It is difficult to imagine New Year and Christmas without an elegant Christmas tree in the house. When did the tradition of putting a fir tree in houses and dressing up for the New Year’s holiday appear. And how did this tradition develop?
Even primitive people treated trees with respect. Believing that the souls of the dead move into them. And protect people from evil forces, diseases and destructive weather phenomena – storms, thunderstorms. Spruce especially revered since ancient times, considered a magical tree. Ancient people considered this tree to be the favorite of the Sun god. Which allows it to always remain green, while deciduous trees shed their foliage for the winter. Therefore, the spruce represented immortality, eternal youth, and was also a symbol of fearlessness, loyalty, dignity. Thus, the tradition of making offerings to the fir tree, decorating its branches with gifts, originates from time immemorial.
The fir tree became a New Year and then a Christmas tree in Germany. Where this evergreen tree has long been revered as a symbol of undying nature and immortality. The choice of a fir tree as a New Year tree also facilitated by its evergreen cover. Which allowed it to remain green even in winter. After all, deciduous trees that stand naked in winter cannot symbolize immortality, rebirth. Other coniferous trees, besides spruce, also revered and even used as a New Year’s decor, but spruce, in addition, unlike the same pine, fir or juniper has a successful pyramidal shape.
The ancient Germans had a custom on New Year’s Eve to go to the forest to the tallest and most beautiful Christmas tree chosen in advance and decorate it with candles and colored rags, and then lead round dances around it and sing ritual songs. Later, Christmas trees began to be cut down and brought to homes. The Christmas tree put on the table, apples, sugar products hung on it, candles attached to the branches.
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