Here's an interesting trivia, or something not very trivial (depending on your point of view) about Christmas tree.
Did you know that Christmas tree decorating and using the clippings of evergreen shrubs as decorations for Christmas has been a controversial practice at times in Western history? For instance, when the Roman Church decided in the fourth century that Christmas should be celebrated on December 25, some of the pagan celebrations of the Roman Saturnalia (celebrated at the same time of year) were carried over, such as feasting and exchanging gifts. But others were too controversial to carry over....
Using the clippings of evergreen shrubs from the landscape to decorate houses, a common practice during the December celebrations of Saturnalia, was strictly forbidden by the Church. The associations between decorating with evergreen shrubs and paganism were just too strong. Already in the early third century Tertullian had complained that too many fellow-Christians were falling into the Saturnalian rut by adorning their houses with lamps and with wreathes of laurel as Christmas decorations (Tertullian, "On Idolatry," XV).
But the controversy over Christmas tree decorating and using clippings of evergreen shrubs as Christmas decorations is not relegated to that remote epoch in history. In the sixteenth century John Calvin objected to observing the Christian calendar -- which includes Christmas and Easter -- because he felt such celebrations promoted irreligious frivolity. It was in this same century that Germany, by contrast, was establishing Christmas tree decorating as we know it today, launching the modern history of the Christmas tree. But in England the Puritans, influenced by Calvin, forbade the observance of Christmas (see "The Christian Calendar: A Complete Guide to the Seasons of the Christian Year," Cowie and Gummer). And it wasn't until the mid-nineteenth century, at the instigation of Prince Albert, that Christmas tree decorating achieved its present status in England.
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