Authors: Christian Rätsch
North American Indians of the plains region hung pieces of cloth, feathers, dream catchers, tobacco-filled cloth balls, and prairie sage bushes (Artemisia ludoviciana) on pines and junipers as ritual offerings for inspiration in their vision quests. (Devil’s Tower, Montana, U.S.A., May 2001)
The ancient custom of decorating sacred trees growing near temples in order to worship them has persisted to the present day in Cyprus. This tree, decorated for the love goddess, grows beside a Christian chapel. (1992)
Fly agaric mushrooms, their shamanic origins, and their meaning as a good-luck charm at Christmastime and on New Year’s Eve have already been described. Next to birch trees, fir trees are the favorite host of the fly agaric (Heinrich 1998, 73). However, real fly agaric mushrooms are not used for decorating the tree, only imitations made of sundry materials.
Apples—real red fruits or imitations made out of glossy, red-gold paper—have been a symbol of fertility for ages. In the context of Christianity, as fruit of life, apples are associated with the tree of paradise. The pale side of the apple, the one not exposed to light, was considered to be dying or perishing; the red side was seen as alive and growing. “The late Middle Ages seems to have considered the blossoming and fruit bearing trees always as apple trees” said the Bishop of Bamberg in 1426 about these “miracle apple trees” (Spamer 1937, 74). Since apples do not keep long, glass Christmas balls took on the role of the apple later on—representing, as the imperial orb, the worldly and religious power of the Savior.
Christmas balls reflect the brightness of candles and were supposed to multiply luck, wealth, and the fruitfulness of human striving. Thuringia, especially the town Lauscha, famous for its glassworks and blown glass, contributed a bounty of colorful balls. These shimmering, artificial creations serve as modern substitutes for natural fertility symbols, and today can be found in all colors and shapes.
Pomegranate, oranges, dried orange slices, and lemons from the Mediterranean served a purpose similar to that of apples as fertility symbols, but were not as often used as tree decorations. In their home climate, they were the first fruits of the year, so their appearance heralded a good harvest in the coming year.18
Nuts—for example, hazelnuts—have always been considered a symbol of life and fertility. In wintertime, they helped people survive periods of extreme cold and deprivation, because they are easily stored and are rich in fats, minerals, and vitamins. The Germanic peoples dedicated nuts to Iduna, the goddess of the resplendent green. Around 400 CE, church father Augustine gave them a Christ-related meaning: “As a symbol of Christ, the shell is the flesh of Christ that has tasted the passion; and the fruit is the sweet inwardness of the god that gives food, and through the oil it gives light—the shell is the wood of the cross” (Vossen 1985, 102). Hazelnuts with little feathers glued on to them were placed on the Christmas tree to symbolize little angels. Even in the year 1795, a description of the Nuremberg Christmas tree tells us that the tree decorations included hazelnuts painted with gold and hung on cords.19
Walnuts (Juglans regia) were in ancient times the holy tree of Dionysus and of Artemis; Caryatis, the pre-classical Greek goddess of the walnut tree (karya=walnut) was later considered an erotic form of Artemis. Walnuts were also associated with Jupiter, explaining why the Romans called them Jovis glans, meaning “Jupiter’s glans.” (The botanical name Juglans comes from “Jovis” and “glans.”) Walnuts were a symbol not only of fertility, but also of immortality. In addition to their use as Christmas tree decorations, the Alemannic tribes put walnuts into the graves of the dead.20
Tinsel (paper strips, gold foil, golden nuts, apples made of gold foil, rose and fairy decorations; in short, all that glitters): These things are not only reminiscent of the glittering snow, ice cones, and the otherworldly shimmer of golden-locked angels’ hair, but also recall the age-old custom of putting metal plates, coins, pieces of cloth, and other eye-catching items on holy trees in order to sanctify them. Golden, shimmering things were thought to have a magic that could ward off demons—and they promised purity and health. Even in old Mesopotamia, angels were depicted hovering around the tree of the world. When angels were hung on the Christmas tree, incense was burned for the heavenly flock as if the figurines on the tree were really hovering invisibly in the ether.
Shaped breads of all kinds, including Christmas cookies and gingerbread, often are decorated or shaped according to Christian motifs—St. Nicholas, angels, the baby Jesus. Worldly motifs are also popular: nutcrackers, rocking horses, stars, suns, trees, patterns, and so on. Decorating Christmas trees with shaped breads is a very old custom. The ancient Greeks believed that breads bearing blessings would bring good luck and—because they were dedicated to the Greek healing god Asclepius—good health in the coming year. The Romans sent each other shaped breads as New Year’s gifts (Seligmann 1996, 45). In medieval convent bakeries, all manner of spices and a great amount of honey were used to make gingerbread, a means of sacrificing everything the world had to offer to honor Jesus Christ. Apart from these specific meanings, calorie-rich sweets promised everyone who ate them health, long life, and an abundance of food on the table in the new year.
Red and white goblins decorate a snowy fir tree in the forest with candles, red apples, and spices. (Christmas card from a picture by Fritz Baumgarten, Germany, circa 1999)
A Christmas tree, decorated all over with fly agaric mushrooms, from the Käthe-Wohlfahrt-Vertrieb shop in Rothenburg. In this very popular tourist shop, it is Christmas all year round, twenty-four hours a day. (Photograph by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, October 2001)
At Lucky Mushroom in the Magic Forest, a Käthe-Wohlfahrt-Vertrieb chain store, Father Christmas sits under a fly agaric mushroom in the shop window. (Photograph by Claudia Müller-Ebeling, October 2001)
Springerle are anise cookies, baked hard and crisp and frosted with a white icing. Their name (meaning “little jumpers”) comes from a traditional equestrian motif, known from chess figurines but possibly dating back to the amulets used to ward off the ghost army of the wild hunt. In the Erzgebirge region of Germany, the bread baked during the Christmas week was considered magic.
Sugarwheels—chocolate biscuits and sweets wrapped in shiny paper and tied with little ribbons to facilitate hanging on the Christmas tree—succeeded the shaped bread and tinsel used as tree decorations in the eighteenth century. In 1797, Jean Paul wrote, “Fruit and sugar trees with candle-lit branches, silver fruits, golden tassels of apples, nut and fruit ribbons, and also hanging sugar.” Sugar was “not only the sign of plenty, but also the sign of the charity of God” (Riemenschmidt 1962, 24).
Poppy seedpods and pinecones (gilded or natural) are age-old symbols of fertility because of the plentiful seed they produce. Dried, they keep forever, and thus also connote eternal life and the resurrection of the dead in a Christian sense. Miniature pieces of art consisting of a manger in a poppy seed capsule fall into this category of Christmas decoration. To the ancient Greeks, poppy seeds and grains were among the attributes of the great Earth goddess Demeter (=Ceres), whose blessings insured a good harvest.
A little red devil serves as a Christmas ornament. (Germany, 2001)
Angel’s Smoke Incense
Ingredients
60 g benzoin resin (Styrax benzoin)
60 g storax resin (Liquidambar orientalis)
30 g white sandalwood (Santalum album)
8 g cloves (Syzygium aromaticum)
2 or 3 pieces of orris root (Iris germanica)
2 nutmegs (Myristica fragrans)
A small amount of fresh lemon rind
A splash of rose water
Grind the nutmegs, cloves, orris root, and sandalwood. Crush the benzoin and storax resins with a mortar and pestle. Thoroughly mix these ingredients together. Grate fresh lemon rind over the mixture, splash with rose water, and knead to blend. Place the incense on the smoking coal in small portions.
A typical Christmas ornament: Dried orange slices remind us of the sun wheels of Helios. (Photograph by Claudia Müller-Ebeling)
Straw stars became popular relatively recently. But those possessed by straw-star fever during the 1950s may not have known that the use of the material goes back to ancient field cults and resurrection rituals that utilized straw figures. An example of this was observed by the folklorist K. Ritter von Perger in Schlesien (von Perger 1864, 343). There, a fir tree bound with straw chains was carried around during the so-called todaustragen, the ritual “carrying out of the dead” performed during Lent to protect the living during the coming year.21
Candles made of tallow are presumably of Etruscan or old Italian origin and played a central role in the worship of gods and goddesses as well as in burial rituals. During Saturnalia, candles and clay dolls—“life lights” and “clay men”—were exchanged as presents. The glow of candles symbolizes the return of the sun and the light of life. Christianity took over this custom on dates on which it was practiced in the past, especially February 2, Candlemas—forty days after the birth of the Son of God. “Many know the shining beauty of gold and silver, and the even brighter glitter of gemstones. But nothing compares to the beauty and the brightness of a candle.” The physicist and chemist Michael Faraday (1791–1867) thus summarized the fascination with this form of light in a speech to his pupils entitled “the natural history of the candle” (Riemerschmidt 1962, 20). In addition to good old beeswax candles and products made of paraffin and stearin, another raw material for candles is a wax that comes from trees. Until the end of the fifteenth century, a wax toll was among the taxes paid by the faithful in order to buy the necessary quantity of raw wax for liturgical candles. The successor of the Christmas candle is the electric Christmas bulb—thanks to the invention of light bulbs by the American inventor, Thomas Edison.
Pinecones in the Christmas arrangement.
A Christmas tree candle in the form of Father Christmas. (Photograph by Claudia Müller-Ebeling)
The dried fruits of the Japanese lantern flower (Physalis alkekengi), also known as ground cherry, are used as an ornament for Advent arrangements, wreaths, and dried bouquets. The orange-red “lanterns” are the red berries surrounded by the blown-up, orange-red calyces (the outer portion of the flower). They are also called “devil’s cherries” or “devil’s dolls.” Like tobacco, mandrake, and henbane, this popular garden plant is a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). In the United States, the ground cherry is cometimes called Christmas cherry.
The Golden Apples
… the scaly dragon with its fierce look, the guardian Golden shine of the apples in the Hesperide’s garden That entwine the tree stems with huge rings
LUCRETIUS, ON THE NATURE OF THINGS, V, 32FF
Apples have always played an important role in cultural history. We know them from the Germanic myth of the apples of immortality, wherein the love goddess Freia (=Freya) presents the race of gods with apples. In Wagner’s Rhinegold, the fire god Loge comments: “Old and weak they become, if they happen to miss Freia’s fruits.” Similarly, the Icelandic goddess Idun—whose Icelandic name means “the renewer” or “the rejuvenator”—provides golden apples for the gods to eat so they will not age.
As the fruit of life, apples confer everlasting youth. As a symbol of the sun, they belong to the cult of the sun god Apollo. In Delphi, apples were one of the prizes for winners at the Pythian games. Eve picked the apple as a forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge, and this is why we hear about “love apples” in connection with the Garden of Eden.
No surprise then that baked apples are a traditional Advent-time treat, reminiscent of the apples in St. Nicholas’s sack. Red apple decorations hang on the Christmas tree and appear in gift boxes, baskets, and platters. Even pomanders, the aromatic clove-studded oranges traditionally made and given as Christmas gifts, get their name from pomme, the French word for apple.
The apple fairy might be an ancestor of our Christ child. (Old English Christmas postcard; Apple Fairy illustration by Edmund Dulac)
In Europe, the apple tree (Malus sylvestris P. Mill., Rosaceae) has been part of human culture since the Early Stone Age. In the Holy Land, it did not exist: “Even though there is a widespread belief that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden were apples, they are not called by that name in the story” (Zohary 1986, 70). “It is very strange that, in the midnight hour of Christmas Eve, apple trees are supposed to blossom and bear fruit, just because they played such an important part in the fall of man for our ancestors in paradise” (von Perger 1864, 57).
Flower blossom miracle on the apple tree: In late autumn, the fruit-bearing tree sometimes grows some flowers. This is a good example of a Christmas Eve flower blossom miracle. (Fruit tree, Berne, near Hamburg, Germany, 1999)
Apple rings with chocolate coating on the Christmas tree: sweet, cocoacoated apples of Idun.
Apples are still on every Christmas tree, and the custom of exchanging presents dates far back, to pagan times. The old image of Wotan was an evergreen tree, and even spirit-beings were giving presents on the Holy Night. When Saxo Grammatikus Haddin sat at the table on Christmas Eve, a female Earth-sprite stuck her head out of the ground and gave him a fresh mandrake herb. On Christmas, a poor citizen of Budissin was welcomed by a little man with a big round hat and given apples and nuts that turned into gold [Idun]. On Christmas Eve, bread was shaken from the trees and pretzels were shaken from the bushes … (von Perger 1864, 58).
When it comes to understanding the meaning of religious feasts, we often find that certain customs that at first appear to be exclusively tied to magical beliefs are discovered to actually have origins in observations of nature. For example: “When you tie wet straw bands around the trees on Christmas Eve, they become fertile. This is because these bands keep away the white frost that freezes the blossom [frost giants]” (von Perger 1864, 58).