When did this tradition start, and did it once have a significance other than spiritual (financial perhaps)?
Can you define what type of Godparents you mean? Jewish God parents, for example, have a very different role than, in my understanding of, Christian Godparents.
I’m thinking specifically of Catholic.
Looks like it goes way back.
how it started I don’t know, but about the financial bit, duh! Of course when you setup an additional kin relationship, you can then try to use it to get more charitable help from that person than if you are just his neighbor. And you never know if at some point the difference between the kid’s life and death will be some extra piece of clothing or scraps of food during famine.
ETA: in Russia “everybody knows” that parents would try to sign up the richest person they could get their hands on. Incidentally, often enough the richest relative, it wouldn’t necessarily be an unrelated individual (if such a thing even existed in a Russian village).
ETA v2.0: character from German peasant fairy tale, Cinderella, got “financial assistance” of sorts from her fairy godmother when she really needed it.
I’ve heard that, not all that long ago, if a child’s parents died, it was traditional for the godparents to raise the child.
I’ve also heard that the godparents raised the child if it was orphaned.
I always thought that was the entire point of godparents, at least in any ritual I’ve heard involving them. For Christians at least, they usually have the responsibility of raising the child in the faith (in accordance with the parents’ wishes). I imagine in the past that carried more weight than it does now.
Well, in the ordinary course of affairs, it’s hoped that that duty won’t be necessary, but the godparents are still the representatives of the larger Church community, and (like the entire community) should do what they can to support the child’s growth in faith.
I never heard that they were supposed to raise the child, but that the Godparents were responsible for the spiritual upbringing of the children should it be orphaned.
But raising the child if orphaned seems to be the more popular definition, if “The King Of Queens,” is anything to go by. 