The Host Files: Christmas Markets

By Adam A., Visitor Host

This past Thursday was Oshawa’s annual Bright and Merry Market. The Oshawa Museum was able to participate in this year’s event, staffing a booth along Bagot Street by the Library. In our Victorian costumes we hosted ornament decorating and promoted the Museum’s Lamplight Tours, which will be held this year on December 3.

The Bright and Merry Market is not the most traditional of Christmas Markets. It is an outgrowth of the City’s annual tree lighting ceremony, a tradition dating back over thirty years. Outdoor tree lighting ceremonies are a tradition that began in the 1920s when electrification was becoming widespread and became more widespread in the decades following the Second World War. Nonetheless, it still featured, food, song, dance, open air stalls, and ample festive spirit.

Christmas markets are part of a much older tradition. The tradition of holding a festive market in late November or early December originates in southeastern Germany and Austria during the late middle ages (ca. 1300-1500). The practice became wide spread throughout the German speaking lands during the Early Modern Period (ca. 1453-1789). These “Christkindlesmarkts” would typically be held to usher in the liturgical season of Advent.

The large influx of German immigrants in the 1800s brought the tradition to North America. Accordingly, these German Christmas Markets can be found in many cities and towns across the continent. Here in Ontario, the most largest example of these more traditional Christmas markets can be found in Kitchener, which had been settled by Germans and was known as Berlin prior to being renamed during the First World War.

Given the presence of a German community in Oshawa, it should be no surprise that a traditional Christmas market can be found here too. Club Loreley, the local German community’s cultural club, has held an annual Christmas market for over 50 years. This event will be running once more this Sunday, November 20.

Club Loreley, originally the German Canadian Club Oshawa, was established in 1955. Its members purchased a plot of land in 1957 upon which their clubhouse would be built and opened in 1961. Since then they have been regular participants in Oshawa’s Fiesta Week tradition and hold all manner of German cultural functions, of which the Christmas market is just one, through out the year.

To learn more about the influx of German immigrants and other groups into Oshawa following the Second World War, stop by the Museum to view our Leaving Home Finding Home in Oshawa exhibit.

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Sources:

https://www.clubloreley.org/history/early-history

http://clubloreley.org/images/stories/newsletter/2022/ClubLoreley-Jun-Jul2022.pdf

Oh Tannenbaum! About the Christmas Tree

By Lisa Terech, Community Engagement

Christmas is just over a week away.  Halls are decked, presents are wrapped, and Saint Nicholas is busy preparing for his busiest day of the year. When he visits the children of the world, he will leave his gifts underneath a Christmas tree, but why a tree? Why is an evergreen tree the prevalent symbol for Christmas?  The history of the tree can be traced back many years.

The use of evergreens and other greenery had been used during the winter months for centuries, with it being a reported custom of  ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews.  The evergreens represent life even through the cold, dark winter months. Through the centuries, the customs included adorning said evergreens with assorted decorations, like fruit, nuts, and paper flowers.

It was during the 18th century when the tradition truly took hold.  While the tradition of the Christmas tree had been in England for a number of years, its popularity and prevalence was cemented in 1848 when an image of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their family around a Christmas tree was published.

Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their Christmas Tree, 1847

The Royal Family were the ‘celebrities’ of their day.  Once people saw that the Royals had a tree, they too wanted to have a tree as part of their holiday tradition.

Early trees were lit with candles.  This is, of course, before the invent of electricity, and having an open flame by a tree comes with its own inherent problems.  A bucket of water would often be kept close to the tree in case any flames had to be doused. These tree candles are part of the Oshawa Museum’s collection.

Early Christmas trees were decorated with fruits, flowers and candles, which were heavy on the tree branches. In the 1800s German glass blowers began producing glass balls to replace the heavy decorations and called them bulbs.The first Christmas trees in Ontario were decorated with edible products, such as strings of popcorn, nuts and cookies.  During the 1870s the first store-bought ornaments were introduced.  They were made of tin, wax, tinsel, cardboard and glass.  The oldest manufactured ornaments, made of tin, came in various shapes such as stars, crosses and flowers.  Wax ornaments soon followed, the most popular design being an angel floating in the air.  Icicles were introduced in 1878 and still remain a popular decoration.

On the Christmas Trees at the Museum, we also hide a glass pickle among our decorations.  Why a pickle?  Some believe this is an old German tradition (although many people from Germany today do not claim this tradition as their own).  When decorating the Christmas tree, it is traditional to hang the pickle last, hidden among the branches. The first child on Christmas Day to find the Christmas pickle receives an extra gift!

Christmas trees and their official lighting are often seen as a symbolic start to the holiday season.  The City of Oshawa always lights its official Christmas tree in mid-November, and this tree is among the large evergreens by Civic Square at City Hall.  Toronto’s official Christmas tree, on the other hand, is usually a white spruce which is selected a year in advance from the Bancroft, Ontario area. In Boston, their Christmas tree is always from Nova Scotia, a gift from the province to thank them for their support after the Halifax explosion of 1917, the worst human-made explosion until the atomic bomb.  They first sent a tree in 1918, a year after the event, and they have been doing it every year since 1971.

So whether you a have white spruce, douglas fir, or an artificial tree that is used year after year, decorate those boughs, thoughtfully hang those precious ornaments, and enjoy the tradition that has been around for centuries.