Ever wonder why we use poinsettias as a symbol of Christmas?
It’s only been around since the 1830’s as a holiday plant. A few years earlier the US Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, a botanist, brought a plant back from Mexico to his greenhouse in South Carolina. For a while the plant was known at the “Mexican fire plant” until the scientific name became poinsettia pulcherrima (in honor of Poinsett). December 12 was named as National Poinsettia Day in his memory.
In Mexico, the plants grow wild along the roads and in fields. The sap had been used for generations as medicine and the red leaves were used for dye. As the native Aztec people of Mexico were converted to Christianity, they embraced the red leaves as a symbol of Jesus’ love.
Soon legends grew up, the most famous being that two children with nothing to give the baby Jesus picked green weeds on the way to church. When they arrive at church, they laid their weeds at the feet of the Christ Child and the plant blooms with the red flowers that eclipse the other gifts.The star shape of the red flower is associated with the Star of Bethlehem and also a reminder of Herod’s killing of the children of Bethlehem, as well as a foreshadowing of Christ’s own crucifixion.
Churches, businesses, and homes are decorated with this lovely flower that blooms in December as a reminder, recognized or not, of the birth of the Savior into the world. If you have a poinsettia in your home, I hope this will enrich your enjoyment of it.
See you tomorrow.
