Pagan Christmas (5 page)

The grape hyacinth (Muscari spp.)—a very popular ornamental plant—is sometimes called Christmas tree because of the shape of its blooms. It is also used in floral arrangements on New Year’s Day. Begonia hybrids from South America and evergreen houseplants with winter blossoms remind us of decorated Christmas trees. The Rex-cultorum Begonia hybrids (syn. B. rex cultorum) are bred from the Himalayan Begonia rex Putz. One variety is called “Merry Christmas.” It has emerald green leaves with bright silver dots in a red center.

Because of its unusual flowering habit, the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is sometimes called Christmas tree or Christmas candles in the United States. And indeed, the white or red inflorescence of the horse chestnut is reminiscent of Christmas candles.

Because of their flowers, the bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) and the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) are two plants that remind us of Christmas trees decorated with candles, and as a result may be called either Christmas tree2 or Christmas candle. The horse chestnut comes from the Balkans (Northern Greece, Bulgaria), and was introduced to Central Europe only in the sixteenth century. Horse chestnut wood has been used to make a powder for incorporation in fireworks for New Year’s Eve. Horse chestnut flour was an ingredient in Schneeberger snuff powder, the main ingredient of which is Christ rose or hellebore. The horse chestnut is considered a good luck talisman. Normally, one carries three chestnuts in a pocket.

Holy Trees

“Wherever the tree of knowledge is—there is paradise.” This is what the oldest and the youngest snakes say.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, 1886, JENSEITS VON GUT UND BÖSE,

[BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL], SPRÜCHE UND ZWISCHENSPIELE, 152

Whenever we decorate the evergreen tree and make it the center of the Christmas feast, we are engaging unconsciously with very ancient ideas. We engage with the fecundity of nature, with the fact that, after all the darkness, spring comes again every year. We engage with the cyclical events in which we are bound, which are reinforced in our minds each year by the recurrent Christmas ritual. We engage with times long past, when natural events that we now take for granted were holy to human beings. Is this why we are filled with joy to see the awestruck eyes of happy children standing before the lighted tree, because we—as grown-ups—have forgotten how to be amazed by the wonders that surround us?

Branches in the snow: a natural work of art. (Photo by Claudia Müller-Ebeling)

In the shamanic world, not only every tree, but every being was and is holy—because they are all imbued with the wonderful power of life, the great mystery of universal Being. “Yes, we believe that, even below heaven, the forests have their gods also, the sylvan creatures and fauns and different kinds of goddesses” (Pliny the Elder II, 3). Parents are especially holy because they are the gods that create new life. In the same way that heaven and Earth can be considered the parents of earthly life, so are parents creators of life in their own right. Everything is holy; you must only declare it holy. Holiness is a human quality projected on and reflected by the cosmic reality of all things. “Holiness is the original source of life in the human being. And it was given to the child when it was born in the truth and in the spirit” (Grönbech 1997, 119).

Every tree, like every human being, is a—or rather, is the—center of the universe. Big and tall, the great evergreen trees have always been considered holy. They are helga, “holied.” Tree branches were taken into the hall during feasts. According to the Poetic Edda, an ancient compilation of Norse and Germanic verse and mythology, the ash tree was Yggdrasil, the world tree (Poetic Edda V, sp. 19).

Obviously, these special tree beings have a special relationship to the human spirit. Their sanctification gave them a particular sociocultural meaning. Thus, in the Christian interpretation, the tall fir tree is a Christmas tree. The recurrent, multicultural myth of the paradise tree, the tree of knowledge, and the tree of life became in Christianity the cross symbolizing the martyrdom of the sacrificed son of God. Some people in Iceland, Scandinavia, and other regions of the world still worship fir trees as the symbolic embodiment of the mythological world tree and wondrous, ever-fertile nature. In this sense, the neglect and desecration of holy trees is the manifestation of a global cultural catastrophe.

Thus, the felling of the mythical Germanic Donaroak—a tree considered sacred to the pagan gods—did not merely eliminate a physical, material being, but also a spiritual culture. It was the center of life and the focal point of the Chatten, the pagan Germanic ancestors of the Hessians. Because it was holy to them, they fought with all their strength against the sacrilege and were convinced that the bringing down of their sacred tree meant the end of the world. For them, the sacred tree represented the world tree that maintains cosmic order and insures the survival of humanity. When this tree was torn from their consciousness, their culture broke down, no longer having roots or a trunk. Understanding exactly how significant this was, the converted Aurelius Augustinus (354–430 CE), also known as the Neoplatonic Church father Augustine, came to a new conclusion about the cutting of the holy trees of the heathens. He declared: “Do not kill the heathens—just convert them; do not cut their holy trees—consecrate them to Jesus Christ” (de civitate Dei).

Yggdrasil (the world tree) was associated with Odin’s horse (Yggr=Odin, Old Nordic for “the terrible”). The double horses are an old Germanic motif that has survived in examples like this one, depicting wooden, crossed horse heads at the end of a ridgepole. In northern Germany, they have been called “Wotan’s horses” up to the present time. (Motif circa 1900)

So it came to pass that the Christmas tree was cut down, but it was also brought into the home as a Christian shrine. In early times, it was holy to the gods and goddesses. When the church could not drive the tree cult out of the people, it dedicated the trees to the Christ Child.

Fir

Abies spp., Pinaceae

Abies alba Mill. (silver fir, white fir)

Abies balsamea (L.) P. Mill. (balsam fir, Canadian balsam fir, balm of Gilead fir)

Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir. (Fraser fir)

Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt. (alpine fir, Rocky Mountain fir)

Abies magnifica A. Murr. (red fir)

Abies procera Rehd. (noble fir, white fir, red fir)

Abies sibirica Ledeb. (Siberian fir)

OTHER NAMES

Christ tree, Christmas tree, fir tree, kynholz (“firewood”), noble fir, tanne, tannenbaum, taxenbaum, weihntsbaum

The fir is more warm than cold, and holds many powers within itself. And it is associated with bravery. Wherever the fir wood stands, the spirits of the air hate it, and shun it. Enchantments and magic spells have less power to effect things there, than they do in other places.

HILDEGARD VON BINGEN, PHYSICA, III, 23

Not many people can distinguish between fir and spruce, so here are their most important features: Fir cones point up, while spruce cones point down to the ground.3 Fir needles are soft and run horizontally from the branches; spruce needles are pointed and grow in a circle around the branch.

Firs can be found in many regions of the world and can grow up to 60 meters (almost 200 feet) tall. The Black Forest of Europe got its name from the dark, dense, needle growth of fir trees. Up to the present day, the densest fir forests are still found in this region. And it is from here that the fir conquered the living rooms of the entire world—as the classic Christmas tree. Their evergreen-needle attire is the theme of the popular Christmas song with a melody from the eighteenth century:

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

how lovely are thy branches.

Not only green when summer’s here

but in the coldest time of year …

The Old High German word tanna not only means fir (and also, most astonishingly, oak), but—like the Middle High German tan—also means forest (Höfler 1990, 49). Thus, with the fir tree, you bring the forest and the wilderness itself into your house. What’s more, the German name for fir, tanne, may be related to the word for fire, tan.4

High above, in heaven, angels are pouring Christmas gifts from Christ’s manger.

In the forests of Europe, the fir has always been a holy tree. “Tacitus (I, 51) describes the holy feast Tasana, where people carried fir branches in their hands; and our Christmas tree also originates in this feast” (von Perger 1864, 340). Holy firs have always been worshipped in alpine countries and were considered the dwelling place, or seat, of the gods. The people believed that spirit beings lived in the firs. Even today, you can find firs in the forests that are objects of religious worship. They can be distinguished by the presence of a picture of the holy Mary, rarely because they bear a cross.

In Indo-Germanic Phrygia (Asia Minor), the fir was dedicated to the fertility goddess Cybele. Romans saw in the enclosed shape of the fir cone a symbol of virginity, and dedicated it to the goddess of the hunt and the forest, Diana. According to a legend of the Siberian Jakuten, the souls of their shamans were born in a fir on the mountain Dzokuo. And in the end, the fir became the Christmas tree of the sacred nights.

In shamanic cultures, holy trees were not to be thoughtlessly chosen and cut down, as this violated a deforestation taboo. Whoever disregarded a holy tree was punished with illness or death: “For the thieves of fir trees, it was prophesized that their arm would be cut. Whoever cut down a fir in defiance of this law was condemned to seven years of bad luck” (Hiller 1989, 285). Nevertheless, fir wood was used for ritual purposes and implements. Thus the fir tree itself, as well as its branches and the Advent wreaths made of them, had a central meaning at Christmastime.

FIR RESIN AS INCENSE

The perfume of fir resin and drying fir needles gives Advent and the whole Christmas season a characteristic, irresistible aroma.5 Most firs produce a resin that is uniform in smell, consistency, and character, which explains why they have been called “resin trees.” Because of its resin content, the fresh or dried wood catches fire easily and was used as kindling to start fires. This is why firs have also been called kynholz, meaning “firewood.” In Europe, fir resin might well be the oldest incense substance of all. The use of fir for incense started long before trade in exotic resins began. In early modern times, fir resin was well known and often used as ersatz frankincense (olibanum).

Dried fir needles burn loudly and quickly. They produce a white smoke that is full of resin and smells like fir but disperses in a short time. The white or noble fir contains 0.5 percent essential oils in its needles and cones, consisting of bornyl acetate, pinene, limonene, and more. Turpentine, including so-called Strasbourg turpentine, is another product of fir. It consists of 34 percent essential oils, 72 percent resin, and some succinic acid. When turpentine is reduced to essential oil, the residue left behind is rosin.

On the trunk of this holy fir near Ruswil, Switzerland, there is a Christian cross and a memorial plate.

MAGICAL AND FOLK USE

Like many other plants with a longstanding symbolic association with Christmas, fir branches are believed to serve a guardian function and are used to ward off harmful influences. “In some places the fir branches are in front of doors and animal stalls on Christmas Eve, to prevent illnesses and epidemics. The servants are not to be paid for collecting these branches; and are therefore given cakes and clothes as a gift” (von Perger 1864, 343). In rural areas they are also used for weather forecasts. “Fir branches are used to show the weather when you balance them horizontally on a wall and their top goes up or down for an inch or so, to show if the weather turns either good or bad” (von Perger 1864, 343).

Spruce

Picea spp., Pinaceae

Picea abies (L.) Karst. (Norway spruce)

Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm. (Engelmann spruce)

Picea mariana P. Mill. (black spruce)

OTHER NAMES

Black fir, cross fir, fiotha (Old High German), forest incense, gräne; grötzli, kynhol(t)z (“firewood”), red spruce, red fir, resin fir, tar fir

As mother tree and tree of life, the spruce is symbolic of the female’s nurturing and life-renewing power. Pagan German tribes venerated the Irmin pillar as a tree sanctuary (or holy tree). The sacred Irmin pillar was a spruce and later became the May tree.

STRASSMANN 1994, 135

Spruce trees are found in Europe, North America, and as far east as Asia. In some areas, it is a more popular Christmas tree than the fir. In western Europe, the spruce is sometimes called by the common name fir, but nobody ever seems to call fir trees “spruce.”

MAGICAL AND FOLK USE

Many of the qualities mentioned above for the fir tree may also be attributed to the spruce. By using spruce, one called upon its ability to ward off evil forces: “Bringing the spruce into the room had originally to do with the worshipping of the spirits that guarded the forest” (Schöpf 1986, 86). The calming effects of spruce needle essential oil in tonic bath cures made it useful for revitalizing the nerves. “A spruce smudging has a calming effect on the body, and allows it to center itself again” (Strassmann 1994, 138).

The spruce is identified not only with the fir, but also with the pine.6 Thus the Gallic Rhine Celts made offerings of pine and spruce cones to the gods associated with the sources of springs and fountains (Höfler 1911, 20). Natureoriented people in some regions still believe that witches dance near spruces, and that blue lights seen dancing around holy spruces in the night are the souls of the dead, drawn to the trees (Fink 1983, 46).

Pine

Pinus spp., Pinaceae

Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine)

Pinus nigra Arnold (Austrian pine, European black pine)

Pinus palustris P. Mill. (longleaf pine, pitch pine)

Cultivated pine: Pinus pumila “Globe.”

OTHER NAMES

Fire tree, föhren (“pine bud” or “pine wood”), heiligföhre (“sacred pine wood”), kienbaum, red pine

Witches also, yes, even the devil, are hiding in the old pine wood (föhren). In the branches of a pine wood tree in Villanders the witches played enchanting music. This is the last reminder that a human being should not come near a sacred tree!