The history of decorating the New Year tree
Customs and traditions are the spiritual basis of anynation and any state. Throw tomatoes into each other, roll from the mountain and catch up with cheese circles or arrange colorful carnivals - the destiny of individual countries. To decorate a New Year tree is loved and skillful all over the world.
Where did this strange internationalist come from?a ritual that turns Christmas (Catholic on par with the Orthodox) and a New Year's Eve party in a merry gathering under a fluffy tree, as well as fir, pine and other prickly trees? When the holiday came to us an elegant Christmas tree, which was born in the forest, there it grew, but was reduced by a peasant?
If you look into the pagan past of manypeoples, not necessarily Slavic, then in their historical chronicles there must be a cult of trees worship. The ancient natural idols of each nation had their own, and the gods, who were coaxed, decorated with ribbons, fruits and various shiny objects of oaks and palms, were also called in different ways. But the memory of ancestors is a great thing. When the Christian church in the middle of the 16th century allowed its flock to return some forgotten rites to the celebration of Christmas, many northern nations, which already called themselves Germans, Danes and Dutch, returned to their homes the old symbol - fir. Why her?
First, there were a lot of Christmas trees in Europe then. Secondly, it is this tree of the northern peoples that symbolized longevity, immortality, courage, eternal life, while remaining evergreen. Trees even began to be consecrated in the church before decorating them for the holiday, decorate with candles and put on the crown the personification of the sun.
The arrival of the New Year tree in Russia
Restless Tsar Peter I brought from his Greatembassy campaign in 1697 in Europe, not only the drawings of ships and patterns of new camisoles, but a bunch of foreign guest workers, and they, in turn, their ceremonies meeting not only the Catholic Christmas, but also their New Year. Probably, it was very fun, since the future Emperor of all Rus decided to change the calendar and transfer the New Year to January 1.
As was the case in those blessed times,everything was done according to the decree of the tsar, which was called: "On the celebration of the new year". And for especially dull representatives of noble, spiritual and secular estates it was registered: decorate houses at the holiday with pine and juniper trees or, at least, branches. Not yet a Christmas tree with toys, but already something. Alas, German traditions on Russian soil did not take root. Fashion for decorating New Year trees, if you exclude the imperial gatherings of the beginning of the XIX century, appeared almost 150 years later.
Historical landmarks here are different, but forthe starting point can be taken in the 1840s. It was then that in many aristocratic houses of the capital (St. Petersburg) there appeared the first fluffy forest beauties dressed in modern understanding. The first public Christmas tree with all the pre-Christmas and New Year's attributes was installed in 1852 in the building of a brand new Ekatirinhofsky railway station. Note that Christmas and New Year, however, with a shift of 11 days to other Europe, even then merged into one holiday.
The Soviet New Year tree
After October 25, 1917, Russia was not up toNew Year's holidays. What kind of decorated Christmas trees, firewood would have to get hold of. Moreover, the calendar was removed and announced that on January 31, 1918, it will now be counted on February 14. Then anyone will go to the roof. Orthodox Christmas on the old church calendars was after the New Year, and the people were confused.
The custom to decorate a Christmas tree, like everyone elseother religious rites, was recognized as opium for the people and eliminated. It's good that not for long. In December 1935, a well-established ideological machine of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) Issued a grandiose idea: Christmas trees for children to be. In the scale of the country, at the family level, Father Frost (former Nicholas-sycophant) amnestied and sent to work.
It should be said that in the USSR, even if by the lips of Comrade. Postysheva, some idea was expressed, it acquired not only real outlines, but also a grandiose scope. The New Year tree was returned to Soviet people with a big makeweight in the form of sweeping entertainment performances, a whole mountain of New Year's toys and even one day off. By the end of the 70s, the ritual of celebrating the New Year and decorating the Christmas tree became so common that children of this generation did not even have doubts that it could be somehow different.
For the green forest guests were lined uphuge queues, in which citizens were idle for hours, sometimes at night, replacing each other. The extraction of the Christmas tree for the holiday became an indicator of the success of the father of the family. Christmas ornaments were accumulated, passed down from generation to generation, and this was a certain life stability.
The life of ordinary Russians in the third millennium,of course, changed the most dramatically. But, thank God, we managed to keep at least one tradition. When a whole family gathers at a table at a luxuriously dressed New Year tree under the battle of chimes, is not this happiness? And under the tree you can find gifts!
Author: Katerina Sergeenko
