Some days Blogger seems to have its own ideas about vertical orientation of photos, i.e. it doesn't like it. Oh, well.
This is Europe's largest, tallest iron/metal Christmas tree, right here in the main square of Porto. It is actually pretty cool to watch as it cycles through half a dozen light settings of different colors and combinations. And it is indeed big. The urge to have the biggest whatever is interesting. Sandy just told me about some guy in Denmark who has the world's biggest red and white Christmas heart (very traditional in Denmark) in his lawn.
The b
ig tree in Porto is also paradoxically surrounded by a square than ranges from baroque to 19th century modern. So the ultra- modern tree is an interesting fit.
Ironically, it really got me in the Christmas mood more than anything has so far. All through the streets loudspeakers are playing lots of Christmas songs, mostly in English. I guess Christmas has been globalized here to some degree. There seems to be a global imaginary about Christmas that now centers on a very American version of a traditional English Christmas. White Christmases in places that don't get much snow.
Too bad in a number of ways. I remember finding it very refreshing that Christmas in some Latin American places used to be much more centered on the Three Kings, camels, palm trees and a few modest presents on Jan. 6 (Three Kings Day).
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Europe's biggest iron Christmas tree
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
HI!
I was just wondering whether the Christmas holiday explosion happens this early in Europe when I checked this blog. Apparently, it does. Here, they started stocking (no pun intended, but I'll take it) stores before the Halloween stuff came down. And one of our most popular radio stations plays nothing but Christmas Musak starting earlier and earlier -- this year, they started the day after Thanksgiving, which has been devoured by the Christmas stampede. The only place I saw Thanksgiving decorations this year was at my chiropractor's office. They go all out and pull out all the stops for every holiday -- Easter, Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and probably a few more. Stuff goes everywhere. On the walls, the reception desk, the wall shelves behind the reception desk, the bookshelves in the rooms,
every available nook and cranny including lurking on top of the plastic covers of the fluorescent ceiling lights!
This year, someone I used to know, who is not a Christian, posted a rageful rant about both the religious and the commercial side of Christmas and the consumer mentality and that he felt that it was all in his face. Unfortunately there was nothing interesting or redeeming about his post (it was on the blog part of his my space page), just an f-every-other-word in various "let's tack it onto this noun and make an adverb from that one" guises. I just had to shake my head. Humbug, indeed.
I'm happily pagan but still celebrate Christmas, and have lots of good memories about Christmases past, including all the nativity scenes with a desert emphasis and the big star, which we all happily drew and painted in school before it became politically incorrect. (We'll charitably not mention how awfully I must have drawn camels!) It was also an interesting adventure moving from snow-visited Northern New Mexico to San Diego when I was six: and trying to figure out how Santa Claus was going to maneuver into this city without snow and our apartment without a chimney. (My mom got creative and said he makes himself small enough to drop down the kitchen vent, then gets back to normal size, leaves the loot, and walks out the front door.) I love the music, if I can hide from the watered down stuff that passes for Christmas music. Here's hoping I can focus on work though... there seem to be quite a few holiday-related distractions about, if pleasant ones, this year.
I don't like the commercial stuff, either, though. (Darn Muggles...) But I appreciate the brightness the actual holyday stuff brings to this time of the otherwise gloomy and wet year. ANd this weekend has been gloomy and wet: snow flurries till the wind changed, wind and rain next. We're inland. The coast got clobbered with hurricane force wind. A perfect time to go home and hole up in front of a nice cozy fire and stay pretty much put.
Rhetorical question: Can our society please celebrate the Christmas spirit and reverence of evergreens by NOT killing eighty foot fir and spruce trees to prop up in public squares in big cities and dress in lights???? (What did those trees ever do to YOU?)
I guess one advantage of using "trees" made out of iron construction scaffolding for your desired huge tree effect is that they don't involve the direct cutting of real trees. But I am sure getting and processing all that iron has some consequences, too.
Post a Comment