The real story of the Christmas tree
Issue date: 12/1/05 Section: Features
By Kerstin Allen
Campus and Features Editor
The evergreen bough has forever been regarded as a symbol of everlasting life.
In ancient times many peoples attached a special meaning to plants and trees that remained green all year long and hung evergreen boughs over doors and windows.
In some countries people believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness whereas Northern European peoples in their pagan beliefs worshiped a sun god as did the ancient Egyptians.
They celebrated the winter solstice by displaying evergreen boughs as it reminded them that all green plants would soon grow again and the sun god would be strong again and summer would return.
The early Romans also knew that after the solstice farms and orchards would begin to produce again, and in celebration, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreens.
The 16th century marked the beginning of the Christmas tree tradition in Germany when Christians began to adorn their homes with decorated trees.
A widely held belief credits Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer who nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg, with being the first person in Germany to add candles to the Christmas tree.
The story goes that while he was walking home one winter evening deeply in thought with a sermon, the brilliance of the stars twinkling amidst evergreens caught his eye. He hurried home wanting to share that awesome sight with his family. There in the main room of his house Luther placed a Christmas tree and wired lighted candles to its branches recapturing that scene from the woods for all to see.
Thus a new festive tradition was born and German and Irish immigrants in the United States brought this tradition with them, but it was not until the late 1800s that Americans accepted it as a Christian form of decoration. The decorated and lighted Christmas tree, as we know it today began only slowly to gain popularity.
Campus and Features Editor
The evergreen bough has forever been regarded as a symbol of everlasting life.
In ancient times many peoples attached a special meaning to plants and trees that remained green all year long and hung evergreen boughs over doors and windows.
In some countries people believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness whereas Northern European peoples in their pagan beliefs worshiped a sun god as did the ancient Egyptians.
They celebrated the winter solstice by displaying evergreen boughs as it reminded them that all green plants would soon grow again and the sun god would be strong again and summer would return.
The early Romans also knew that after the solstice farms and orchards would begin to produce again, and in celebration, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreens.
The 16th century marked the beginning of the Christmas tree tradition in Germany when Christians began to adorn their homes with decorated trees.
A widely held belief credits Martin Luther, the Protestant reformer who nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg, with being the first person in Germany to add candles to the Christmas tree.
The story goes that while he was walking home one winter evening deeply in thought with a sermon, the brilliance of the stars twinkling amidst evergreens caught his eye. He hurried home wanting to share that awesome sight with his family. There in the main room of his house Luther placed a Christmas tree and wired lighted candles to its branches recapturing that scene from the woods for all to see.
Thus a new festive tradition was born and German and Irish immigrants in the United States brought this tradition with them, but it was not until the late 1800s that Americans accepted it as a Christian form of decoration. The decorated and lighted Christmas tree, as we know it today began only slowly to gain popularity.