Archive of entries posted on 24th December 2020

Be of Good Cheer

Posted by on

While orbiting the Moon on Apollo 8, on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968, William Anders said:

“We are now approaching lunar sunrise and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

An Unexpected Source

Posted by on

I’ve never read a biography of Napoleon. I really probably should have, at some point. He just doesn’t interest me, somehow; nor do the Napoleonic Wars. I did read a thrilling account of his brilliant and unconventional campaigns, in a book about History’s Greatest Generals, so he has my respect as a general. I suspect, though, he was probably pretty dislikeable as a person. I hope that’s not a Napoleonphobic comment.

Anyway, that explains why I was surprised to see this quote from him: I had no idea whether he had religious opinions or not.

The nature of Christ’s existence is mysterious, I admit; but this mystery meets the wants of man. — Reject it and the world is an inexplicable riddle; believe it, and the history of our race is satisfactorily explained.

— Napoleon

The First Victorian Christmas Trees Weren’t Victorian

Posted by on

The First Victorian Christmas Trees
December 15, 2020 | John Rabon | anglotopia.net

Coming originally from Germany, there is speculation about how it got started as a decoration.  Stories have it that reformist Martin Luther created the first Christmas tree when he placed candles on an evergreen tree in 1536.  Luther walked out of his home in Wittenberg one night in December and saw the stars twinkling through the tree branches and thought they looked like candles.  He then placed candles on an evergreen as a symbol to remind his children of Christ coming down from the heavens to become one of us. 

The first documented representation of a Christmas tree was on the cornerstone of a private home in Turckheim, Alsace (part of modern-day France) in 1576.

Over time, the popularity of the Christmas tree spread across Germany.  While most people think it didn’t come to Britain and the States until the first Christmas that Prince Albert spent with Queen Victoria, he wasn’t actually the first German spouse of a monarch to do so.  Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III, was originally from the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in Germany.  In 1800, she placed a Christmas tree in Queen’s Cottage at Kew Palace for her children.  This first display of a Christmas tree by the Royal Family didn’t catch on with the public, and it would be a few decades before the practice returned with the next German-born royal consort.