The real story of the Christmas tree
Date: Wednesday, December 07th, 2005 (CDT )
Topic: Ancient History
 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.
One story stands out as it tells of the first publicly displayed Christmas tree.
Heinrich Christian Schwan,
a German born and educated Lutheran minister took his first office in
Bahia, Brazil after his ordination in 1843.
He had made a promise to
his uncle to take care of the needs of Lutherans in the United States
and honoring that promise he answered a call to Black Jack, Missouri,
in 1850.
Shortly after in 1851,
Schwan transferred to Zion Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and it was he who
placed the first Christmas tree in a German church on American soil
that year.
His idea spread throughout the Midwest and then all over the United States.
"All German immigrants were
poor and they could not afford a Christmas tree," said retired Lutheran
Pastor Roger Eden, Pana, Illinois.
The Christmas tree was not
an American thing but those nostalgic immigrants missed the tradition
they were accustomed to at home.
So Pastor Schwan decided to
put a tree in the church for all to enjoy. Before, Christmas trees were
never seen in public places, but surprisingly the idea took hold and
all churches, including other denominations, joined in."
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