Evergreen trees and Decorations with festive foliage

For the festive events throughout the year, there are lots of people who not think about the reason why those celebrations are there. Others perhaps do know the origin of the festivals but consider it not so important anymore for what reason there was a celebration or why we should not take it as an ordinary civil celebration without any connotation to earlier connections.

There are people who consider it a special day for a special event of which the actual day itself is not important and as such Jesus might be born in October though many celebrate his birthday in December. They forget that the day they celebrate the birth of Christ is really a day celebrated by heathen people for the god of light. That is also one of the reasons real Christians would abstain from celebrating December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ.

Legalistic people are very scrupulous about observing a festival on the exact day. Others consider every day as a gift from God, to be equally received with thanksgiving. {Christmas is Tammuz’s Birthday?}

Later, even people came to believe that they were celebrating the birth of God, forgetting that the Only One True God had never a birth and is an eternal being (= having no beginning or birth and no end or death).

It is wrong to think that early Christians would have taken over the pagan festival and converted it into a celebration of their lord’s birth.  It was only many centuries later that the Roman Catholic Church, to gain more baptisms, introduced those Celtic festivals into their own year circle so that the people could continue their long traditions.

The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to symbolize eternal life was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the Devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmastime. It survived further in the custom, also observed in Germany, of placing a Yule tree at an entrance or inside the house during the midwinter holidays. {Christmas tree holiday decoration – encyc. Britannica}

Silver fir (Abies alba)

The evergreen tree for many people has something special, it’s resisting warm and cold weather, seemingly growing for ages, in a certain way as many people surviving tree, declared possession of eternity. Those evergreen trees were and still are considered to provide oxygen, beauty, wood, paper, food, and medicine. Some people thought that by cutting down such an ‘eternal tree’ they could bring over endless life to themselves when they made it more beautiful with decorations and honoured it. By worshipping that decorated tree they hoped to show the gods how much they appreciated that tree and as such recognised their god’s creation and showed how it had become part of their life.

The Divine Creator did not create those evergreens to be cut to decorate it and not to use it for proper things, like using the wood for heating or making houses and furniture. Jehovah God knows the world loves those evergreens in another way than He wanted. But He wants His people not to do like the majority of mankind.

“2 Thus says the LORD,

“Do not learn the way of the nations, And do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens Although the nations are terrified by them; 3 For the customs of the peoples are delusion; Because it is wood cut from the forest, The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

4 “They decorate [it] with silver and with gold; They fasten it with nails and with hammers So that it will not totter.” (Jer 10:2-4 NAS)

Today too, we see people adorn the evergreen tree, with the idea it will not rot and stand long enough to pass the darker days, with silver and gold, like their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands, as is written in the Scriptures. (Ps 115:4 135:15 Esa 40:19,20) Many people bear it upon their shoulder or carry it into their house, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place shall it not remove. They put gifts around it and have nice times around it, but also moments that they may cry unto it, yet can it not answer, nor save them out of their trouble. (Isa 46:7)

When we undertake such an action, we must be very careful how we have that decorated tree in the house and how we stand before it.

In many nations so-called Christians sing hymns to the Christmas tree, making it clear that in a certain way they are adoring it. How many on Christmas Eve do not sing: O Tannenbaum (Oh pine tree/O fir tree) It might well be that

When winter days are dark and drear
You bring us hope for all the year.

and as such one could agree that having the green tree with its lovely smell in the house, full of little light or small candles, it cheers the dark days up. We do agree that it can

bring us light in winter’s gloom

Some people do think those evergreen fir trees do not much good to our planet, because they do not clean the air like trees and shrubs with leaves. For them it does not matter so much to cut down such trees because that will not have a lot of impact on the carbon footprint.

Others who want to excuse themselves for keeping up that tradition of putting up all those lights at the end of the year and saying that they celebrate the light God has given us, claim that Jews do that too around this time. Probably they think of Chanukkah, which is by some Christians called the “Jewish Christmas”, though they are mistaken to connect it with Christmas, where many Christian also have a Santa bringing gifts. Historically the Jewish festival Hanukkah, which begins on Kislev 25, historically may have become one of the most popular Jewish religious observances that this year is celebrated from Monday, December 19 to Monday, December 26. It is not a big gift-giving event, so you won’t find massive “post-Hanukkah” sales on the Internet. Similarly, there are also no stockings hung by the chimney or anywhere else.

In Jewish and Jeshuaist families you shall mostly not find cut and decorated trees in the house. It can very well be, that dried flowers can be found in the living room here and there throughout the year, but that has nothing to do with Christmas or to be part of glorification. Though for Jeshuaists and Jehudiem that are married to a Christian it can be a “Hanukkah bush” or some Christmas decorations can also be found in the house. For them, it is 8 days for commemorating the miracle of the long-lasting oil in the rededicated Temple. It is not a high holiday as Christmas is for several Christians, but a minor holiday. Most of them choose a candle whose light is strong and beautiful and place it at the window so that it can be seen from outside as a sign that in the house lives a person who believes in the miracle of the single vial of oil that burned for the eight days of Chanukah during the time of the Second Temple. In a spiritual sense, oil represents Chochmah, or knowledge.

Further similarities might be the gathering and sharing of nice food. On Hanukkah, it is e.g., latkes or laht-kuh(s) (fried potato pancakes and sufganiyot (donuts).

Nothing beats the smell of fresh pine and spruce in the house.
The innate cosiness of twinkling lights is unbeatable when the sun sets before 4pm and by those extra lights we do not feel so depressed by the darkness of the season.

Christmas trees are not as bad for the planet as some might think, but their carbon footprints are still not great. It is hard to beat the smell of fresh pine and spruce at this time of year, so gardening writer Alice Vincent enlisted the help of florist Katie Isitt to help her dress her home for the festivities without relying on a tree.

Photo by Vladimir Konoplev on Pexels.com

Making wreaths and hanging them up in the house brings something from mother earth in the house. You can make them in such a variety and with so many sorts of plants and grasses that none has to be the same. We only may not forget to have a balance of lots of different things.

For colouring and decorating the house so that it feels “warmer” you can use a lot of materials. You can use as much home-grown, recycled and edible decoration as we could, and to go for different ideas, discuss it with friends and amateur gardeners.

Many gardeners have a selection of evergreens, and most of them use it to decorate their and other’s houses. when having selected armfuls of foliage, both deciduous and evergreen, you can recut the stems and put them in deep water to condition them.

Pooling foliage, flowers and decorating ideas, would be a perfect start to the festive season.

Photo by Vladimir Konoplev on Pexels.com

You also shall come to see how making decorations your self attributes so much more to the end of year season and fun. You shall come to feel thaa half the fun is trying different additions and deliberating what to discard and what to keep. It is tempting to throw too much in, and there you shall have to decide for certain pieces to definitely avoid evergreens and berries, just to ring the changes.

Katie comes up with some innovative suggestions – and five top tips you might like to try.

1. Don’t be a fashion slave
2. Rummage around for what you’ve got
3. Don’t be afraid to let the mechanics show
4. Speak to a florist
5. Compost or keep it afterwards

Please consider finding our more, reading

about making your home into a feast for the senses with seasonal greenery – and yes, that includes sprouts. Emily Watson (emilytallulah.com), who specialises in flowers for weddings, events and weekly contracts, magnanimously offered to come and share a few pearls of design wisdom and artful techniques,: The Christmas decorations hiding in your garden

to fill your home with fragrant festive foliage – with a little help from innovative floral designer Katie Isitt, com to read the article: Forget the Christmas tree, here’s how to decorate with festive foliage

From stocking up on winter vegetables to protecting plants from frost, there is plenty to keep you busy in the garden this month: Gardening in December: what to plant and tidy in your garden this month

 

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Preceding

Solstice, Saturnalia and Christmas-stress

The True Significance of Jesus’ Birth

Sunshine for a New Year

The Proper Place of Excess

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Additional reading

1. Only One God
2. Jesus son of God
3. Jesus Christ (the Messiah)
4. God’s salvation
5. Salvation is of the Jews
6. When you believe Jesus is God: who do you think is the mediator? #1 Son of man
7. Biblical Yeshua/ Jesus or Another European Greco- Roman Jesus ??
8. Matthew 2:1-6 – Astrologers and Priests in a Satanic Plot
9. The nativity of Jesus is the sunrise of the Bible
10. Focus on outward appearances
11. A Christmas thought: Abiding in Christ
12. Germanic mythological influences up to today’s Christmas celebrations
13. Thought for the Christmas time: A sense of history
14. Framework and vehicle for Christian Scholasticism and loss of confidence
15. No shepherds in the field in December
16. Christmas in Ancient Rome (AKA Saturnalia)
17. Irminsul, dies natalis solis invicti, birthday of light, Christmas and Saturnalia
18. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 2 Summersend and mansend
19. A birthday passed nearly unnoticed
20. People believing they need to celebrate the birth of God
21. Which hero to celebrate in December 2020
22. Objects around the birth and death of Jesus
23. Called Immanuel does not mean to be Jesus being God
24. Hosea Say What?
25. Chanukah (Hanukkah) / Christmas – Facts or Fabels?
26. The imaginational war against Christmas
27. Tekufat Tevet – Darkness, gold moon and Light to look forward
28. Ignorance of Today’s Youth (and Adults) (Some View on the World)
29. Ignorance of Today’s Youth (and Adults) (Our World)
30. Eight days of sprinkling lights
31. A season for truth and peace
32. Today’s thought “Those following the policies of the wrong leaders and popular people” (December 08)

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52. The Idol Christmas Tree
53. Odds n Ends
54. Bridging the Gap between Santa Claus and Jesus
55. Tree Talk
56. Tree worship and tree of wise ancestors’ spirits
57. “Faith sees […] a giant oak in an acorn.” William Arthur Ward
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60. Will other religions survive your teachings or live in harmony with you Maitreya?
61. Get outside and worship in the Tree Church.
62. Triple Update: Demoniality, Cultus Arborum, Sickness in Hell
63. Thus began the pulp-worshipers
64. Finding the gods among their sacred trees
65. The Real Meaning of Christmas