| Early Christmas Trees
- Again an ancient tradition. The oak was sacred to the ancient Greek god Zeus, as well as
to the Druids. In ancient Rome evergreen trees were thought to have special powers and
were used for decoration. In pagan Scandinavia, fir and ash trees were hung with war
trophies to bring good luck. In the Middle Ages the Church decorated trees with apples on
Christmas Eve, which was known then as Adam and Eve's Day. The earliest record of a
Christmas tree in England dates from 1800 with a tree belonging to Queen Charlotte, wife
of George III. The member of the royal family who really made the Christmas tree popular
in England was the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburn, the German husband of Queen
Victoria. In 1848 The Illustrated London News printed a full page illustration of their
tree and the fashion quickly spread. The earliest mention of a Christmas tree in
America is from a diary dated 20 December 1820 of Matthew Zahn, from Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania. Many of those who settled in Pennsylvania in the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries were Protestants from Germany. Our more modern Christmas tree seems
to have started in Germany. In the sixteenth century, city merchants carried a fir tree
decorated with paper flowers through the streets on Christmas Eve. A great feast was held
in the market square followed by dancing around the tree, and finally the tree was
ceremonially burned. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
"Christbaumen" appeared in different forms - sometimes only the tops of fir
branches were used, often hung upside down over doorways. Some people took fir branches,
fixed them to wooden pyramids and decorated them with paper roses, nuts and apples. |
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