The Christmas Tree: Tradition, Legend and History

It is the Christmas season again and I, as well as most people have put up a Christmas tree to help celebrate the season. How many of you have ever wondered where the tradition of the Christmas tree came about? I have thought about this many times and finally did some research on its history. I have found it very interesting and I hope that you do as well.

Winter celebrations have evolved in many ways over the years. Long before the arrival of the actual Christmas tree there were plants and trees, the ones that remained green and alive all year, that were symbolic for different cultures in many ways.

Dating back to almost a thousand years ago people in ancient times would hang boughs of evergreen over their doorways to ward off witches, evil spirits and sickness.

The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year, it takes place on December 21^st or December 22^nd. This became a celebration because many people in ancient times believed in a sun god. When winter arrived they thought that their sun god had become ill. The celebration of the solstice was derived in anticipation that spring would arrive and the sun god would be well again.

In Egypt, their sun god was named Ra. They would celebrate the solstice as Ra became well by bringing green date palms into their homes in triumph of life over death.

The early Romans had a great feast called Saturnalia when solstice arrived. Saturnalia was named in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. Knowing that their farms and Orchards would soon be producing again they would decorate their temples and homes with boughs of evergreens.

In northern Europe, particularly Great Britain, lived the wood priests who were known as the Druids. These people used evergreens in their winter solstice celebrations to ward of evil spirits. They also decorated with holly and mistletoe which were symbols of eternal life.

Scandinavians were mentioned briefly in my research. Their sun god was named Balder and it was their belief that evergreens were a special plant given to them from Balder.

Now onto the Germans, to whom we give credit for starting the tradition of the Christmas tree. Legend has it that St Boniface, who converted the Germans to Christianity, had found a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree. Angered, he cut down the tree. Soon afterward, amazingly, a baby fir tree grew from the roots of the oak. St Boniface saw this as a sign of Christian faith.

This may take us briefly to the question of the pagan religion worshipping the tree. In Germany during the dark ages the pagans would perform sacrifices at the foot of a tree in worship of Thor, the god of thunder. Eventually many pagan customs were adopted by the Christians. It may be possible that the pagan tree was taken from the biblical tree of life, the story of Adam and Eve.

Starting in the 16^th century the Germans would build pyramids of wood and decorated with evergreens, some using candles if wood was in low supply. By this time trees were being brought into homes to decorate as well.

Martin Luther, a 16^th century protestant reformer is said to have added the first lighted candles to a tree. The story says that one winter evening he was walking home, composing a sermon when he was struck by the beauty of the stars shining through the evergreen trees. He wanted to recreate this scene for his family he put up a tree in his home and wired lit candles to its branches.

Legend also states that a 7^th century monk from Crediton, Devonshire went to Germany to spread the word of God. Among his many good doings there he used the triangular shape of the fir tree to show the trinity of the God the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. Converted people who used to revere the oak tree began to do so of the fir tree. In Europe, at Christmastime, they even hung it upside down from their ceilings as a symbol of Christianity.

My research shows some confusion as to the actual first documented Christmas tree. The city of Riga in Latvia claims to have the first documented use in 1510.

Another record from a visitor to Strasbourg in 1601, shows that he saw a tree decorated with wafers and paper flowers.

Another record states that the first use was in England in 1789 while common use was not until the 1820s. Yet another record shows that the first one on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers, but the trees had been common German communities since 1747.

So it seems clear that the actual first use of a Christmas tree is going to remain somewhat of a legend, being that we cannot find the actual first use of the tree. It is also very clear that the use of the Christmas tree is a combination of many cultures to give us the beautiful tree that we use to celebrate our Christmas season.