Origin of the Christmas Tree

Origin of the Christmas TreeWhere did the origin of the tradition of the Christmas tree put up? It seems nobody knows for sure who started the tradition to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus, but there are quite a lot of legends / stories that circulated among Christians themselves, among which are:The experience of "supernatural" St.. BonifaceAccording to a legend, there was an English clergyman named St. Boniface, who led several churches in Germany and France. One day on his way he met a group of people who would sacrifice a child to the god Thor in an oak tree. To stop their evil deeds, miraculously St. Boniface knock down the oak tree area with his hand punch. After such an amazing event in place of a fallen oak tree grew a fir tree.Martin Luther and the yew treeAnother story tells of an incident when Martin Luther, leader of the Reformation of the Church, was walking in the woods one night. Impressed with the beauty of millions of stars sparkling in the sky that its rays through the branches of pine trees in the forest, Martin Luther cut down a small fir tree and took it home to his family at home. To create a sparkling star as seen in the forest, Martin Luther put candles on each branch of the pine trees.Regardless of the truth in the stories above, to date installation of the Christmas tree still raises the pros and cons among Christians. For people who are not pleased with the Christmas tree, relates that in ancient times the Romans used pine for the celebration of Saturnalia, they decorated it with small ornaments and small masks, because on this date December 25th was the birthday of the sun god, Mithras, the origin of the later Iranian sun god was worshiped in Rome. Likewise, Sunday is a day to worship the god of the sun according to the meaning of the word Zondag, Sunday or Sonntag. Please also note that other sun gods, like Osiris, the Egyptian sun god, was born on December 27. Similarly, the sun god Horus and Apollo was born on December 28.Therefore there are certain streams which forbids the church Christmas tree tradition, because they regard this as a worship of the sun god.The Christmas tree is not a necessity in the church or at home because this is just a symbol for our spiritual life is always to grow and become a wonderful witness for others "evergreen". Christmas trees (pine) are also symbolizes "eternal life", because in general, in winter nearly all the leaves fall off trees, except pine trees are always green leaves.The material above is taken and edited from:Book Title: Indonesia Christian Almanac 1999Publisher: Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia