FYI: They Are Birches
A lot of people don’t understand the meaning of Melanie Trump’s Christmas decorations. As a student of Slavic languages, letters, and culture I instantly recognize the symbols. Mrs. Trump is a Slovene and following her ethnic Christmas customs and traditions, not the predominately German and English traditions of the United States.
The picture of “white sticks in buckets” represent birch trees in winter lining the path to the house or great hall. It was common practice to line paths and roads with trees or shrubs so you could find them in deep snow. Birch trees are deciduous [lose their leaves in fall] and look like “a bunch of white sticks” in winter.
This isn’t ‘satanic’, ‘New Age’, or ‘haute couture’, it is a Slavic winter scene.
6 comments
Mrs. Trump is Slovene, but Mr, Trump is slobbish.
Mr. Trump views Christmas as a socialist conspiracy as people think he should give things away, rather than increasing rents, fees, and prices for the season… 😈
I originally read that b-word without the “r”, and wondered what the Trumpistas had gotten up to now. Slavic Christmas decorations wasn’t what I was expecting.
Yeah, I know, everyone expects something evil from anyone named Trump. I seem to remember that David lean used a version of this imagery in Dr. Zhivago and Russian Christmas cards are overloaded with troikas driving between birches. It is a stock visual like Baba Yaga stomping around in her chicken-legged hut or the Rorag [Firebird].
thank you for explaining that. as much as I DON’T like DONALD trump, I was really liking MRS trump’s decorations (and feeling guilty about that — until now — thank you!)
Birch trees are common throughout the Slavic area of Europe, fir trees are not. The Japanese are more “Christmasy” than Fox News. Giving gifts is a big hit world wide, although the day[s] on which gifts are given is different. Different customs and different fairy tales.