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The Christmas Tree——圣诞树的故事
Although it is generally agreed that the Christmas tree in its current form
came from Germany in the early 19th century, the tradition of decorating a tree
to mark winter celebrations dates back hundreds of years to Roman times, when
they used to decorate evergreen trees with small pieces of metal to celebrate
Saturnalia.
In medieval times the 'Paradise Play' was performed every year on 24
December. This depicted the creation of Man and the fall of Adam and Eve from
the Garden of Eden and always included an evergreen hung with apples which
represented the apple tree of temptation.
There is a legend that St Boniface, an English monk, came upon a group of
pagans gathered around an oak tree who were preparing to sacrifice a child to
the God Thor. In order to stop the sacrifice, and save the child's life, St
Boniface is said to have felled the tree with one blow of his fist. Later on, a
fir tree grew in place of the oak and this, St Boniface told the pagans, was the
Tree of Life and represented the Christ Child.
Legend also suggests that, in the late 16th century, Martin Luther (the
founder of the Protestant religion) was the first to decorate an indoor tree
with candles when he attempted to recreate the stars shining over a forest of
evergreens.
The first mention of decorated trees being taken indoors came in 1605 in
Germany - a country with a long Christmas tree history! The trees were initially
decorated with fruit and sweets together with hand made objects such as quilled
snowflakes and stars. German Christmas Markets began to sell shaped gingerbreads
and wax ornaments which people bought as souvenirs of the fair and took home to
hang on their tree.
Tinsel was also invented in Germany in about 1610. Up until fairly recently
real silver was used, which was pulled into wafer thin strips by special
machines. This was durable but tarnished quickly and many experiments took place
to try and find an alternative - including a mix of lead and tin, which was too
heavy and kept breaking. It was only in the mid 20th century that a viable
alternative was found.
Artificial trees were invented in the 1880's in a bid to try and stop some
of the damage being caused to real trees due to people lopping the tip off large
trees, thus preventing the trees from growing any further. It got so bad in
Germany that laws had to be brought in to prevent people having more than one
tree.
Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, is credited with being
responsible for introducing the custom of the Christmas tree to the British
public by decorating the first English Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841
using candles, sweets, fruit and gingerbread.
The popularity of the Christmas tree grew in Britain during the first half
of the 20th century, with trees becoming bigger and more elaborately decorated
with bells, baubles and tinsel. However, the onset of the Second World War
resulted in a ban on cutting down trees for decoration and people resorted to
having small, artificial tabletop trees bearing home made decorations. These
were often taken down into the air raid shelters when the sirens sounded to
provide a bit of Christmas cheer!
This all changed following the war, and large trees were erected in many
public places to celebrate Christmas. The most famous of these is the tree in
Trafalgar Square, London which is an annual gift from the Norwegian government
to give thanks for the help they received from Britain during the war. |
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发表于 2016-7-29 16:24:14