Friday, December 9, 2011

An Evergreen Christmas - Postcard Friendship Friday #93



Here again is this delightful little girl from the early 1900's.  One can find her photographs everywhere.  Someday I will discover who she was.  There is something so endearing about her piquant little face.

As you see, she is holding evergreen boughs.  In early History, plants and trees which remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, holly, spruce and fir trees, in olden times, peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.

Germany is credited with starting the tradition of the Christmas tree.  It is said that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, was the first to add lighted candles to a tree.
 

Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he put an evergreen tree in the living room and wired its branches with lighted candles.  From that time on, Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce.

Merry Christmas!
 
*  NOTE: You don't have to stick to the theme I choose each Friday. Just put up the postcards you love and tell us why you like them.

*  REMINDER: Comments and links which contain advertising and do not refer to any of the following; Postcard Friendship Friday, mailboxes, the Post office, postcards or the love of postcards, will be deleted.



7 comments:

Sreisaat said...

She's a pretty little girl! I hope you'll find info about her soon. My entry for this week's PFF also involves kids.

Have a great weekend.

Postcards Crossing

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

Such a pretty card and I love the evergreens she is holding.

I'm away from home this weekend so I'm likely to be late visiting everyone. I'll do my visiting Sunday/Monday without fail. :)

LiT Web Studio said...

A beautiful card and child...and now I've started seeing her everywhere too!Amazing how she appeared on so many postcards and yet we have no idea who she was...happy PFF!

Paul van Yperen said...

So Luther initiated the Christmas tree with candles. Wonderful. PFF learns me so much!

Dorincard said...

Nice girl, super-green branches! :)

Irene said...

What a wonderful little face indeed. Love this card. Thank You for hosting.

Lucy said...

I so seldom comment on your blog but it is just so interesting. I am trying to revive, sort of my blog that was Day to Day but now reads "a new day". I have to figure out how to do links.