El escritor Guillermo Barrante comparte historias fascinantes sobre la Navidad en Argentina, incluyendo el primer árbol navideño de Buenos Aires y el fantasma del irlandés Michael Hines, que se dice aparece cada Nochebuena cerca de la Manzana de las Luces. Además, Barrante explora los orígenes simbólicos de las decoraciones navideñas como las bolas y guirnaldas.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00And speaking of Christmas, our writer and screenwriter Guillermo Barrante is here with us.
00:06A big round of applause!
00:07Hello!
00:08Hi, Guillermo!
00:09Dear Guille, how are you?
00:10All good?
00:11All good, all good.
00:12Welcome.
00:13There are myths about Christmas, when Santa Claus first came here to Argentina, because
00:19you always tell us tremendous stories, you have told us stories, for example, so that
00:25the people of the Recoleta Cemetery remember that we all stay with our eyes open.
00:30Are there Christmas stories too?
00:32Yes, I bring, I bring.
00:33Christmas myths?
00:34Always, yes.
00:35Ghosts of Christmas?
00:36There is a ghost related to Christmas, in this case not so truculent, but yes, it has
00:42to do with Christmas.
00:43It has to do with the first Christmas tree that illuminated a place in Buenos Aires.
00:49Ah!
00:50The first.
00:51Look.
00:52Of all.
00:53The first tree that ...
00:54And we have to go to the English invasions, when a certain Michael Hines, an Irishman
01:02who belonged to the invasions, to the English soldiers, ends up injured on the streets
01:10of Buenos Aires, the doors of the city had already been defended, he was attended by,
01:18for some reason, a family of the place, the buried, they attend him, they take care of him,
01:25they caress him, and he stays living in Buenos Aires, he does not return, and he was not just
01:31any soldier, he was a bastard son of the one who was King IV of England.
01:37Ah, look.
01:38He finds out about that, in Europe, he wants to make friends with his real father, he does not
01:45receive that friendship, and that's when he gets involved with the army and arrives in Buenos Aires
01:49with the invasions.
01:50And the family adopts him.
01:51Buried.
01:52Buried.
01:53Exactly.
01:54And then?
01:55He, with the years, meets María González, an Uruguayan, who ends up being his wife,
02:00they live in Buenos Aires, and in 1828, that December 24, he happens to bring a European custom,
02:10which was that of the Christmas tree.
02:12December 24, what year?
02:141828.
02:16Exactly.
02:17There was no, he could not buy the tree, so he gets the upper part of a bedouin,
02:24the neighbors did not know what was happening, they suddenly see lights in the windows of the houses,
02:29of the Heinz, they think it is a fire, everyone approaches, fearful, and realize that it is
02:35this tree, this half tree, illuminated with candles, and with ornaments, just waiting
02:43for Christmas.
02:44The first Christmas tree in Buenos Aires.
02:46Wow, that's crazy.
02:47And there is no myth, there is no legend, there is no anchor in the present, if not, something
02:54of that continues to happen, an echo.
02:55And the echo is precisely that of the ghost of this Irishman, who was murdered in Uruguay,
03:04but he says he returns on every good night, and that near the apple of the lights,
03:12which is where he had the house, the Heinz family, they say that it is heard on the night of the 24th,
03:19an Irish music, gaitas.
03:20Really?
03:21Yes.
03:22The neighbors say.
03:23I'm going to go to the apple of the lights that night.
03:25I'm crazy.
03:26It's divine too.
03:27Yes, I can't believe you.
03:28And until they suddenly see an image, some say, I don't know if with a glass there is more or not,
03:34but they see someone dressed in soldier clothes, and they say it is the ghost of Michael Heinz,
03:40who appears on every 24 near, here in the center of the apple of the lights.
03:46Look, you're right Santi, let's go away from the apple of the lights.
03:50Let's see if it appears.
03:52It doesn't do anything apparently.
03:54It is a kind of Christmas spirit, kind, not as kind as Santa Claus.
04:01Which in San Telmo is now, I give it to you.
04:03There are other dangers there, right?
04:06I prefer to meet with my childhood.
04:08It is the first tree that I brought here.
04:10Exactly, exactly.
04:11And the Irishman brings it.
04:12It is registered, it is historical.
04:14There is always a mixture of myth and legend in all this.
04:18Their house is not known for sure.
04:21It is said that it was there, close to the Peruvian cinema.
04:25But hey, that was, that tree, that half-abedul of the Heinz,
04:30was the first Christmas tree that shone in Buenos Aires.
04:33Today it is unimaginable, but you said it Guilcermo, illuminated with candles.
04:37With candles.
04:38With candles because ...
04:39Today it is very dangerous, nobody illuminates it.
04:41But until a long time ago, nevertheless,
04:43some people thought about continuing to illuminate them with candles.
04:46Taking the precautions of the case.
04:48But I saw some ...
04:51Look, here it is, sorry.
04:52I saw some tree with candles.
04:54In the image of recently, there was like a drawing.
04:56I don't know if, this, look.
04:57Sure, something like that would have been, right?
04:59There are the candles.
05:00Exactly.
05:01Well, that comes from the origin of the Christmas tree,
05:04which is also kind of gray.
05:06It is not known very well,
05:08but one of the best known versions is that of the tree of paradise.
05:13In theatrical works of the Middle Ages,
05:16near December,
05:18a work about Adam and Eve was also represented.
05:24And this tree appeared, the tree of sin,
05:27the biblical apple, reflected on stages.
05:30Oh, and the Christmas balls are apples.
05:33These red Christmas balls, which are of different colors,
05:36actually reflect the apples of the original sin
05:40of that tree, the first, the apple of paradise.
05:46Well, and they already had these candles,
05:48which, what they do a little, is to signify the light of Christ.
05:54What a good fact is that of the apples.
05:56Excuse me, would the garlands be the snake?
05:59You are very deep.
06:01Very good, very good.
06:05Can it be or not?
06:06Yes.
06:07In addition, they had hosts, these primordial trees,
06:11and those hosts, due to the Eucharist,
06:15became cookies,
06:17candy,
06:19in what one consumes today.
06:21As if everything had its process, in reality.
06:23Of course.
06:24It would be logical to think so,
06:25but it is so far behind
06:27that we do not have the ability
06:29to see it in the first instance,
06:31but it is logical that it has the process.
06:32But well, at first they were apples and candles.
06:34Of course.
06:35And what about the gifts?
06:36Where does the gift come from?
06:38Why?
06:39And because, well, there is another myth,
06:41another legend,
06:43that we love very much,
06:45which is that of Santa Claus,
06:47the one of San Nicolás,
06:49which is the bishop,
06:51the bishop of Mirra,
06:53a bishop who lived in Turkey,
06:56and who identified him
06:58with this kindness.
07:00He loved children,
07:02and one of the most told stories,
07:05also half-myth, half-story,
07:07has to do with the fact that
07:09he knew a very poor family,
07:13with three daughters,
07:14three girls,
07:16who were starving
07:18and were about to have to work,
07:21even prostitutes.
07:23So he decides,
07:25to save them,
07:27to go at night,
07:29not to be seen,
07:31and to throw,
07:33some say through the window,
07:35others through the fireplace,
07:37gold coins,
07:39so that this family
07:41does not become so poor.
07:43And the girls had just left
07:45their washed socks drying
07:47at home.
07:49In the United States they leave
07:51the socks there.
07:54They would have fallen
07:56through the fireplace
07:58right in the girls' wet socks.
08:00And he did this two or three times
08:02until this family stopped being poor.
08:04It's good, it never happened to me.
08:06Hey, look how we learned,
08:08with Guillermo,
08:10that whenever he comes,
08:12he teaches us something.