The Martin Luther Tree was not the Riga Tree. In fact, little is known about the original Riga tree other than the fact that it was attended by men wearing black hats, and that after a ceremony, they burnt the tree.
This was a mixture of pagan and Christian custom, as were very many of the customs in Central/Northern Europe at that time.
The Martin Luther walk in the forest, believed to have actually happened in Northern Germany and his lighted tree actually occurred several decades later.
The manufacture of glass ornaments did not begin until the middle of the Nineteenth Century. The art of glass-making was practiced in Bohemia in the modern day Czech Republic and along the border areas with Germany at a location in Thuringia called Lauscha.
Before the 1600's trees were decorated with strings of bright berries, dried flowers, bits of colored ribbons & even sometimes small coins. Straw figures were also use din some locales as wella s to decorate a tree. In many lrural-village ocales the trees were living trees outside of the home. They were hung with strings of berries, small heads of grain bits of suet and pieces of old bread. This was done to feed the hungary animals & birds that lived in the forests around the villages.
During the 1600's, glass beads were made for chandeliers and for the decoration of dresses. Some of the early strings of chandelier beads were also used to decorate Christmas trees and a form of wooden chandelier which displayed figures from the Nativity scene carved along its arms. This wooden chandelier was called a "Spinne," because candlelight which reflected on the strings of tiny beads resembled a spider's web glistening with frost.
Glass-blowing was thirsty work and during the course of their labors, the blowers would drink a lot of ale. Mild as the beverage might be, by the end of the day many of the workers would be a little merry and held glass-blowing games to see who could blow the largest ball before the glass burst. The balls which remained intact would be gathered by the workers'wives and then "silvered" by the swirling of a nitrate solution around the interior. These silvered balls would them be taken to the Christmas Markets at Coburg and other areas, where they would be sold as Christmas balls, purported to avert evil from the home over Christmas, if suspended or placed onto sticks which would be displayed in the hallway of the house. This custom was a later version of the Holy Bough ceremony...a distant and somewhat vague memory of keeping bad things from the home during the Holy Season.
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