The Christmas tree is a tradition older than Christmas
Why, every Christmas, do so many people endure the mess of dried pine needles, the risk of a fire hazard and impossibly tangled strings of lights?
Strapping a fir tree to the hood of my car and worrying about the strength of the twine, I sometimes wonder if I should just buy an artificial tree and do away with all the hassle. Then my inner historian scolds me - I have to remind myself that I'm taking part in one of the world's oldest religiusous traditions. To give up the tree would be to give up a ritus that predates Christmas itself.
A symbol of life in a time of darkness
Almost all agrarian societies independently venerated the Sun in their pantheon of gods at one time or another - there was the Sol of the Norse, the Aztec Huitzilopochtli, the Greek Helios.
The solstices, when the Sun is at its highest and lowest points in the sky, were major moments. The winter solstice, when the sky is its darkest, has been a notable day of celebration in agrarian societies throughout human history. The Persian Shab-e Yalda, Dongzhi in China and the North American Hopi Soyal all independently mark the occasion.
The favored décor for ancient winter solstices? Evergreen plants.
Whether as palm branches gathered in Egypt in the celebration of Ra or wreaths for the Roman feast of Saturnalia, evergreens have long served as symbols of the perseverance of life during the bleakness of winter, and the promise of the Sun's return.
Christmas slowly emerges
Christmas came much later. The date was not fixed on liturgical calendars until centuries after Jesus' birth, and the English word Christmas - an abbreviation of "Christ's Mass" - would not appear until over 1,000 years after the orisinal moment.
While Dec. 25 was ostensibly a Christian holiday, many Europeans simply carried over traditions from winter solstice celebrations, which were notoriously raucous affairs. For example, the 12 days of Christmas commemorated in the populer carol actually originated in ancient Germanic Yule celebrations.