Holiday Trees In The Slope

whynot_31

[quote=Mougar]I'm with whynot. It's time everyone calmed down and had a nice bacon cookie.



...looks like there are enough for everyone...

maybe scarlet can stoke the bacon like she did the festivus pole, that will get people in the spirit of the season.

bigguy

Just to clear a few things up regarding the origin of the tree tradition, the following are excerpts from the Wikipedia entry on the ancient Germanic tradition of Yule at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule

According to the medieval English writer the Venerable Bede, Christian missionaries sent to proselytize among the Germanic peoples of northern Europe were instructed to superimpose Christian themes upon existing local pagan holidays, to ease the conversion of the people to Christianity by allowing them to retain their traditional celebrations. Thus, Christmas was created by associating stories of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of Christianity, with the existing pagan Yule celebrations, similar to the formation of Halloween and All Saint's Day via Christianization of existing pagan traditions.

Many symbols and motifs associated with the modern holiday of Christmas derive from traditional pagan northern European Yule celebrations. The burning of the Yule log, the decorating of Yule trees, the eating of ham, the hanging of boughs, holly, mistletoe and others are all historically practices associated with Yule. When the Christianization of the Germanic peoples began, missionaries found it convenient to provide a Christian reinterpretation of popular pagan holidays such as Yule and allow the celebrations themselves to go on largely unchanged, versus trying to confront and suppress them. The Scandinavian tradition of slaughtering a pig at Christmas (see Christmas ham) is probably salient evidence of this. The tradition is thought to be derived from the sacrifice of boars to the god Freyr at the Yule celebrations. Halloween and aspects of Easter celebrations are likewise assimilated from northern European pagan festivals.

camaysar

The argument can be made that the religion of Christianity itself contains many Pagan elements. After the early Jewish-Christian church separated from the Jewish fold, Pagans had to be addressed as potential converts (cf, for example, the argument between Paul and Peter re: circumcision and dietary laws). There is more than a little Paganism in the concepts of the God-Man, virgin birth, initiatory rites, stress on personal future salvation, etc. etc. One wonders "what Jesus would have done" if he were told which practices and beliefs were expected of a Christian today.

arieshine

FWIW to anyone who might be reading this far to learn more about holiday trees in the Slope, I ended up purchasing a 4 ft. balsam fir for $30 from the stand outside of Key Foods on 5th. The woman selling there has some beautiful trees, but all of them overpriced IMO (originally from Upstate). However, I wouldn't know if this is a good price for PS.

carnivore

arieshine wrote: FWIW to anyone who might be reading this far to learn more about holiday trees in the Slope, I ended up purchasing a 4 ft. balsam fir for $30 from the stand outside of Key Foods on 5th. The woman selling there has some beautiful trees, but all of them overpriced IMO (originally from Upstate). However, I wouldn't know if this is a good price for PS.

**** A++. Great Brooklynianer. Stays on topic. Would read again.

pitu

Does Trader Joe's have those pots of rosemary masquerading as Xmas trees this year? I saw shorty potted trees by the subway at Union/4th Ave, but none of them were made of rosemary . . .

arieshine

thank you Carnivore

scarlett

Our tree is adorable and 4 feet or so from Cobble Hill for $40. Roommate didn't want to pay $60 the hottie in front of CVS was selling. I totally agree but I was thinking the hottie might accept other form of payment . Think he was Eastern European but looked all Colorado many.

brooklynpotter

we got our tree! from the vermont guy on 16th. a balsam fir. yay!