O Christmas Tree

In all of the furore over the Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, I want to throw light on a few facts. When Charles Dickens dismissed the Christmas tree as that silly German toy he was apparently unaware of the many traditional and social forces from which the decorated tree was descended. Or maybe he was just being ironic? Dickens was no doubt responding to the introduction of the tree to England by Prince Albert, German consort of the young Queen Victoria. The Queen had the tree set up in the State Room of Windsor Castle. Within a few decades, the custom of putting up a decorated tree for Christmas had reached all over the Western world. Over one hundred and fifty years later, Christmas without a tree is almost unthinkable. For those few weeks in December there are trees everywhere: official trees in public places and town squares, while shopping malls sport their corporate jolly sponsored ones. Jaded artificial branches sprout from office fixtures while more healthy specimens are seen in private homes, dripping with ornaments and gathering wrapped gifts underneath as 25/12 approaches. And the variety? Real, evergreen trees invariably in shades of green, artificial trees in green, blue and pink, red, gold, silver and white. No matter how many traditions we dispense with, we cannot seem to let go of the tree. How did it all begin? Much has been written about the connection between Christmas and Saturnalia, that midwinter Roman feast where revellers bedecked their halls with boughs of holly, mistletoe and other greenery. But does the custom of the tree have an earlier origin? An ancient myth tells how the body of Osiris floated ashore at Byblos, Phoenicia, and was revived as a green tree. Osiris is one of the principal deities in Egyptian mythology. He represented the male reproductive force in nature and became identified with the setting sun. He is reputed to have reclaimed the Egyptians from savagery, taught them to worship the gods and given them laws. Before his time the Egyptians had been cannibals but Isis, the wife of Osiris, discovered wheat and barley growing wild. Osiris introduced the cultivation of grain among his people. He is said to have been first to gather fruit from trees, to train vines and make wine. The story goes that his brother Set tricked him into lying down in a highly decorated coffer he had made himself. Set quickly fastened the lid and cast the coffer into the Nile. It floated down the river and away out to sea until it came ashore at Byblos, an ancient city on the coast of Syria. Here a tree grew, enclosing the coffer in its trunk. The king of the country had the tree cut down and restored to life, it was elaborately decorated and dressed with green leaves. This gave rise to a beautiful feast held each year, at which a fallen tree was erected and, with much ceremony, replanted. In the Middle Ages, a tree Decorated featured prominently in the German mystery plays. These plays were simple scenes from the Bible enacted by lay people at Easter and other holy days. On Christmas Eve, formerly the feast of Adam and Eve, the Creation of Man was the most popular play. Adam and Eve made their entrance into the Garden of Eden, represented by a fir tree hung with apples. The inhabitants of Northern Europe had distant memories of Yule, a midwinter feast they celebrated at the same time the Romans celebrated Saturnalia. To celebrate Yule, giant logs were trimmed with greenery and ribbons. Then they were burnt in honour of the gods and to make the sun shone more brightly. German immigrants, both Catholic and Protestant, brought the tree to North America. Through them the Christmas tree became a familiar sight in German-American churches everywhere. Charles Dickens may not have delved too deeply into the origin of the tree, but we won’t quibble over that. Instead we will recite his other great Christmas accolade from the mouth of the immortal Tiny Tim: God bless us all, everyone.
Source: The Golden Bough by James Frazer, Oxford World's Classics.