e-culture: The Festivals of Lights
EXTRA!, December 15, 2001
IN THIS ISSUE
____________________________________________________
The Festivals of Lights
Holidays in many cultures are celebrated with lights or, in older customs, with flames and candles. Festive traditions, including Diwali, Hanukkah and Christmas, usually shine brightly in Houston's diverse neighborhoods.
But lately it seems that many of Houston neighborhoods have deed-restricted colorful lights right out of the holiday spirit. One humble community is making up for noticeable inadequacies elsewhere. You will most certainly be amazed at the lighting displays illuminating the avenues off of Scott Street, between Old Spanish Trail and Yellowstone. To bring back a little cheer, residents of the old city blocks inside the South Loop 610 are burning more electricity than usual this holiday season. Neighbors have lavishly covered their homes with lights and even erected arches over narrow residential streets, including Zephyr, Alsace, Cosby, Luca, Florinda, Daphine and Alberta. Themed streets like "Candy Cane Lane" are a child's fantasy wonderland (and a photographer's dream in the making). The Grinch driving the car may even risk a smile in this splendid setting.
Here are a few holiday traditions people are celebrating somewhere in your neighborhood this year:
The Christmas Tree
Decorating and lighting a Christmas tree is a prominent holiday activity in many American homes.
From the ancient Druids, who lived among Mistletoe-covered Oaks, to the Vikings in the pine-forested northlands, many cultures have identified trees with the protection and generation of life. The Romans decorated trees to honor their god of agriculture.
In 722, Saint Boniface is said to have destroyed an Oak tree where pagans intended to hold a human sacrifice and, in its place, an evergreen grew. The "German Apostle", St Boniface instructed the pagans to leave gifts beneath the tree as an offering for the Christ Child. In the Sixteenth Century, Martin Luther created a shrine with a tree he brought indoors and adorned it with candles to represent the stars in the sky. In religious ceremonies, a light or star was placed at the top of the tree to represent the Biblical "Star in the East". Trees were often decorated with edible decorations, such as berries and pastries cut in the shape of bells and angels. In Bavaria, a Paradise Tree, or "Paradeisbaum", was decorated in churches and public spaces, and considered to represent various Christian virtues.
German immigrants in the United States decorated Christmas trees in their homes in the early Nineteenth Century, but the trend grew when English royalty (of German descent), Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, decorated a tree with fruits and gingerbread in Windsor Castle around 1834. Americans read of the new custom in a popular British women's magazine, which featured an engraving of the heavily decorated tree.
In the mid 1800s, glass ornaments were produced in Germany, but they were not available in the United States until 1871 when William DeMuth began manufacturing them in New York (where trees had fist been sold on the street in 1851). Americans continued the old world traditions of decorating the trees with hand-made paper and wood-cut symbols, berries, popcorn and apples, as well as other fruits and nuts.
In 1856, Franklin Pierce, the 14th U.S. president, was the first to decorate a Christmas tree in the White House. Christmas was officially recognized as a federal holiday by the United States Congress on June 26,1870. Pasadena, California decorated a Christmas tree with lights in 1909, and dangerous candles and paper ornaments were less common by the 1930s.
With the onset of the Twentieth Century, the environmentally-conscious president Theodore Roosevelt led a campaign to detour Americans from cutting so many evergreens, which led to the establishment of modern tree farms. Sparse decorations became more popular than the fully-dressed lavish Victorian style.
Today, some communities give Christmas trees as a symbol of gratitude. Oslo Norway annually gives a Christmas tree to Westminster, England for its help in World War II, and Nova Scotia gives a tree to Boston as a token of appreciation for generous citizens' aid following a shipping accident that killed many residents and destroyed much of the city of Halifax.
The Poinsettia
One of our brightest seasonal traditions comes from Mexico. The Poinsettia is native to regions of southern Mexico and was first introduced in the United States by Joel Poinsett, our first Ambassador to Mexico, near the end of the Nineteenth Century.
Called "La Flor de la Noche Buena", or the flower of the great night, or holy night, there is a story of triumph associated with the Poinsettia. A poor villager who was unable to bring gifts to the Christ Child at the altar, was told by an angel that any gift would do and he was instructed to pick some nearby weeds. With his humble gift in hand, he placed the lifeless weeds at the altar. He was scorned by other villagers, until the seemingly insignificant dull weeds bloomed into the vibrant red Poinsettia.
Las Posadas
Christmas in Mexico is celebrated with a wide variety of customs from region to region, but some common traditions are found, such as Las Posadas, a recreation of the Biblical story of Mary and Joseph's search for an inn. The procession is joined by townspeople who turn Mary and Joseph away from their homes and follow, with Mary on a little burro, to the church for Mass.
/Stay tuned, there's more to come!
Hanukkah
/Stay tuned, there's more to come!
For information on other regional holiday traditions and events, such as La Fete des Lumieres, Festival of the Bonfires and Luminarias on the Plaza, see our November 30 e-culture newsletter.
http://www.houstonculture.org/archive/e011130.html
Return to the e-culture newsletter
http://www.houstonculture.org/archive/e011212.html
Veselé Vánoce! (Merry Christmas! in Czech)
Mark
____________________________________________________
M A R K L A C Y / mark@cultural-crossroads.com
Houston Institute for Culture
http://www.houstonculture.org
World Music on KTRU
http://www.houstonculture.org/world
Read Cabeza de Vaca On Line
http://www.houstonculture.org/spanish
Our Educational Youth Camp
http://www.houstonculture.org/camp
Workshops | Volunteer | Comments | What You Can Do | FAQ