Tag: fishermen

Lobster Trap Christmas Trees

Many towns put up a large Christmas tree somewhere central and have a tree lighting to mark the start of the Christmas season. Some towns in New England have a tree lighting, but the tree may not be pine or spruce. These trees are made of lobster traps in homage to the local fishermen.

Plymouth, Massachusetts

Plymouth started their lobster trap tree tradition in 2013. This one is on the town wharf.

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Some say Gloucester started the lobster trap Christmas tree tradition. They have the oldest tradition in New England. Their tree is stacked with 350 lobster traps. The tree has buoys hand painted by local youth.

Newport, Rhode Island

This tree is next to the harbor. It had buoys, lights and garland.

More New England towns are starting to put these up instead of traditional Christmas trees. There are others in Maine and elsewhere. If you are in New England in December, see which towns nearby have one. These towns put a local flair to Christmas.

Fishermen’s Buddha

In the Catholic tradition there are saints for different causes. St. Erasmus or St. Elmo is the patron saint of Sailors. St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of Animals. What do they have in Buddhism?

In Buddhism it appears they have different Buddhist shrines focusing on different causes. This was taken a while ago when I worked in Asia. This was a Buddhist Temple in the Pusan/Busan area. I was told by a Korean who went with us that the photo below was the Fishermen’s Buddha and that the women there were praying for the safe return of their husbands and a good catch. The top photo may be from the same temple or from another Buddhist temple focusing on fertility in the same area.

The two images I used on this post were taken several years ago on an old Pentax K-1000 as slide film. I tried to scan them recently.

I find it interesting to see the traditions in other cultures and religions. Sometimes we have some similarities and sometimes there are differences. It makes visiting a new place even more interesting. What are your traditions?

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