Christmas Tree Evolution
by Christians love to put up a Christmas tree before the 25th of December. Many think of it as traditional. Depending on how narrow minded one is, the tradition is either not very old, or rather older than one imagines. The Christmas tree has a history. It was promoted, demoted, forbidden and it developed to its modern form through many stages. Some of its Christian symbolism has even been completely lost.
Evergreen plants have held a special attraction for humans for times immemorial. Staying green through a bitter cold and snowy winter, they came to embody the hope for spring and warmth, when all plants would become green again and bear fruit. Accordingly, conifers and other evergreen plants were used as decorations and were decorated in turn.
When Pope Julius declared the first Christmas for December 25th in 350, the date was carefully chosen to coincide with the feast day for the birth of Mithras Sol Invictus. Emperor Aurelian had declared the same date as ‘Natalis Invictis Solis’ (Birth of the Unconquered Sun). As Christ had already inherited the halo from Mithras (plus some other bits and pieces), it was only fitting he should take over his birthday as well. The move was part politics, as most Roman troops were believers in Mithras, and part formal take-over where Mithras and Christ were effectively co-joined to ease conversion. And evergreens were ever present at the festivities for Mithras.
As the conversion to Christianity progressed to eventually include all of Europe, some pagan beliefs were integrated into the faith, mostly by making ancient gods and goddesses into imaginary saints or fusing them into existing ones. Other pagan beliefs were too typical to stomach and were discarded. The belief in Yggdrasil, the tree of life of the Germans, was repressed, and in 800, Charlemagne even forbade the illumination of trees to get rid of the last vestiges of ‘superstition’. But further north, the Tree of Light and the Wreath of Light both persisted in honour of St. Lucia, goddess demoted saint by the church.
If any of these pagan rituals may claim direct ancestry to the Christmas tree is doubtful, but they illustrate how old ideas may spark new ones at least. The first written proof for a spread of Christmas trees appears in 1570 in Bremen, Germany. The guilds there put up little trees decorated with dates, apples, and nuts, which were harvested by children on Christmas day. Around the turn of the century, the journeymen of the guilds of Basel, Switzerland, are reported to receive trees, apples and cheese as a gift from the guilds. The trees were paraded through town from the guild halls to their lodgings where they put up the trees and decorated them with apples and cheese.
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Post Commentmartie
On November 17, 2009 at 11:38 pm
wonderful article.
Joie Schmidt
On November 17, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Interesting work.
Blessings.
Sincerely,
-Liane Schmidt.
Sharif Ishnin
On November 18, 2009 at 3:05 am
Very informative article.
Francois Hagnere
On November 18, 2009 at 4:21 am
Very enjoyable and so informative. Another great interesting article!
Tanya Wallace
On November 18, 2009 at 6:23 pm
A very interesting,informative and well written article.I did not know about the catholics outlawing it as well as the protesants putting it up to distiguish the two religions. Fantastic work a very enjoyable read!