Origin of Draping Garland on Christmas Trees?

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Permalink Reply by Meddlesome on December 13, 2012 at 10:26am

Its Defiately Pre-Christian, as the practice of decorating trees is dumped on in the old testament. See Jeremiah 10:2-4:

² This is what the Lord says:“Do not learn the ways of the nations
    or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
    though the nations are terrified by them.
³ For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
    they cut a tree out of the forest,
    and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
⁴ They adorn it with silver and gold;
    they fasten it with hammer and nails
    so it will not totter.

 

Easy to imagine how this evolved into christmas trees, with a bit of cultural overflow :)

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Steph S. on December 13, 2012 at 10:39am

Thanks for the source Meddlesome.

Permalink Reply by dr kellie on December 13, 2012 at 11:10am

I would like for this to be true.  I already have visions of draped entrails dancing in my head.

Permalink Reply by kara on December 13, 2012 at 10:06pm

It sounds like hooey tbh. As a semi former neo-pagan-ish girl I did a bit of looking into the midwinter festivities of northern Europe and i have to say this only really came up on anti pagan sites with no sources to check. I could be wrong but i doubt it. The evergreen tree was really just a symbol of hope that life goes on through even the harshest winter. The original German lyrics to Oh christmas tree are beautiful it's called Oh tannenbaum and make no mention of christmas or religion it's just a celebration of the enduring fir tree and how it represents loyalty and hope. It's from the 16th century but wasn't related to christmas until the 20th century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Tannenbaum