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| Christmas Through The Ages, Continued |
| The Yule Log At Yuletide the people of the North kept the festival in honor of Thor, feasting, dancing and offering sacrifices. The fires had special merit. They burned undesirable rubbish while they warded off the more undesirable evil spirits and demons roaring after the souls of men. Fire kept off wolves, witches and all unlucky things. The flames were purifying in more than a physical sense to the mind of early man. A belief in the heavenly origin of fire is expressed in poetry and folklore of many ancient peoples, and there are still some in Africa and elsewhere, who extinguish the house fire and light it again from any smoldering tree struck by lightning. Before coal fires became common there was more ceremony about the Yule log than is now observed. The hauling of the Yule log into the house, saluted with raised hats, was the beginning of the Christmas festivity during which animosities, social differences and petty feuds were consumed "so as by the fire." The Yule log is thought to have been brought to England by the Vikings. The new fire is lit from a piece of the log used the year before. The Yule log was considered the fire mother of the Sun god. Half was burned on Christmas Eve and the other half was stored for the next year. The ashes were buried at the base of fruit trees to insure greater productivity in the coming year. In that era of history which belongs to mythology, trees were believed to be spirits or places where spirits could find shelter and protection. The Christbaum Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Christbaum appeared in a number of different forms. In parts of Austria and Germany the itp was cut from a large evergreen and hung upside down in the corner of the livingroom and sometimes decorated with strips of red paper, apples, and gilded nuts. Others were hung in windows or fro the rafters of a room, tip upward, with the butt sharpened and an apple hanging from the point. As late as the nineteenth century, decorated trees hung upside down over the doors of German homes. The Christbaum's growing popularity wasn't always endorsed by the German church. Johann Konrad Dannahaur, a theologian from Strassborg, attacked the new habit in the 1640's writing: "Among other trifles which are set up during Christmas time, instead of God's word, is the Christmas tree which is put up at home and decorated with dolls and sugar." In most cases, to the delight of children and adults alike, sugartrees were shaken and the sweets were eaten. This occured on the evening of January 6, known as Twelfth Night, or Epiphany, the feast commemorating the arrival of the Magi at Bethlehem. Christmas trees first captured the attention of the patrician class but it wasn't long before the well-to-do merchants in the Northern German cities took up the practice. Peasants were slower to adopt trees. In the mid-nineteenth century the tree's spread in Luthern Northern Germany was phenomenal, thanks to a legend and some popular reproductions of a particular painting of Martin Luther. According to an old story, Luther was out walking on Christmas Eve, when the stars twinkling through the trees, gave him the idea of putting numerous candles on a fir tree to impress his son with the message of Christmas - that Christ was the light of the world. Today historians call this mere folklore. The first Christmas tree to appear in an American church caused a real furor. In 1851 the Reverend Henry Schwan, a thirty-two-year-old German immigrant who had arrived in America less than a year before, placed a Christmas tree in his church in Cleveland, Ohio. Some members of his congregation immediately branded it a throwback to pagan customs. Upset by this resistance to a Christmas decoration traditional in the churches in his native Hanover, Reverend Schwan decided to have no tree at all the following year. On Christmas Eve another Cleveland minister, Edwin Canfield, settled the matter in favor of the Christmas tree by having two children deliver a tree to pastor Schwan and his congregation. The Tree Of Jesse A comparatively new idea for decorating trees is to use the various old Testament symbols cut out of cardboard, fancy paper, foil and many other materials suitable for making ornaments. This concept of a Christmas tree provides a fresh approach to the Old Testament stories and events leading up to the birth of Christ. The representation of the Tree of Jesse is based on the prophecy of Isaiah 11:1-2. In works of art, the genealogy of Christ is frequently shown in the form of a tree which springs from Jesse, the father of David, and bears fruit - the various ancestors of Christ. Each ornament symbolically foretells His coming. An undecorated tree is usually put up at the beginning of Advent and each day ornaments are added. Out of Paradise "In Adam's Fall, We Sinned All" was the way the medieval play about Adam and Eve began, presented during Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas. In those remote days it was the custom to commemorate the feastday of Adam and Eve, which occurered on December 24. While the day was never officially observed in the Roman Church, the popularity of this special day became widespread among the populace throughout Europe. Miracle and mystery plays performed in the Middle Ages were the only means, aside from preaching, by which people could loearn the truths of religion. The terms "miracle" and "Mystery" used in connection with these pageants referred to the episodes of Christ's life as narraged in the Gospels. There were no printed books in those days and pictures were scarce. The illuminated manuscripts copied in the monasteries were not available to the common people. When first presented, the plays given within the churches were in the Latin language. Serious and solemn in tone, they were largely patterned after the expanding liturgical service of the time and were sometimes performed during public worship. Gradually the plays evolved from simple presentations with few props and scenery to elaborate performances in which the number of characters increased. As layman joined with the clergy, the individual plays were arranged in a lengthy series or cycle through the church year. This way they dramatized the Old and New Testaments, beginning with the story of creation and ending with the resurrecton. The cycles given during Advent opened with Adam and Eve, followed by a scene built around the domestic difficulties of Noah and his wife, which always brought laughter. Noah's wife was portrayed as somewhat of a scold and nagged while he went off into a corner to get out of the way. As the plays grew in popularity, pagan elements were blended with Christian theology. Spiritual and materalistic influences appeared in strange contrast. Realism replaced allegory, and broad, sometimes coarse humor permeated the cycles. the winter season wasn't the best time to hold these expanding open-air performances, so they were held at Whitsuntide or on the Feat of Corpus Christi. Cycles named Townly, Chester and Coventry were named for the towns where they originated. The fir tree hung with apples representing the Garden of Eden was the only prop onstage. this symbol became firmly planted in the minds of the people. Religious painters of the time created pictures of the trees which became widely known. Their paintings also portrayed the mysteries of the faith. In popularizing the stories of the Bible in the spirit of the times, abuses of speech and action occurred. For this reason, the church leaders forbade these performances twoard the end of the fifteenth century. Yet, in many parts of Europe the miracle and mystery plays endured until the reformation. In remote communities some lasted even longer, and a few persist to this day, although greatly changed in dialogue. Vivid memories of the fir tree decked with apples lived on long after the plays ceased to be performed in Germany. People then set these trees up in their homes to commemorate Adam and Eve on their feastday. The fir tree was hung with apples. Being evergreen it symbolized immortality. To these decorations they added round wafers which signified the sacred host or Eucharist. In addition to apples and wafers, the Paradise Tree had roses on it which had a special meaning. Of all blossoms the rose was the emblem of love and beauty, the queen of flowers dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Medieval and Renaissance painters who portrayed the Madonna used the rose as her symbol. There was also a legend that tells of the roses bursting into bloom at the birth of Christ. |
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