Christmas Trees
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How many of you remember taking an ax and either going out to the back woodlot or a farmer’s fence row and cutting a cedar tree to bring home for the holidays?
Where and when did this delightful custom begin? The Internet is overwhelmed with answers which do not agree with each other. The earliest reference to an evergreen tree being a Christian symbol dates back to 723 AD.
Legend states that St. Boniface objected to the sacrifice of a live baby to an oak tree took an ax and with one stroke felled the oak. Where the ax cut was made a small fir tree sprouted. Its green leaves would never die. Symbolism indicates that the new tree was triangular in shape (Holly Trinity) and that its needles pointed toward heaven.
The practice of decorating trees in guild halls and public buildings spread through Europe following the avenues of Protestant religious beliefs. The earliest dated illustration of a Christmas tree is a keystone sculpture above the entrance door to a private home in Alsace, (now France) that is dated 1576.
What began in public buildings designed for the entertainment of children spread to the nobility through out Europe. Well-to-do townspeople followed suit adopting a practice that had begun in pagan times, in Northern Europe with the Druids, Celts, Saxons, and Vikings, while adding their own meanings to the ancient symbol.
As best as I can learn tree decorating came to America by way of Hessian soldiers stationed, in Quebec to protect the citizens in Canada from American invasion, in 1781, the year KY became a state. It spread to the colonies and was common in homes by 1812.
Perkasie, PA holds claim to having the first electric lighted public tree in 1909. This year they are celebrating 113 years of lighting of the tree.
By the way, in 2005 the City of Boston, MA, renamed their public tree the ‘Holiday Tree’ bowing to complaints of religious intolerance. City fathers backed down in the face of numerous lawsuits and renamed it the Christmas Tree.
Have the officials of our Commonwealth government returned the tree to the Capital grounds? At the time it was removed I wrote a letter to The State Journal and suggested they decorate the tree with Stars of David & Christian five pointed stars, red bows for Shintoism, round Buddhas and attach an American and Kentucky flag on top.
Love your tree whether live to be replanted, cut from a fence row, bought on the local lot, or artificial it does not matter it is the accepted symbol of the season and enjoys a long and ancient history.
