Christmas Poinsettia: Mexican Legend Created the Worldwide Tradition
La Flor De La Nochebuena: Flower of the Holy Night
Mexico's Nochebuena Legend
The Christmas miracle legend of Mexico began in the 1600's oral tradition around the time of the Spanish Catholic missionaries' influences with Native American cultures in the region. The story has been retold in many versions by generations of storytellers, including Caldecott Award winning writer and illustrator, Tomie dePaola.
Nochebuena is Holy Night in Spanish, and Mexico's Christmas Poinsettia legends all center around a poor little girl journey to church on the Holy Night of Christmas Eve. The legend details vary, but the basic story remains: As the poor little girl walks in tears of sadness, because she has no gift to leave at the altar for the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child as others do, an angel of the Lord appears to her. The angel suggests the gift was right beside the road. All she has to do was reach down and gather some weeds from along the roadside.
The poor little Mexican girl trusts the angel's instructions, picking some straggly weeds and walking on to the chapel. When the girl places the wilting weeds onto the altar, the weeds burst into big, bright red blossoms, with starry yellow centers from every stem.
La flor de la Nochebuena, or the flower of the Holy Night that English-speakers know as the poinsettia, miraculously began on Christmas Eve with that poor little Mexican girl's trusting moment of an angel and a humble gift brought to the church altar. The poinsettia legend is the symbol of selfless giving which Christmas and Christ's birth represent to Christians worldwide.
What is the Science behind the Poinsettia turning Christmas Red?
The poinsettia really is an interesting, nearly miraculous, plant, in that what appear to be the red flower petal, really are not a flower petal at all. It is a petal-like leaf turning red in response to the longer nights of November and December. Like the changing of the fall leaves in New England with the longer nights, the poinsettia changes its color too.
The actual flower is the starry yellow cluster at the center. In the tropics, some poinsettia varieties can grow as tall as ten feet high. The plant's petal-like leaf can be a rainbow of colors from red, white, pink, and can even be pale green, or peach.
How did the Mexican Nochebuena become the Christmas Poinsettia?
In the 1800's, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, noticed the flor de la Nochebuena and brought some cuttings back home with him to try to cultivate them in his greenhouse. With his success, he began giving plants away to family, friends, and fellow botanists.
Poinsett was a botanist working officially in every way to establish the plant in commercial agriculture cultivation. He assigned the genus Euphorbia to the plant. Unofficially, his name became connected to the plant. It is still known as the Poinsettia because Poinsett and his cultivation development techniques are used in greenhouses worldwide to produce the favorite brilliant, crimson red poinsettia of Christmas which graces church altars and home decorations throughout the Christmas season.
Sources:
http://www.explorelifeonearth.org
http://www.ecke.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews
Published by Lynn Pritchett
Lynn's dedication to writing at Yahoo Network is inspired not only by her professional background in health care (pharmacy) and in education (grades K to 12 special needs & general classroom), but by her dai... View profile
A Shrine for Miracles: A Personal Trip to the National Shrine of The Lit...Therese Martin died at age 24, yet she is one of the most important Saints of the Catholic Church. She was a modern woman, and she became even more popular though the efforts o...- Many Easter Traditions Origionated with the Rite of the Vernal EquinoxFrom rabbits to eggs to the resurection, many of these traditions span the globe and have for aeons.
- Pastor Henry Schwan and Joel Roberts PoinsettThough Christmas is laden with ritual, how many know the origins of something like, say, the poinsettia? And is the evergreen truly a pagan custom? Herein, rediscover two unsung American heroes, Pastor Henry Schwan an...
- The Complexities of the Japanese TeahouseIn this paper, the intricacies and underlying significance of various aspects of the traditional teahouse will be discussed in detail, in addition to a brief introduction to the Japanese tea ceremony.
- O Holy Nighta history of the hymn O Holy Night
- Poinsettia , The Flower of the Holy Night : Fact and Fiction
- Poinsettia Plants - the Flowers of the Holy Nights
- Christmas Books for Kids
- The Christmas Poinsettia
- History and Symbolism of the Poinsettia Flower
- Christmas in Mexico: Holiday Celebrations Around the World
- Christmas Traditions in New Mexico
- A poor little Mexican girl has no gift to leave on the altar for the Virgin and Christ Child.
- An angel of the Lord appears to the little girl, instructing her to pick weeds to place on the altar
- The girl places the wilting weeds on the altar. The weeds transform into crimson red blossoms.
26 Comments
Post a CommentInteresting article! As much as i love the history behind the story, I really like that you included the science behind it also.
I sure learned a lot here! Kudos, Lynn, on an interesting lesson about poinsettias!
Very interesting! What a great story this would be to use with Sunday School kids.
Super interesting!
Wonderful retelling of the legend and some interesting facts!
What a fascinating story. Very nice job. :-)
Neat story!
I love the tradition, the reverence and Tomie's wonderful story surrounding the poinsettia plant.
Love it.
I didn't know this! Very interesting. :)