Christmas Tree Traditions

With the onset of December, there starts the preparation for Christmas. Cocooned in an ambience of celebration and carols, the Christmas tree perhaps plays the most significant role. A Christmas tree or Tannenbaum shares a long association with Christianity and is an integral part of the whole festival. Usually it's an evergreen cone-bearing or a fir tree that is placed in an open place. The Christmas tree is adorned beautifully with sparkling blown glass ornaments and lights, and a star or angel is placed at its apex that is believed to bring good spirits. There are several interesting stories related to Christmas tree traditions. It commenced almost 1,000 years ago in Germany while St.

Boniface, who baptized the Germans, was believed to chance upon a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree and were preparing to sacrifice a child. Upon this sight, St. Boniface got enraged and cut down the oak tree. To his utmost astonishment, a young fir tree sprouted out from the roots of the cut down oak tree. St. Boniface took that as a mark of the power of Christian faith.

There are many other stories related to the tradition of Christmas tree, which are listed below:

• The incident that paved the path for Christmas tree in England goes like this - Queen Victoria fell in love with the young Prince Albert in the town of Coburg. After exchanging wedding rings, they returned to England for settling down. Prince Albert gifted a tree to his family in Windsor Castle that whole England admired a lot. During Christmas, the Queen embellished the tree with attractive hand blown glass ornaments that made everyone in England to emulate her Christmas custom of decorating trees.
• In this respect, we should always mention the deeds of the Egyptians. They were the ultimate followers of traditions and cultures. They used to worship and treasure evergreen trees, so, with the onset of the winter solstice they brought green date palm leaves to their homes to mark life's victory over death.
• After the Egyptians, there come the Romans who are famous for their unique lifestyle. They used to celebrate the winter solstice with a festival named Saturnalia to honor Saturn, the mythical Roman god of agriculture and vegetation. This time they beautified their homes with lights and greens coupled with the exchange of gifts. Pastries signified happiness, coins gifted as tokens of prosperity and lamps to light one's voyage in the sea of life.
• An evergreen tree was decorated with apples on 24th December in the middle ages, symbolizing the feast of Adam and Eve and was called as the Paradise tree.
• In the late middle ages, Scandinavians and Germans kept evergreen trees outside their thresholds or inside their homes to portray their hope in the approaching spring.
• It's considered that Martin Luther started the tradition of ornamenting trees for the celebration of Christmas. It dates back to 1500 years ago when on a crispy Christmas Eve he was strolling through snow-wrapped woods and was awe-struck by the beauty of a group of small green trees. The snow-dusted white branches glittering in the moonlight, created a hypnotic effect on him that made him place a little fir tree in his home so that he could share this story with his children. The tree was decorated with lighted candles to honor Christ's birth.
• As Robson stated that the tradition of Christmas tree most likely arrived United States during the American Revolution by the Hessian troops or with the German settlers to Ohio and Pennsylvania.

These are some of the famous stories or facts relating to the tradition of Christmas tree. For more information and queries, please visit our site Christmasonnet.