The Christmas holidays are here and you must be quite busy with decorating your Christmas trees, so in case you are wondering what really the significance of a Christmas tree is? Here’s an attempt to get you acquainted with all those ancient traditions from where the practice of putting out and decorating these trees actually emerged. These trees are evergreen conifers like spruce, pine, or fir. You would be surprised to know that the roots of the tradition of Christmas trees like most Christmas traditions lie in paganism. In fact, early Christians were hostile towards these practices of celebrating winter festivals. So how come the practice of decorating these evergreen trees came to be associated primarily with Christianity such that today, even the idea of Christmas puts the picture of a decorated evergreen tree in our minds. Let us try to establish what a Christmas tree represents.
Why Do We Have Christmas Trees?
Origins
Long before the onset of Christianity, people attached special importance to all plants and trees that remained green throughout the year, during the time of winter. Just like in modern times, we all decorate evergreen trees of spruce or fir, similarly, during the ancient times, people used to hang evergreen boughs on their doors and windows. It was popular belief during those times that these evergreen boughs would help keep away all kinds of evil powers like witches, ghosts and also protect them from diseases.
Varied beliefs
The Egyptians believed that these evergreen boughs symbolized the victory of life over death. They worshipped a God named Ra, he had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk on his crown. It was thought that during the winter, the power of the Sun grew weaker and once it started recovering during the period of the winter solstice, the Egyptians would decorate their homes with these evergreen boughs which stood as a symbol of life. In honour of the god of agriculture, Saturn, the Romans used to celebrate the festival of Saturnalia. They were aware that the solstice meant soon farms and orchards would be green and fruitful and in order to celebrate this occasion, they used these evergreen boughs to decorate their temples and homes. The ancient Celts and mysterious Druids in Northern Europe also followed these practices as for them these evergreen boughs were a symbol of everlasting life. The Vikings of Scandinavia were of the belief that these evergreen trees were special plants of Balder, the sun god.
Association with Christianity
During the early Middle Ages, a legend got famous that when Jesus was born during the dead of winter, every tree around the entire world produced new shoots of green by shaking off the ice and snow. Around that same time, the Christian missionaries who used to preach to the German and Slavic people were more lenient towards these cultural practices such as the decoration of the evergreen boughs. This, of course, did not mean that they tolerated pagan gods, they only meant to convert not just pagans but their cultures, symbols, and traditions into Christianity. Thus, we see that Germany was the first country that witnessed the initiation of the tradition of decorating evergreen trees during the time of Christmas. It is popularly believed that Martin Luther who was a former Protestant was the first one to add candle lights to decorate the Christmas trees.
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Christmas tree Decoration Ideas
Thus it was that these evergreen trees of fir and spruce came to be known popularly as Christmas trees and it has become a tradition to decorate them with candles, tinsels, little bells, candy canes, electric lights, garlands, etc during the time of Christmas. These trees have become such an integral part of Christmas celebrations that it is hard to imagine a Christmas party without a Christmas tree. Hope you have fun in decorating your Christmas trees and have a jolly holiday time.
