The Upside Down Christmas Tree.

A monk named St. Bonafice from Devonshire went to Germany. He spent time there preaching. He spent a lot of time in Thuringia. Now Thuringia is known as the birthplace of the industry dealing with Christmas Decorations. He used a triangular shape of the fir to describe the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, that makes up the Holy Trinity. As a result people started to worship the Fir tree as God's tree. (or better known as the tree in the garden of Eden). By the 12th Century the fir tree was being hung upside down from ceilings in Central Europe as a symbol of Christianity at Christmas Time.

The real history behind the upside down christmas tree remains quite vague, very little information is known about it.

The trend of hanging the upside down christmas tree has changed, the point of the fir tree pointing up to heaven . Many people believe that an upside down christmas tree is a sign of contempt.

Upside down christmas trees were popular for a short time and were originally just used as ,a marketing gimmick. It enabled customers to pick ornaments off easier and more conviently.

One other note on christmas trees while we're on the subject:
Christmas trees were not to be brought out and decorated until Christmas Eve (dec. 24th), rather than the first day of christmas (dec. 23rd). They are then to be removed after the 12th night which would be January 6th. To have your tree up before or after these dates was considered bad luck...just a thought for you :)

Amish Christmas

The Amish celebrate Christmas over two days
December 25th is for scripture reading, meditating and fasting and other religious activities. They reflect on the birth of Christ.
December 26th is for celebrating with family and friends. Having gatherings with friends and families, eating feasts or large meals and they actually do give gifts.

They do not believe or portray santa clause in their celebrations
Some do decorate a tree with candles, some write christmas cards.
Some do not.
Some Amish families exchange gifts by drawing names out of hats and exchanging one gift per person. The gifts they exchange are usually handmade or for use outside.
Younger Amish children recieve toys while older amish children recieve either something for a hope chest (if your a girl) or tools useful for the farm (if your a boy)
A few interesting facts for now....

I promise the blog is not dead!

Excuse my absence, I have been away exploring foreign lands and visiting dear friends...ok you got me I am not the super world traveller I would like to think I am but instead I went to disneyworld. That isn't so foreign like I would like it to be. I'd like to explore Ecuador, Nicaragua, Argentina...more of South America. I'd like to explore most of Europe except England because I hear it's a really dirty country. (anyone to prove me wrong on that?) Though maybe seeing the queen would be fun.
But For now disneyworld is where we went and it was fun. Exploring the parks, lounging by the pool. Enjoying the heat, I got a pretty sweet tan...only to return home to the city covered in snow, highways whited out by snow blowing freely across the countryside...and home to shovel this snow. I should have stayed at Disneyworld Longer...maybe avoided winter all together.

Google told me so....

So Google always has headlines and their "google" logo written in some interesting way...well it turns out it is the 115th anniversary of the discovery of the xray. One of the most important discoveries in science and health.

The xray was first discovered by german physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen in 1895. X-ray is a form of electromagnetic radiation. It was first utilised in a clinic in the united states in early 1896.

Some facts about xray and wilhelm conrad roentgen:

• born in lennep in rhenish prussia
• an only child of a merchant and manufacturer of cloth
• considered the father of diagnostic radiation
• First Nobel prize in physics in 1901.
• married to anna bertha ludwig
• had one child a daughter who they adopted at the age of six, it was his wife's brothers child
• the japanese word for xray is rentogen
• in turkey it is roentgen
• in lithuanian its rentgeno
• He died on february 10, 1923 from carcinoma of the intestine (cancer)
• Upon his death all his personal and scientific correspondence was destroyed in keeping with his will.

So hopefully you have learned a little bit of information regarding the founding father of xrays...it is rather interesting I think.

Happy xray day everyone!