Adelaide - The Christmas City

[Shuz]

3 kilometres of lights? Holy...

[bm7500]

Looks like the first or second part of the tree is being installed at the moment.

[Howie]

Brilliant.. loving this webcam.

Harbo if you're reading this... if only we can get a webcam like fed square
http://www.federationsquare.com.au/index.cfm?pageID=20
That would be brilliant. It's essentially a dv quality camcorder attached to a video capture card, but it means real framerates and high resolution.. it's like being in Fed Square itself.

[Ben]

I'd love to see when (wishful thinking) Victoria Square is closed to traffic a tree double the size of this right in the middle so you can see it coming up King William each way and from the airport up grote st and up Wakefield st. it already looks spectacular when coming down king william.

[Ben]

Adelaide got a special mention:

Christmas tree - Dates

Christmas tree, History

Friday Nov 23,2007

It is generally thought that Christmas trees were established in Britain after Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, brought the custom over from Germany. However, there are records of small fir trees being used to decorate houses before this and sailors used to affix one to the top of the mainmast of their ships.

In Germany and northern Europe, the practice of decorating coniferous trees originated in pagan times, when the trees were seen as phallic symbols representing the fertility of the nature gods.

The practice was associated with the Winter Solstice (around December 21) which was seen as the date of the rebirth of the Sun God. Tree decoration was later adopted into Christian practice after the Church set December 25th as the birth of Christ, thereby supplanting the pagan celebration of the solstice.

Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December), and then removed the day after twelfth night (i.e., 6 January); to have a tree up before or after these dates was even considered bad luck.

Modern commercialisation of Christmas has resulted in trees being put up much earlier; in shops often as early as late October (in the UK, Selfridge’s Christmas department is up by early September, complete with Christmas trees).

A common tradition in U.S. homes is to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and to take it down right after the New Year.[citation needed] Some households in the U.S. do not put up the tree until the second week of December, and leave it up until the 6th of January (Epiphany).

In Germany, traditionally the tree is put up 24th of December and taken down 7th of January, though many start one or two weeks earlier and in Roman-Catholic areas the tree may be kept until late January. In Australia, the Christmas tree is usually put up on the 1st of December, which occurs about a week before the school summer holidays; except for South Australia, where most people put up their tree after the Adelaide Credit Union Christmas Pageant, which is in early November.

Some traditions suggest that Christmas trees may be kept up until no later than the 2nd of February, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Candlemas), when the Christmas season effectively closes.[7] Superstitions warn of negative consequences if Christmas greenery is not removed by Candlemas Eve.

[AtD]

A common tradition in U.S. homes is to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and to take it down right after the New Year.[citation needed]

I think they just copy-pasta'd the article from Wikipedia! Where is it from?

*calls MediaWatch*

It'd be hillarious if that went to print.

[Ben]

it does say source wikipedia down the bottom..

http://www.bestchristmasdays.com/2007/1 ... ree-dates/

[AtD]

Ah ok, I thought it was The Advertiser or something.

[UrbanSG]

Here is a scan of a pic showing our Xmas tree which was lit during the past weekend. The shot appears to be from last night and was in today's Advertiser. Picture by Brenton Edwards. Even Westpac now has the Xmas tree lighting which you can just see in the background and goes very well with the red 'W' at the top.

[Edgar]

I stumbled upon this blog while searching for an example of what Christmas festival in Malaysia are like:

http://dondon83.blogspot.com/2006/12/th ... -like.html

this is just inside the mall, not to mention the decorations outside the buildings and around the city.

and this, coming from an Asian country, where Christianity comes after Islam, Buddhism and Indian beliefs.

That is just one of the many example how we take tourism during Christmas so seriously, and mind you, they are not sponsored by local councils.

[canopy]

I stumbled upon this blog while searching for an example of what Christmas festival in Malaysia are like:

http://dondon83.blogspot.com/2006/12/th ... -like.html

this is just inside the mall, not to mention the decorations outside the buildings and around the city.

and this, coming from an Asian country, where Christianity comes after Islam, Buddhism and Indian beliefs.

That is just one of the many example how we take tourism during Christmas so seriously, and mind you, they are not sponsored by local councils.

Hi edgar_raphael,

During christmas time, kuala lumpur shopping centre take it seriously to decorate their complex. Ppl usually will take photo during their trip to the shopping centre. Mind you, singapore city will be the best decorate during christmas time.

[Edgar]

I know, that was what I have been stressing since my first post in this thread.

However, some people who hasn't been there still thinks that what Adelaide did is the best and could outbeat the other big cities in Australia.

I am just being realistic.

[Norman]

Bit of a late entry...

[Diamond]

Nice one Norm!

[duke]

Anyone know when the lighting of the tree is this year?
There seems to be no mention of it that i can see on the ACC website.