Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 11/01/2023
The Christian world celebrated Christmas, which is, according to tradition – the most joyous holy day. The media raced to convey which traditions should be observed, and what is best to have on the table that day… A photo circulating on social media promotes another alleged tradition, which is, to say the least – misogynistic. The tradition, however, is not known to historians.
A reverse search of the photo reveals that it has been shared for years, not just this year. It depicts a line of men standing in front of women, who are kneeling. The caption of the photo, which was shared multiple times, reads:
“Wives would apologise to their husbands on Christmas for all the mistakes they made during the year. Let us not allow good traditions to perish”.
This “good tradition”, which was shared in the same tone in other languages, was dealt with by global fact-checkers such as Politifact and the Australian AAP.
Jim Leary, professor of folklore, told Politifact that he had never heard of a similar tradition and called the claims in the controversial post ridiculous. He adds that it sounds more like a “patriarchal fantasy”.
The AAP article cites historians from the USA, Mexico and Australia, who share the opinion of their colleague Professor Leary as they have never heard of such a tradition themselves.
Given that the source of the photo cannot be traced for now, the investigation leads to a logical but not 100% accurate explanation. In Russian media, this very photo appeared with the following caption: “ladies invite gentlemen to the ‘white dance'”. The so-called “white dance” is further explained as an event in Russia where ladies invited gentlemen to dance, during which women exhibited handicrafts, presented their work, etc.
We intend to check if the photo originates from Russia and relates to the “white dance”. Until then, one thing is certain – there is no evidence that it is a tradition in which women beg their husbands for forgiveness at Christmas.
This is why this post has been rated as fake news.
The “Fake news” rating is given to an original media report (completely produced by the media that published it) that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and disseminated with the intent to misinform the public, that is, to present a completely false claim as fact.