The habit of installing a Christmas tree as
decoration starts from Germany
. Installation of a Christmas tree that is generally of a tree pine , spruce or adapted
form, it began in the 16th century.
When the German population spread to many regions including America , they were often
put up evergreen trees belonging evergreens for Christmas decorations in
the house. From existing records, the Germans in Pennsylvania United
States displaying a Christmas tree for the first time in the 1830s .
Christmas tree is not a necessity in church or at home because it is just a
symbol that our spiritual life always grow and become beautiful witness to
others " evergreen
". Christmas tree (pine) also symbolizes the " eternal
life ", because generally in winter almost all the leaves fall off the
trees, except spruce evergreen leaves.
Installation of evergreen trees, both native and made of plastic, in the city
center or in public places was a common sight before Christmas. One of the
biggest is the tree in Rockefeller Center on 5th
Avenue New York , United States
. Legend There are several legends / stories that
circulated among Christians themselves as to the origin of the Christmas tree.
St. Boniface
According to a legend, the British clergy named St. Boniface , who led some
of the churches in Germany
and France on his way
to meet with a group of people who will dedicate a child to the god Thor in a tree oak . To stop their evil deeds,
miraculously St. Boniface knock down the oak tree with his punches. After the
amazing events in a fallen oak tree grew a pine tree. Martin
Luther and the yew tree Another story tells of an incident when Martin Luther ,
leader of the
Church Reformation , was walking in the woods at night. Impressed
with the beauty of the sparkling millions of stars in celestial rays
penetrating branches of fir trees in the
forest, Martin Luther cut down a small fir tree and bring it home to their families
at home. To create a sparkling star as seen in the forest, Martin Luther put
the candles on each branch of the pine tree. Controversy
Regardless of the truth of the stories above, until today
the installation of the Christmas Tree still raises the pros and cons among the
people of the Christian
. For people who are not pleased with the Christmas tree, tells us that in
ancient times the Romans use spruce for the celebration of
Saturnalia , they decorate it with small ornaments and small masks, since
the 25th of December is the birthday of the sun god, Mithras , the origin of
the Sun god Iran who then worshiped in Rome. Similarly, the Sunday is the day to
worship the sun god fit of the meaning of the word Zondag, Sunday or Sonntag
. Note also that other sun gods, such as Osiris, the sun god of Egypt , was born on December 27 .
Similarly, the sun god Horus and Apollo was born on December 28th. Thus there
are streams that proscribe certain church traditions of the Christmas tree,
because they regard it as a cult of the sun god. Installation of the tree is
regarded as a form of idolatry. Rejection reaction was even originally had
colored the German government's decision to penalize anyone who put fir tree as
a Christmas tree. It's starting to change, when the image of Queen Victoria
of England , Prince Albert of Germany , and his children
with a background of evergreen trees, illustrated in London
News . Because the figure of Victoria was very popular, loading the images
in the mass media also makes spruce become prevalent choice as a Christmas
tree. A study conducted in the United States found that the Christmas tree can
be home to 25,000 insects tail. Types of insects that inhabit the Christmas
tree including Collembola , Psocoptera
, mites , moths and spiders . Supposedly
they hibernate in the
winter , but with the presence of a tree and their warmth of a campfire or heating , they come to
believe that spring
has arrived so that breed in tree and surrounding areas.
GKJ Prembun - gkj.web.id
sumber wikipedia.org