Although there are several rival explanations, the Latvian capital Riga lays claim to being the birthplace of the Christmas tree.
One story goes that it was the handiwork of the members of the House of Blackheads, an organisation for unmarried foreign merchants living in the city. They supposedly set fire to a tree and left it in the square in front of their building – something which sounds suspiciously like a fraternity prank.
Whether or not there is any truth in the tale, Riga today makes quite an effort with Christmas decorations. The city’s Christmas trees will be lit this afternoon, beginning with Kongresu nams and then moving on to ceremonies at the Dome Square and Ratslaukums.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Personalized koozies // Dec 3, 2007 at 11:07 am
The Christmas tree origins came from european pre-Christian cultures
but Riga is decorated very nicely
2 Matt // Dec 3, 2007 at 7:31 pm
That would be interesting…would explain why we always want the X-mas tree to light up haha ;)..k bad joke
3 John // Dec 6, 2007 at 2:04 am
Personalized koozies: I had to visit your site to find out what a koozie was… I think it’s fair to say that the Christmas tree’s origins are obscure, and I’d treat Riga’s claim with caution. Still, I thought it was a nice story!
Matt: Thankfully I’ve managed to avoid that kind of blaze so far…
4 Shawna // Dec 7, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Never hear of that story, interesting.
5 Holiday Chatter // Dec 10, 2007 at 4:24 pm
This is really interesting!
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