The Christmas Eve: the Christmas tree

The Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of the son of God. The feast lasts since the 4th century in West Europe and since the 5th century in East Europe and for centuries it was celebrated on the 6th of January, that nowadays is celebrated in East as the day of the baptize of Jesus.

The Gnostics from Egypt, a Christian sect unrecognized by the canonic Christians, were celebrating since the second century the day of the 6th of January as the day when Jesus showed himself as the sun of God, at the baptize.

“The story of a saving god borne by a maiden on the 6th of January or on the 25th on December was not new at all, most of the pagan cults adoring a god of this typology. So, on the 6th of January, the day of the Egyptian solstice, was celebrated the overflowing of the waters of Nil and in the local “cult of mystery” the birth of the “eon” from the maiden. Epifaniu, a Christian writer, speaks in his work about the ritual of the celebration from the 6th of January and its meaning at the Egyptians and at the Arabians from “Petra” (Eleusa)”, where was celebrated the birth of the baby-god Dusares by a maiden. Another Christian writer, Ipolit, describes how at Eleusis, in Greece, was celebrated in the same day the Feast of mystery, when the priest was proclaiming the birth of the sacred baby: “The maiden was pregnant; she conceived and gave birth to a son!” On the 6th of January the Greece were also celebrating the birth of the god Dionis, the god that, just as Jesus, was transforming the water into wine.” (Source: Wikipedia)


The Christmas tree
The tradition of decorating the fir tree comes from the Germans, who, for Christmas, were decorating their houses with fir trees full of decorations. In the West Europe, this fir was decorated for the arrival of the New Year, and not as a symbol of Christmas. Even the Nordic people were having the tradition of decorating their houses with braches of fir and mistletoe. After the World War I, this tradition spread in all Europe.

In the Romanian tradition, the decorated fir tree appears in two capital moments from the human life: at weddings, when the fir tree symbolizes a life full of abundance and happiness, but it plays also the part of a fertilizing tree. The second moment is at the funeral of the young people, women or men, when the fir tree is a judgment tree and a dole tree, for the souls that left for the other world.

In the Scandinavian tradition, the always-green-trees were decorated. According to the story, the tree from Wotan was burned in the night of the 25th of December, the day of the winter solstice, as a symbol of the triumph of light over dark, the triumph of live over death and the beginning of a new year, meaning a new cycle, a new phase of life.

The pagans were considering the days since the 25th of December until the 6th of January as being the “odd nights”, and, for protection, they were decorating their houses with branches of fir tree ornate with lighting candles.