We all take Christmas traditions for granted. Because we’re
so caught up in all the holiday fuss, we really don’t
stop to think about why we celebrate Christmas the way we
do or why we even put up Christmas trees. And by the way,
what does an evergreen tree have to do with the birth of Christ?
Nothing, really.
The History Channel has a Web site about Christmas traditions.
It claims that the first person to decorate a Christmas tree
with lights was the German Protestant preacher Martin Luther.
Legend has it that way back in the 16th century, Luther was
coming home one beautiful winter evening when he noticed evergreens
against the star-lit sky. He wanted to show this wondrous
sight to his family, so he had the idea to put an evergreen
tree in the house and decorate it with lit candles.
It’s hard to tell if that is really true, but we do know
that trees—or at least leaves from trees—and garlands
have been featured in special events since ancient times.
Ancient people living in cold climates were said to put branches
from evergreen trees over their door to keep away evil spirits,
witches, ghosts and illness. Supposedly, they also put green
outside their homes to remind the sun that the world would
turn green again.
The shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, fell around
December 22 and this became a time of celebration. There wasn’t
much to do. Farmers didn’t have to work in the fields.
Everything was covered in snow, so a celebration was welcome.
The History Channel Web site says the custom of using palm
leaves for decorations in the home actually dates back to
the ancient Egyptians. But cultures all over the Northern
Hemisphere associated evergreens with special occasions which
fell in late December.
Early Romans had a feast called Saturnalia for Saturn, the
God of Agriculture. The Druids of Northern Europe, the ancient
Celts and even the Vikings liked to decorate with evergreens
in December.
It is the Germans, however, who are credited with starting
the Christmas tree tradition as we know it. Some people used
actual trees, while others constructed pyramids of wood that
they decorated with evergreens.
The custom of using a Christmas tree did not sweep the world
by storm. The History Channel says “19th-century Americans
found Christmas trees an oddity, (and) the first record of
one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers
of Pennsylvania.
“The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees
as early as 1747, but as late as the 1840s Christmas trees
were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.”
In many ways, the Christmas tree was an early battle, silent
as it seems, between the sacred and the secular side of the
Christmas holiday. The New England Puritans held Christmas
to be a very sacred holiday and they did not approve of the
trees. The Pilgrims’ second governor, William Bradford,
even tried to get rid of Christmas trees.
Other devout Christians wanted to stamp out Christmas carols.
In 1659, the Massachusetts court fined people for hanging
Christmas decorations. Eventually German and Irish immigrants,
who followed the custom of Christmas trees, outnumbered the
more sombre earlier immigrants. They silently forced them
to concede. Christmas in the US began to take on a more festive
look.
There’s nothing like a famous name being associated with
a custom to make sure it becomes entrenched in a culture.
In 1846, The History Channel site tells us, Queen Victoria
and her German husband, Prince Albert, appeared around a Christmas
tree in sketches published by the London News.
The queen’s endorsement was noticed even across the sea
on the east coast of the US, which fancied itself still to
be very British in their customs.
The History Channel says that by the 1890s, Christmas ornaments
were arriving from Germany and Christmas trees were popular
around the US. Those ornaments are difficult to describe.
I can still see the boxes of delicate ornaments my grandmother
used to import from Germany, where she lived during World
War II. The ornaments were thin glass with thick coats of
shiny red, gold and green. Many were shaped like churches
or miniature trees.
By the 1900s, home-made ornaments became popular in the US.
German-Americans were said to use apples, nuts and marzipan
cookies to decorate trees. Stringing popcorn also became very
popular.
Today, we take the Christmas tree for granted. Few people
stop to think how the decoration evolved from a tiny bough
to a massive tree—real or artificial—that becomes
the centrepiece in a home, a mall or even a yard.
The tree has nothing to do with the birth of Christ, but it
connects us to ancient roots and the hope of better days to
come. It represents warmth and it lights the way out of the
darkness of winter. It shares a certain sense of light overpowering
darkness as other holidays like Divali do.
Christmas trees allow us to be part of a tradition and yet
they allow us to show off our own individual sense of style.
Each Christmas tree tells the story of a long-standing Christmas
tradition and it also tells the story of the family who decorates
it.
Check out the History Channel Web site (www.history.com/minisites/christmas)
to learn more about Christmas traditions and Christmas trees.
