Snowmen & Angels at Ananda Yaan
In many western countries, it is a tradition to decorate a Christmas tree. The true story is actually a little different: Long before the commencement of Christianity, plants and trees that 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, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a God and that winter came every year because the sun God had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun God would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun God was strong and summer would return.
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. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16thcentury 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 lit candles.
German settlers migrated to Canada from the United States in the 1700s. They brought with them many of the things associated with Christmas we cherish today—Advent calendars, gingerbread houses, cookies—and Christmas trees. When Queen Victoria’s German husband, Prince Albert, put up a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1848, the Christmas tree became a tradition throughout England, the United States, and Canada.
It is in that old tradition that we wanted to create a new tradition and celebrate the Christmas Tree decoration with our senior citizens at Ananda Yaan, Byculla. Behind the concept of the afternoon was the creative mind of Krupa. She envisaged a concept of each senior citizen making an angel like snowman and an LED-lit Santa Claus. Sounds unusual? It was unusual! And all the more fascinating… More than 60 senior citizens at Ananda Yaan with great help from Rotaract Club Hinduja College were fully engrossed in the handicraft. While starting to decorate the tree, it became quiet crowded. The result was a truly beautiful and unique Christmas tree. During the afternoon we could not only see many lit Santa Claus faces but also many happiness-lit faces of our senior citizens.