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Festivity
- The Christmas tree Legends |
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Christmas tree
is the most recognizable images of the Christmas.
It is originated in Germany
around 700 AD and Germans
are responsible for bringing the Christmas tree
to the New World. There are numerous conflicting
myths and legends associated with the Christmas
tree.
As per one legend,
at the time of Pagan Yule
celebration, the Pagan families used
to believe in the wood sprits. They would bring
a real tree inside their home in winter season,
in order to provide a place to the spirits to
remain warm during the cold months. Pagans hung
bells from the branches of the tree so that
they would know when a spirit came inside their
home.
Another legend is
connected with St. Boniface,
the Apostle of the Germans, who propagated
Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the
8th century. He came upon a group of Pagans
in the forest where they were worshipping an
oak tree. St. Boniface walked
over to the tree and cut it down from the roots
of the oak tree and grew an
evergreen tree and said this was the
tree of Christ because it rose again like Christ
came back from the dead.
Another legend is
credited to “the
German theologian and reformer Martin Luther
(1483-1546), who in 1530 was moved by the sight
of stars shining though the forest of firs near
his home that he apparently cut a small one
and brought it indoors. He then placed lit candles
in its boughs as a salute to the star of Bethlehem.
By the 1800s, the Christmas tree custom was
widespread throughout many parts of Europe,
and was brought to America by the Pennsylvania
German immigrants in the 1820's. In 1880, Woolworth
sold the first manufactured Christmas
tree ornaments, and the first electrically
lighted Christmas tree appeared in 1882.”
“Another version
of the legends about the Christmas tree
goes back to the 1300's. During that time, artists
used to roam around in the streets carrying
huge pine boughs, loaded with apples. This act
was a kind of advertisement for the miracle
plays they used to stage on the steps
of the church, the plays
about Adam and Eve, with the boughs representing
the Garden of Eden. Slowly and gradually, this
'paradise tree' came to be associated with life
and was named as the 'Christ Child's Tree' and
after words Christmas tree”.
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“Among many legends
most common stories tells the tale of an
old woodcutter that stumbled across a young hungry
child in the woods. He stopped chopping trees
for a bit to befriend and feed the child. Once
their meal was finished the two went on their
separate ways. Early during the next morning the
child appeared in front of the woodcutter and
his wife in the form of a spirit. He identified
himself as Christkind and thanked the surprised
woodcutter for his act of kindness on the previous
day. To repay the woodcutter's good will, Christkind
gave him the sprig of an
evergreen tree and told him the tree from
which the sprig came would bear fruit year round.
In response to this miraculous incident, each
year Germans started felling evergreen trees each
winter”.
Christmas
tree decoration
is not a difficult task now, as every thing for
decoration is available through online, with one
or two clicks, including decorated
artificial tree. However, if time permit,
it is always better to make natural
Christmas tree involving all family members.
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