Week 8: TREE LIGHTING

I went home for Thanksgiving break in San Jose, CA. And somehow, stumbled upon the Christmas in the Park Tree Lighting ceremony. This is a picture of the first lighting of this giant Christmas tree!

I've been going to Christmas in the park pretty much every year since I was a wee lad. And as far as I remember, this tree has been lit the same. every. year. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of how this tree is lit. Stretching out the lights to accent the length of the tree turns this into a giant cone with an itty bitty star on top. It doesn't really scream out Christmas tree to me because I am just too focused on the cone shape it creates. It also detracts from the gorgeously lit giant ornaments that are hung, what seems to look like, underneath the string lights. I much prefer the string lights wrapped around, to not "shape" the tree so much as to accent it. It was still quite the spectacle to see this tree being lit for the first time.

And then the question of how the whole lighting of trees during the holiday season even came about arose. So I did some research.

"Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added 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 erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles." - History.com

And there you have it! The ever-so-popular lit Christmas tree. Another fun fact, Christmas lights used to be called Fairy lights. An appropriate name, I'd say.