STOP THE PRESSES! Christmas Trees are Pagan!

Before I begin this bizarre homage to Christmas traditions, I want to make a few things clear for my readers.

1. I am aware that December 25th was not in the Bible.  We do not know the exact date of Jesus's birth.
2. Most traditions popularized in the early Christian church (i.e. Catholic) were taken from pagan neighbors - converting was super important.
3. I am not making fun of the Jehovah Witnesses.  I admire their tenacity.  However, I enjoy pointing out when people (or organizations) make statements that are cobbled up messes.

Bonnie came over last week to drop off the monthly publications from the Witnesses.  I knew there would at least be one article on how the Pagans were the originators of all things Christmas.  I was not disappointed.  "The Christmas Tree It's Pre-Christian Origin," was rich with assumptions and albeit small, presented three pictures to support the claim.

According to the article, Christmas trees (adorned evergreen trees) were being celebrated before the birth of Jesus.  Look, Jesus didn't ask us to decorate a tree for him.  He never asked us to celebrate his birthday.  I realize this is why Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays, however, I believe the traditions celebrated each year have more to do with family, love and giving than they do with pagans.

Not only were adorned trees popular before Jesus's birth, but they are phallic symbols.  Oh no!  They are tall = must be a penis depicted.  Good grief.

Evergreen - ever green; that is what I think is special about the Christmas tree.  I love the idea of remembering each ornament and giving it a special place on a branch.  I love homemade ones from the ladybugs, and I love honoring traditions that Jim and I bring from our youth as well as ones we've created since having children.  The tree is a remembrance that Jesus's love is ever green.  And in this case, Pagan or not, the tree CAN be a symbol of a Christian Christmas.

A symbol is what we make of it.  To me, a statue of Mary is just a pretty relic.  To others, this statue is a way to speak/pray directly to the spirit of Mary.  Mary then takes that prayer and places it in a high place for God.  If I don't think of the evergreen as anything but a symbol of Jesus's love, why then would I be an abomination in God's eyes?  I am not under some delusion that the tree was created on the first Christmas (December 25th), nor am I praying to the tree.  Why then is the symbol such a horrible one?

The BEST part of the small article are the three pictures of rock carvings depicting trees.  Here is a crude picture taken by my phone (my apologies that it isn't the right direction):

I cannot stop laughing that these drawings are used to illustrate that the evergreen tree was adorned and celebrated before the birth of Jesus.  I think in all three cases we can see that they are trees, #3 definitely looks like an evergreen tree.  But there aren't ornaments or tinsel or other "traditional" decorations.  I am certain the celebrations predating Jesus's birth had beautiful garlands and the like using evergreens.  After all, they were a plentiful tree back then!

On this, the first day of Winter, I am reminded of the celebrations for the winter solstice of years passed.  Some still participate in the changing of the seasons, when the earth is celebrating the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  Solstice means "sun stands still."  On this special night the sun seems to stand still, thus getting reborn.  Does this sound a lot like Jesus's birth?  Birth of a sun or birth of a son.  Interesting how this all began.

Regardless what your winter traditions are, have a blessed time celebrating!