Christmas Tree: Symbol of Eternity
To the Germanic Pagans, Evergreens Represented Immortality
Symbolism includes the belief that evergreens dispel the power of evil. Christians incorporated the tradition of the tree into Christmas customs.
Autumn was the season of dying to the Pagan Germans. Plants’ and trees’ leaves changed color and fell to the earth. Some plants died while others would survive and become alive again in the spring. Winter, with its snow and ice, would be ushered in. Evil spirits were blamed for the coldness and killing the flora. Only the evergreens remained alive during this season, thus becoming a symbol of immortality. Magickal power of evergreens and good spirits were believed to resist the powers of cold and darkness. The Pagans believed the energy of these trees dispelled malevolent spirits and brought their greenery into their abodes.
Evergreens in Medieval Times and the Renaissance
People put conifer and holly branches in their homes as a symbol of life everlasting and to keep evil spirits away. The first Christmas tree was a holly bush because there was a law against evergreens to be used for this purpose.
In the 1600s or 1700s, the church decorated the now evergreen tree with apples symbolizing Adam and Eve's expulsion from Eden. Later, wafers in shapes of stars, hearts, bells, angels and flowers and paper roses were added to the tree. Little objects including fiddles, drums, gilded nuts and chains made of paper, ribbons and lace were added from which the custom of giving gifts arose.
Candles were placed on the tree to represent the bonfires as a symbol for light and Jesus as the Light of the World.
Legends
A woodcutter helped a hungry child. The next day, the child visited the man and his wife. The boy was the Christ and he gave them a branch of fir, telling them it would bear fruit at Christmas. When the time came, the tree was miraculously adorned with silver nuts and golden apples.
Martin Luther decorated a fir tree with candles to create an image of the star-filled heaven Jesus came from. Since then, German trees are silver fir and balsam, specially grown so the branches are placed in a way that candles can be set on them.
The Tree Comes to America
The tradition of the Yule/Christmas tree spread to England. When the Puritans settled New England, the tree and other festive secular aspects of the season were banned, most likely because of their association with Paganism
While the Puritans made worldly traditions taboo, other groups brought their customs, including the Christmas tree, to the New World. The English brought it to the areas in which they settled.
The Pennsylvania Deutsch and Hessians brought their Germanic traditions to America. The Moravian Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren, the oldest Protestant Church established in the Czech Lands, had the custom of placing a putz, Nativity scene, under the tree.
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Sources:
The Book of Christmas, no author or editor given, (The Reader’s Digest Association, 1973)
Sketches of Early Bethlehem, Richmond E. Meyers, (The Moravian College Alumni Association, 1981)
When Santa Was a Shaman, Tony van Renterghem, (Llewellyn Publications, 1995)
