L'Christmas tree is one of the symbols of the most long-awaited and beloved holiday of the year all over the planet. The tradition of decorating a tree to give further impetus to the festive atmosphere, typically Christmas, has very ancient origins.
The Christmas tree, the origins of a centuries-old tradition
There are many legends that speak of the first Christmas tree in history as we know it today. The first decorated tree seems to have been born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1441, when a large fir tree was erected in the Town Hall Square. Around the tree men and women danced together in search of a soul mate. This custom was then revived in Germany: a 1570 Bremen chronicle tells of a tree that was decorated with apples, walnuts, dates and paper flowers.
The city of Riga (in Latvia) is also among those that claim to be home to the first Christmas tree. In fact, in the Latvian capital there is a plaque written in eight languages, according to which the "first New Year tree was decorated in this city in 1510". Other news on the custom of the Christmas tree comes from Alsace: a chronicle of Strasbourg from 1605 says that "for Christmas the citizens bring fir trees ('Dannenbaumen' in the German of the time) into their homes, put them in rooms. They decorate them with paper roses of various colors, apples, sugar, gold-like objects”.
From pagan to Christian meaning
An antecedent of the tree could be the ancient pagan rite of bringing an auspicious branch into the house before the new year. In the Middle Ages the tradition of the “Adam and Eva Spiele” (games of Adam and Eve) which provided for the reconstruction in the churches of the scenario of paradise on earth. Setting that took place on December 24, at the vigil of Christmas, complete with fruit trees, symbols of abundance and the mystery of life. The tree in itself, both for the pagan world and for the Christian world, represents the renewal of life.
And, specifically, for Christians it represents Christ and his immortality. It is a symbol of great strength of adaptation and rebirth; it is renewed and revived continuously, feeding itself from the sacred source of the Earth. And therefore it represents an important wish for those who are starting a new phase of their existence. For a long time, the Christmas tree tradition remains typical for the regions of Northern Europe. At first, Catholics considered it a custom of the Protestant world and only in the twentieth century did this tradition spread to the Catholic world as well
The first tree lit
According to the legends handed down from century to century, Martin Luther he may have been the first to decide to decorate the Christmas tree with lights, after a walk in a forest, where the only source of illumination were the stars shining in the sky. Instead, the first electrically lit tree is the work of Edward H. Johnson, partner of Thomas Edison, which a New York on December 22, 1882, he created a hand-wired tree for his home with eighty red, white and blue incandescent bulbs: the colors of America.
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