圣誕樹的由來

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圣誕樹（Christmas tree）是用燈燭和裝飾品把樅樹或洋松裝點起來的常青樹，作為圣誕節(jié)慶?；顒拥囊徊糠?。近代圣誕樹起源于德國。德國人于每年12月24日，即亞當和夏娃節(jié)，在家里布置一株樅樹(伊甸園之樹)，將薄餅干掛在上面，象征圣餅(基督徒贖罪的標記)。近代改用各式小甜餅代替圣餅，還常加上象征基督的蠟燭。此外，室內還設有圣誕塔，是一木質的三角形結構，上有許多小架格放置基督雕像，塔身飾以常青樹枝葉、蠟燭和一顆星。到16世紀，圣誕塔和伊甸園樹合并為圣誕樹.

The origin of the Christmas tree is obscured by uncertainties of oral histories of pre-literate European cultures.

For example, according to Christian lore, the Christmas tree is associated with St Boniface and the German town of Geismar. Sometime in St Boniface's lifetime (c. 672-754)he cut down the tree of Thor in order to disprove the legitimacy of the Norse gods to the local German tribe. St. Boniface saw a fir tree growing in the roots of the old oak. Taking this as a sign of the Christian faith, he said "...let Christ be at the center of your households..." using the fir tree as a symbol of Christianity.

The tradition of the Christmas tree as it is today known is fairly young. It was established by Martin Luther as a Protestant counterpart to the Catholic Nativity scene. Luther established the Christmas tree as a symbol of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

The custom of erecting a Christmas Tree can be historically traced to 15th century Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia) and 16th century Northern Germany. According to the first documented uses of a Christmas tree in Estonia, in 1441, 1442, and 1514 the Brotherhood of the Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their brotherhood house in Reval (now Tallinn). At the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square where the members of the brotherhood danced

around it.In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square where the young men

“went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame”. In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their

guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small tree was decorated with

"apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.