Secret History Of Your Christmas Tree - True Story
The Valley air is a cold wood-stove. Mist sleeps in the Redwoods. Your tree waits like a toddler for Christmas. Do you put up a tree? Do you hang with family? Do you pack packages with glee? Where did your tradition come from?
Your Christmas tree has a wonderful story. A history old as dirt. Lets shine light on this mystery together. Your Christmas Tree has a Grandpa. It begins with ancient Egyptians. They used trees in ceremonies. This was thousands of years ago.
@HappyMoneyMan and my tree. @lifemovedbysteem and I found my Christmas outfit at Santa Cruz Flea Market.
The tree you know was born in Germany 500 years back. What a fantastic thought. Imagine the year 1517. Picture a frozen village on the other side of earth. A family gathered by a tree just like you. They had a fire burning. The same smells and feelings were in the air. Like you, they decorated their trees with fruit and food. Not like you, Germans made tinsel from strips of beaten silver. Wow. If you feel bold try beating a silver dollar into a bundle of tinsel. Germans were clearly epic decorators, but
they couldn't match you with the lighting.
The idea for tree lights came from Martin Luther. On a dark saunter; he saw frozen stars shine in the Evergreens. To copy the starry sight he hung lit candles in his tree at home. Talk about a fire hazard. He survived the serendipity. His candlelit trees became popular.
Candle and silver tinsel in a modern tree... So that's where that came from!
When Germans came to America they brought Christmas trees. But progress was Puritan-slapped! The Puritans hated decorations and trees and despised dancing and singing. They made laws against your tree. It was literally illegal to have a tree for Christmas. Your Christmas tree was an outlaw rebel. It survived scorn for 150 years until it got a huge break. In fact your tree ended up with a rockstar endorsement.
Does the Christmas Tree feel like blockchain? I love the thought of when Christmas was punk rock outlaw.
Queen Victoria decorated the tree in her house in 1876. Like any proper royalty she posted a selfie. East Coast newspapers printed the pic and America went wild. In the 1800's America loved copying the royal family. Trees popped up in every home and our tradition continued. Your grandparents hung nuts, dry fruit, and popcorn... Just like the 1st Germans!
Imagine being a German at the time. “Yea, I told you so... 400 years ago”
We were close, but we still had a hot safety issue. So hot it burned a hospital and a hundred homes. Candles in trees! Imagine how busy your fire department would be if maniacs still hung fire in Christmas trees?
Don't worry, Benjamin Franklin saved the day. (actually his assistant). They blew a bundle of fetty fashioning a tree with 300 light bulbs. Your modern Christmas lights were born. This brings us to the tree in your house. Same tree. Similar decorations. Safer lights. Same family.
@lifemovedbysteem and me last Christmas.
Ancient Egyptians to Royalty. Germans to Steemians. Your tree tradition stood the test of time. Hanging with friends and family never goes out of style. It feels comforting to know our history. We've done this before. We're part of a unique human condition. We're part of a wonderful community. Your tree and your town. Your family and world. Our Steem Tree.
You can shape your own family tradition. I bought a lil' live tree this year. (exclusive photo above) I'll watch it grow and bring it in the house each year. When it gets too big I will plant it in the yard with the Redwoods. Then it will carry on without me.
Did you know that my local Santa Cruz redwoods are Evergreens? They are like giant living Christmas trees. We have the worlds tallest evergreen in CA. 379 ft of Evergreen Christmas Tradition. Just think, it has been around for all of Christmas tree history.
Merry Christmas my Steem friends.
Much love and thanks for so many precious moments together.
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Real traditional bro! LOL
haha yep. That's my traditional Elvis Christmas. Pretty standard.
I've been off steemit for a bit, building a video studio and changing my format to dive deeper into crypto.
I've saw that you changed your format also. Killing it bro. Nice work. I'm stoked to see you taking off a little bit. You have some great insight, so I'm glad to see some people starting to notice.
I wondered where you had been! The new studio will probably be amazing because you last greenscreen setup was awesome!
It is funny that my new format is doing as well as it is because I feel like it is super non-personal. I don't have a webcam on the computer that I do a lot of this stuff on so I just do the voice over. there is a lot of research that goes into the videos and these videos are actually in a way taking away from more engagement and more posts that I would usually do on Steemit. Also on top of that even having more subscribers and meeting all the criteria I still haven't been approved for monopolization on YouTube even though I have other accounts monetized and it was an existing adSense account I was trying to connect to. I'm still waiting for them to approve it. Another reason where STEEM wins! But I would like to tap into these multiple streams
Thank you for shedding light on the tradition of the Christmas tree. I like to wish you and your family a Blessed Christmas. May the coming year be filled with joy, health and peace.
I wish you joy and health for the coming year as well. Cheers to you my friend.
@happymoneyman
While I love the way you have presented our favorite holiday, I feel compelled to hint at a few additional bits of info. I had to completely revise how I see Christmas and its role after digging into this.
My intention for making this comment is to offer additional information on this topic, which may greatly add to our understanding of this holiday, not to downplay the factors you have mentioned here. It's just that the story and its roots might be more elaborate and out-there than we had supposed when considering the Christian "origins".
I have written about my research on the roots of Christmas, the pine tree symbology and the Santa myth with lots of pictures, please feel invited to drop by:
The Super-Imposed Tradition Of Christmas & Why We Are Supposed To "Fight For Its Preservation"
In all likelihood, Christmas comes from a time where our ancestors would celebrate the return of longer days and the re-awakening nature, through their reverence of a psychedelic mushroom, heralded as a material remnant of their god Odin.
Here's a little teaser, maybe it will peak your interest.
I love seeing how our posts complement each other, the puzzle pieces are all coming together ;)
I wish you and your family a wonderful new year my friend!!
very intriguing. I 'll look into it. I love learning more about history.
Merry christmas to you also my friend. Cheers.
Hope you had a very merry Christmas my friend! Thanks for the awesome history lesson!
Merry Christmas Jeff. I love learning weird stuff about history. Glad you enjoyed. Cheers.
Good post.
OMG Lol what an AMAZING costume :D It's good to see you back!
Hey thanks @roxane. I found that costume at the local flea market. My family was laughing at me all day.
Merry Christmas.
OMG! This is amazing! Merry Christmas! :)
Thanks Karen. I loved your dtube shirt you gave Acromott for christmas. You guys are so fun. Cheers. Talk to you soon.
Wow so cool you are having an epic time :D Merry Christmas have loads of fun wishing you all the luck and success :)
I hope you had a wonderful weekend blazing. Talk to you soon.
I thought the Christmas tree (or evergreen tree) tradition went back to prehistory, interesting article in your unmistakable style :). Enjoy the holidays and stay awesome, I can't wait for what adventures the next year will bring for you and Ren. Cheers!
Yea, the evergreen goes way back. Egyptians and even before. This is really only a brief recent history of the evergreen tree. Pretty rad stuff.
Look forward to next year for all of us on steemit. Steem it gaining steam. Lets see where we roll bud.
Cheers to you. Merry Christmas.
Oh yeah, that's a great story for Christmas. At all, I'm almost sure there is a similar story and this unites us! Thank you @happymoneyman and happy Christmas!
Merry christmas
Yes my friend. We're all on the same journey together. Different traditions and thoughts, but the same life. Happy Christmas to you also.