Portland Christian Center Christmas Concert 2017 Mary Did You Know
The history of Christmas trees goes back to the symbolic utilize of evergreens in ancient Egypt and Rome and continues with the German tradition of candlelit Christmas trees first brought to America in the 1800s. Discover the history of the Christmas tree, from the primeval wintertime solstice celebrations to Queen Victoria'due south decorating habits and the almanac lighting of the Rockefeller Heart tree in New York City.
Lookout man Christmas documentaries on HISTORY Vault
How Did Christmas Trees Starting time?
Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained dark-green all twelvemonth had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive flavor with pine, bandbox, and fir copse, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries information technology was believed that evergreens would keep abroad witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many aboriginal people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the lord's day god had become ill and weak. They celebrated the solstice because information technology meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the dark-green plants that would grow again when the lord's day god was strong and summer would render.
The aboriginal Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sunday every bit a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from his illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes, which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.
Early Romans marked the solstice with a banquet called Saturnalia in accolade of Saturn, the god of agronomics. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon, farms and orchards would exist greenish and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they busy their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.
In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also busy their temples with evergreen boughs equally a symbol of everlasting life. The violent Vikings in Scandinavia idea that evergreens were the special constitute of the sun god, Balder.
Christmas Trees From Deutschland
Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition equally we now know information technology in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some congenital Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if forest was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, beginning added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home i winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amid evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.
Who Brought Christmas Trees to America?
Well-nigh 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of ane existence on display was in the 1830s past the High german settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much before. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early on as 1747. But, equally late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted past most Americans.
Information technology is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so tardily in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims's second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out "pagan mockery" of the observance, penalizing whatever frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against "the heathen traditions" of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and whatsoever joyful expression that desecrated "that sacred event." In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making whatsoever observance of Dec 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German language and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.
An illustration from a Dec 1848 edition of the Illustrated London News shows Queen Victoria and her family surrounding a Christmas tree.
Bettmann Annal/Getty Images
In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News continuing with their children effectually a Christmas tree. Unlike the previous royal family unit, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionable—not only in United kingdom, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Gild. The Christmas tree had arrived.
Past the 1890s Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise effectually the U.S. It was noted that Europeans used small-scale copse about 4 anxiety in height, while Americans liked their Christmas trees to reach from floor to ceiling.
The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the High german-American sect connected to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in later on being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making information technology possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas copse began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition.
READ MORE: 25 Christmas Traditions and Their Origins
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
The Rockefeller Heart tree is located at Rockefeller Heart, west of Fifth Artery from 47th through 51st Streets in New York City.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree dates back to the Depression era. The tallest tree displayed at Rockefeller Center arrived in 1948. It was a Norway Spruce that measured 100 feet alpine and hailed from Killingworth, Connecticut.
The first tree at Rockefeller Center was placed in 1931. It was a small unadorned tree placed past construction workers at the center of the structure site. Two years afterwards, another tree was placed there, this time with lights. These days, the giant Rockefeller Center tree is laden with over 25,000 Christmas lights.
Christmas Trees Around the World
Christmas Copse in Canada
German settlers migrated to Canada from the The states in the 1700s. They brought with them many of the things associated with Christmas we cherish today—Appearance calendars, gingerbread houses, cookies—and Christmas trees. When Queen Victoria's German language married man, Prince Albert, put upwards a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1848, the Christmas tree became a tradition throughout England, the United States, and Canada.
Christmas Trees in Mexico
In most Mexican homes the principal holiday adornment is el Nacimiento (Nativity scene). Nonetheless, a busy Christmas tree may exist incorporated in the Nacimiento or ready elsewhere in the habitation. As purchase of a natural pine represents a luxury commodity to well-nigh Mexican families, the typical arbolito (footling tree) is often an bogus 1, a blank branch cut from a copal tree (Bursera microphylla) or some type of shrub collected from the countryside.
Christmas Copse in Peachy Great britain
The Kingdom of norway spruce is the traditional species used to decorate homes in Britain. The Norway bandbox was a native species in the British Isles before the terminal Ice Age, and was reintroduced here before the 1500s.
Christmas Trees in Greenland
Christmas trees are imported, as no trees live this far n. They are decorated with candles and bright ornaments.
Christmas Trees in Republic of guatemala
The Christmas tree has joined the "Nacimiento" (Nativity scene) as a pop ornament considering of the big High german population in Republic of guatemala. Gifts are left under the tree on Christmas morning for the children. Parents and adults practise not exchange gifts until New year's Twenty-four hours.
Christmas Trees in Brazil
Although Christmas falls during the summertime in Brazil, sometimes pine trees are decorated with fiddling pieces of cotton wool that represent falling snowfall.
Christmas Copse in Ireland
Christmas trees are bought anytime in Dec and busy with colored lights, tinsel, and baubles. Some people favor the affections on top of the tree, others the star. The house is decorated with garlands, candles, holly, and ivy. Wreaths and mistletoe are hung on the door.
Christmas Trees in Sweden
Most people buy Christmas copse well before Christmas Eve, but information technology'due south not common to have the tree inside and decorate it until merely a few days before. Evergreen trees are decorated with stars, sunbursts, and snowflakes made from straw. Other decorations include colorful wooden animals and straw centerpieces.
Christmas Trees in Norway
Nowadays Norwegians often take a trip to the woods to select a Christmas tree, a trip that their grandfathers probably did non brand. The Christmas tree was not introduced into Norway from Germany until the latter half of the 19th century; to the country districts it came even later. When Christmas Eve arrives, there is the decorating of the tree, normally done past the parents behind the closed doors of the living room, while the children wait with excitement exterior. A Norwegian ritual known as "circling the Christmas tree" follows, where everyone joins hands to grade a band effectually the tree and so walk around information technology singing carols. Afterwards, gifts are distributed.
Christmas Copse in Ukraine
Celebrated on December 25th by Catholics and on January seventh by Orthodox Christians, Christmas is the nigh pop holiday in the Ukraine. During the Christmas season, which also includes New Year's Twenty-four hours, people decorate fir trees and have parties.
Christmas Trees in Spain
A popular Christmas custom is Catalonia, a lucky strike game. A tree body is filled with goodies and children hit at the trunk trying to knock out the hazel nuts, almonds, toffee, and other treats.
Christmas Trees in Italia
In Italy, the presepio (manger or crib) represents in miniature the Holy Family in the stable and is the heart of Christmas for families. Guests kneel before it and musicians sing earlier it. The presepio figures are ordinarily hand-carved and very detailed in features and clothes. The scene is often set out in the shape of a triangle. Information technology provides the base of a pyramid-like structure called the ceppo. This is a wooden frame bundled to make a pyramid several feet loftier. Several tiers of thin shelves are supported by this frame. It is entirely decorated with colored paper, gilt pine cones, and miniature colored pennants. Small candles are fastened to the tapering sides. A star or minor doll is hung at the noon of the triangular sides. The shelves above the manger scene accept minor gifts of fruit, candy, and presents. The ceppo is in the one-time Tree of Calorie-free tradition which became the Christmas tree in other countries. Some houses fifty-fifty accept a ceppo for each child in the family.
Christmas Trees in Germany
Many Christmas traditions practiced effectually the world today started in Germany.
It has long been thought that Martin Luther began the tradition of bringing a fir tree into the home. According to one legend, late ane evening, Martin Luther was walking home through the woods and noticed how beautifully the stars shone through the trees. He wanted to share the beauty with his wife, and then he cut down a fir tree and took information technology home. Once inside, he placed small, lighted candles on the branches and said that it would be a symbol of the cute Christmas sky. The Christmas tree was born.
Some other legend says that in the early 16th century, people in Germany combined ii customs that had been practiced in different countries around the globe. The Paradise tree (a fir tree decorated with apples) represented the Tree of Noesis in the Garden of Eden. The Christmas Light, a small, pyramid-like frame, usually busy with glass balls, tinsel and a candle on top, was a symbol of the nativity of Christ as the Calorie-free of the World. Irresolute the tree'due south apples to tinsel balls and cookies and combining this new tree with the light placed on summit, the Germans created the tree that many of us know today.
Modernistic Tannenbaum (Christmas trees) are traditionally decorated in undercover with lights, tinsel and ornaments by parents and and so lit and revealed on Christmas Eve with cookies, nuts and gifts under its branches.
Christmas Trees in South Africa
Christmas is a summertime holiday in South Africa. Although Christmas trees are not common, windows are often draped with sparkling cotton wool wool and tinsel.
Christmas Trees in Saudi Arabia
Christian Americans, Europeans, Indians, Filipinos, and others living hither accept to gloat Christmas privately in their homes. Christmas lights are by and large not tolerated. Most families place their Christmas trees somewhere inconspicuous.
Christmas Trees in Philippines
Fresh pine copse are too expensive for many Filipinos, and then handmade trees in an array of colors and sizes are ofttimes used. Star lanterns, or parol, appear everywhere in December. They are made from bamboo sticks, covered with brightly colored rice paper or cellophane, and ordinarily characteristic a tassel on each indicate. There is normally one in every window, each representing the Star of Bethlehem.
Christmas Trees in China
Of the small pct of Chinese who practice celebrate Christmas, virtually cock artificial copse busy with spangles and newspaper bondage, flowers, and lanterns. Christmas trees are called "copse of calorie-free."
Christmas Trees in Japan
For most of the Japanese who gloat Christmas, it's purely a secular holiday devoted to the love of their children. Christmas trees are decorated with small toys, dolls, paper ornaments, gilded paper fans and lanterns, and air current chimes. Miniature candles are too put among the tree branches. One of the most popular ornaments is the origami swan. Japanese children have exchanged thousands of folded paper "birds of peace" with young people all over the world as a pledge that war must not happen again.
Christmas Tree Trivia and Facts
Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since nigh 1850.
In 1979, the National Christmas Tree was non lighted except for the acme ornament. This was washed in honor of the American hostages in Iran.
Between 1887-1933 a fishing schooner called the Christmas Ship would tie up at the Clark Street bridge and sell spruce trees from Michigan to Chicagoans.
The tallest living Christmas tree is believed to be the 122-human foot, 91-year-old Douglas fir in the boondocks of Woodinville, Washington.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree tradition began in 1933. Franklin Pierce, the 14th president, brought the Christmas tree tradition to the White House.
In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge started the National Christmas Tree Lighting Anniversary now held every year on the White House lawn.
Since 1966, the National Christmas Tree Association has given a Christmas tree to the President and starting time family.
Most Christmas copse are cut weeks before they get to a retail outlet.
In 1912, the first community Christmas tree in the United States was erected in New York City.
Christmas copse generally take six to eight years to mature.
Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska.
90-eight percent of all Christmas copse are grown on farms.
More than ane,000,000 acres of land accept been planted with Christmas trees.
On average, over two,000 Christmas trees are planted per acre.
You should never fire your Christmas tree in the fireplace. Information technology tin can contribute to creosote buildup.
Other types of trees such as blood-red and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the by.
Thomas Edison's assistants came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees.
In 1963, the National Christmas Tree was not lit until December 22nd considering of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assassination of President Kennedy.
Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House for environmental reasons.
In the first week, a tree in your domicile volition eat as much as a quart of water per day.
Tinsel was in one case banned past the government. Tinsel contained lead at in one case. Now it's fabricated of plastic.
The best-selling copse are Scotch Pine, Douglas Fir, Fraser Fir, Balsam Fir and White Pine.
Source: https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees
0 Response to "Portland Christian Center Christmas Concert 2017 Mary Did You Know"
Post a Comment