Welcome to our first annual ViralNova Presents: 25 Days Of Creepy Christmas special section! Every day, from December 1st to December 25th, we’re posting a new Christmas-themed article guaranteed to get you in the creepy holiday spirit.
In America, we decorate our Christmas tree with little shiny balls and trinkets shaped like Santa, his reindeer or even our favorite Disney characters. In Ukraine, however, the popular items to hang on your tree are webs and fake spiders.
No, the Ukrainians didn’t just watch Nightmare Before Christmas and confuse Halloween with Christmas. It’s a tradition based on an old Ukrainian legend that is actually pretty amazing. Here is the legend of the Spider Christmas Tree.
There once was a poor widow who lived in a small house with her sons.
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One day a pine cone fell in the yard and a tree began to take root. The children were excited to have a tree for Christmas, but were saddened when they realized they could not afford to decorate it.
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As the family slept, a group of spiders, hearing about their plight, decided to decorate the tree themselves. They spun their silk webs and made the tree beautiful.
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When the children woke up, they spotted the tree covered in beautiful webs. As the sun rose, the silk magically turned into gold. The family then became very rich and never worried about decorating their tree ever again.
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As a tribute to this legend, Christmas trees in Ukraine are rapped in spider silk with glittering gold lights.
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Spiders are of course always welcome on the tree.
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Spiders are not exactly what I have in mind when I think about the winter holidays. However I guess I could set aside my deep seeded hatred for them if I ever found myself celebrating Christmas in Ukraine, especially if their webs actually turned to gold.
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