Many legends and old traditions concerning the Christmas tree date back to very ancient times, but historical docuмentation of its origins as the tree we know and decorate today only appeared in recent centuries.
There is no doubt, however, that legends and traditions show the convergence of many customs, some born outside the Christian culture and others strictly Christian. We will consider here some of the most important ones that were forerunners of the Christmas tree.
Since very ancient times even primitive people would take evergreen plants and flowers into their huts, seeing in them a magical or religious significance. The Greeks and Romans decorated their dwellings with ivy. The Celts and Scandinavians preferred mistletoe, but many other evergreen plants such as holly, butcher's broom, laurel and branches of pine or fir were considered to have magical or medicinal powers that would ward off illness. This belief was found especially among the inhabitants of the northern regions with cold climates and long, dark winters; it was almost as if these plants revived thoughts of the coming spring while everything around them lay dormant. Naturally enough, temples were built to the "goddess Flora".
St Boniface, eighth-century Bishop
An interesting tradition, part history, part legend and very popular in Germany, claims that the Christmas tree dates back to the eighth century. This legend is based on a historical figure, St Boniface, and even a historical event, the destruction of Odin's oak. St Boniface (675-754) was the English Bishop Winfrid who went to Germany in the eighth century, to Hesse to be precise, to preach the Christian faith as a missionary from the Church of Rome. After a period of apparently successful Gospel preaching, Boniface went to Rome to confer with Pope Gregory II (715-731). After a long absence, he returned to Geismar, Germany, for Christmas 723, and felt personally offended on discovering that the Germans had reverted to their former idolatry of pagan divinities and were preparing to celebrate the winter solstice by sacrificing a young man under Odin's sacred oak tree. Fired by holy anger, as was Moses by the golden calf, Bishop Boniface took up an axe and dared to cut down the oak. This courageous, historically docuмented act meant the triumph of Christianity in Germany over the pagan divinities.
All this is historically docuмented. The rest belongs to the legend which tells how, at the first blow of the axe, a strong gust of wind instantly brought down 1he tree. The astounded Germans fearfully recognized the hand of God in this event and humbly asked Boniface how they should celebrate Christmas. The Bishop, the legend continues, pointed to a small fir tree that had miraculously remained upright and intact beside the debris and broken branches of the fallen oak. Boniface was familiar with the popular custom of taking an evergreen plant into the house in winter and asked everyone to take home a fir tree. This tree signifies peace, and as an evergreen it also symbolizes immortality; with its top pointing upwards, it additionally indicates heaven, the dwelling place of God.
Another legend is constituted by a famous hawthorn called the "Holy Thorn" that was found at Glastonbury Abbey in England and flowers at Christmas time. It was venerated as a "sacred relic" because a legend claims that it derived from a sprig that came from Jesus' crown of thorns.
The legendary hawthorn survived for many centuries a was honored as a sacred relic. This flowering bush made a contribution of its own to the idea of a tree associated with the Christmas feast day.
The birth of the Christmas tree
The most widespread opinion among scholars is that the Christmas tree as we know it today, decorated and lit with lights, derived from the tree in the earthly Paradise. As its birth place, the left bank of the Rhine is indicated, and especially Alsace. One of the earliest testimonies of this are the registers of the town of Schlettstadt (1521), in which special protection was prescribed for forests on the days prior to Christmas; forest rangers were responsible for punishing anyone who cut down a tree to decorate his house.
Another docuмent informs us that in Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, fir trees were sold in the market, to be taken home and decorated.
From Alsace, the tradition of the Christmas tree spread across Germany and the whole of Europe, and soon even arrived in North America.
Italy was one of the last countries to accept the Christmas tree, partly because of a rather widespread rumor that the use of Christmas trees was a Protestant practice and should thus be replaced by the crib. However, in Catholic Austria this rumours— declared to be unfounded even by the well-known Protestant theologian, Oscar Cullmann, one of his writings on the Christmas tree — was not accepted, since Trent and the Venetian regions were influenced by Austrian customs as well as the availability of fir trees.
The tree in St Peter's Square
Pope Paul VI, of venerable memory, began the tradition of setting up o massive Christmas tree beside the grand crib in St Peter's Square, a gift each year from a different nation.
Referring to St Boniface's words, we can conclude that the great tree lit by numerous tiny lights can symbolize many Christian values.
In the days of yore, the primitive people used the wood of fir trees to build their huts in which they lived peacefully. Today the Christmas tree can be the symbol of the peace that Jesus brought, that must be re-established between God and human beings. Because it is evergreen, it is the symbol of that immortality which Jesus said he possessed and would bring to us: "I am the life; those who believe in me even if they die will live". The tree lit by little lights is the symbol of the light that Jesus brought to the world with his birth: "He was the light that shines in the darkness... and enlightens every man..." (cf. Jn 1:4-14). And finally, the fir tree, with its tip pointing to heaven, indicates God's presence to us and the place where we are all awaited.
All this endows the Christmas tree, in harmony with the crib, with the religious and Christian significance of salvation that the Son of God brought to the whole world by his humble birth.
Topic: Christmas Tree yes or not (Read 3508 times)