Why evergreen at christmas

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More Just In. Sympathetic magic is the belief that we bring an object with supernatural attribute close to us, the power will rub off on us. It was a potent belief system in early Pagan times. As the nights grew longer and lifelessness descended, evergreen trees stood as beacons of life of the landscape. Eons after we emerged from caves, a myriad of cultures continued to bring evergreens indoors over the winter solstice. Ancient Romans, Egyptians, Chinese and Hebrews all associated evergreens with life magic that was stubborn and strong enough to resist the long winter.

At the same time, Romans would bring boughs and branches into their homes to celebrate Saturnalia, their festival of the deity Saturn in the latter half of December. Early European druids hung evergreen sprigs of holly and mistletoe indoors in hopes that their sympathetic life magic would ward off spirits lurking during the winter solstice.

As the Middle Ages rolled on, German and Scandinavian people brought evergreen trees indoors, or placed them outside their doors, to express their hope for bountiful return to spring. Early Christians were hostile to these pagan rituals, with the theologian Tertullian condemning Christians who participated in the Roman winter festivals.

Sometime during the Middle Ages, however, something changed. The legend grew that, on the night that Christ was born, all surrounding trees shook off their snow and burst into leaf.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. When the forester opened the door, he found a poor little boy standing on the door step, lost and alone.

The forester welcomed him into his house and the family fed and washed him and put him to bed in the youngest sons own bed he had to share with his brother that night! The next morning, Christmas Morning, the family were woken up by a choir of angels, and the poor little boy had turned into Jesus, the Christ Child.

The Christ Child went into the front garden of the cottage and broke a branch off a Fir tree and gave it to the family as a present to say thank you for looking after him. So ever since them, people have remembered that night by bringing a Christmas Tree into their homes!

In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. In an unknown German wrote: "At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc.

Some other trees were used in different parts of Germany, such as box or Yew. In the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz it was common to decorate just a branch of a yew tree.

At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. The 'angel' might also might have started as a version of the 'Christkind' which translates as 'The Christ Child' but is normally shown as a little angel figure with blond hair!

Queen Charlotte grew up in Mecklenburg-Strelitz and in the s there are records of her having a yew branch in Kew Palace or Windsor Castle. She helped to decorate it herself and it became a popular event for the royal court. Dr John Watkins, who went to the party described the tree like this: " And " Soon having a tree had become popular amongst some rich families. Queen Charlotte died in and by then, having a Christmas Tree was a tradition among much of the upper classes.

They became very popular throughout the country from the mid s, when reports of 'the Royal tree' were printed in newspapers. It showed Queen Victoria, her German Husband Prince Albert and their young children around a tree which was set-up on a table. The drawing was republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December but they removed the Queen's crown and Prince Albert's moustache to make it look 'American'!

In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still used to decorate Christmas trees. Christmas Tree 'skirts' started as Christmas Tree 'carpets'. They were made from heavy fabric, often decorated and with fancy frills around the edges, and were used either on the floor, or on tables, and went under the trees and their stands - rather than 'around' them. They were used to catch the needles from the trees and also protect the floor or table tops from dripping wax coming from the candles on the trees.

At this point trees were either normally put in pots if they still had roots on them or they were attached to a larger piece of wood or other heavy support if they'd been cut and so the scenes help to hide these. In the s proper metal tree holders, for cut trees, started being made. If you were rich, you could get them in very fancy shapes - and some even had music boxes in them, so they 'plinked' Christmas tunes!

Less expensive tree holders also became available and were made out of cheaper metals and they also didn't look so good , so the 'carpets' became smaller and were also put 'around' the tree holders and became the Christmas tree skirts that we have today.

Lead and glass decorations started being made in the s and s. Some of the first glass decorations were apples - and that's probably where round, red, baubles on Christmas Trees comes from! In fact, some scholars believe the early Christian church deliberately chose December 25 as the date of Christmas to capitalize on the aforementioned Saturnalia, which was celebrated around the same time of year.

By offering an alternative holiday rather than cancelling festivities outright, the church hoped to get more pagans on board with its teachings.

But what of the Christmas tree itself? How did evergreen boughs become full trees decked out with lights and baubles? According to one legend, we have the eighth century missionary St. Boniface to thank. It is the wood of peace… It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are ever green.

See how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the Christ-child; gather about it, not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness. Medieval Germans celebrated the feast day of Adam and Eve — the first people created by God, according to Judeo-Christian scriptures — on December 24th with a play about the couple.

Traditionally, such Adam and Eve plays only had one prop on stage: a paradise tree, which usually took the form of a fir tree decorated with apples. Eventually, Germans began erecting their own paradise trees inside their homes to mark the occasion. While walking home one winter night, the story goes, Luther was struck by how beautiful the starlit sky looked through the evergreens.

While evergreens may be closely associated with Christmas in the popular imagination, they never really lost their broader, more universal spiritual valence of old. National Park System. Whenever he could steal away from the farm, Muir would wander the wilds of Wisconsin, and it was here that his love of nature first bloomed.

When Muir regained his eyesight, he also gained the resolve to put it to good use in the careful contemplation of the natural world. Muir left his job and trekked from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico largely on foot, making sketches of plants and wildlife along the way.

He sailed to Cuba, then Panama, and then to California, where his life would be changed forever by his travels through the Sierra Nevada mountains. As he wrote in his book The Mountains of California :. For knowledge of this kind one must dwell with the trees and grow with them, without any reference to time in the almanac sense.