Untangling the History of Christmas Lights

[de officiis]

Untangling the History of Christmas Lights

. . . But what really made a tree a Christmas tree were the candles, and while flickering flames were festive, they were also a fire hazard.

Over at the Edison shop, Johnson saw an opportunity. Setting up a tree by the street-side window of his parlor, Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and strung them together around it, and placed the trunk on a revolving pedestal, all powered by a generator. Then he called a reporter. “At the rear of the beautiful parlors, was a large Christmas tree presenting a most picturesque and uncanny aspect,” wrote W.A. Croffut, a veteran writer for the Detroit Post and Tribune. “It was brilliantly lighted with...eighty lights in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided between white, red and blue....One can hardly imagine anything prettier.” The lights drew a crowd as passers-by stopped to peer at the glowing marvel. Johnson turned his stunt into a tradition; he also pioneered the practice of doing more each year: An 1884 New York Times article counted 120 bulbs on his dazzling tree. . . .

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/u ... OFjATok.99

[Montegriffo]

Seems crazy now that we used to put candles on a Christmas tree.I think the practise of bringing an evergreen tree into the house is another tradition borrowed from pagans, same as holly and mistletoe.

[Ex-California]

Everything about Christmas is from Saturnalia and the Feast of Sol Invictus

[Okeefenokee]

Everything about Christmas is from Saturnalia and the Feast of Sol Invictus

Winter time festivities featuring exhibits of greenery and lots of food, in a time of year when greenery and food were fairly well lacking, are not exclusive to one group.

[Speaker to Animals]

The tradition of decorating the tree comes from the story of Saint Boniface cutting down Thor's Oak when he returned to a recently converted village only to find them about to sacrifice a little boy to Thor. His staff broke the axe of the guy who was going to kill the boy, which the people took to a be a sign of their error. He ordered them to cut down the oak tree and decorate instead an evergreen tree (evergreen symbolizing the eternal life offered by Christ) and worship God. It may also have been the case that, instead of killing the boy, he was given gifts which could explain why Christmas in Germanic cultures is more about giving to children.

The Germans were the first to cut down trees and bring them indoors to be lit with candles (super dangerous) and other ornaments.

[Montegriffo]

http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm

Origins of the Christmas Tree:
Pagan traditions: Many Pagan cultures used to cut boughs of evergreen trees in December, move them into the home or temple, and decorate them. Modern-day Pagans still do. This was to recognize the winter solstice -- the time of the year that had the shortest daylight hours, and longest night of the year. This occurs annually sometime between DEC-20 to 23; most often, it is DEC-21. As the solstice approached, they noticed that the days were gradually getting shorter; many feared that the sun would eventually disappear forever, and everyone would freeze in the dark, and starve to death because of the failure of next-year's crop. But, even though deciduous trees, bushes, and crops died or hibernated for the winter, the evergreen trees remained green. They seemed to have magical powers that enabled them to withstand the rigors of winter.

Not having evergreen trees, the ancient Egyptians considered the palm tree to symbolize resurrection. They decorated their homes with its branches during the winter solstice.

"The first decorating of an evergreen tree began with the heathen Greeks and their worship of their god Adonia, who allegedly was brought back to life by the serpent Aessulapius after having been slain."

The ancient Pagan Romans decorated their "trees with bits of metal and replicas of their god, Bacchus [a fertility god]. They also placed 12 candles on the tree in honor of their sun god" Their mid-winter festival of Saturnalia started on DEC-17 and often lasted until a few days after the Solstice.

In Northern Europe, the ancient Germanic people tied fruit and attached candles to evergreen tree branches, in honor of their god Woden. Trees were viewed as symbolizing eternal life. This is the deity after which Wednesday (Wodensday) was named. The trees joined holly, mistletoe, the wassail bowl and the Yule log as symbols of the season. All of these predated Christianity

[Speaker to Animals]

According to a legend, in the eighth century Saint Boniface cut down a sacred oak of the god Thor – known as Donar’s Oak or Thor’s Oak – and instead planted an evergreen tree -a pine or a fir- which eventually would become the Christmas tree.

Tradition says Martin Luther was the first to use a decorated Christmas tree: he was taking a stroll at night when he realised the beauty of the starry night and the snow shining on the branches of a fir tree. When he returned home he chop down a fir tree, put it indoor and decorated it with candles as a way to show his family what he had seen.

The first Christmas trees were used in Germany in the seventeenth century; they were firs trees – Tannenbaum – usually placed indoors adorned with apples and candles, symbolizing the fruit of the tree of Paradise and the Light (birth) of Jesus Christ. This is the origin of today’s balls and Christmas lights. Over the years this tradition expanded overseas to the rest of the world, and now most cities light a big Christmas tree to represent the beginning of the Christmas Holidays.

https://urnabios.com/green-christmas-or ... tmas-tree/

[Penner]

The tradition of decorating the tree comes from the story of Saint Boniface cutting down Thor's Oak when he returned to a recently converted village only to find them about to sacrifice a little boy to Thor. His staff broke the axe of the guy who was going to kill the boy, which the people took to a be a sign of their error. He ordered them to cut down the oak tree and decorate instead an evergreen tree (evergreen symbolizing the eternal life offered by Christ) and worship God. It may also have been the case that, instead of killing the boy, he was given gifts which could explain why Christmas in Germanic cultures is more about giving to children.

The Germans were the first to cut down trees and bring them indoors to be lit with candles (super dangerous) and other ornaments.

This is the story that I have heard growing up. That St. Boniface was the one who introduced the concept of Christmas Trees to Pagan Germans. Sure the Germans (and probably Nordics as well) worshiped and sure the idea of decorating a home with green garland/wreaths were around thousands of years prior to that but the Christmas Tree is something that is rooted in Christianity and German tradition.

[BjornP]

Apparantly the first recorded use of a Christmas tree was in either mid 15th cent. Latvia or Estonia. First recorded use of a decorated Christmas tree in Germany is in 1570 in Bremen.

http://www.zeit.de/wissen/geschichte/20 ... nachtsbaum (German)

So doesn't look like there's a continuity between Boniface and the Christmas tree.