Friday 12 December 2014

History of the Christmas Tree part 2

The History of Christmas Trees

A Christmas Tree with gold baublesCones on a Fir TreeThe first first person to bring a Christmas Tree into a house, in the way we know it today, may have been the 16th century German preacher Martin Luther. A story is told that, one night before Christmas, he was walking through the forest and looked up to see the stars shining through the tree branches. It was so beautiful, that he went home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas. Some people say this is the same tree as the 'Riga' tree, but it isn't! The Riga tree originally took place a few decades earlier. Northern Germany and Latvia are neighbours.
Another story says that St. Boniface of Crediton (a village in Devon, UK) left England and travelled to Germany to preach to the pagan German tribes and convert them to Christianity. He is said to have come across a group of pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree. In anger, and to stop the sacrifice, St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and, to his amazement, a young fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree. St. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith and his followers decorated the tree with candles so that St. Boniface could preach to the pagans at night.
There is another legend, from Germany, about how the Christmas Tree came into being, it goes:
Once on a cold Christmas Eve night, a forester and his family were in their cottage gathered round the fire to keep warm. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. When the forester opened the door, he found a poor little boy standing on the door step, lost and alone. The forester welcomed him into his house and the family fed and washed him and put him to bed in the youngest sons own bed (he had to share with his brother that night!). The next morning, Christmas Morning, the family were woken up by a choir of angels, and the poor little boy had turned into Jesus, the Christ Child. The Christ Child went into the front garden of the cottage and broke a branch off a Fir tree and gave it to the family as a present to say thank you for looking after him. So ever since them, people have remembered that night by bringing a Christmas Tree into their homes!



14 comments:

  1. That's very interesting Jo-Anne, and I suppose we will never know which is the correct version, not that it really matters..

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  2. Well It has something to do with Germany

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  3. Beautiful stories, all of them...

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  4. I love reading these. I also love the true meaning of Christmas. xo

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  5. I love these stories---I wasn't familiar with them. Interesting!

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  6. That was interesting. Regardless of all that, as I'm sure it is with you, I love our Christmas Tree. :-)

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    1. Yes I love my Christmas Tree but it sounds like I may need a new one as it has been making some strange sounds the last week

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  7. We finished decorating our tree yesterday Woo Hoo!

    I love the stories your writing about.

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    1. Thanks, my tree is small and has lights attached but is making some strange sounds so I may need a new one

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