The tree has become a tradition of friendship since 1971

-by Delilah Webb

The Christmas tree on Boston Common is alight once again, a 41-foot White Spruce, and of course it’s on many of our tour routes. The tree is an annual gift from Nova Scotia, commemorating the emergency assistance we sent when a devastating explosion shook Halifax in 1917.

On December 6, 1917, a French cargo ship called the SS Mont-Blanc was
carrying explosives when it collided with the Norwegian SS Imo. This was the largest man-made explosion in human history until the atomic bomb. The ensuing explosions killed over 2,000 people, with 9,000 others injured. Boston authorities immediately dispatched a relief train to Nova Scotia upon learning of the disaster by telegraph. A blizzard delayed the train, but aid arrived the morning of December 8th to distribute food, water, and medical supplies. Here is a snippet from one girl’s story:

Barbara was cut badly and blue from the black rain. One of her tightly laced boots was pulled off. Barbara saw people crying all around her saying, “The Germans are here. The Germans are here.” Barbara corrected them saying a boat had exploded, but no one believed her. Everyone was panicking. Barbara, unable to walk, crawled to her uncle’s house on Gottingen Street. All the homes she passed were collapsed and burning. When she finally arrived, her uncle wasn’t there; however, her aunt, two cousins, and her aunt’s father and mother were there. They asked about Barbara’s family, and she replied by saying, “They’re all gone, there isn’t anybody left.”

This was the largest man-made explosion until wwii.

The following year, the people of Halifax sent a Christmas tree to Boston in thanks and remembrance. In 1971 a private company called Lunenburg County Christmas Tree Producers Association resumed the tradition of donating a tree to Boston each year in order to promote Canadian Christmas tree exports and acknowledge and commemorate Boston’s support. Later, the Nova Scotia government assumed to itself the happy task of sending the tree to Boston.

In a further connection with Boston, the Haligonian tragedy produced an outburst of new medical technology for eye care, just as Boston’s tragic nightclub fire of 1942 – the Cocoanut Grove – produced an outburst of new medical technology for burns care.