History of the Christmas Tree

Festooning homes and public venues with evergreens during winter months dates back to times before the advent of the Christmas holiday. Many ancient cultures revered plants and trees that stayed green year round as symbols of life and wellness. Evergreens where incorporated in to the winter solstice festivals of different cultures for various reasons, most of which had to do with the worship of their specific gods. In some places, homes were decorated with evergreen boughs hung over doorways and around windows to ward off evil spirits and illness during the winter months. Other cultures used evergreen decorations to celebrate life or to symbolize their gods.

In ancient cultures that worshipped the sun as a god, they believed winter was the cause of this god becoming sick and weak. The winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, was a celebrated time for these people because it meant the sun god would begin to regain health. People in these cultures thought the sun god’s recuperation from illness and gaining of strength was the reason days became progressively longer after the winter solstice. The return of health to the sun god meant the return of life to nature seen in the spring and summer time. Decorating with evergreen’s during the winter solstice festival reminded people of a more vibrant, plant thriving time of year when the sun god was strongest.

The ancient Egyptians where one such culture who worshiped a sun god. Their sun god was called Ra (often symbolized by the head of a falcon/hawk on a human body, with a sun disk resting on the head) and they believed the winter solstice marked his recovery from illness each year. To symbolize what they viewed as a triumph of life over death, they filled their homes with the palm leaves of date trees, which were more readily available than the boughs of pine or fir trees used in other regions. Palm rushes remain green year round, serving as a fitting tribute to resurrection and life.