The tradition of Christmas tree: How did it all begin?
There’s hardly anyone in the world who isn’t fond of Christmas. After all, the holiday season is all about having fun, spending time with family and friends, sharing lavish meals (with cakes and cookies), lighting candles, and of course decorating Christmas trees with twinkling lights, vibrant ornaments, and presents among others. But have you ever wondered who started the tradition of bringing evergreen Christmas trees home and embellishing them? That’s quite a story in itself.
Evergreen trees represent the coming of spring
British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in his world-renowned poem Ode to the Westwind had written, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Well, looks like, long before this pioneering Romantic poet had come up with this idea, it was the ancient Europeans who thought about it.
As it turns out, winter solstice (22nd December) in the Northern Hemisphere is right ahead of Christmas, which is nothing but the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Now, people throughout history have honoured winter solstice by bringing home evergreen trees and boughs. This also reminded them that the arrival of harsh winter also meant that spring with its lushness and plenitude is on its way too. In fact, ancient Romans celebrated winter solstice with a feast called Saturnalia as part of which they honoured Saturn, their god of agriculture and summoned him to bring greenery and harvest back in their lives at the end of the bleak winter. And guess what? Bringing home evergreen trees and decorating them was part of the tradition. The ancient Egyptians and Chinese also used evergreen trees as pagan symbols of eternal life.
The medieval tree of paradise
Not only ancient Europeans, but medieval Europeans too followed the tradition of decorating evergreen trees at home. But it was inspired by the ‘tree of paradise’ that was part of Middle Age’s mystery plays and celebrated Adam and Eve on Christmas Eve. People ornamented the trees with apples that represented the forbidden fruit and wafers that symbolised redemption. The tree was called Paradise Tree.
Evergreen trees become part of Christmas tradition
Until the 16th century, people associated evergreen trees with the celebration of winter solstice and the upcoming vernal season. However, it was Martin Luther, the German Protestant reformer who first introduced the idea of adding lights to such evergreen trees and making it part of Christmas traditions.
Legends have it that Luther was walking home through the woods one fine evening when he suddenly looked up and saw twinkling bright stars shining through the tree branches above him. However, when he returned home and narrated the beautiful scene to his family, they felt disheartened to have missed it. This is when Luther decided to go around the corner, chop down a part of an evergreen tree and drag it all the way home. Why? Because he simply wanted to recreate what he saw! Later that night, Luther and his family ended up decorating the tree with lights and ornaments and kept it around till the end of Christmas. Sources cite that it was German Lutherans who made this tradition public. In fact, according to records, the first official Christmas tree was planted at Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539 under the leadership of Luther’s disciple Martin Bucer. This tree was lit with mini candles.
Interestingly, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the world embraced this tradition when Queen Victoria’s German husband Prince Albert commissioned a Christmas tree for the Buckingham Palace. Soon after, Americans too took to this tradition. Today, USA celebrates every Christmas with millions of trees. In fact, there’s a National Christmas Tree that sits on the White House lawn and is decorated beautifully. The tree is called Ellipse and has been around since 1923.