HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-12-21, Page 39Long tradition
The origins of the Christmas tree dates back more than
1,000 years. (Bonnie Gropp photo)
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We wish all our customers and friends
a very happy holiday season
and all the very best in the coming year.
M,G.M. Townsend Tire
1 mile east of Londesborough on County Rd. 15
Phone 519-523-4742 — 1-877-619-7877
George, Matt, Dan, Carrie & Wes
PAGE B6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2006.
Christmas trees a tradition for centuries
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EARLY HISTORY
Long before the advent of
Christianity, plants and trees that
remained green all year had a special
meaning for people in winter. Just as
people today decorate their homes at
Christmas with pine, spruce and fir
trees, ancient people hung evergreen
boughs over their doors and
windows. In many countries people
believed that evergreens would keep
away witches, ghosts, evil spirits and
illness
RA, SATURN AND THE
DRUIDS
Some ancient Egyptians
worshipped a god called Ra, who
had the head of a hawk and who
wore the sun as a blazing disc in his
crown. It was believed the winter
came each year because Ra become
ill and weak. At the solstice, when
Ra began to recover from illness, the
Egyptians filled their homes with
green palm rushes which
symbolized for them the triumph of
life over death.
Across the Mediterranean Sea, the
early Romans marked the solstice
with a feast called Saturnalia in
honour of Saturn, the god of
agriculture. To mark the occasion,
they decorated their homes and
temples with evergreen boughs. The
Saturnalia was a special time of
peace and equality when wars could
not be declared, when slaves and
masters could eat the same table, and
when gifts were exchanged as a
symbol of affection and
brotherhood.
In northern Europe the mysterious
Druids, the priests of the ancient
Celts, also decorated their temples
with evergreen boughs as a symbol
of everlasting life. The fierce
Vikings in Scandinavia thought that
evergreens were the special plant of
the sun god Balder. Many historians
believe that our word for Yule come
from the Norse word "rol", the
Gothic word "huil" or the Saxon
word "hweol", all of which mean
and refer to the cycles of the sun.
YULE LOGS
When families bring home their
Christmas tree from a sales lot or a
choose-and-cut tree farm they are
following a tradition that is more
than a thousand years old. "Bringing
in the Yule log" was a ritual that
began in Great Britain and that
spread throughout Europe,
eventually reaching North America.
On Christmas Eve, the large
central trunk of a great tree was
dragged from the forest. Everyone in
the family, both adults and children,
helped with the job by pulling on
ropes.
When the log was finally brought
into the house, it was thrown on the
family fireplace where it burned for
the twelve days of Christmas.
MIRACLE PLAYS AND THE
PARADISE TREE
In the 14th century, when few
knew how to read, churches held
"miracle plays" to tell people in
villages and towns stories from the
Bible. The play that was held every
Dec. 24, which was Adam and Eve's
Day, was about the Garden of Eden.
The play showed how Eve was
tempted by the serpent, how' she
picked the apple from the forbidden
tree, and how the couple was
expelled from Paradise.
The time of year that the play was
held created a problem for the actors
and organizers of the play. How do
you find an apple tree with leaves on
it in the middle of Winter? In
Germany, the problem was solved by
cutting down an evergreen tree,
probably a spruce or pine, and tying
apples onto it.
As well, the tree was hung with
round, white wafers to remind the
audience that even though Adam'and
Eve were expelled from Paradise,
the birth of the baby Jesus would
bring redemption.
The idea of a Christmas tree hung
with apples amused people in
Germany so much that before long.
many families were setting up a
"Paradeisbaum", or paradise tree, in
their own homes. The custom
persisted long after the miracle plays
were no longer performed. Ever
since, red and green, the colour of
the apples hanging on a pine tree,
have been the official colours of
Christmas.
The wafers that once hung on the
Paradise tree were replaced with
cookies in the form of hearts, bells,
angels and stars. With time, perhaps
because so many decorations were
eaten before the tree was taken
down, the cookies were replaced
with decorations made out of thin,
painted metal.
When families combined the
decorations on the Paradeisbaum
with the candles on Martin Luther's
Tannenbaum, they created the
Christmas tree that is still found in
homes today.
CANADA PAST -
The first Christmas tree in Canada
was set up in Sorel, Quebec.in 1781
by Baron Friederick von Riedesel.
The baron, who was born in
Germany, selected a handsome
balsam fir from the forests that
surrounded his home and decorated
it with white candles.
The next recorded Christmas tree
appeared in Halifax in 1846 when
William Prior, a local merchant, cut
down an evergreen and decorated it
with glass ornaments imported from
Germany to please his German wife.
After that, the custom spread
quickly as German and British
pioneers settled throughout the
Continued on B7
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And after the business day is through,
Please take our best wishes home with you!
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