Why is There a Pom-Pom On Top of Winter Hats?

Winter hats keep a person’s head warm and come in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. But why is there a pom-pom on the top of some winter hats? Does this tuft of fabric serve a purpose, or is it just a fashion accessory?

While the pom-pom seems like an addition to a winter hat, it does have an extensive history. Historians have traced the use of this ball of fabric back to Scandinavia during the Viking era around 790 A.D. In 1904, a statue of the Norse god Freyr was found on a Swedish farm. Freyr was known as the god of peace, fertility, rain, and sunshine, and the statue of this god had a helmet or a hat with a pom-pom on top.

The word pom-pom is believed to have originated in the 18th century from the French word “pompon,” which means “small ball of fabric” or “bobble,” and it has appeared throughout history. Scottish Highland regiments and Hungarian cavalry regiments used the pom-pom to denote their rank, and Napoleon’s infantry used it to signify what regiment the soldiers belonged to. It was a popular part of Scottish clothing by the 18th century and has been worn by Roman Catholic clergy in Rome on hats called birettas for hundreds of years to denote what job they performed.

While pom-poms on hats generally signified a person’s identification, they did serve a practical purpose for sailors. Old ships had…