GALLERY: Tallinn Christmas tree erected at Town Hall Square to continue 600-year tradition
With December just around the corner, the city's Christmas tree was set up on Tuesday on its traditional place at the Town Hall Square. On the very spot where, according to legend, the first ever public Christmas tree in the world was erected by the Brotherhood of Black Heads over 570 years ago.
This year the tree – a spruce, as the Estonian tradition foresees – is over 20 meters tall and was chosen from eight contenders. It came from Kose municipality and cost a total of 7,370 euros to transport to Tallinn.
The candles and lights on the tree will be lit on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29.
The tree is the centerpiece of the Tallinn Christmas Market, set to open on November 20.
Many Estonians believe that the first public Christmas tree in the world was displayed and decorated by the guild of unmarried merchants in Tallinn in 1441. The claim is contested by the Latvians, who say that it was in Riga, where the world's first Christmas tree actually stood. And then there are of course those, who say that the story of the Baltics as home of the Christmas tree tradition is nothing but a myth. But what a myth!
Editor: M. Oll