Historic Evergreens
In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year (falling sometime between December 20 and 23) is called the Winter solstice. When ancient peoples observed the air becoming colder, the days getting shorter and the deciduous trees, bushes, and crops dying or hibernating for the winter, many became afraid that the sun was disappearing and that the Earth would eventually freeze. They also noticed that some plants and trees remained green all year long and believed that such trees and plants had magical powers that allowed them to withstand the cold of winter.
Evergreen trees and other plants that stay green all year round have always carried a special meaning for the various peoples of the world. Long before the advent of Christianity, peoples of many ancient civilizations decorated their homes with pine, spruce, and fir trees. In many of these cultures, it was believed that evergreen boughs, hung over doors and windows, would fend off witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and diseases.
Ancient peoples who worshiped the sun as a god believed that winter came when the sun god became sick and weak. The celebration of the winter solstice marked the time when the sun god would begin to regain his strength and evergreens served as reminders of the coming spring when the land would be green again.
Not having evergreen trees, the ancient Egyptians filled their homes with green date palm leaves to celebrate that their god, Ra, who was depicted as having the sun in his crown, was beginning to recover from his illness. The palm leaves symbolized the triumph of life over death.
To mark the occasion when their farms and orchards would once again be green and fruitful, the early Romans honored Saturn, the god of agriculture, with a winter solstice feast called the Saturnalia. They decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs and lights and exchanged symbolic gifts; coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness, and lamps for lighting the journey of life.
In Great Britain, the woods priests of the ancient Celts, the Druids, used evergreens, holly and mistletoe as symbols of everlasting life during mysterious winter solstice rituals. They also placed evergreen boughs over their doors and windows to ward off evil spirits.
The Vikings of Scandinavia believed evergreens to be the special plant of their sun god, Balder. In the late Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians put evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope for the coming spring.
The modern Christmas tree, which is often mistakenly referred to as a "Pagan symbol," (the Pagans believed that cutting down whole evergreen trees was destructive to nature) evolved from all of these early superstitions, customs and traditions.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
fascinating! great report as always Margaret - love the background of tradtions and customs!
2 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Thank you, Eric. It's always nice to get a pat on the back from the man in charge.
3 - GoHah
I never would've thought artificial trees went back that far. Enjoyable history lesson--thanks
4 - Greg Schoppe
wait, what you just wrote boils down to: lighted, decorated trees were created by either Martin Luthor, or St Bonaface. How does that make it not a Christian tradition? The use of evergreen boughs as decoration is not the same, and is derived from a totally seperate tradition.
5 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Well, of course decorated evergreens are a Christian tradition! They just aren't exclusively so, having evolved from numerous ancient customs and beliefs.
Indeed, the legends of Martin Luther and St. Boniface tell part of the story of how decorated evergreens might have become Christmas trees in world culture.
It is interesting that both of those stories originated in Germany, where evergreens were decorated and worshiped by the ancient cultures of that land long before the advent of Christianity.
Let us not forget that Christmas trees really didn't catch on with Christians in America until the 1890s.
Several centuries passed before the notions of our rather joyless Puritan forefathers, who condemned Christmas trees as a "heathen tradition," would fade from our culture. Remarkably, there are a few Christian sects that still subscribe to this belief in the 21st century.
Did you know that there is not one mention of a Christmas tree anywhere in the Bible? Perhaps this is the reason why the Puritans did not care too much for Christmas trees and why a few modern Christians still do not use Christmas trees in their celebrations of the Birth of Christ.
So let's not get all vainglorious and play that silly "War on Christmas" game (besides, it's really nothing more than another holiday fund raising ploy). There's no good reason to make assertions of Christian exclusivity with regard to decorated evergreens.
In fact, the very lack of exclusivity makes decorated evergreens multicultural and therefore suitable and appropriate for governments to display as Holiday Trees that include everyone and marginalize no one.