The most popular Christmas traditions for the celebration of Christmas is the nativity scene and the Christmas tree. how

and where born?

Christmas tree

The crib, according to tradition, originated in 1223 at Greccio, in Umbria, by St. Francis who wanted to enrich the Mass of Christmas with a nativity scene that recalls the Nativity. The first to describe the Nativity were the evangelists Luke and Matthew proposing the icon of the manger and the ox and the donkey. This representation favorably impressed the imagination of the early Christian wall graffiti reported in many of the Catacombs of Domitilla in the cemetery of St. Agnes.

Luke Matthew

Therefore, the St. Francis, changing this ancient tradition, he organized the first nativity scene in which as the centuries have been added to the allegorical characters that have come down to us.

Naples

The Christmas tree probably has its origins in pagan cults instead related to Northern Europe. It became part of the Italian tradition in the late nineteenth century when the wife of Umberto I prepared one in the Quirinale Palace.

Although many of the Christmas traditions are being lost, the tree stands, or rather has assumed the role of a true symbol of Christmas. Often, the fir trees are replaced with plastic, wax candles by electric lights are more or less intermittent, the original colorful apples or wafers, from the religious significance, have been replaced by colored glass ornaments of every shape, but the 'tree continues to be present in the homes of most of the Italian.