History of Xmas Trees

[natalie_1982]

I know what Christmas is all about, the meaning of it and all that, but the trees....... why pine (?) trees and not horse chestnuts fir example?  And why hang shiney plastic baubles and glilttery tinsel?  What did they hang on them years ago?  Thanks.

[CiderMonkey]

I read that fir trees were used because of the triangular shape, to represent the holy trinity - father, son and holy ghost. As for the baubles, i think this tradition comes from pagan rituals - they worshipped nature and shiny baubles were meant to represent the sun, which they obviously missed in winter, and wanted to praise so it would come back again!

[CiderMonkey]

I'm not saying pagans hung baubles on trees to celebrate Christmas! Just to celebrate the sun!

[ursula62]

Pine trees are evergreens. The druids were fascinated by evergreens because they didn't lose their leaves in winter. This may be one reason why pine trees, holly and ivy all figure in seasonal decorations, and eventually got used as Christmas decorations.

 

[galltin]

I think Prince Albert - husband of Queen Victoria
- introduced the Christmas tree to Britain. It was a German
tradition.

[natalie_1982]

CiderMonkey, you reminded me.... I remember when I was little being told that no-one knew exactly when Jesus was born so picked December 25th because it was a day of Sun Worship, I guess that ties in with your Sun = Shiney Baubles.

Thanks everyone.

[gypsy]

natalie...the pagan holiday of yule is celebrated on december 22 this is the day of death and rebirth .it is the shortest day of the year when the sun appears to be dead ...but the day marks the birth of its return journey..the ancients feared the sun would dissapear permanantly so they lit huge bonfires and hung greenery to encourage its return..in the fourth century ad december 25 was chosen as jesus official birthday..the reason why xmas day is 3 days after the rebirth day is because they could see that their magic of bonfires and celebrations were working as the days were getting longer..in ancient times they reffered to jesus as the star child or the star of hope..these celebrations went on till twelfth night...gypsy

[Wraith]

This question was asked not so long ago.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History-and-Myths/Question81877.html

 

[Wraith]

You might find this link interesting.

http://wilstar.com/xmas/xmassymb.htm