Christmas means holiday, reunion with friends and family members, Santa Claus, Christmas tree and bunch of presents under the tree. But did you ever wonder why do we put a tree in our houses and decorate it? Why do we put presents under the tree? To find out the answers and more about Christmas tree tradition, check out this article!
Christmas tree is an evergreen pine tree that is decorated by lights and ornaments for the celebrations of Christmas and New Year. Chinese, ancient Egyptian and Jewish people used evergreen trees and garlands as a symbol of the eternal life. European Pagans appreciated and blesses trees. After the Christianity their tradition turned into a Scandinavian tradition that is putting trees in their houses and storehouses to scare off Evil spirits and birds during Christmas.
Christmas tree is also known as “Yule-tree” that is placed at the entrance of houses or in the houses in Germany in the middle of winter. In middle ages the main decoration of the play of Adam and Eve was a pine tree with full apples that represents the Garden of Eden. On December 24th, the fest of Adam and Eve, Germans put a heaven tree and hung thin matzo breads that represent the holy bread of the last supper of Jesus. In time cookies took the place of breads on the tree. Some people also add some candles to the tree which represents Jesus. People also put a Christmas pyramid and tree together in the same room. In 16th century this two figures united and became the Christmas tree.
The Christmas tree was decorated firstly in 1510 in Riga, Latvia. In the middle of 17th century people started to use small candles to light a Christmas tree. The vice president of the Edison Light Company, Edward Johnson created an electrically illuminated Christmas tree for the first time in 1882 and got the nickname of the Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights.
In 2007, Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon of Rio De Janeiro hosted the largest floating Christmas tree that is 85 meters (278 ft 10 in).
Another world record about Christmas tree is from Canberra, Australia. David Richards made an artificial 21-meter-tall Christmas tree that was wrapped by 518.838 lights and got the record of the most lights on an artificial Christmas tree.
