Christmas, that originated with the advent of Christianity almost 2 millenniums ago, has evolved a lot with time. The popularity of this festival and the endless stories, beliefs and superstitions associated with it have led to a lot of traditions and a culture that is followed religiously by many people around the world. Also, Christmas is a festival associated with lots of stories and legendary characters like Santa Claus, Rudolph the red nosed reindeer etc. Christmas Spider is one such renowned character associated with this winter festival. It is a neatly knit fable that seeks to add a joyous spirit to the festival of Christmas. It is a story that speaks about magic and miracles, having faith and believing in God. No wonder that it is quite a favorite among children! It also gives a moral that hard work and good intentions do pay off in the long run. Though this story has various versions linked to it, the most popular one is elaborated below.
The Story
This story is about a poor widow who could not afford to buy gifts for her children, but still wanted them to have the best Christmas ever. So, after putting her children to bed, she cut a tree herself and placed it in the house. She then cleaned the house and decorated the tree with lots of joy and happiness. After having done so much work, she was exhausted and soon fell asleep. She had cleaned her house so well that it was spotless and there were no spiders or cob webs to be seen; not even a single speck of dust. All the spiders had fled to the attic but they were curious to see the decorated Christmas tree. So, the oldest and the wisest spider suggested that they sneak out of the attic to have a look at the beautifully decorated Christmas tree. Once the attic door was opened, the spiders quickly made their way out and headed towards the Christmas tree. The tree was so huge and so tall that they could only see one decoration placed on top of it. So, they started climbing the tree leaving trails of a dull gray web behind them. Eventually, the entire tree was covered with dusty gray spider webs.
The Christ child saw what the little spiders had done to the Christmas tree and, though he was glad that the spiders had seen the decorated Christmas tree, he was quite worried that the mother would never be happy to see her decorated tree covered with webs. She had worked very hard to decorate that tree and wanted her children to have a fun time around it. So, he touched the dusty webs that the spiders had left behind and turned them into gold and silver. On the following day, the family woke up only to see a Christmas tree glittering with gold and silver.
The story of the Christmas spider has taught us that it is important to be hardworking and that anything done with good intentions doesn't go unnoticed and is thoroughly rewarded. Commemorating this legend even to this day, people decorate their trees with tinsel and put an artificial spider on the tree.
Christmas is a festival associated with many legends. Read the following article to know more about the story of the Christmas Spider.