The Christmas Tree

Put the finishing touches on my tree finished yesterday, and I actually have it lit.  Hip! Hip!  Hooray!  My son bought me some lights that played a squeaky Jingle Bells over and over again.  Didn't take long for us to pull the speaker out.  I have a bunch of pictures of the tree on my camera, and guess what?  The memory card on the camera does not work, and we cannot find the wire.  Alas, the above is not my tree.  As I sat there last night, just watching the lights twinkle off and on, memories of Christmas past drifted into my mind.

When I was a little girl, we always had a real tree.  Mom and dad would park the tree in the back yard and not bring it in until Christmas Eve.  Once I was fast asleep, they bring out the decorations.  How amazing Christmas morning was.  Then, when I got older and had my own place, I remember thinking that the aluminum tree with its glass bulbs and color wheel was the greatest. I had two cats at the time and, for Christmas, I had bought them stockings filled with catnip toys. I wish I had a picture of that Christmas morn.  They'd torn open their stockings and catnip was everywhere.  My tree was down and half the bulbs had broken.  Wrapping paper and ribbon were strewn all through the living room.  Talk about a lesson learned.  Never put catnip under the tree again.

My first year here in the city was the only time in my 64 years that I didn't have a tree.  In fact, I didn't even have a Christmas that year.  It was a time I like to forget, but always remember because it shows me just how far I have come.  Since that time, I have not had another real tree.  Now, I have an artificial that we bought 15 years ago, and although it is still as good as new, I think next year might bring some changes.

The practice of having a decorated tree and gifts, lights, carols, feasts, and processions has pagan origins. It originated from the pre-Christian Pagan cultures and was associated with the Winter Solstice.  The birthplace of the Christmas tree was in Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long before the Christian era.   Around 1300 BCE, the ancient Egyptians decorated their homes with palm branches to mark the Solstice. Not having evergreen trees, the ancient Egyptians considered the palm tree to symbolize resurrection. It was a happy holiday for them for the greenery reminded them that as the hours of daylight increased, their crops would begin to grow. 

In northern Europe, the fir tree was the most common evergreen, and our ancestors used branches of fir to decorate their homes from the Winter Solstice through to spring. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that Winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. Hence, the ancient Germanic people tied fruit and attached candles to evergreen tree branches, in honor of their god Woden.  Evergreens were seen as symbols of eternal life at a time of year when all other plant life had died off.   

In the folklore of Iceland we read of a sacred ash tree, whose branches were covered with shining lights that no wind could extinguish. According to their concept, the Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, is the eternal tree of Northern belief, the great natural core that links our world to heaven and hell. On the top was supposed to sit an eagle. The lights were the stars. Now an angel takes the place of the eagle and proclaims good tidings of great joy.

The mid-winter festival of Saturnalia, an old Roman holiday to commemorate the god Saturn, started on December 17th and often lasted until a few days after the Solstice. The houses were decorated with lights and greenery, and it was customary to have trees laden with decorations and gifts. When Christianity supplanted these earlier religions, and Christmas replaced Saturnalia and the winter solstice celebrations, the ritual of the decorated tree was retained. Only now it symbolized the birth of the Christ child.

There is an old 8th century German legend that St. Boniface, the organizer of the Christian Church in France and Germany, came upon a  group of Druids who were congregated around an old oak tree about to perform a sacrifice  St Boniface chopped down the  sacred oak tree around which they were worshipping and split it into several sections, each falling in different directions.  In the midst of the splintered oak, a small, unharmed fir tree stood growing at the roots of the old oak.   Taking this as a sign of the Christian faith,  he instructed the people henceforth to carry the evergreen from the wilderness into their homes and to surround it with gifts, symbols of love and kindness.

And, then there is an old French romance of the 13th century in which the hero sees a tree whose branches from top to bottom are covered with burning candles, while on the top is a figure of a child shining with a still greater radiance. This tree symbolized humanity — the upper lights being the souls of the good, those below, of the wicked, while the child represented Christ.

Yet another legend tells of a poor woodsman who long ago met a lost and hungry child on Christmas Eve. Though very poor himself, the woodsman gave the child food and shelter for the night. The woodsman woke up in the very next morning to find a beaming tree outside his home and surprisingly he found one as well. The child was really the Christ child who camouflaged. The child rewarded the poor woodsman the glittering tree for his charity.
  
Credit has been given to Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant faith, for inventing the Christmas tree. According to legend, it around the year 1500, when Luther was walking through the woods near his home in Wittenberg, Germany, on Christmas Eve and  was awe struck by the beauty of the evergreen trees and how the millions of stars above glittered through their branches. He brought a little fir tree inside to share the story with his children. He re-created the effect by decorating it with candles, in honor of Christ's birth.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

Thou tree most fair and lovely!

Oh Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

Thou tree most fair and lovely!

The sight of thee at Christmastide

Spreads hope and gladness far and wide

Oh Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

Thou tree most fair and lovely!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

Thou hast a wondrous message:

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

Thou hast a wondrous message:

Thou dost proclaim the Saviour's birth

Good will to men and peace on earth

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

Thou hast a wondrous message

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

You stand in verdant beauty

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

You stand in verdant beauty

Your boughs are green in summer's glow

And do not fade in winter's snow

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

You stand in verdant beauty

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

How laden are your branches

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

Your presence here enhances

Your silver star does glisten bright

Reflecting all the candlelight

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!

How laden are your branches

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

You fill all hearts with gaiety

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

You fill all hearts with gaiety

On Christmas Day you stand so tall

Affording joy to one and all

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

You fill all hearts with gaiety