Happy Holidays from Michigan Exposures

It's that time of the year when every blog and it's brother wishes you some sort of Happy Holiday, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Flying Spaghetti day.  So I guess that makes this blog a brother or something.  So I want to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of the year.  I hope that you all stay safe and happy as you go to visit relatives or whomever.

As for the picture, I would like to give you a little background.  I was going to recycle one of the pictures I took before and slap a greeting on it but the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like that idea.  As I was in Downtown Ypsi, I saw this tree and thought I would try the out of focus look.  I hope you guys like it.  If not, sometimes you've got to experiment, right?

Somehow, it wouldn't be this blog without a little history lesson.  The decorated Christmas tree dates back to 15th Century Livonia and 16th Century Northern Germany.  The Brotherhood of Blackheads would erect a tree for the holidays in their home and then on the last night for the holidays would take it to the town square and dance around it.  After which, they would light it up in flame.

The next appearance would be in mystery plays in which an apple was plucked from an evergreen.  Trees remained in churches until the 16th century when they started to appear in Guild Halls.  In the 18th century, they would be adorned with candles.  Christmas trees spread outside of Germany in the 19th Century in the homes of nobility.  It wasn't until the mid 1800's, that they became widespread.

So again, I wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah or Kwanzaa or whatever else you celebrate.