The history of the Christmas tree traditions and rituals. Christmas tree: the history of appearance in Russia. Christmas tree in Catholic countries

Today it is difficult to imagine a New Year's holiday without snow and spruce. But a few centuries ago, an evergreen tree was not an attribute of the New Year, and the holiday itself was celebrated in Russia in September.

The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree is known from Celtic traditions. The ancient Slavs dressed up an oak or a birch instead of a Christmas tree.

In Europe it is a tradition to meet New Year with a green beauty began in Germany with an ancient German legend about trees that bloom magnificently during the winter cold. Soon the decoration of Christmas trees became fashionable and spread to many countries of the Old World. In order to avoid mass deforestation, in the 19th century, artificial spruce trees began to be produced in Germany.

Old Christmas card

Sergei Korovin. Christmas

To Russia new year tradition came on the eve of 1700, during the reign of Peter I, who was given the order to switch to a new chronology (from the Nativity of Christ) from January 1, 1700 and to celebrate the New Year on January 1, and not September 1. The decree stated: “... On large and passable streets, for noble people and at houses of deliberate spiritual and worldly rank, in front of the gates, make some decorations from trees and branches of pine and juniper ... and for meager people, each at least a tree or branch on the gate or above the temple [house] put ... »

After the death of the king, the prescriptions were preserved only regarding the decoration of drinking establishments, which continued to be decorated with Christmas trees before the New Year. Taverns were identified by these trees. The trees stood near the establishments until the next year, on the eve of which the old trees were replaced with new ones.

Heinrich Manizer. Christmas tree auction

Alexey Chernyshev. Christmas tree in the Anichkov Palace

The first public Christmas tree was installed in the building of the Ekaterininsky railway station (now Moscow) in St. Petersburg only in 1852.

AT different times and Christmas trees were decorated in different ways: first with fruits, natural and artificial flowers, to create the effect of a flowering tree. Later, the decorations became fabulous: gilded cones, surprise boxes, sweets, nuts and burning Christmas candles. Soon handmade toys were added: children and adults made them from wax, cardboard, cotton wool and foil. And at the end of the XIX century to replace wax candles electric garlands arrived.

During the First World War, Emperor Nicholas II declared the Christmas tree tradition "enemy". After the October Revolution, the ban was lifted, but in 1926 the power of the workers and peasants again eliminated the "Christmas tree" tradition, considering it to be bourgeois.

Christmas tree in the Hall of Columns. 1950s Newsreel TASS

Christmas tree in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses. Photo: N. Akimov, L. Porter / TASS Newsreel

Only in 1938, a huge 15-meter Christmas tree with ten thousand decorations and toys appeared in Moscow, in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions. It began to be installed annually and held there for children new year holidays called "Christmas trees". Since 1976, the main New Year's tree of the country has become a tree installed in the State Kremlin Palace. Babies in New Year's hats near the Christmas tree. Photo: T. Gladskikh / photo bank "Lori"

The custom of decorating the Christmas tree came to us from Germany. There is a legend that the beginning of the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree was laid by the German reformer Martin Luther. In 1513, returning home on Christmas Eve, Luther was fascinated and delighted with the beauty of the stars, which strewed the firmament so densely that it seemed as if the crowns of the trees sparkled with stars. At home, he put a Christmas tree on the table and decorated it with candles, and placed a star on top in memory of the star of Bethlehem, which showed the way to the cave where Jesus was born.

It is also known that in the 16th century in Central Europe on Christmas night it was customary to put a small beech tree in the middle of the table, decorated with small apples boiled in honey, plums, pears and hazelnuts.

In the second half of the 17th century, it was already common in German and Swiss homes to complement the decoration of the Christmas meal not only with deciduous, but also with coniferous trees. The main thing is that it should be a toy size. At first, small Christmas trees were hung from the ceiling along with sweets and apples, and only later the custom was established to decorate one large Christmas tree in the guest room.

In the XVIII- XIX centuries The tradition of decorating the Christmas tree spread not only throughout Germany, but also appeared in England, Austria, the Czech Republic, Holland, and Denmark. In America, Christmas trees also appeared thanks to German emigrants. At first, Christmas trees were decorated with candles, fruits and sweets, later toys made of wax, cotton wool, cardboard, and then glass became a custom.

In Russia, the tradition of decorating the New Year tree appeared thanks to Peter I. Peter, who was visiting his German friends for Christmas at a young age, was pleasantly surprised to see a strange tree: it seems to be a spruce, but instead of cones there are apples and sweets. The future king was amused. Having become king, Peter I issued a decree to celebrate the New Year, as in enlightened Europe.

It prescribed: "... Along the large and passing streets, noble people and at the houses of the deliberate spiritual and worldly rank in front of the gate to make some decorations from trees and branches of pine and juniper ...".

After Peter's death, the decree was forgotten, and the tree became a common New Year's attribute only a century later.

In 1817, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich married the Prussian princess Charlotte, baptized in Orthodoxy under the name of Alexander. The princess convinced the court to adopt the custom of decorating the New Year's table with bouquets of spruce branches. In 1819, at the insistence of his wife, Nikolai Pavlovich put up a New Year tree in the Anichkov Palace for the first time, and in 1852 in St. Petersburg, a public Christmas tree was decorated for the first time in the Ekaterininsky (now Moscow) station.

Christmas tree hype began in the cities: expensive Christmas tree decorations were ordered from Europe, children's New Year's parties were held in rich houses.

The image of the Christmas tree fits well into the Christian religion. Christmas decorations, sweets and fruits symbolized the gifts brought to the little Christ. And the candles were reminiscent of the illumination of the monastery where the Holy Family stayed. In addition, an ornament was always hung on the top of the tree, which symbolized the Star of Bethlehem, which ascended with the birth of Jesus and showed the way to the Magi. As a result, the tree has become a symbol of Christmas.

During the First World War, Emperor Nicholas II considered the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree "enemy" and categorically forbade it to be followed.

After the revolution, the ban was lifted. The first public Christmas tree under the Soviet regime was arranged at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School on December 31, 1917 in St. Petersburg.

Since 1926, decorating a Christmas tree has already been considered a crime: the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks called the custom of installing the so-called Christmas tree anti-Soviet. In 1927, at the 15th Party Congress, Stalin announced the weakening of anti-religious work among the population. An anti-religious campaign began. The party conference of 1929 canceled the "Christian" Sunday: the country switched to the "six-day period", the celebration of Christmas was forbidden.

It is believed that the rehabilitation of the Christmas tree began with a small note in the Pravda newspaper, published on December 28, 1935. It was about the initiative to organize for the New Year children nice Christmas tree. The note was signed by the second secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Postyshev. Stalin agreed.

In 1935, the first New Year's Eve was organized. children's party with dressed up forest beauty. And on New Year's Eve 1938, a huge 15-meter Christmas tree with 10 thousand decorations and toys was placed in the Hall of Columns in the House of the Unions, which has since become traditional and later called the main Christmas tree of the country. Since 1976, the Christmas tree in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses (since 1992 - the State Kremlin Palace) has been considered the main Christmas tree. Instead of Christmas, the tree began to be put on New Year's Eve and was called the New Year's tree.

At first, Christmas trees were decorated in the old fashioned way with sweets and fruits. Then the toys began to reflect the era: pioneers with bugles, faces of members of the Politburo. During the war - pistols, paratroopers, orderlies, Santa Claus with a gun. They were replaced by toy cars, airships with the inscription "USSR", snowflakes with a hammer and sickle. Under Khrushchev, toy tractors, corn cobs, and hockey players appeared. Then - cosmonauts, satellites, characters of Russian fairy tales.

Nowadays, there are many styles of decorating the Christmas tree. The most traditional of them is the decoration of the Christmas tree. colorful toys glass, electric light bulbs and tinsel. In the last century, natural trees began to be replaced by artificial ones, some of them very skillfully imitated living spruces and decorated in the usual way, others were stylized, not requiring decorations. There was a fashion for the decoration of Christmas trees in a certain color - silver, gold, red, blue, the minimalist style in the design of the Christmas tree has firmly entered the fashion. Only garlands of multi-colored lights remained an invariable attribute of decorating the Christmas tree, but here, too, LEDs are already replacing electric bulbs.

It is impossible to imagine New Year and Christmas without a Christmas tree. This is a mandatory attribute of the holiday. Where does the tradition of installing a coniferous tree at home for Christmas and New Year come from?

MANY LEGENDS HAVE BEEN PRESERVED, EACH OF WHICH INTERPRET THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS TREE IN A DIFFERENT WAY. Here are some of them. "On Christmas night, all the plants went to Bethlehem to bow to the baby Jesus. Palm trees came first, then strangers came - beech, birch, maple, oak, magnolia, poplar, eucalyptus, giant red trees and tall cedars. And from the far cold North came a small Christmas tree which, against the background of other majestic trees, looked very modest. The trees did their best to hide it from the eyes of the Divine Infant. But suddenly a miracle happened in the sky - the movement of stars began. They began to fall to the ground and, falling one after another, sank on branches of a small Christmas tree until it shone with hundreds of lights. So the spruce became the Christmas tree.

According to another legend, the angels went into the forest to choose the Christmas tree. At first they were going to choose a mighty oak. However, one of the angels objected: “No,” he said, “we cannot choose oak. It is too hard and too brittle wood, and besides, crosses for graves are made from oak.” Then the angels went on and approached the beech tree. Then the second angel said: "And we cannot choose a beech, because in autumn it withers too early and quickly loses its foliage." When they approached the birch, the third angel said: "The birch is also not suitable, since its branches are usually used as whips to punish the delinquent." Similarly, the willow was rejected because, according to the fourth angel, a tree that almost always weeps cannot be a symbol of joy. Finally, the angels approached the fir tree. Her evergreen cover, harmony, pleasant aroma of needles struck them. So the spruce became the tree of Christmas.

FIR IS A SYMBOL OF IMMORTALITY AND ETERNAL LIFE, REVIVAL, UNFADING, health, longevity, fidelity, integrity, honesty and patience. Since ancient times, people believed that spruce protects the house from evil spirits. During the period winter solstice the ancient Germans hung spruce branches from the ceiling on purpose to cleanse their house. Soon spruce branches were replaced by a whole tree. Spruce was hung by the root from the ceiling: it symbolized the sun illuminating the earth, and the roots of the tree symbolized the basis of all things. Thus, the earthly, as it were, became a reflection of the heavenly. Among the Germanic peoples, there was also an ancient custom to go to the forest on New Year's Eve, where a pre-selected spruce tree was decorated with candles, colored rags, and New Year's rituals were performed around it.

Over time, spruce trees began to be cut down and brought into the house, where they were installed on the table. Lighted candles, apples, sweets were attached to the tree.

After the baptism of the Germanic peoples, these customs and rituals began to acquire a Christian meaning, and Christmas trees installed in houses became an obligatory attribute of Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve). Now such a Christmas tree was called a Christmas tree. Christmas traditions focused not only on adults, but more and more on children.

THE BEGINNING OF THE TRADITION OF DECORATE THE NEW YEAR TREE AS WE DO IT TODAY, founded by Martin Luther, the famous German reformer. Returning home on Christmas Eve, he was fascinated by the beauty of the sky. The stars sparkled even between the branches of the snow-covered tree branches, it seemed as if their crowns were sparkling. At home, Martin put a Christmas tree on the table, decorated it with candles, and placed a star on top in memory of the Star of Bethlehem. Martin Luther wrote: "Just as the eternal God was incarnated in the form of a little baby, so the evergreen spruce comes to our house in order to proclaim the joy of the Nativity of Christ."

In the XVIII - XIX centuries, the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree spread not only in Germany, but also in England, Austria, the Czech Republic, Holland, Denmark, and under Peter I - in Russia. In 1699, the first Russian emperor issued a decree by which he introduced a new chronology - from the Nativity of Christ, and ordered the New Year to be celebrated in a European way - on January 1. By decree of Peter I, all residents of Moscow were ordered to celebrate the New Year's Eve: light bonfires on New Year's Eve, set off fireworks, congratulate each other, decorate houses with coniferous trees. After the death of Peter I, they stopped putting up New Year trees. Only the owners of taverns decorated their houses with them, and these trees stood in taverns all year round - hence the expression "tree-sticks".

New Year's festivities and the tradition of putting up Christmas trees were revived under Catherine II. And they began to decorate Christmas trees only in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is believed that the first Christmas tree in St. Petersburg was arranged by the Germans living there. Petersburgers liked this custom so much that they began to install Christmas trees in their homes. From there, this tradition spread throughout the country.

Queen Victoria's husband Albert of Saxe-Coburg brought the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree to England back in 1841. Literally 10 years later, the whole of Great Britain, following the example of the royal family, began to decorate the spruce and arrange family celebrations and children's holidays around it.

The tree came to America at about the same time as to England. This custom also spread thanks to German emigrants. An elegant tree, decorated with candles and gifts, made an indelible impression on the German neighbors. And literally next year everyone wanted to have exactly the same tree in their house. And in 1848, the first seller of Christmas trees appeared in New York. This was the beginning of the New Year's markets.

IN ORDER TO PREVENT MASS DOWNLOADING, The Germans were the first to create artificial Christmas trees. At first, these Christmas trees were made from goose feathers dyed in green color. Later, artificial Christmas trees became widespread not only in Europe, but also in America.

In France, Napoleon I's brother Jerome Bonaparte, as king of Westphalia, decorated the Christmas tree with colorful gift letters, and the courtiers had to take them off. The first Christmas tree was installed in France in the Tuileries Garden. Until now, in France in Provence, painted eggshells are hung on the Christmas tree.

There are many traditions to decorate the Christmas tree. But it is best to rely on your own imagination, give free rein to your imagination, and then the Christmas tree will give you the aroma of childhood, happiness and joy, a cheerful mood.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!

In Europe, the tradition of celebrating the New Year with a green beauty began in Germany with an ancient German legend about trees blooming magnificently during the winter cold. Soon the decoration of Christmas trees became fashionable and spread to many countries of the Old World. In order to avoid mass deforestation, in the 19th century, artificial spruce trees began to be produced in Germany.

The New Year tradition came to Russia on the eve of 1700, during the reign of Peter I, who was ordered to switch to a new chronology (from the Nativity of Christ) from January 1, 1700 and to celebrate the New Year on January 1, and not September 1 . The decree said: “... On large and passing streets, noble people and at houses of deliberate spiritual and worldly rank in front of the gates, make some decorations from trees and branches of pine and juniper ... and meager people, even if a tree or a branch on the gate or over the temple [house ] put your own ... "

The first public Christmas tree was installed in the building of the Ekaterininsky railway station (now Moscow) in St. Petersburg only in 1852.

At different times, Christmas trees were decorated in different ways: first with fruits, fresh and artificial flowers, to create the effect of a flowering tree. Later, the decorations became fabulous: gilded cones, surprise boxes, sweets, nuts and burning Christmas candles. Soon handmade toys were added: children and adults made them from wax, cardboard, cotton wool and foil. And at the end of the 19th century, wax candles were replaced by electric garlands.

Only in 1938, a huge 15-meter Christmas tree with ten thousand decorations and toys appeared in Moscow, in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions. It began to be installed annually and held there for children's New Year's holidays, called "Christmas trees". Since 1976, the main New Year tree of the country has become a tree installed in the State Kremlin Palace.

By the 1960s Christmas tree became familiar and loved by every family. And its decoration - glass balls, toys and paper garlands- one of the main family ceremonies.

The holiday of the Christmas tree was originally intended for children and was to remain forever in the memory of the child as a day of mercy and kindness. The festive tree was prepared by adults without fail in secret from children. To this day, the New Year's sacrament and gifts miraculously appearing under the Christmas tree remain the main magic of childhood.

The tradition of celebrating the New Year and Christmas with a Christmas tree shimmering with colorful lights is familiar and mysterious at the same time. Until now, one can only guess about the origins of this custom, and the elegant Christmas tree itself has a difficult centuries-old history.

Christmas tree decorated with golden balls and stars.

Paradise Tree and Yule Log

Some researchers believe that the Christmas tree is a reminder of the tree of paradise, where the story of Adam and Eve played out. In accordance with this idea, traditional Christmas decorations, glass balls, symbolize the fruits of the tree of paradise.

According to another version, the custom of putting up and decorating a Christmas tree is an echo of Yule, an ancient German holiday on the night of the winter solstice. On Yule it was supposed to decorate and then solemnly burn a log, usually oak or ash. (Both oak and ash were revered as sacred trees.) Yule symbols also served as holly, holly and ivy - they decorated houses outside and inside, wheat stalks and branches of evergreens - they wove baskets in which gifts were carried: apples and cloves.

Children and Yule log. Illustration from the book "Aunt Louisa's London toy books: the alphabet of games and sports" ("Aunt Louisa's London toy books: the alphabet of games and sports"). London, 1870.

Christmas tree in Europe

Who and when first came up with the idea to bring a Christmas tree into the house before Christmas is not exactly known. The debate about this is far from being as innocent as it might seem. More recently, in 2009-2010, between Latvia and Estonia, who were figuring out where the Christmas tree appeared earlier - in Riga in the 16th century or in Tallinn in the 12th century, things almost came to a diplomatic conflict.

There is also evidence that in the same 16th century, the religious reformer Martin Luther arranged a Christmas holiday with a Christmas tree in his house in the Saxon city of Eisleben. The legend about him says that one day, walking through the forest on Christmas night, he saw a star fall on the top of a fir tree.

Engraving from the German book "50 Picture Fables for Children".

Ascetic Lutherans did not consider a Christmas tree decorated with fruits and gingerbread to be an excess. To XVIII century Christmas tree became commonplace in many German lands. Somewhere, a Christmas tree was hung upside down from the ceiling - so it personified a ladder lowered down to people from heaven. Somewhere there were as many small Christmas trees decorated as there were family members and guests who were supposed to be congratulated and bestowed.

In Germany, much later, when its forests were depleted by the end of the 19th century, the first artificial Christmas trees were invented. They were made from goose feathers, which were dyed green.

Viggo Johansen. "Bright Christmas".

German princes and princesses who married foreign august persons or sat on the throne themselves, bankers, merchants, teachers and artisans brought the Christmas tree to other European countries.

At the British court, the first Christmas tree was decorated back in 1760, in 1819 the forest beauty became part of the court celebration in Budapest, in 1820 in Prague.

In the middle of the 19th century, the United States got acquainted with the Christmas tree, and the Americans owe this, again, to immigrants from Germany.

Robert Duncan. "Christmas tree".

Petrovsky decree on the celebration of the New Year

In December 1699, Peter I introduced the Julian calendar in Russia by special decree and ordered the New Year's Eve to be postponed from September 1 to January 1. The decree contained instructions on exactly how loyal subjects should have fun. New Year's Eve was to be celebrated with fireworks and plentiful refreshments. Muscovites, residents of the then capital, were recommended to decorate with coniferous trees and branches: spruce, pine, juniper.

The festive tree really took root in Russia only closer to the middle of the 19th century, although already at the beginning of the century it was a frequent guest in the homes of St. Petersburg Germans. The monarchs set an example for the indigenous population.

A. F. Chernyshev. "Scenes from family life Emperor Nicholas I. Christmas tree in the Anichkov Palace.

The first Christmas tree in the imperial palace was put up on December 24, 1817, on Christmas Eve, by order of the Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of the future Emperor Nicholas I. The nobility gradually adopted the innovation of the household of the highest persons. At first, Christmas trees were hardly decorated. Candles were strengthened on the branches, which were lit twice: on Christmas Eve and on Christmas itself. Under the tree, most often small, standing on the table, they put gifts for family members.

The pavilion of the Ekateringofsky railway station in St. Petersburg in 1852 became the first public building where a Christmas tree appeared on Christmas Eve. A large tree, almost resting on the ceiling with its crown, hung with ornaments made of colored paper, laid the foundation for the tradition of public Christmas trees, which spread to theaters, noble, officer and merchant clubs and meetings.

The established fashion for Christmas trees gave impetus to the imagination of businessmen. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, Christmas tree markets appeared near Gostiny Dvor in St. Petersburg. Respectable townspeople with childish excitement competed, who had a bigger, thicker, more intricately decorated Christmas tree. It was not necessary to puzzle over the decoration yourself: Swiss confectioners sold Christmas trees with ready-made decor. It was expensive, though mere pennies compared to the Christmas decorations in some wealthy homes, where diamond necklaces were hung from green branches.

In the last decades of the 19th century, the arsenal of jewelry was replenished with industrial toys. The choice was wide: glass balls, voluminous glued figures made of cardboard, edible miniature animals made of sugar and almonds, garlands, crackers and sparklers, "golden" and "silver" rain.

Orthodox priests unsuccessfully but stubbornly protested against the Christmas tree as a secular and even "pagan" custom. They could not know that not so much time would pass, and it was the Christmas tree that would be declared the symbol of "religious dope".

A. N. Benois. New Year card. Late 19th - early 20th century.

Adventures of the Christmas tree in the USSR

In 1917, most families were not up to Christmas trees. But this did not prevent the Parus publishing house on the eve of 1918 from releasing a gift children's book, The Christmas Tree. The luxurious album, designed by A. N. Benois, includes poems and stories by Korney Chukovsky, Sasha Cherny, Bryusov and Maxim Gorky, who curated the publication. The new government considered the Christmas tree to be quite an appropriate festive attribute for the inhabitants of post-revolutionary Petrograd.

A frame from the filmstrip "Lenin at the children's Christmas tree". A. Kononov. Artist V. Konovalov. 1940

"Komsomol Christmas Trees" were organized in the mid-20s. The persecution of the painted tree, in fact, began only in 1929, when the celebration of Christmas was officially condemned in the party press. And along with it, as a “priestly custom,” the Christmas tree, allegedly poisoning children with “religious poison.”

Now, if a Christmas tree was brought into the house, then secretly, putting it where it could not be seen either from the threshold or through the window. Vigilant volunteers, who had been patrolling the streets since mid-December, looked into the windows specifically for this purpose.

Elka was "rehabilitated" in 1935 after a brief exchange of remarks between Stalin and Ukrainian party dignitary P. P. Postyshev. “But why not return the Christmas tree to the children?” Postyshev asked. Stalin approved the idea, and his interlocutor appeared in the Pravda newspaper with a note where he reproached the “left” benders who denounced “ children's entertainment as a bourgeois idea. The publication appeared on the morning of December 28 - and in just a few days festive events with Christmas trees and production Christmas decorations.

The Soviet Christmas tree was in no way supposed to be associated with Christmas. The decorations reflected the spirit of the times. The blue Christmas star with seven rays was replaced by a red five-pointed one. Miniature planes and cars were hung on the Christmas tree. Tiny pioneers, tractor drivers, representatives of the peoples of the Soviet republics side by side with the heroes of fairy tales and figurines of animals. In the late 30s, the company was replenished with new characters: Ded Moroz and Snegurochka.
In 1937, glass balls bearing portraits of Stalin, Lenin, and members of the Politburo were released, but this endeavor was quickly deemed politically dubious.

Soviet postcard. 1950s.

The main Christmas trees of Russia

In December 1996, for the first time since pre-revolutionary times, a giant Christmas tree was installed on the Kremlin's Cathedral Square. From 2001 to 2004 the role new year symbol was carried out by an artificial tree, but since 2005, a live spruce has been flaunting on the square again. It is selected in advance in the Moscow region according to certain criteria: the tree must be at least a hundred years old, and it must reach about 30 meters in height. The winner is determined by a competition among forestries. On Red Square, where hundreds of Muscovites and tourists celebrate the New Year, in recent years a huge artificial fir tree has been decorated.

Decorated Christmas tree on Cathedral Square in the Kremlin.