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Christmas tree, balls, gifts… where do Christmas traditions come from?

2021-12-23T10:07:33.781Z


DECRYPTION - The spirit of Christmas is the fruit of immutable traditions with sometimes very ancient roots.


There are those whose ritual is to watch the same movies every year.

Others go around village churches to visit the cribs.

Still others contemplate the windows of department stores with their children, amazed.

Every Christmas tradition, whether religious or not, has the same aspiration: to contribute to the spirit of Christmas that inhabits this time of the year full of joy and hope.

Read also François Walter: "We have gone from a Christian Christmas of hope to a secular Christmas of nostalgia"

"

Christmas represents a need to cling to a mystery which is beyond us, to something which is older than us, which is above us and which tells us where we come from

", explains journalist François- Xavier Maigre.

Editor-in-chief of Pèlerin, he brought together several great authors who offer

10 contemporary tales

in the book “

Spirit of Christmas

”.

In an unstable world, "

the Christmas party and its traditions are particularly reassuring

", continues the journalist.

What are the traditions that contribute to this Christmas spirit?

And where do they find their origins?

Why December 25

Historically, the civilizations of the northern hemisphere have been subject to the winter solstice -

when one of the Earth's poles reaches its maximum inclination with respect to the sun.

"

The days were shrinking until then, no one was sure to see the sun again

", tells

Figaro

Abdu Gnaba, anthropologist and professor at the University of Strasbourg. All societies have celebrated, in one way or another, the hope of the return of the light. The Roman Saturnalia -

festivals in honor of Saturn

- were then celebrated on December 17 or 24, according to historians: it was the masters' turn to serve the slaves; we had fun, received gifts, we offered figurines to children ...

Christmas finds its anchor in the 4th century, when Pope Liberius established the birth of Christ on December 25. Since then, Christians have celebrated the nativity, the birth of Jesus in Nazareth. For François Xavier Maigre, this religious feast reminds us that “

God is not something disembodied, distant, abstract”: “Very concretely it is a child who was born on straw, through him it is to say that something can be born at any moment. Christmas is the promise that our lives will be fruitful ”.

The journalist is convinced that Christmas is not the prerogative of Christians alone: ​​"

It is a feast for everyone, Christ was born for all of humanity

".

The Christmas tree, from the

tree of the baby Jesus

upon his arrival in Versailles

According to anthropologist Abdu Gnaba, the fir tree has its origin in a story: “

It is said that Saint Boniface, by wanting to convince the German priests that the oak was not a sacred tree, had an old oak tree felled.

This one, falling, crushed everything in its path ... except a young fir tree.

"Following this miracle, the monk named the spruce" the

tree of the baby Jesus

", it is reported.

"

Since then, it has been established that the fir tree is the tree of the resurrection, especially as its very resistant leaves reinforce its legend

", continues the anthropologist.

The tree is one of the essential elements for Christmas. And yet, its appearance is fairly recent in France: it arrived via Alsace Lorraine in 1521. Indeed, period parchments have been found, attesting that the authorities were monitoring the fir trees in the forest of the town of Sélestat ( Bas-Rhin) so that the inhabitants do not cut too much. Two centuries later, in 1738, Marie Leszczynska, wife of Louis XV, planted the first tree in Versailles.

It was not until 1982 that the spruce with rigid leaves entered the Vatican, under the pontificate of John Paul II.

The very first Christmas tree came from Italy and since then a tree has been donated by a different European country or region every year.

For 2021, the tree is native to Andalo, a small Italian village in the Dolomites of Paganella.

The balls, the garlands and the star: the representation of the stars

What do contemporary Christmas decorations mean to you?

According to anthropologist Abdu Gnaba, “

the balls and garlands symbolize the constellations, the cosmos and the return to light

”.

At the top of the tree sits the Star of Bethlehem, the one that guided the Three Kings to Bethlehem.

The Christmas balls have another meaning: the tree also represents "

the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of the Garden of Eden, whose apple was eaten by Adam and Eve

", continues the anthropologist.

That is why for a long time the Christmas tree was decorated with fruits, especially apples.

It is said that these were replaced by balls, by a glass craftsman, in 1858, following a very bad harvest.

Father Christmas, a secular tradition with Christian borrowings

If the current figure of Santa Claus in his red suit was fixed by Coca Cola, it has its origin in a Christian character. "

It is a legacy of Saint-Nicolas, and American migrants

," said journalist François Xavier Maire. Indeed, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Dutch emigrated to the United States where they continue to celebrate Saint-Nicolas, a bishop of Myra in the 4th century, an ancient city of present-day Turkey. Sinter Klaas, the patron saint of children, then became Santa Claus.

Finally, as Martyne Perrot summarized in his book,

Should we believe in Father Christmas.

Ideas received on Christmas,

Father Christmas "

is a migrant character, who has taken a little of all the countries where he has been and is rich in various cultural borrowings

".

Gifts

The gifts that sit at the foot of the tree have a very ancient origin.

In fact, from Antiquity, during the Saturnalia, the winter solstice was celebrated on December 21 and the God Mithras on the 25th. For these feasts heralding the return of light, it was customary to offer New Year's gifts.

The gifts will then be attached to the nativity, with reference to the gifts offered by the three wise men to Jesus, in the story of the Nativity.

Today, gifts create a bond with a person, according to the anthropologist: “

It's a bit like proving the bonds of love that we have with each other.

We want to show that we know the other, and for that, we must anticipate their desire.

That is why children are asked to write their letter to Santa Claus.

Read also Christmas: what toys have been placed under the tree since 1945?

Journalist François Xavier Maigre concludes: “

Human beings are made for sharing, for joy, for the vital drive.

We can sometimes forget it because we are taken by the wear and tear of everyday life.

Christmas is here to remind us of simplicity and upliftment.

"

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-12-23

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