SYMBOLIC SATURDAY - A GOOD TIME OF YEAR NOT TO BE A FIR TREE

To tell the truth, I had intended to move on to something quite different in this series, but it did not seem appropriate for this time of year. So I thought I would share (at least one - there are more) origin of the Christmas tree borrowed heavily from the Catholic Source Book by the Rev. Peter Klein.

When I was in the seminary we used to try to re-create (somewhat) the Medieval mystery plays with varying success until some wayward turns had them banished for the past decade. (Please don’t ask.) If you know anything about these plays you might know that to represent the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Evil with apples hanging on it.

At some point much later in history the Germans brought back the tradition of the tree and modified the decorations by adding sacramental wafers along with the apples, “relating the eating that brought death with the eating that brings life.” I tried this one year on the tree in the rectory at my last assignment but too many people found the unconsecrated altar breads used in such a fashion scandalous so I never did it again. Of course I did lots of things one should never do in decorating a tree. I once used microwave buttered popcorn to string and decorate the tree. BIG mistake rancid butter is.

Anyway, the decorations evolved over time. Perhaps oranges were added to the apples, then colored balls, and perhaps the altar breads were replaced by breads in the shape of stars and angles and what not.

In Victorian times many trees took on the entire story of salvation history. There is one such tree that is (or at least was – I’ve not been there for a spell) put up in Cleveland at the Western Reserve Historical Society that had this theme, from the Guiding Star at the top to the devil being kicked off the tree at the bottom.