by reindeer and distributing gifts to children. His image was created by German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902), who drew a new image annually beginning in 1863. By the 1880s, Nast's Santa had evolved into the form we now recognize. The image was standardized by advertisers in the 1920s.
In the midst of World War I, there was a Christmas truce between German and British troops in France (1914). Soldiers on both sides spontaneously began to sing Christmas carols and stopped fighting. The truce began on Christmas Day and continued for some time afterward. There was even a soccer game between the trench lines in which Germany's 133rd Royal Saxon Regiment is said to have bested Britain's Seaforth Highlanders 3-2.
According to tradition, Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in a stable, surrounded by farm animals and shepherds, and Jesus was born into a manger from the Virgin Mary assisted by her husband Joseph.
Remembering or re-creating the Nativity (the birth of Jesus) is one of the central ways that Christians celebrate Christmas. For example, the Eastern Orthodox Church practices the Nativity Fast in anticipation of the birth of Jesus, while the Roman Catholic Church celebrates Advent. In some Christian churches, children often perform plays re-creating the events of the Nativity, or sing some of the numerous Christmas carols that reference the event. Many Christians also display a small re-creation of the Nativity known as a crèche or Nativity scene in their homes, using small figurines to portray the key characters of the event. Live Nativity scenes are also re-enacted using human actors and live animals to portray the event with more realism.
Economics of Christmas
Christmas has become the greatest annual economic stimulus for many nations. Sales increase dramatically in almost all retail areas and shops introduce new merchandise as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies. In the United States, the Christmas shopping season generally begins on "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, celebrated in the United States on the third Thursday of November. "Black" refers to turning a profit, as opposed to the store being "in the red." Many stores begin stocking and selling Christmas items in October/November (and in the UK, even September/October).
More businesses and stores close on Christmas Day than any other day of the year. In the United Kingdom, the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 prevents all large shops from trading on Christmas Day.
Most economists agree, however, that Christmas produces a deadweight loss under orthodox microeconomic theory, due to the surge in gift-giving. This loss is calculated as the difference between what the gift giver spent on the item and what the gift receiver would have paid for the item. It is estimated that in 2001 Christmas resulted in a $4 billion deadweight loss in the U.S. alone. Because of complicating factors, this analysis is sometimes used to discuss possible flaws in current microeconomic theory.
In North America, film studios release many high-budget movies in the holiday season, including Christmas theme films, fantasy movies, or high-tone dramas with rich production values.
Santa Claus and other bringers of gifts
In Western culture, the holiday is characterized by the exchange of gifts among friends and family members, some of the gifts being attributed to Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Basil and Father Frost).
Father Christmas predates the Santa Claus character, and was first recorded in the fifteenth century, but was associated with holiday merrymaking and drunkenness. Santa Claus is a variation of a Dutch folk tale based on the historical figure Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas, who gave gifts on the eve of his feast day of December 6. He became associated with Christmas in nineteenth century America and was renamed Santa Claus or Saint Nick. In Victorian Britain, Father Christmas's image was remade to match that of Santa. The French equivalent of Santa, Père Noël, evolved along similar lines, eventually adopting the Santa image.
In some cultures Santa Claus is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht, or Black Peter. In other versions, elves make the holiday toys. His wife is referred to as Mrs. Claus.
The current tradition in several Latin American countries (such as Venezuela) holds that while Santa makes the toys, he then gives them to the Baby Jesus, who is the one who actually delivers them to the children's homes. This story is meant to be a reconciliation between traditional religious beliefs and modern day globalization, most notably the iconography of Santa Claus imported from the United States.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianization of the ancient pagan idea that evergreen trees like, pine and juniper, symbolize hope and anticipation of a return of spring, and the renewal of life. The phrase "Christmas tree" is first recorded in 1835 and represents the importation of a tradition from Germany, where such trees became popular in the late eighteenth century. Christmas trees may be decorated with lights and ornaments. Since the nineteenth century, the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima), an indigenous flowering plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas. Other popular holiday plants include holly, red amaryllis, and Christmas cactus (Zygocactus), all featuring the brilliant combination of red and green.
Along with a Christmas tree, the interior of a home may be decorated with garlands, wreaths, and evergreen foliage, particularly holly (Ilex aquifolium or Ilex opaca) and mistletoe (Phoradendron flavescens or Viscum album). In Australia, North and South America, and to a lesser extent Europe, it is traditional to decorate the outside of houses with lights and sometimes with illuminated sleighs, snowmen, and other Christmas figures.
Municipalities often sponsor decorations as well. Christmas banners may be hung from street lights and Christmas trees placed in the town square. While some decorations such as a tree are considered secular in many parts of the world, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia bans such displays as symbols of Christianity.
In the Western world, rolls of brightly colored paper with secular or religious Christmas motifs are manufactured for the purpose of wrapping gifts.
Regional customs and celebrations
Christmas celebrations include a great number and variety of customs with either secular, religious, or national aspects, which vary from country to country:
After the Russian Revolution, Christmas celebration was banned in that country from 1917 until 1992.
In the Southern Hemisphere, Christmas is during the summer. This clashes with the traditional winter iconography, resulting in oddities such as a red fur-coated Santa Claus surfing in for a turkey barbecue on Australia's Bondi Beach.
Japan has adopted Santa Claus for its secular Christmas celebration, but New Year's Day is a far more important holiday.
In India, Christmas is often called bada din ("the big day"), and celebration revolves around Santa Claus and shopping.
In South Korea, Christmas is celebrated as an official holiday.
In the Netherlands, Saint Nicholas' Day (December 6) remains the principal day for gift giving while Christmas Day is a more religious holiday.
In much of Germany, children put shoes out on window sills on the night of December 5, and find them filled with candy and small gifts the next morning. The main day for gift giving in Germany is December 24, when gifts are brought by Santa Claus or are placed under the Christmas tree.
In Poland, Santa Claus (Polish: Święty Mikołaj) gives gifts on two occasions: on the night of December 5 (so that children find them on the morning of December 6, (Saint Nicholas Day) and on Christmas Eve (so that children find gifts that same day).
In Hungary, Santa Claus (Hungarian: Mikulás) or for non-religious people Father Winter (Hungarian: Télapó) is often accompanied by a black creature called Krampusz.
In Spain, gifts are brought by the Magi on Epiphany (January 6), although the tradition of leaving gifts under the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve (December 24) for the children to find and open the following morning has been widely adopted as well. Elaborate "Nacimiento" nativity scenes are common, and a midnight meal is eaten on Noche-Buena, the good night, Christmas Eve.
In Russia, Grandfather Frost brings presents on New Year's Eve, and these are opened on the same night. The patron saint of Russia is Saint Nicola, the Wonder Worker, in the Orthodox tradition, whose Feast Day is celebrated December 6.
In Scotland, presents were traditionally given on Hogmanay, which is New Year's Eve. However, since the establishment of Christmas Day as a legal holiday in 1967, many Scots have adopted the tradition of exchanging gifts on Christmas morning.
The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been a tradition in Finland since the Middle Ages. It takes place in the Old Great Square of Turku, Finland's official Christmas City and former capital.
Social aspects and entertainment
In many countries, businesses, schools, and communities have Christmas celebrations and performances in the weeks before Christmas. Christmas pageants may include a retelling of the story of the birth of Christ. Groups visit neighborhood homes, hospitals, or nursing homes, to sing Christmas carols. Others do volunteer work or hold fundraising drives for charities.
On Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, a special meal is usually served. In some regions, particularly in Eastern Europe, these family feasts are preceded by a period of fasting. Candy and treats are also part of Christmas celebration in many countries.
Another tradition is for people to send Christmas cards, first popularized in London in 1842, to friends and family members. Cards are also produced with secular generic messages such as "season's greetings" or "happy holidays," as a gesture of inclusiveness for senders and recipients who prefer to avoid the religious sentiments and symbolism of Christmas, yet still participate in the gaiety of the season.
Christmas in the arts and media
Many fictional Christmas stories capture the spirit of Christmas in a modern-day fairy tale, often with heart-touching stories of a Christmas miracle. Several have become part of the Christmas tradition in their countries of origin.
Among the most popular are Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker based on the story by German author E.T.A. Hoffman, and Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol. The Nutcracker tells of a nutcracker that comes to life in a young German girl's dream. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is the tale of the rich and miserly curmudgeon Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge rejects compassion, philanthropy, and Christmas until he is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, who show him the consequences of his ways.
Some Scandinavian Christmas stories are less cheery than Dickens'. In H. C. Andersen's The Little Match Girl, a destitute little girl walks barefoot through snow-covered streets on Christmas Eve, trying in vain to sell her matches, and peeking in at the celebrations in the homes of the more fortunate.
In 1881, the Swedish magazine Ny Illustrerad Tidning published Viktor Rydberg's poem Tomten featuring the first painting by Jenny Nyström of the traditional Swedish mythical character tomte, which she turned into the friendly white-bearded figure and associated with Christmas.
Many Christmas stories have been popularized as movies and television specials. A notable example is the classic Hollywood film It's a Wonderful Life. Its hero, George Bailey, is a businessman who sacrificed his dreams to help his community. On Christmas Eve, a guardian angel finds him in despair and prevents him from committing suicide by magically showing him how much he meant to the world around him.
A few true stories have also become enduring Christmas tales themselves. The story behind the Christmas carol Silent Night, and the editorial by Francis P. Church Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus first published in The New York Sun in 1897, are among the most well-known of these.
Radio and television programs aggressively pursue entertainment and ratings through their cultivation of Christmas themes. Radio stations broadcast Christmas carols and Christmas songs, including classical music such as the "Hallelujah chorus" from Handel's Messiah. Among other classical pieces inspired by Christmas are the Nutcracker Suite, adapted from Tchaikovsky's ballet score, and Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Television networks add Christmas themes to their standard programming, run traditional holiday movies, and produce a variety of Christmas specials.
- "Christmas", The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- the Odinic Rite, Yule Retrieved September 10, 2008.
- Julilla Sempronia,"Ancient Voices: Saturnalia, AncientWorlds 2004. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- Modern scholars favor a crucifixion date of April 3, 33 C.E. (These are Julian calendar dates. Subtract two days for a Gregorian date.), the date of a partial lunar eclipse. See Odenwald, Dr. Sten, "Can you date the crucifixion of Jesus Christ using astronomy?" (1997).
- Frederick Holweck, "The Feast of the Annunciation", Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907 ed. newadvent.org. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- Louis Duchesne. Les origines du culte chrétien: Etude sur la liturgie latine avant Charlemagne. (Paris, 1889).
- Thomas J. Talley, Origins of the Liturgical Year. (New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1986).
- Murray, Alexander, "Medieval Christmas", History Today 36 (12) (December 1986): 31-39.
- Ruth Reichmann, "Christmas". Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- Chris Durston, "Lords of Misrule: The Puritan War on Christmas 1642-60", History Today 35 (12) (December 1985): 7-14.
- Geoffrey Rowell, "Dickens and the Construction of Christmas", History Today 43 (12)(December 1993): 17-24. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- "Christmas history in America" . thehistoryofchristmas.com. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- . complete text. hymnsandcarolsofchristmas. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- Washington Irving. History of New York. 1812.
- Barbara Mikkelson, and David P. Mikkelson, Modern Images of Santa Claus."The Claus That Refreshes", Snopes.com. 2006. Retrieved July 4, 2008.
- "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas," American Economic Review 83 (5)(December 1993)
- "Is Santa a deadweight loss?" The Economist, 20 December, 2001
- Douglas Harper, Christ, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001. Retrieved July 4, 2008. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "Harper" defined multiple times with different content
- "Christmas," The New Columbia Encyclopedia. New York and London, Columbia University Press, 1975. ISBN 0231035721
- Restad, Penne L., Christmas in America: A History. New York, Oxford University Press. 1995. ISBN 0195093003
All links retrieved February 20, 2017.
- Christmas: The Curious Origins of a Popular Holiday
- Christmas Encyclopaedia Britannica.
- Christmas in India
- Max Heindel, The Mystical Interpretation of Christmas 1920. ISBN 0911274650.
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Hey everyone –
Academic institutions worldwide, such as Stanford University’s Center for Teaching and Learning or Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Excellence, are searching for ways to improve learning outcomes – knowledge and skills that students take away from the classroom. These concepts are also finding their way into the entrepreneurial environment, as learning has become increasingly important in the today’s chaotic economy.
Learning outcomes as a concept have been studied for thousands of years, reaching back to Socrates and his students. Socrates spent his entire life trying to understand a better way of conversation that could not only enlighten the student, but everyone in the classroom, including the teacher. His findings led to the creation of the Socratic method – a dialectical (discussion-based) process for the meaningful acquisition of knowledge.
Before we can appreciate the values that entrepreneurs can gain from the Socratic method, we need to first define the Socratic method and its role in entrepreneurial learning.
The Socratic Method (Re)defined.
Since Socrates never recorded his own teachings, our understanding of the Socratic method comes from the Socratic Dialogues, a series of stories written by his most famous student, Plato. The purpose of the Socratic method is to generate an open-ended discourse, so its own definition is vague and open to interpretation.
One way of defining the Socratic method is as “a systematic process for examining the ideas, questions, and answers that form the basis of human belief. It involves recognizing that all new understanding is linked to prior understanding, that thought itself is a continuous thread woven throughout lives rather than isolated sets of questions and answers.”
Another way to understand the Socratic method is to understand what it’s not. This can best be viewed in Socrates’s direct opposition and reaction to Sophism. Sophism was another method of teaching in Ancient Greece in which a handful of intellectuals taught general wisdom about human affairs, such as rhetoric and philosophy, to children of the wealthy. While early Sophists were well-respected, later Sophists came to be known as deceptive (due to their use of rhetoric) and elitist (since they reserved their teaching to only those who could afford it). Critics accused the Sophists of doling out opinions on specific subject matter as opposed to actually encouraging independent thinking.
The Socratic method, on the other hand, is a way of thinking that allows individuals to define their own purpose for learning and explore this purpose through open-minded questioning of what they hold to be true.
Entrepreneurs can find value in the Socratic method because they, too, are bombarded by assumptions based on what others and they themselves believe to be the best plan of action for pursuing a business idea.
Entrepreneurial learning, or the acquisition of knowledge necessary for creating a business venture, is built around the constant questioning and testing of these assumptions – theories about what we hold to be true – for validity. These assumptions can range from beliefs about what the market wants, where opportunities lie, to the effectiveness of a new product feature.
The Socratic Method and Entrepreneurial Learning.
The nature of the Socratic method is indefinite and, therefore, has countless interpretations and applications. In examining the Socratic principles outlined by Rob Reich, a Political Science professor at Stanford University, we observed that the principles he advocates for in the classroom translates to entrepreneurial learning. We applied Reich’s interpretation of the Socratic method to entrepreneurship and found valuable insights relevant to starting successful companies.
Here are two quick takeaway on what entrepreneurs can learn from Socrates.
1. The Socratic method provides focus through clarity of purpose.
Reich encourages his students to use the Socratic method “to examine [their] values, principles, and beliefs”. In essence, this approach demands that you as an entrepreneur answer the question, “Why are we here? Why do we exist as an organization?”
Founders who define values, goals, and concepts for their company set a clear direction for the organization. By constantly questioning our belief system, we reach clarity of purpose. Clarity of purpose leads to a shared sense of accountability, keeping team members on the same page and in pursuit of the exact same outcomes. Organizations, then, are able to fully maximize human capital when everyone’s desires are aligned and pointing to a shared vision of the future. Like running a race, it makes sense for a company to first define its starting line in order to work towards an intended finish line. Furthermore, given the myriad directions that outside forces (markets, investors, competitors) can pull an organization, the Socratic principles of self-inquiry can help you stay the course through the inevitable distractions.
When a company clearly defines and communicates its belief system, it attracts customers and employees who share similar beliefs about the world. Apple is the most obvious and universally recognizable example of a company who does this extremely well. Their rallying cry of “Think Different” engenders fanatical loyalty and support for the Apple brand.
2. Use the Socratic method to develop and reinforce an entrepreneurial mindset.
Reich states that the “Socratic method is better used to demonstrate complexity, difficulty, and uncertainty than at eliciting facts about the world”. Note the keywords: complexity, difficulty, uncertainty. These words paint a realistic picture of day-to-day life at the beginning of a venture, and in so doing present an opportunity to learn.
Most people view this set of words as negative. An entrepreneurial mindset involves interpreting complexity, difficulty, and uncertainty as an opportunity to test assumptions, run experiments, and create knowledge from these activities.
Entrepreneurs start testing assumptions by defining current beliefs based on past observations or intuition. They then ask themselves or are asked by outsiders (investors, mentors, etc.) questions that serve as the basis for setting up experiments. Whether in the form of interviewing customers, doing competitor analysis, or conducting A/B testing, experimentation essentially tests what entrepreneurs hold to be true against reality.
The Socratic principles of defining current beliefs, developing a question, and setting up experiments to discover new insights are the core building blocks of entrepreneurial learning. The Socratic method is a powerful, world-changing idea for a reason, and entrepreneurs, whether consciously or unconsciously, follow a Socratic path as they grow their ventures.
 Learn NC’s Socratic method
 Stanford University Newsletter on Teaching’s The Socratic Method: What it is and How to Use it in the Classroom
On July 9th, the Texas Business Foundations Summer Institute (TBFSI) at the University of Texas at Austin embedded a healthcare-focused 3 Day Startup into the curriculum with over 50 students. Participants in the TBFSI program are used to intense days, working from nine to five during eight weeks of their summer vacation. Their interests are quite different from the business, design, and computer science students in most 3DS programs. With backgrounds ranging from pharmacy and biology to psychology and geoscience, each participant is working towards earning a business certificate that they can pair with their specific science-related expertise.
The objective was simple: develop a sustainable healthcare company in 3 days. Teams began each day with exercises like “Rock, Paper, Scissors” to build teamwork skills and a product innovation exercise involving random household objects that students sold as coffee stirrers to practice storytelling. Afterwards, students quickly dove deep into developing their solutions to society’s biggest health care concerns such as obesity, autoimmune disease, and EMRs (electronic medical records) lack of standardization.
Diversity and Teamwork
With Gallup’s recent release of Entrepreneurial StrengthsFinder, progressive entrepreneurial ecosystems across the nation are adding this tool to their arsenal of personality assessments. These tests provide a valuable framework to explain one’s strengths, weaknesses, and the value one is adding to a team, project, or organization. For the 3 Day Startup Healthcare Program, participants were broken up into teams based on their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment results and coached to lead with their strengths. Through the (MBTI) method, diversity was evenly spread. The students could see the value they were adding to their teams. Joe Gerstandt, a thought leader in diversity and inclusion, says “diversity is a driver of innovation. When everyone is thinking the same, no one is thinking at all.” Actively creating situations where teams can work in a more diverse environment will increase creativity and yield a space more conducive to high performance. In higher education, team building through MBTI and other methods should not be a rarity. Experiments such as these can develop effective tools to increase self-awareness and how to work in a team.
Competitive Intelligence How-To
It is easier to talk about why collecting information on a market is important rather than to how to actually do it. Thankfully, Laura Young, Co-Founder of Bizologie, was there to give teams a roadmap of how to find the information they were looking for. Having a background as a Librarian at the University of Texas and a research analyst at Austin Ventures allowed her to develop a process of competitive landscaping to take the guesswork out of the process. The list of resources she has created is a great tool for entrepreneurs to kickstart their competitive landscaping. Understanding the competition is just as important as understanding what one’s company brings to the table.
The demand for entrepreneurship education is rapidly growing at universities with almost 90% of students now believing that entrepreneurial skills are “vitally important given the new economy”.  With the rise of campus incubators (like those at Duke, UCLA, and Syracuse) and private incubators (like Y Combinator and Techstars), the opportunities for students to pursue ventures while still in college are dramatically increasing.
There are a number of avenues to accelerate your entrepreneurial journey – classes, incubators, etc. There is a strong case to be made for short format entrepreneurship programs as the most effective choice for that journey. After running over 100 3DS programs on 5 continents, our experience shows that entrepreneurial learning happens best in 3 days versus 3 months for college students.
Time constraints create focus.
Parkinson’s law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” For example, think about the last time you procrastinated a school assignment and maniacally cranked it out the night before. Fighting against the clock (aka clutch time) leads to a state of intense focus and efficiency.
The idea of time-capping projects is not new. Productivity hacks like the Pomodoro Technique advocate for 25 minutes of intense work output interspersed with break intervals. Goal-setting theories like the SMART criteria – making goals Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, and Time-related – also preach creating time-bound goals.
The email-marketing powerhouse, Mailchimp, is a great example of a company that manipulates time for productive sprinting. Ben Chestnut, CEO of Mailchimp, encourages his team to consistently crank out new products by having them work in cyclical 1-week stretches of intense focus. The success of Mailchimp stems from the company’s ability to harness one of the most effective creative forces out there: time.
In terms of building a company over the span of a weekend, knowing that your team only has 72 hours intensifies the process of ideation, marketing validation, prototyping, and so on. Not only does this intensity increase focused productivity, it also leads to a heightened level of execution in a simulated high-pressure startup environment.
Short form immersions empower students to move fast and break things…without fear of failure.
Let’s first talk about the importance of failure. Failing is a stigma that’s deeply ingrained in our cultural consciousness. Failure is seen as the polar opposite of success. Success and failure, however, are not dichotomous opposites but rather necessary complements. Failure is embedded in the process of creating something great since, at its core, failure is simply “trial-and-error learning.”
The key to successful failures is to fail quickly and with a purpose. First, failing early (and cheaply) allows teams to avoid the pitfall of escalating commitment – a tendency to keep throwing energy and time behind a failing course of action. Scrapping a bad product you built in two days is cognitively and emotionally easier than scrapping a bad product you’ve been working on for the past two months. Secondly, successful failures have end goals in mind. They disprove or validate assumptions in order to reiterate a product or plan of action.
For short burst formats like 3 Day Startup, students are given permission to fail. Since the level of expectations is different for a 3-day event versus a 3-month program, students can view the exercise as a safe space for entrepreneurial experimentation. The 3DS “laboratory” gives students permission to fail and fail quickly.
Students can commit for 3 days.
Lastly, university students are generally resource-crunched individuals when it comes to time and money. While entrepreneurs obviously have to make professional and personal sacrifices, it’s impractical to ask students to make a long-term commitment to a startup idea without some level of validation. It’s like getting married without a few first dates.
A three day immersion is a manageable short-term commitment that’s less intrusive on the life of a university student. Once startup ideas are validated and show promise, students should take it to the next level and apply for that incubator or accelerator program.
 Time’s How Entrepreneurship Can Fix Young America
The question we kept asking ourselves at 11:40 pm, 20 minutes before the due date of 3DS William & Mary application was, “Is it worth applying?” Looking back, we could almost laugh at ourselves for thinking that.
3 Day Startup (3DS) was an experience that we never expected to have. Initially, we didn’t know if it would be useful to us, but we thought it would be at least a decent opportunity to make some new connections over a weekend. Our startup idea had already been incubating for months prior to 3DS, so we initially thought this was going to be a way to get the opinion of others, and nothing more. In reality, we couldn’t have been more wrong.
In late May, the 8020 Foundation and 3 Day Startup partnered to bring the San Antonio cybersecurity community together to focus on entrepreneurial learning and new venture creation within the cybersecurity space. From Heartbleed to breaches at Ebay and Target, the markets and industries tied to information security have been in the spotlight in recent weeks. Looking at the world through an entrepreneurial lens, however, one can see these problems as opportunities for improving the way the cybersecurity industry serves its market. This situation, coupled with a rapidly growing cybersecurity industry, set a perfect stage for a 3DS program focused on the space.
This 3DS, the first of its kind, provided an opportunity for community members–both UTSA students and local cybersecurity enthusiasts–to experience core entrepreneurship practices such as customer discovery, rapid prototyping, fast failure, and learning-by-doing. The participants originated from a variety of backgrounds: cybersecurity and computer science PhD students at University of Texas at San Antonio, members of the San Antonio Hackers Association, and a wide range of industry professionals.
The participants experienced a series of modules over the course of a weekend, including an overview of entrepreneurship and innovation within the cybersecurity industry, how to recognize market opportunities in the information security space, and pitching/advocacy workshops. Led by facilitator Maia Donohue and lead mentor Dane Stuckey, Director of Cyber Operations at Root9b, the first module guided the participants through an ideation session. Pitching and group voting transitioned into a team formation process where the participants formed six project teams. Participant led-projects included concepts such as a tool to perform rapid vulnerability scans, memory-focused protection agents, CEO/CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) interfacing dashboards, and a suite of threat diagnosis and education tools aimed at novice software developers.
While many participants showed up as battle-hardened cyber security soldiers, others simply showed up with an open mind and a willingness to learn. Said one participant, a recent Codeup graduate, “I was exposed to elements of cyber security I had no idea existed. It was a phenomenal experience.”
James Gray just graduated from The University of Texas at Austin. James is now working on the product and business development team at Sparefoot. He was also the lead organizer of the 10th 3DS Austin in Spring 2013 when he was still a student.
James says the most rewarding part of organizing the program was to see teams progress from start to finish. He also enjoyed trying new things during the organizing process, hearing input from fellow organizers, and trying to launch a bigger and better program than the previous 3DS Austin he participated in. “It was also really fun. We got to work with some really big sponsors like Intuit,” he says.
In addition to the hands-on 3 Day Startup programs we run at universities, we offer a variety of ways to learn more about relevant topics surrounding entrepreneurship when our programs are not in session.
Last month, we partnered with Evan Loomis, Director of Corinthian Health Services, to produce a livestream about raising startup capital. You can view a recording of the session on our website.
Evan was also kind enough to put together a recap of best practices to reach out to investors.
Finding the Best Introduction
First, make sure you have a LinkedIn account. That’s the best way to identify people in your network that know investors.
Being a Good Introducee
For an introducer, an introduction is a dangerous thing. If the introducee misses the meeting, doesn’t do his or her homework, acts rudely, or makes vague or unreasonable requests, it can damage the introducer’s relationships and reputation. Access to someone else’s rolodex is a precious thing. Here are some ways to make sure you don’t take the introduction for granted:
- Keep all emails as short as possible. Usually, six sentences is the max.
- Suggest specific times to meet, but be flexible. Put all times in the time zone of the person you’ll be meeting.
- Be specific about what you are asking for. Never use phrases like, “Can I pick your brain?”
- Once you meet the investor, remind them who your mutual friend is. Do it quickly and in a way that is complementary. “Our friend Dave speaks very highly of you. He was kind to connect us. It sounds like you guys went to college together.”
Everyone knows someone.
Pick five people you know that might be able to help you with your goal and ask if you can bring them coffee for a short conversation. At the end of your meeting, ask, “What two people come to mind that might be helpful here?” Asking for three people is greedy. One is lame. Just ask for two. Give them a minute to think about it and wait for them to name two people. Mention that you’d love an introduction and that you will follow up.
Within a few hours, you should email them a general thank you email and then separate emails for each introduction you need. So, if they offer to introduce you to two people, you’ll send them a total of three emails.
Email 1: General Thank You
Thank you so much for your time and wisdom today. I know you are slammed with [insert something here showing that you are aware and applaud them for their success in what they are doing,] so I’m especially grateful. I’ve been thinking about [insert the one big idea / feedback they gave] since we met; it is a really great way to frame how we are thinking about our business.
Thank you also for the offers to connect me with Jason and Angela. I’ll follow up with separate emails that you can reference to make introductions really easy for you.
***Why This is Important: Following up and saying thank you are critical to building a long-term friendship with people you connect with. Make it easy on yourself by preparing your emails ahead of time, so you won’t forget once you’ve shifted your focus to the next contact.
Email 2 and 3:
Thank you so much for meeting with me to discuss our new venture: [insert your company name and tagline here].
Thanks for offering to introduce me to [investors name]. As you mentioned, it sounds like he’d have a lot of insight about [insert the reason they recommended the introduction]. I’d love to connect with him.
PS: As background for [investors name], I’ve included a blurb below on [company name] and my background.
About [Company Name]: [150 word description of your company]
About me: [50 words about you]
Optional: [Short pitch deck or executive summary]
***Why This is Important: On your roadshow, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to help you. By creating a separate email to forward along, you get to tell the introducee how to talk about you and all the introducee has to do is hit forward.
Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself
Two years ago I presented at an investor conference and when I used the phrase “making it rain” the audience of VCs and angel investors returned only blank stares. Ever since, I’ve been interested in exploring and discussing the relationship between rap music and entrepreneurship. A month ago I delivered a keynote at Startup Week hosted at The University of Texas at Austin. This piece is an adaptation of that talk.
Rap music is one of the few genres that embraces business principles. When was the last time you heard an opera singer, jazz guitarist, or dubstep producer talk about the business of what they do in their art? Rappers, however, talk about this topic all the time.
There are a staggering number of commonalities between rap and startups. For example, the culture of “performance enhancing substances” is heavily referenced in both industries.
Another common thread is that the parental approval rate for kids wanting to pursue a career in rap music or entrepreneurship is still relatively low. This is the case because both endeavors still maintain a high failure rate: 90% of new businesses fail and the number of rappers that fail is probably even higher.
Given these commonalities, there are several insights that these industries can provide to one another. Here is what entrepreneurs can learn from rap music.
Get a Cofounder
Rap music and startups resemble each other at the earliest stages. Rap music starts with a rapper and a producer. The rapper provides the words, the voice, and handles the more public-facing activities. The producer (also called a beat maker) creates the tracks that the rapper raps over. Some of the biggest names in rap music today found their initial success due to their own in-house producers (see: Drake and 40, Kendrick Lamar and Ali). Often this person not only supplies beats, but helps architect the sound of a rapper’s signature style.
This duality is eerily familiar to the beginning stages of a startup. Two people — a business and a technical cofounder—represent the best foundation on which to build a new company. The tech cofounder usually builds the software that powers the product, and the business cofounder runs operations, fundraising, or other activities that are needed for the startup.
Aside from the obvious benefit of having a cofounder with a set of skills that complement your own, having another person with dedication and passion that equals yours increases the chances of capturing opportunities by way of identifying early employees, discovering initial investors, and more.
And attaining success in a startup is difficult. There are ups and down in the process. Having someone to balance you out is of enormous value. Single founders often endure a lonely journey.
The best way to choose a cofounder is to collaborate on projects, in hackathons, or at programs like 3 Day Startup. This is the fastest way to see a potential cofounder in action and test them out so you can understand their work ethic, capabilities, communication style, and sensibilities. How do they lead a team? How strong is their execution ability? How are they in front of a crowd? Can they build what they claim they can build?
The RZA is the leader of the Wu-tang Clan, the biggest and most successful collective in the history of rap music. He is known for a gruff rapping style, grimy beats, and an obsession with kung-fu films and asian mysticism. But he had to try a few times before he found the winning formula — or what the startup world might refer to as product/market fit. Signed to Tommy Boy records in 1991, he released his first single “Oh We Love You Rakeem” under the moniker “Prince Rakeem”. Prince Rakeem’s persona was that of a smooth talking loverman character. This record flopped and rap music fans paid it little mind. Undeterred, the RZA re-emerged a few months later with an altogether new project: he and his neighborhood crew reformed as the grimier, gloomier Wu-tang clan and released one of the greatest rap records ever.
Grammy award-winning rapper Common followed a similar path: his first release, under the name “Common Sense”, represented a thuggish portrayal of life at the bottom. This release failed to gain the reception he was looking for so he retooled and eventually ended up releasing more emotional, progressively-minded lyrics referred to in the rap industry as “conscious.”
Initial failures provide learning and feedback to eventually reach success. Just like the The RZA and Common, several of the most famous startups in the world experienced a bump in the road before they hit it big.
Paypal began as a mobile payments company and pivoted several times before realizing that the greatest customer need their product met involved handling transactions inside the Ebay platform. This was the first step upon which Paypal created their dominance of online payment processing. Twitter, originally known as “Odeo”, represents another notable example of the founders going back to the drawing board. Odeo provided directory and subscription services for podcasts before scratching that concept in favor of short-burst messaging. Finally, Instagram began as a complicated, feature-heavy geolocation app with a Swiss army-like array of features. User behavior indicated that photo-sharing resonated most with their users so they scrapped the excess features and honed in on what really excited their users.
Practice Rapid Prototyping and Customer Feedback
The rap industry follows an extremely effective product development cycle unlike any other genre. Rappers use mixtapes as de facto beta products. A rap “mixtape” is not a cassette — it is an unofficial album not fully refined and developed, usually given away for free online. The goal of releasing a mixtape is to generate awareness and receive feedback from the market before the release of a full-length record.
Aspiring rappers release mixtapes through various channels, allowing them to build a following and catch the ear of more established rappers who run their own labels. This process is know as “co-signing” — in the startup world this could be compared to partnerships.
In the early 2000s, Lil Wayne proclaimed that he was the greatest rapper alive and the rap world let out a collective laugh. Up to this point, Wayne was considered an afterthought in the cannon of rappers on the Cash Money record label and mostly known for being the weak link in the Louisiana supergroup the Hot Boyz, which featured more marketable rappers such as Juvenile and B.G.
But he kept cranking out music at a rapid pace, eventually releasing 14 mixtapes in the early 2000s.
With each release, Lil Wayne was refining his sound based on feedback from listeners before releasing an official album. This proved to be successful for him. When he released Tha Carter III in 2007, the album achieved double platinum status.
Share Ideas and Tools: A Tale of Two Apaches
Ecosystems and communities matter for a slew of reasons. Good ecosystems encourage sharing ideas and tools. Rap music is built upon samples, which borrows beats or small snippets from other songs. A “break” — short for break beat — is the part of the song where the instrumentals and vocals drop out and all you can hear is the drums. Kool Herc, the father of hip hop, had the idea to get two copies of the same record and play the break beats one after another, creating an uninterrupted beat over which rappers could rap. Others starting copying this technique, searching for and sharing popular breaks from records. Some of the most famous rap songs ever are built on some famous breaks.
The image below maps out popular songs that sample the Apache break:
The way the rap community uses breaks is exactly how the startup community uses open source software. Open source software is software developed and shared by hobbyists, amateurs, and professionals.
Coincidentally, one of the most important pieces of open source software is the Apache web server. This software runs major infrastructural components of some of the biggest software companies in the world.
Represent Your Local Community
Unlike other genres, rappers constantly remind you where they are from. The regionality of rap is one of its greatest strengths: region-specific genres such as the Bay Area’s hyphy, Texas’ chopped and screwed music, and traditionalist East Coast rap all have unique signatures that provide identity, character, energy, and relevance to each community.
Startup ecosystems have similar regional differences, and coincidentally, these three rap music hubs* represent three of the largest startup ecosystems. In the startup world, the Bay Area is known for innovative consumer-facing startups. Texas, specifically Austin, is known for profitable B2B software startups. New York City is known for media and content-focused companies.
Rap regionality is a big deal because it is empowering on a local level. Successful regional artists provide success stories to others from that community. Global names matter and they always will: Global rap superstar 50 Cent and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are similar in this respect. Both of them represent huge successes. But both of them emerged from fairly predictable sources, i.e. locales where lots of successful rappers and startup founders are from, respectively (50 is from Queens and Zuckerberg went to Harvard).
Tech N9ne (Kansas City), Nipsey Hussle (Compton), or E-40 (Bay area) may not be household names in popular music. But each of these artists is stylistically inseparable from their hometowns; they embody the idea that someone from their community can make it in the rap game.
Anyone who attended Harvard can look to Zuckerberg’s success as a motivator. But it can be more motivating to see a local entrepreneur having regional success. This is why Dan Graham’s Build-A-Sign is important to Austin and Brett Martin’s Castle Branch is important to Wilmington, NC — these companies may not be well-known outside of their regions but they are symbolic of the potential of their respective ecosystems.
It is an exciting time for both rap and startups. Both of these cultural forces have boomed in popularity over the last two decades: demand for rap music and entrepreneurship are at all-time highs. The change in tide for both indicates a change in attitude of the new millennia. The current generation of young people that are driving our culture and shaping our economic future resonate with the values inherent in both rap and startups: innovation, a healthy sense of risk, and the power of community.
During the week of April 13-19, 3 Day Startup partnered with Stanford’s Epicenter and the NCIIA to launch 3DS Springboard across nine universities. 3DS Springboard is an interactive workshop focused on the beginning steps of launching a company or a project through on-campus innovation. Over four 90-minute sessions, students joined the 3DS team and Epicenter University Innovation Fellows on their campuses to start a company, a project, or a movement.