A Recent Christian Tradition
Whose Roots Are Ancient and
Pagan
Dr. Kaygorodoff
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Editorial Note:
The following article
was first published
in the 19th century
by the Russian newspaper
“Novoye Vremya”. It
was translated into English
and published by
Helena P. Blavatsky in the March
1891 edition of her
magazine “Lucifer”, pages 62-63.
The name “Lucifer” is of course an
ancient term for Venus,
the morning and evening
star - the “elder sister” of our Earth
according to esoteric
philosophy. Since the Middle Ages, the
meaning of the word
has been distorted by superstitious theologians.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The custom of the Christmas
tree is a very recent institution. It is of a late date not only in Russia, but
also in Germany, where it was first established and whence it spread
everywhere, in the New as well as in the Old World. In France the Christmas
tree was adopted only after the Franco-German war, later therefore than 1870.
According to Prussian chronicles, the custom of lighting the Christmas tree as
we now find it in Germany was established about a hundred years ago. It
penetrated into Russia about 1830, and was very soon adopted throughout the
Empire and the richer classes.
It is very difficult to trace
the custom historically. Its origin belongs undeniably to the highest
antiquity. Fir trees have ever been held in honour by the ancient nations of
Europe. As ever-green plants, and symbols of never-dying vegetation, they were
sacred to the nature-deities, such as Pan, Isis and others. According to
ancient folklore the pine was born from the body of the nymph Pitys (the Greek
name of that tree) [1], the beloved
of the gods Pan and Boreas. During the vernal festivals in honour of the great
goddess of Nature, fir trees were brought into the temples decorated with
fragrant violets.
The ancient Northern peoples
of Europe had a like reverence for the pine and fir trees in general, and made
great use of them at their various festivals. Thus, for instance, it is well
known that the pagan priests of ancient Germany, when celebrating the first
stage of the sun’s return toward the vernal equinox, held in their hands highly
ornamented pine branches. And this points to the great probability of the now
Christian custom of lighting Christmas trees being the echo of the pagan custom
of regarding the pine as a symbol of a solar festival, the precursor of the
birth of the Sun. It stands to reason
that its adoption and establishment in Christian Germany imparted to it a new,
and so to speak, Christian form.[2] Thence
fresh legends - as is always the case - explaining in their own way the origin
of the ancient custom. We know of one such legend, remarkably poetical in its
charming simplicity, which purports to give the origin of this now universally
prevailing custom of ornamenting Christmas trees with lighted wax tapers.
Near the cave in which was
born the Saviour of the world grew three trees - a pine, an olive, and a palm.
On that holy eve when the guiding star of Bethlehem appeared in the heavens,
that star which announced to the long-suffering world the birth of Him, who
brought to mankind the glad tidings of a blissful hope, all nature rejoiced and
is said to have carried to the feet of the Infant-God her best and holiest
gifts.
Among others the olive tree
that grew at the entrance of the cave of Bethlehem brought forth its golden
fruits; the palm offered to the Babe its green and shadowy vault, as a
protection against heat and storm; alone the pine had nothing to offer. The
poor tree stood in dismay and sorrow, vainly trying to think what it could
present as a gift to the Child-Christ. Its branches were painfully drooping,
and the intense agony of its grief finally forced from its bark and branches a
flood of hot transparent tears, whose large resinous and gummy drops fell thick
and fast around it.
A silent star, twinkling in
the blue canopy of heaven, perceived these tears; and forthwith, confabulating
with her companions – lo, a miracle took place.
Hosts of shooting stars fell
down, like unto a great rain shower, on the pine until they twinkled and shone
from every needle, from top to bottom. Then trembling with joyful emotion, the
pine proudly raised her drooping branches and appeared for the first time
before the eyes of a wondering world, in most dazzling brightness. From that
time, the legend tells us, men adopted the habit of ornamenting the pine tree
on Christmas Eve with numberless lighted candles.
NOTES:
[1] Pitys: A nymph
beloved by the god Pan and changed into a fir tree. (Note by H.P.B.)
[2] As in the case of
many other such customs, even dogmas, borrowed and preserved without the least
acknowledgement. If the source is now confessed, it is because in the face of
research and discovery it can no longer be helped. (Note by H.P.B.)
000
The above text was published in the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists in December 2016.
000
Read more:
000
