Poinsettia- a poignant Christmas symbol

The celebration of Christmas has well defined structure and age old alliance with some of the best known plants and flowers. True, some of the flowers plat key role in the decoration for Christmas. Can any one deny aptness of Church alters being laden with poinsettia or that of the bunch of roses being offered to Jesus? Certainly not, the teaming of flowers and Christmas dates back to several hundred years and the bonding has ever been strong and healthy. Time has never been able to cast corrosion upon the use of different flowers for the celebration of Christmas.

Some of the common traits of the flowers…..

• Be it Ivy, Laurel, Holly, Rose or Poinsettia, they are similar because they are evergreen.
• Most of the flowers used in Christmas are very bright in color.
• All the flowers are extremely beautiful and grow in abundance.
• Most of the flowers have Pagan origin.

Well, there is some significance of the above mentioned traits. It can be noted that all the flowers associated with Christmas have extremely bright color and thus it can be understood that they are used in order to add colors to the otherwise dull atmosphere of chilling winter. Then again they are evergreen and are the only flowers that sustain the cold winter and remain fresh in extremely cold weather as well.

Poinsettia-

A comparative study reveals that the use of poinsettia as a decorative flower during the Christmas celebration is a relatively new tradition as compared to its peers like Ivy, Laurel and Rose.

Poinsettia has its roots at Mexico and the Aztec Indians also engaged themselves in the cultivation of Poinsettia. It is interesting to note that it was named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was the first Ambassador to Mexico.

How poinsettia did become a Christmas symbol?

It is certainly strange in spite being developed in recent times poinsettia has become an integral part of Christmas celebration mainly in western countries. The answer lies in the following legend.

The legend of Poinsettia…

The legend of poinsettia has in it a story of an extremely poor child. The child aspired to gift something to his beloved God but did not have money so that he could bye something for his God.  On his way to church he collected some weeds and decided to gift those weeds to God. But God responded to his prayers and the weeds were turned into beautiful flowers.  Since then poinsettia has become one of the essential flowers to be used during the Christmas celebrations.
Merits of poinsettia

• Poinsettia is extremely durable and can stay for weeks.
• The leaves are bright colored and thus it is extremely beautiful.
• Poinsettia needs very less maintenance.

There is no room for any misconception that poinsettia is poisonous. Rather like any other plants it reduces the carbon dioxide and adds oxygen.