The Christmas tree has no meaning for many of the earth’s population. Though I think I could safely say that it is a recognisable object to most. The Christmas tree is largely thought of as a Christian object or perhaps a ‘western’ idea. What it represents to Christians is more obscure. The symbolic associations of the tree to Christian dogma feel to be more forced upon the object than a natural fit, but in any case one of the more common ideas was that the tree represented the tree of life.
Christian or post-Christian cultures celebrate Christmas as a way to mark the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas was meant as a replacement for Pagan festivals held throughout Europe and served as a way to change the culture by replacing the old forms with a new idea… but why a tree? The actual celebration was meant to be linked with the Solstice and a celebration of the cycle of nature. Ancient cultures had always thought that evergreen trees were special and represented a link to infinity or everlasting life since they never faded away.
As far back as ancient Egypt people associated these evergreen plants with eternal life. Egyptians kept the hope alive that Ra would recover from his ‘illness’ and blaze heat onto the earth’s surface again by collecting palm leaves and placing them in their homes.
The Romans celebrated the Solstice with the festival of Saturnalia, decorating their hoses with wreaths of evergreen plants, along with many customs we now associate with Christmas.
As Christianity spread throughout Europe the significance of solstice and the evergreen pine tree become mixed in and adopted by those early believers who had one foot in their past beliefs and the other tentatively in the new order brought by missionaries to them. Perfectly illustrated by early Scandinavian Christians who adapted the yearly decoration of their tree to scare away the devil. Funny enough it was Martin Luther and the Lutherans who brought this tradition firmly into the Christianised European cultures. They placed candles on the branches and deepened the symbolism of the pine tree to Christian ideas.
German immigrants brought the Christmas tree to America and Queen Victoria famously made the tree popular in the United Kingdom. Today we still love the tree and the festive season just isn’t the same with a good ol’ tannenbaum.