The Christmas tree erected in front of the reconstructed House of the Brotherhood of Blackheads in Riga.
(Photo © Gilles Lettonie: http://gillesenlettonie.blogspot.com/)
no doubt the origin pagan tree is traditionally decorated in the Christian world (and even, under the influence of fashion and marketing, in other places where Christianity is a minority, such as Japan, Southeast Asia or Dubai, for example) over Christmas . It argues, however, the place where first used this symbol as a winter solstice holiday, and also how and when the Christians adopted it.
The fact is that this year the Latvian capital, Riga, celebrates 500 years of the placement of the first Christmas tree in the world. Latvian tradition has it that Martin Luther in person, while walking in a forest near Riga, was amazed by the moonlight reflected on the branches of a fir tree and plucked a small specimen of this tree to give to their children, hence was born, according to the Latvians, the idea of \u200b\u200bChristianizing the ancient pagan tradition Yule *, symbol of the sun in the northern European cultures, with which he invoked the daytime star in the winter solstice, the day of the year when the sun shines more briefly in the Northern Hemisphere.
known engraving representing Martin Luther
his family to a Christmas tree.
hardly
the future reformer Martin Luther (who in 1510 was a Catholic priest and professor of theology at Wittenberg University) then the tree could give their children, if not married until 1525, after being declared a heretic by Pope Leo X 1518, or had children, it is known, before her marriage.
The truth is that in today's Latvia, as elsewhere in northern Europe, the tree, and particularly of pine, evergreen, pagan people had for a very special significance, and it was common that small candles were lit in their branches to evoke sunlight. Mistletoe was also used as a sacred plant, and conducive to the fertility couples kissing beneath the branches of this shrub. In addition, they were placed under the holly berries fir, considered a nice food for the gods of nature.
Well, it is said that in December 1510 members of the guild of unmarried merchants of Riga (in 1687 renamed the Brotherhood of Blackheads) went to a forest near the city, cut a large fir was planted in the middle of the square where they had their headquarters, decorated with paper flowers and then burnt amid great fanfare that flowed abundantly in beer and other alcoholic beverages. This fact is documented by one of the leading specialists Christmas songs world, Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer (Leeds, England, 1945 - Palma de Mallorca, 2007), as acknowledged in January 2002 the organization Christmas Archives International, based in London, and corroborated, inter alia, the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers.
is no doubt that Luther had nothing to do with the emergence of this idea, but the merchants were tainted by the old pagan tradition: a little over three centuries the Germans had started the Christianization of the peoples Eastern Baltic, and just two hundred years of Roman religion had rooted with some force in these lands, so that paganism was still very present in people's minds.
have been many artists, comedians and designers
have interpreted from different points of view
Christmas tree. This
, French Serge Loverde,
adorned the center of the French town of Aubagne
during Christmas of 2009.
(Photo © Serge Loverde)
Catholic tradition, for its part, often attributed to fir Christmas Winfrid English monk (born circa 675), which was sent in 716 to Christianize the pagan lands of Germany, where he died at the hands of "barbarians" (the chronicles they identify with a party of bandits and thieves who assaulted the "smart" Christian missionaries, well endowed financially by the Papacy), along with other fifty companions of mission, the day of Pentecost in the year 754, making him a martyr of the Roman Church, which elevated him to the altar as St. Boniface.
The legend says that the pagans of Scandinavia and northern Germany the current revered the Yggdrasil (World Tree), a sacred ash whose tip reached to heaven (where was the strength of Valhalla, which housed the warriors killed in combat, and Asgard, the palace of the god Odin), whose roots went into the dark realm of the dead, Helheim, also identified with hell. Winfrid seems that it occurred one day be done with a hatchet and cut a Yggdrasil to plant, instead, a pine, evergreen, which he adorned with apples, symbol of original sin and the temptations-and candle-representation light of the world, emanating from Jesus Christ. The apples were replaced later by balls and candles, colored lights. What of the gifts under the tree came later.
The German tradition says the first Christmas tree was placed in 1605 somewhere in the Germanic lands (as the French, was a Vosges fir raised in today's Kebler in Strasbourg, Alsace), and the usual soon spread to Scandinavia and, as in the nineteenth century, England and numerous other countries.
Christmas tree decoration made by Queen Victoria of England
in 1848, decorated with candles, candy and an angel on top, as an engraving
appeared in The Illustrated London News .
In Spain introduced it, it seems, the Russian princess Sofia Sergyevna Troubetzkoy (1838-1898), which, after the death of her first husband, a brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, married Isidro José (Pepe) and Osorio Silva-Bazán, Duke Sesto and Alcañices Albuquerque and Marquis, who played an important role in the Bourbon Restoration. It is said that in his palace Paseo del Prado in Madrid, situated where now stands the building of the Bank of Spain, wore in 1870, for the first time in Spain, the Christmas tree.
Today, as we know, Christmas trees are grown on plantations, are usually sold to predatory pricing in markets, flower shops and malls, and for savers come in plastic, removable. The tradition, like so many other things, has been commercialized, and the Christmas tree has become, how no, one more of consumer goods in December.
Planting of Christmas trees in the United States.
(Photo © USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service / FlickreviewR)
* Yule has been named Christmas in several languages: July in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Jol in Icelandic and Faroese, Joulu in Finnish; Jõulud in Estonian.
Click on images to enlarge.
The fact is that this year the Latvian capital, Riga, celebrates 500 years of the placement of the first Christmas tree in the world. Latvian tradition has it that Martin Luther in person, while walking in a forest near Riga, was amazed by the moonlight reflected on the branches of a fir tree and plucked a small specimen of this tree to give to their children, hence was born, according to the Latvians, the idea of \u200b\u200bChristianizing the ancient pagan tradition Yule *, symbol of the sun in the northern European cultures, with which he invoked the daytime star in the winter solstice, the day of the year when the sun shines more briefly in the Northern Hemisphere.
known engraving representing Martin Luther
his family to a Christmas tree.
the future reformer Martin Luther (who in 1510 was a Catholic priest and professor of theology at Wittenberg University) then the tree could give their children, if not married until 1525, after being declared a heretic by Pope Leo X 1518, or had children, it is known, before her marriage.
The truth is that in today's Latvia, as elsewhere in northern Europe, the tree, and particularly of pine, evergreen, pagan people had for a very special significance, and it was common that small candles were lit in their branches to evoke sunlight. Mistletoe was also used as a sacred plant, and conducive to the fertility couples kissing beneath the branches of this shrub. In addition, they were placed under the holly berries fir, considered a nice food for the gods of nature.
Well, it is said that in December 1510 members of the guild of unmarried merchants of Riga (in 1687 renamed the Brotherhood of Blackheads) went to a forest near the city, cut a large fir was planted in the middle of the square where they had their headquarters, decorated with paper flowers and then burnt amid great fanfare that flowed abundantly in beer and other alcoholic beverages. This fact is documented by one of the leading specialists Christmas songs world, Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer (Leeds, England, 1945 - Palma de Mallorca, 2007), as acknowledged in January 2002 the organization Christmas Archives International, based in London, and corroborated, inter alia, the Canadian Christmas Tree Growers.
is no doubt that Luther had nothing to do with the emergence of this idea, but the merchants were tainted by the old pagan tradition: a little over three centuries the Germans had started the Christianization of the peoples Eastern Baltic, and just two hundred years of Roman religion had rooted with some force in these lands, so that paganism was still very present in people's minds.
have been many artists, comedians and designers have interpreted from different points of view
Christmas tree. This
, French Serge Loverde,
adorned the center of the French town of Aubagne
during Christmas of 2009.
(Photo © Serge Loverde)
Catholic tradition, for its part, often attributed to fir Christmas Winfrid English monk (born circa 675), which was sent in 716 to Christianize the pagan lands of Germany, where he died at the hands of "barbarians" (the chronicles they identify with a party of bandits and thieves who assaulted the "smart" Christian missionaries, well endowed financially by the Papacy), along with other fifty companions of mission, the day of Pentecost in the year 754, making him a martyr of the Roman Church, which elevated him to the altar as St. Boniface.
The legend says that the pagans of Scandinavia and northern Germany the current revered the Yggdrasil (World Tree), a sacred ash whose tip reached to heaven (where was the strength of Valhalla, which housed the warriors killed in combat, and Asgard, the palace of the god Odin), whose roots went into the dark realm of the dead, Helheim, also identified with hell. Winfrid seems that it occurred one day be done with a hatchet and cut a Yggdrasil to plant, instead, a pine, evergreen, which he adorned with apples, symbol of original sin and the temptations-and candle-representation light of the world, emanating from Jesus Christ. The apples were replaced later by balls and candles, colored lights. What of the gifts under the tree came later.
The German tradition says the first Christmas tree was placed in 1605 somewhere in the Germanic lands (as the French, was a Vosges fir raised in today's Kebler in Strasbourg, Alsace), and the usual soon spread to Scandinavia and, as in the nineteenth century, England and numerous other countries.
Christmas tree decoration made by Queen Victoria of England in 1848, decorated with candles, candy and an angel on top, as an engraving
appeared in The Illustrated London News .
In Spain introduced it, it seems, the Russian princess Sofia Sergyevna Troubetzkoy (1838-1898), which, after the death of her first husband, a brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, married Isidro José (Pepe) and Osorio Silva-Bazán, Duke Sesto and Alcañices Albuquerque and Marquis, who played an important role in the Bourbon Restoration. It is said that in his palace Paseo del Prado in Madrid, situated where now stands the building of the Bank of Spain, wore in 1870, for the first time in Spain, the Christmas tree.
Today, as we know, Christmas trees are grown on plantations, are usually sold to predatory pricing in markets, flower shops and malls, and for savers come in plastic, removable. The tradition, like so many other things, has been commercialized, and the Christmas tree has become, how no, one more of consumer goods in December.
Planting of Christmas trees in the United States. (Photo © USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service / FlickreviewR)
* Yule has been named Christmas in several languages: July in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish Jol in Icelandic and Faroese, Joulu in Finnish; Jõulud in Estonian.
Click on images to enlarge.
0 comments:
Post a Comment