So on Black Friday, I'm dusting the greenhouse, keeping myself busy,
making myself as available as possible for all the customers who weren't
showing up... and I come across this ornament I haven't noticed in the 2
months our Xmas stuff has been set up... a freakin pickle ornament,
outta nowhere, in with the pretty red & gold ornaments. I laugh,
b.c it's a pickle ornament & seems mighty odd and out of
place amongst the fancy schmancy stuff. Then I feel I must share it
with my co-workers. One of them doesn't even remotely think it's funny,
not even in a kinda perv way, and says disdainfully if I want to think
that way, whatever... but it does look kind of phallic. And glittery. I
won't lie to act like I never think explicitly.
So, I take it
to another co-worker who does laugh at me and my slight perversions...
but then tells me there's actually a pickle legend that goes along with
the ornament, he thinks, and that it makes total sense. Now, I like
this guy well enough, but he jokes around a lot. So I think nothing of
it, assume he's messing with me to eventually make me feel kinda dumb
when I get all stoked and start telling people about this Pickle deal.
But today, I began wondering about the pickle again. Especially
after telling Greg about the whole thing and him telling me that of course
dude was messing with me. So while I have a spare moment... I google
the pickle legend. Yeah, I know. I'm a loser. But! Guess how many
results I actually FOUND about this? Well, I don't know... but it was a
LOT. So, I am pasting one of the most coherent, correctly spelled,
interesting one below so you too will know the PICKLE LEGEND of the
Christmas tree.
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(((To Give Credit Where Credit is Due:)))
Courtesy of MyMerryChristmas.com
The Christmas Pickle
By B. Francis Morlan
It
is a quaint tradition that nobody wants to claim. And its story would
not be the first tradition of Christmas born of a total fabrication. It
is the little-known tradition of the Christmas pickle.
The
Christmas pickle is not really a pickle at all. It is a pickle-shaped
ornament that is the last one hung on the tree on Christmas Eve. The
first child to find the Christmas pickle gets an extra gift from Saint
Nicholas. Or so the so-called legend goes.
There are two other
versions of the origins of the Christmas pickle. One is a family story
of a Bavarian-born ancestor who fought in the American Civil War. A
prisoner in poor health and starving, he begged a guard for just one
pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and found a pickle for
him. The pickle by the grace of God gave him the mental and physical
strength to live on.
The other, perpetuated in Berrien Springs,
MI, is a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from boarding
school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the
innkeeper, a mean and evil man, stuffed the boys into a pickle barrel.
That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, became aware of the
boys' plight, tapped the pickle barrel with his staff, and the boys were
magically freed.
Berrien Springs calls itself the Christmas
Pickle Capital of the World. They celebrate with an annual Christmas
Pickle Festival held during the early part of December. A parade, led by
the Grand Dillmeister who passes out fresh pickles along the parade
route, is the featured event. You may even purchase the German glass
pickle ornaments at the town's museum.
Rumor and speculation
place the origin of this tradition in Germany. However few in modern-day
Germany recognize or have even heard of the Christmas pickle. Some in
West Germany blame generations of East Germans who may have had nothing
more than pickles to decorate their Christmas trees with after World War
II. But even families and historians in East Germany shrug at the
mention of the Christmas pickle tradition.
Regardless of where it
came from, the Christmas tradition survives. Ornament manufacturers
continue to make the specialty decoration and enjoy perpetuating the
myth of its legendary origins -- false though they may be.
©
1989-2005 by The Merry Network, All Rights Reserved. Printed from My
Merry Christmas.com. This article may be reproduced free of charge in
its entirety only as long as this notice remains intact with due credit
given to the author and My Merry Christmas. Kindly notify us of how and
where this article is used so that we can link to your site or
publication.
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Now another musing from me:
Who
on earth do you think in the Lowe's ornament creating/buying etc
process heard about this pickle ornament and thought it was cool enough
to mass market it into Lowe's across the country, to what I am sure has
been the confusion and amusement of not only hundreds of employees, but
thousands of unwitting customers?
Kind of makes you wonder....
