Christmas in Poland is a major annual celebration, as in most countries of the Christian world. The observance of Christmas developed gradually over the centuries, beginning in ancient times; combining old Polish pagan customs with the religious ones introduced after the Christianization of Poland by the Catholic Church. Later influences include the mutual permeating of local traditions and various folk cultures. It is one of the most important religious holidays for Poles, who follow a somewhat strict traditional custom. Christmas trees are decorated and lit in family rooms on the day of Christmas Eve. Other trees are placed in most public areas and outside churches. Christmas in Poland is called "Boże Narodzenie", which translates to 'God's Birth'.
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas.
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble with the aid of a blowpipe. A person who blows glass is called a glassblower, glassmith, or gaffer. A lampworker manipulates glass with the use of a torch on a smaller scale, such as in producing precision laboratory glassware out of borosilicate glass.
Christmas lights are lights often used for decoration in celebration of Christmas, often on display throughout the Christmas season including Advent and Christmastide. The custom goes back to when Christmas trees were decorated with candles, which symbolized Christ being the light of the world. The Christmas trees were brought by Christians into their homes in early modern Germany.
A witch ball is a hollow sphere of glass. Witch balls were hung in cottage windows in 17th- and 18th-century England to ward off evil spirits, witches, evil spells, ill fortune and bad spirits.
A Christmas decoration is any of several types of ornamentation used at Christmastide and the greater holiday season. The traditional colors of Christmas are pine green (evergreen), snow white, and heart red. Gold and silver are also prevalent, as are other metallic colours. Typical images on Christmas decorations include Baby Jesus, Mother Mary, angels, Father Christmas, Santa Claus, and the star of Bethlehem. Advent wreaths, nativity scenes, illuminations, and Moravian stars are popular Christmas decorations.
Glass bead making has long traditions, with the oldest known beads dating over 3,000 years. Glass beads have been dated back to at least Roman times. Perhaps the earliest glass-like beads were Egyptian faience beads, a form of clay bead with a self-forming vitreous coating. Glass beads are significant in archaeology because the presence of glass beads often indicate that there was trade and that the bead making technology was being spread. In addition, the composition of the glass beads could be analyzed and help archaeologists understand the sources of the beads.
The Christmas pickle is an American Christmas tradition. A decoration in the shape of a pickle is hidden on a Christmas tree, with the finder receiving either a reward or good fortune for the next year. There are a number of different origin stories attributed to the tradition, including one originating in Germany. This theory has since been discounted, and it is now thought to be a German-American tradition created in the late 19th century. In fact, the New York Times reported that out of 2,057 Germans polled, YouGov determined 91% were unaware of the legend.
Mercury glass is glass that was blown double walled, then silvered between the layers with a liquid silvering solution, and sealed. Although mercury was originally used to provide the reflective coating for mirrors, elemental mercury was never used to create tableware. Silvered glass was free-blown, then silvered with a solution containing silver nitrate and grape sugar in solution, heated, then closed. Sealing methods include metal discs covered with a glass round or a cork inserted into the unpolished pontil scar. "Mercury" silvered glass was produced originally around 1840 until at least 1930 in Bohemia, Germany and was also manufactured in England from 1849 to 1855.
Lauscha is a town in the district of Sonneberg, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 13 km north of Sonneberg, and 24 km southwest of Saalfeld. Lauscha is known for its glassblowing, especially for Christmas tree decorations like baubles.
Cookie decorating dates back to at least the 14th century when in Switzerland, springerle cookie molds were carved from wood and used to impress Biblical designs into cookies.
Tlalpujahua is a town and municipality located in the far northeast of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is a former mining town, home of the Dos Estrellas Mine, which was the leading producer of gold in the early 20th century. A major landslide of mud and mining debris damaged this mine and buried about one-third of the town in 1937. Mining continued until 1959, but nationalization of the mine by President Cardenas in the 1930s led to the demise of the mine and impoverishment of the town. In the 1960s, a local by the name of Joaquín Muñoz Orta began making Christmas tree ornaments here. This eventually grew into what is now one of the largest producers of ornaments called Adornos Navideños SA de CV. In addition to this and another factory, there are about 150 small workshops dedicated to making Christmas items, with about 70% of the town's economy based on it.
Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a privately held, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
The Shiny Brite company produced the most popular Christmas tree ornaments in the United States throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
Variety Unit is an exhibit building at Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont.
Michoacán handcrafts and folk art is a Mexican regional tradition centered in the state of Michoacán, in central/western Mexico. Its origins traced back to the Purépecha Empire, and later to the efforts to organize and promote trades and crafts by Vasco de Quiroga in what is now the north and northeast of the state. The state has a wide variety of over thirty crafts, with the most important being the working of wood, ceramics, and textiles. A number are more particular to the state, such as the creation of religious images from corn stalk paste, and a type of mosaic made from dyed wheat straw on a waxed board. Though there is support for artisans in the way of contests, fairs, and collective trademarks for certain wares, Michoacán handcrafts lack access to markets, especially those catering to tourists.
Puebla handcrafts and folk art is handcraft and folk art from the Mexican state of Puebla. The best-known craft of Puebla is Talavera pottery—which is the only mayolica style pottery continuously produced in Mexico since it was introduced in the early colonial period. Other notable handcraft traditions include trees of life from Izúcar de Matamoros and amate (bark) paper made by the very small town of San Pablito in the north of the state. The state also makes glass, Christmas tree ornaments, indigenous textiles, monumental clocks, baskets, and apple cider.
Clara Johnson Scroggins was a collector and author on the subject of Christmas ornaments, and was considered an expert in the field as well.
A glass blank is a piece of glass that requires additional decoration before it is considered finished. Types of decoration include cutting, engraving, acid-etching, gilding, and enameling. Often the term blank is used in reference to an uncut piece of glass that will be cut or engraved. "Blank" is used in the same way of pottery, especially porcelain, that was often decorated elsewhere, for example by hausmalers.
Podłaźniczka, polazňička is a traditional Polish and Slovak Christmas decoration. It was usually made from branches or the top of a conifer tree turned upside down, which was then decorated with colored paper cutouts (wycinanki), candies, apples, nuts, typical Polish świats, or stars and crosses made of straw. The podłaźniczka was then hung from the ceiling rafters over the Wigilia dinner table on Christmas Eve.
