The Fatherland, that's where it all began. <br />A Christmas Market held in 1434. <br />The town of Dresden, needless to say, <br />where candles, toys and sweets <br />and later gingerbreads and roasted almonds, <br />delicious chestnuts and regional specialties <br />the custom spread throughout the land, <br />downhill along the path called the Romantic Road. <br /> <br />And soon it had infected Austria and Switzerland, <br />and France and Italy, and Denmark, Hungary, <br />the English could not hold back their embrace, <br />and then the storm went east to settle in the Baltic, <br />and all of Eastern Europe, but wait, I need to tell: <br /> <br />'Twas Dr. Martin Luther who, while walking <br />through the forest in the dark just before Christmas, <br />he thought it would be festive and could make <br />a new tradition honouring the Lord. He asked to have <br />a thousand candles placed upon the trees, to light <br />and to replace the moon who was right then <br />taking a nap to gather strength to face the season. <br />The year was fifteen-ten, and folks became excited, <br />the first authentic Christmas Tree was born, at last.<br /><br />Herbert Nehrlich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/christmas-a-bit-of-history/
