Christmas tree

Christmas tree

• Stories about the origin of the Christmas tree

Various stories exist about the origin of the Christmas tree, the most widespread refer to the ancient history of the Yggdrasil of Norse mythology (ABC, 2016), an ash that represented the world view of that time, at the top were the gods, in between humans and down the underworld. The Norsemen venerated this tree just as their German descendants did with the oak, according to legend, St. Boniface, the saint who brought Christianity to ancient Germany, was the one who replaced the tradition with the use of a fir and then a pine , first decorated with apples and currently with artificial decorations. Another of the most widespread stories is that of the Celtic Yule (EledeLis, 2013), a festival created to celebrate the winter solstice, in which a trunk was burned and celebrations were held around it. Among the oldest stories, there is that of King Nimrod (Figueroa Anaya, 2011), ruler of Shinar, ancient Babylon, who according to legend, was born on December 25 and reincarnated in a tree, which people adorned each year to celebrate his birth, another of the old narrations has to do with an Egyptian (Urna Bios, 2018) tradition that was made at the end of the year, which consisted of carrying palm branches as a symbol of improving their crops. Regarding the date, it also coincides with Saturnales or Roman Saturnalia (Revista Diners, 2015).

Yggdrasil

Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1845-1921). [Public domain]

Yule

Robert Chambers [Public domain]

References:

ABC. (2016). De dónde viene la tradición del árbol de Navidad y qué debemos hacer con él después de las fiestas. Recuperado de https://www.abc.es/sociedad/abci-donde-viene-tradicion-arbol-navidad-y-debemos-hacer-despues-fiestas-201612120954_noticia.html

EledeLis. (2013). "Yule o la Navidad de los Vikingos". En The Valkyrie's Vigil. Recuperado de https://thevalkyriesvigil.com/2013/12/21/yule-o-la-navidad-de-los-vikingos/

Figueroa Anaya, E. (2011). "El primer árbol de Navidad". En Reconoce MX. Recuperado de http://www.reconoce.mx/el-primer-arbol-de-navidad/

Revista Diners. (2015). ¿Qué era y qué se celebraba en la Saturnalia?. Recuperado de https://revistadiners.com.co/artes/31152_se-celebraba-la-saturnalia/

Urna Bios. (2018). La Historia del Árbol de Navidad. Recuperado de https://urnabios.com/es/la-historia-del-arbol-de-navidad/

How to cite this article:

Nocetti, F.A. (2018). "Christmas tree". In NabbuBlog. Retrieved from http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2018/12/christmas-tree.html