Holiday Colors
A Festive Feature! Original Red Lens used during the 1948-1949 Courthouse Holiday Lighting For the month of December we are featuring an artifact from the first Courthouse Holiday Lighting. The red lens displayed here was used to add a colorful flare along with large green lenses to the 1948 Courthouse lighting design. Today a plethora of shades of red and green can be found around the Courthouse and almost everywhere as a festive expression of the winter holidays. But where did the combination of red and green actually come from? The use of red and green to celebrate during the winter months actual has ancient roots that go back centuries before the birth of Christianity and the other modern winter holidays celebrated today. The use of red and green can be traced back to the Celtic celebrations of the Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) that started to emerge sometime in the 3 rd Century B.C.E. The keepers of the Celtic Winter Solstice traditions were the Druids