101 years of the Christmas tree

A tree with two stories

People often wish for a Christmas tree to be perfectly straight, tall enough, not missing any branches, in short, without a single flaw. In the case of a tree growing in the forest, where the one on Svoboda Square has been growing for 101 years, it is difficult to achieve such symmetry, because it does not grow as a solitaire in the garden, but among other trees, so it does not have the opportunity to grow evenly and sometimes a branch is missing or ugly. That is its first story.

And the other one? This one explains why every year the Christmas tree comes from the university forests. Because it has a poignant history dating back to 1919, when a writer Rudolf Těsnohlídek rescued a little girl abandoned in the woods near Bílovice nad Svitavou. He was struck by this event and thought how to further help the abandoned children. During a visit to Copenhagen he noticed a decorated tree and brought the custom to us. In 1924, his idea was implemented for the first time and the square in Brno was decorated with the first public Christmas tree from the forest.

Thanks to the charity collection that took place under the tree, in the following years it was designed by Bohuslav Fuchs in Brno children's home built. It was opened in 1929 and named after Queen Dagmar of Denmark, who was famous for her care of the poor. The collection still takes place under the Christmas tree today and is organised by the Czech Red Cross.

The first in the Czech Republic and Central Europe

The very first public Christmas tree was lit in New York in 1912, the first European one was in Copenhagen in 1914, in our country and probably in Central Europe, it was the aforementioned Brno in 1924. In 1926 Pilsen joined the tradition of Christmas trees in the squares, then Prague.

A Czech Television documentary about the Christmas Tree of the Republic can be seenhere.

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