By Erika Gerardini - JUMP Team (Italy)
It’s Christmas and we all hope that our loved ones are spending their best time, relaxing, in peace and health in front of the most important symbol of these days of the year: the Christmas tree. Small or big, fashion or minimal, colourful or bi-color, surrounded by presents or with a few of them but anyway, diffusing harmony and serenity in the space
How Did Christmas Trees Start?
“Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remain green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.”
In Soverato, the city where JUMP is based, there’s a little workshop where a mother and the daughter create a precious and unique Christmas tree with ceramics and during the whole year the symbol of the tree is also represented with a beautiful and colourful “tree of life”. Have a look here below!
Working ceramics is an old tradition which is based on “cultural heritage”, the main topic of our Erasmus project.
The artists, mother and daughter, “Ciliberti” family, continue this art in Soverato with passion and connecting the past to the present.
The Christmas tree and the tree of life made of ceramics go against the trend of the last years to decorate our houses with Chinese and cheap stuff. Plastic and other un-ecological materials filling our storages at the end of the Christmas celebrations!
Ceramic is forever!
Furthermore, these unique pieces of art become lovely lights assuring the romantic atmosphere for our houses.
The magic workshop of Francesca Ciliberti is a place where the warm colours of the land surround you representing the deep roots of the rural life of our region.
Cultural Heritage is everywhere, but more than in other periods, this year the Christmas trees and the trees of life announce Christmas 2021 which we hope it will be peaceful and full of new hopes for everyone! We need this!
What better symbol than the tree?
Original pictures by Erika Gerardini.
One quotation from the source:
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees
