The origins of the Christmas tree are thought to have begun in Germany and supposedly originated with Saint Boniface. *In 722 A.D., Saint Boniface, an English missionary and Benedictine monk who was known as the "Apostle of Germany," came upon some men about to cut down a huge oak tree to be used as a stake for a human sacrifice to Thor, one of the Norse Gods. With a mighty blow from an axe, Saint Boniface felled the massive oak and, as the tree split apart, a beautiful young fir tree sprang from its center. Saint Boniface informed the people that this beautiful evergreen, whose branches pointed toward heaven, was a holy tree; the tree of the Christ Child, symbolizing the purty of the New Faith and the promise of eternal life. Saint Boniface then instructed them to henceforth carry the evergreen from the wilderness, place it into their homes and surround it with gifts symbolic of love and kindess.
Saint Boniface, whose feast day is celebrated on June 5th, received the name Winfrid at his baptism but adopted Boniface before he was ordained to the priesthood. He was martyred in Holland at the age of 75, along with 52 members of his flock, when they were set upon by a troop of pagans. Saint Boniface is the Patron Saint of Germany, as well as being the Patron Saint of Tailors and Brewers.*
*Information obtained through the website http://www.novareinna.com/festive/tree.html
Saint Boniface was also the archbishop of Mainz for a time, and a statue with a plaque at its base is erected near to Dom du Mainz in his honor.
Statue in Mainz
Plaque at the Statue's base
Because of the hectic scheduling as of late, we were not able to go cut our own tree as we would have liked. Instead, Littlest, Matty and I set out last week to a tree lot to choose our tree. In our region, a Christmas tree is not referred to as a Tannenbaum as the carol would lead you to believe, but is instead called a Christbaum, which I especially like.
Trees are priced by the 'foot' here. The gentleman owning the lot has a long yardstick marked with tick marks indicating the price to be charged (prices which are extortionate). The three of us walked the entire yard looking for a tree that wouldn't bankrupt us, had a full appearance, and was not dry. Littlest chose a tree that was a proper height price-wise and happened to be a blue fir. The needles felt almost soft to the touch, and the tree appeared to be full looking.
Indicating that we had chosen our Christbaum, the gentleman trimmed the base to a length I specified and wrapped the tree in netting for us. Tree in trunk, the kiddos and I set out to Real, a kind of German Wal-Mart, to buy lights to fit our electrical sockets. One strand of lights here cost in the neighborhood of 25 US Dollars. Did I mention the lights are orange (admittedly not one of my preferred colors for tree lights)? After inquiring after white lights, I was told that the orange lights are meant to look more like candlelight (also, placing candles on the boughs is still common practice here).
One string of scant orange faux candle lights in hand, the kiddos and I hauled the tree up to our flat and set it up waiting for Daddy, Bop and Log to come home and help trim our modest blue tree. The tree's boughs were not strong enough to support most of our ornaments, so only homemade, lightweight varieties adorn our tree. Daddy made hot chocolate and graham cracker treats as we trimmed our tree while listening to the Westminster Abbey Choir singing carols.
Kiddos nearly obscuring our little tree
Log was very proud of the stocking he 'sewed.'
It's not a bad little tree. Were it standing next to a green tree, the blue hue would be much more apparent.
2 comments:
From the wisdom of Linus: It's not a bad little tree. Not bad at all. All it needs is a little love.
I love the picture of the kids standing in front of the tree. So cute.
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