In part two of our history of the poinsettia, we looked at the pre-colonial uses of the flower and how its importance to the Aztec Empire carried on to burgeoning traditions in the early years of Spanish rule in Mexico.
Now we want to examine how this plant came to be such an important Christmas symbol, moving from revered dye-maker and medicinal plant in Aztec culture to the primary holiday flower of Mexico and Spain.
The Origins of Poinsettia as the Christmas Flower
Since the poinsettia grows natively in Mexico (and a few other regions in Central and South America), it became an important plant to Spanish colonials as they began to settle in the nation and come into contact with traditional Aztec culture. Beginning in the 16th century, Christianity began to become a major influence in the region.
An early folk tale describes a young girl that was too poor to find a gift to celebrate Christ’s birthday — Christmas — and was instructed to gather roadside weeds by an angel to leave on a church altar. The legend’s girl did as she was instructed, placed weeds on the altar and was astonished to see them beginning to blossom into stunning red poinsettias.
We discussed already that Guatemala and Mexico had already begun to refer to the poinsettia as Noche Buena or “Christmas Eve” and Flor de Pascua “Easter Flower” in Spain. This tale shows the genesis of the poinsettia’s cultural tradition and demonstrates how a folklore miracle became part of Western European culture. By the 17th century, in the New World, Mexico’s Franciscan friars were beginning to incorporate poinsettias into their Christmas celebrations, spurned somewhat by the folk tale that they had encountered in Mexico.
These Mexican Christians attached new symbolism to the poinsettia as time went on. The friars believed that the bloom’s star-shaped leaves were representative of the Star of Bethlehem — the constellation that pointed the way to the manger where Christ was born. They also saw the vivid red colour of the poinsettia as a symbol of blood sacrifice and Jesus’ crucifixion.
In our next look at poinsettias we’ll trace how a Mexican and Spanish symbol came to be embraced by the rest of the Western world.
