The Same Hat, No Pom-Pom

On February 19, 2024 by Pam

So, when I tried to give my son, Sebastian one of my hats because he is an outside cross-country skiing, skating kind of guy, he turned me down. Why? It was definitely the pom-pom. I actually love pom-poms, I love making them – all one colour, multi-colour but, I can see why they are not popular…just for looks and also for “getting in the way” – bumping on things, etc. …also, they are often found on little kid hats…so…

I looked up the history of the pom-pom….
The pompom hat’s origins can be traced back to Scandinavia from the age of the Vikings (800 – 1066). The Viking god Freyr is depicted wearing a hat or helmet with a pompom on it in a statuette that was discovered in 1904 on the farm Rällinge in Södermanland, Sweden. In an article written by archaeologist Neil Price included in the text Old Norse Religion in Long-Term Perspectives: Origins, Changes & Interactions, Price says, of the statuette, “The figure is wearing a helmet and a bracelet on each wrist, all of which are highly deliberate design inclusions and therefore not without meaning.”

Later European soldiers wore hats with pompoms on them that signified which regiments to which they belonged as well as rank. In Rome, clergymen wore square-peaked caps called birettas. The color of the pompom that crowned each biretta signified the wearer’s order.

As a decorative item, at the time of the Great Depression, floppy berets topped with a bright red pompom known as a toorie became popular in Scotland. Compared with tassels and jeweled trinkets, the pompom was an economically sound embellishment, as it could be scrapped together with leftover yarn. Finally, sailors used to wear hats with pompoms on them to protect them from bumping their heads in tight spaces or when the seas were rough.

This time, Sebastian came home BEFORE the pom-pom was on the hat and was happy to take it. So, I guess it makes sense as my son is not a Viking, a Roman clergy, he is not living during the depression in Scotland and he is not a sailor (not yet anyway) and, he is not a soldier so, the pom-pom makes not sense for him. Style is everything so, once you turn 20, take that pom-pom off your hat.