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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 1989)
The Battalion LIFESTYLES Thursday, December 7,1989 Mary-Lynne Rice <© (Eljrtstttms tHree,. ♦ History of Christmas tree rooted in Christian legend By Chuck Lovejoy Of The Battalion Staff T, he Christmas tree, perhaps the most beloved of Christmas traditions, is recog nized throughout the world as a symbol of peace and human kindness. Although Christmas trees now often are used to commer cialize the holiday season, the Christmas tree originated as a representation of the peace and good will the holiday season brings. As with any long-recog nized tradition, several leg ends surround the origin of the Christmas tree. One 18th-century legend credits St. Boniface with start ing the tradition. In “The Book of Religious Holidays and Celebrations,” Marguerite Ickis describes how St. Boniface “persuaded the Teutons to give up their cruel practice of sacrificing a child before a great oak tree during their midwinter festi val.” According to the book, Bo niface told the Teutons instead to cut down a fir tree, take it home and celebrate around it with their children. He chose the fir tree because it was re garded as a symbol of immor tality: “Its leaves were ever green and its top branches pointed straight to the heav ens.” Another legend of the origin of the Christmas tree is con nected with St. Winfred, an 8th-century missionary who served in Scandinavia. Ickis’ book tells the tale of how Winfred cut down a large oak tree, only to see a young evergreen tree “miraculously spring up in its place.” Winfred declared the tree holy and directed the chieftan of the area to take the tree into his hall and rejoice on the night of Jesus’ birth. In “The Christmas Tree,” Daniel J. Foley says folklorists have associated the origins of the Christmas tree with the German and Scandinavian practice of bringing an ever green indoors during the win ter months “to dispel the gloom of the long, dark cold days of winter.” Yule trees, as they are called, are not decorated like Christmas trees, serving a pur pose closer to that of house- plants. Yule trees still stand beside Christmas trees in many European households. The real beginnings of the Christmas tree as we know it today seem to lie partly in the miracle plays of the Middle Ages, which told biblical sto ries, especially the story of Christ’s life. These plays were performed without costumes or sets. One particular play performed near Christmas was called the Par adise play. It told the story of Adam and Eve and used a sin gle prop — an evergreen tree on which apples were hung, representing the Garden of Eden. The paradise tree, as it was called, endured long after the miracle plays were banished in the late 1400s. Foley writes that the trees were the subject of many religious paintings and were included in chil dren’s stories of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. Parents also began to deco rate the trees with commu nion-type wafers, which later were replaced with pastries, cookies and other confections of various shapes and colors. Another ancestor of the Christmas tree of today is the German Lichtstock and the Italian ceppo, a pyramid shaped set of shelves deco rated with tinsel and candles. Nativity scenes, religious figu rines and other heirlooms suited to the occasion of Christmas also were placed upon the shelves. The shelves varied in shape from triangular to octagonal. Some were mechanically ro tated so all sides of the lighted pyramid could be displayed. How the paradise tree and the Lichtstock came to be combined is not known pre cisely, but it was common in Germany to display the two side by side during the Christmas season. Eventually, the two were in corporated into a close version of the modem Christmas tree. The pyramid’s crowning star was placed atop the paradise tree, the nativity scenes were set below and the tinsel and baubles were draped across the evergreen’s branches. The lights of the Christmas tree are entirely another mat ter. Even though each Lichts tock shelf generally displayed several candles, the practice did not spread to the paradise tree. Ickis tells a popular story about German theologian Mar tin Luther, who is credited with first adding candles to the Christmas tree. While walking home one night shortly before Christmas, Luther noticed the stars shining through the branches of the evergreen trees in the forest. He was so moved by the sight that when he ar rived home, he cut a fir tree and placed candles on its branches to show his children what he had seen. The principally German practice of decorating a Christmas tree spread rapidly through Europe. Christmas trees never really caught on in England, how ever, until 1848. That Christmas, the Illustrated Lon don News published an etch ing of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria and the royal family celebrating around a Christmas tree, and the tradi tion took off. Never mind that the royal family had decorated Christmas trees since 1841, af ter the birth of Albert and Vic toria’s first son. Foley writes, “The fact that a new fashion had a royal flourish gave it the prestige so necesary in those days to its success and popu larity.” The same reaction to the etching occurred in the United States, when it was printed in Godey’s “Lady’s Book” in 1850. German immigrants the United States had ^ putting up Christmas t#j since the early 1800s, etching of British ro|i made the practice an ifl| tradition (possibly becai many Americans still to mother England). Since then, the Christ tree has continued to evolvt Now, department stores^ play modern Christmas ti with colored electrical !$ aluminum tinsel and even® tori zed bases that rotate tree to the tune of elects cally-produced Christmas ct ols. And Martin Luther oa used candles.