What is the origin of the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree?
The tree is a Christianization of the ancient pagan idea that the evergreen tree represents a celebration of the renewal of life. In Roman mosaics from what is today Tunisia, showing the mythic triumphant return from India of the Greek god of wine and male fertility, Dionysus (dubbed by some modern scholars as a life-death-rebirth deity), the god carries a tapering coniferous tree. Medieval legends, nevertheless, tended to concentrate more on the miraculous “flowering” of trees at Christmastime. A branch of flowering Glastonbury thorn is still sent annually for the Queen’s Christmas table in Britain. Among early Germanic tribes the Yule tradition was celebrated by sacrificing male animals, and slaves, by suspending them on the branches of trees. In Scandinavia the Viking Kings sacrificed nine males of each species at the sacred groves, while poorer people hung apples and buns and other small sacrifices on branches. It is likely that the Christmas tree is a continuation of this traditio
