why is there a christmas tree on christmas

Legend credits the Protestant reformer Martin Luther with inventing the Christmas tree, but the story has little historical basis. Not until the Renaissance are there clear records of trees being used as a symbol of Christmas-beginning in Latvia in 1510 and Strasbourg in 1521. According to one legend, the eighth-century missionary Boniface, after cutting down an oak tree sacred to the pagan god Thor (and used for human sacrifice), pointed to a nearby fir tree instead as a symbol of the love and mercy of God. Of course, this did not mean that the worship of pagan gods themselves was tolerated. Not only individual human beings, but cultures, symbols, and traditions could be converted.

These missionaries believed that the Incarnation proclaimed Christ's lordship over those natural symbols that had previously been used for the worship of pagan gods. At the same time, Christian missionaries preaching to Germanic and Slavic peoples were taking a more lenient approach to cultural practices-such as evergreen trees.

If you have renounced temples, make not your own gate a temple.'īut by the early Middle Ages, the legend had grown that when Christ was born in the dead of winter, every tree throughout the world miraculously shook off its ice and snow and produced new shoots of green. You are a light of the world, and a tree ever green. 'Let them over whom the fires of hell are imminent, affix to their posts, laurels doomed presently to burn: to them the testimonies of darkness and the omens of their penalties are suitable. The second-century theologian Tertullian condemned those Christians who celebrated the winter festivals, or decorated their houses with laurel boughs in honor of the emperor: Many early Christians were hostile to such practices. Romans decorated their houses with evergreen branches during the New Year, and ancient inhabitants of northern Europe cut evergreen trees and planted them in boxes inside their houses in wintertime. The evergreen tree was an ancient symbol of life in the midst of winter.

Why is there a christmas tree on christmas