Mood:
a-okNow Playing: Amazingly, I am not listening to anything right now!!!
Topic: This aint no tree!
The world is black
And hearts are cold...
Another week and that much
closer to Christmas. Oh, joy... the power of spending. A great
money
holiday with all the trimmings. It is not even about Christmas
anymore, it's about buying crap for
people who don't need any more crap to begin with. Maybe socks
are necessary, and just maybe
new underwear, but do we need a holiday to buy that? No... you
were going to buy it anyway, so
church it up with a fancy title?
The tradition of the Christmas
tree was started in Germany. But do you know why? Well, In the
7th
century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to
teach the Word of God. He did many
good works there, and spent much time in Thuringia, an area which
was to become the cradle of the
Christmas Decoration Industry.
? In 1836, Alabama is the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday. ?
Legend has it that he used the
triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of
God,
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to
revere the Fir tree as God's Tree,
as they had previously revered the Oak. By the 12th century it
was being hung, upside-down, from
ceilings at Christmas time in Central Europe, as a symbol of
Christianity.
The first decorated tree was at
Riga in Latvia, in 1510. In the early 16th century, Martin Luther
is
said to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to
show his children how the stars
twinkled through the dark night.
? Most artificial trees are manufactured in Korea, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. ?
In the mid 16th century,
Christmas markets were set up in German towns, to provide
everything
from gifts, food and more practical things such as a knife
grinder to sharpen the knife to carve the
Christmas Goose! At these fairs, bakers made shaped gingerbreads
and wax ornaments for people
to buy as souv
enirs of the fair, and take home to hang
on their Christmas Trees.
The best record we have is that
of a visitor to Strasbourg in 1601. He records a tree
decorated with "wafers and golden sugar-twists (Barleysugar)
and paper flowers of
all colours". The early trees were biblically symbolic of
the Paradise Tree in the Garden
of Eden. The many food items were symbols of Plenty, the flowers,
originally only red
(for Knowledge) and White (for Innocence).
Ok, now that we have covered that, let's move onto other things, shall we?
Religiously Speaking
| ? agape, n. - | selfless Christian love; a feast in celebration of such love |
| ? baetyl, n. - | magical or holy meteoric stone |
| ? cacaesthesia, n. - | morbid sensation |
| ? diamante, adj. - | glittering; decoration using glitter |
| ? epiclesis, v. - | calling on the Holy Spirit to consecrate the Eucharist |
It's A Fact!!!
- The Puritans in America
tried to make Thanksgiving Day the most important annual
festival
instead of Christmas. - In 1643, the British Parliament officially abolishes the celebration of Christmas.
- 6 December is St
Nicholas's Day - the first of the gift giving days,
especially in Holland and
Belgium. - The sharply pointed leaves
were to symbolize the thorns in Christ's crown and the
red berries
drops of his blood. Holly became a nativity tradition
That is all for today. Yeah, I am lazy... so!?!?!
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