In the last days of December, people are rushing to prepare for the most important holiday, but not everyone knows why they decorate the Christmas tree for the New Year. It is believed that this tradition was borrowed by Europeans and Anglo-Saxons from the Germans. The explanation for decorating a spruce and not another tree has its roots in Christmas Eve 1513, when the outstanding German reformer Martin Luther decided to decorate the spruce with a five-pointed star as a reminder of the star of Bethlehem, which showed the way to the cradle of Jesus.
Where did the tradition of decorating a spruce come from?
Many children and their parents do not know why they decorate the Christmas tree for the New Year. As one of the ancient legends says, the origin of this tradition is connected with the birth of Christ. Not only animals and people, but also various plants and trees gathered to greet the Messiah. They all brought gifts to the newborn Jesus in the form of flowers and fruits emitting delicious smells. The tree came from the cold northern regions and stood modestly aside while congratulating the other guests.
Everyone present had a question why the tree did not want to approach the baby. The tree replied that, firstly, it could not give the future Savior anything useful, and secondly, its sharp needles could scratch the newborn Jesus. Then all the trees and plants shared their fruits, bright flowers and nuts with the spruce. At the sight of the elegant and positive Christmas tree, the baby’s face lit up with a smile, and at the same moment, the star of Bethlehem shone above the top of the decorated tree.
There is another version of this legend. She claims that the rough Olive tree, together with the Palm tree, blocked the spruce's path to the Savior, ridiculing its ridiculous appearance, sharp needles and sticky resin. The modest tree had no objections, but it became sad and did not dare cross the threshold of the cave. Seeing the sadness of the evergreen tree, the angels took pity on it and decided to decorate its branches with stars from the sky. Having appreciated its unique outfit, the tree cast aside all doubts and dared to appear before the eyes of the baby Jesus.
Spirits of the forest
According to many famous researchers, the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree for the New Year is closely related to the belief of our ancestors in the supernatural forces of nature and that all plants have their own intelligence. They believed that the spirits living in the forest could easily destroy a person they didn’t like. They pointed other travelers with certain merits to the treasure and helped them find a way out of the dense thicket.
In the old days, they believed that decorating a Christmas tree appeased the spirits of the forest, since this tree has long been revered as a symbol of life. There were special rituals for decorating it with various treats and fruits.
About the New Year's tree in Russia
Speaking about why they decorate a Christmas tree for the New Year, it is worth taking a historical excursion into the southern German traditions that existed long before the Russians. The first Christmas tree in Russia was installed and decorated on the eve of the New Year 1700 by special order of Peter the Great. The Emperor ordered that signal lights be set off and fireworks lit, and that the center of the capital be decorated with branches of juniper, pine and spruce.
After the revolutionary coup in 1917, the Bolsheviks attempted to eliminate the New Year celebration as a bourgeois tradition. However, the masses managed to fall in love with this solemn event, and in the mid-30s the authorities brought it back.
The beginning of a great rehabilitation was a small article in Pravda (the main printed publication of the Communist Party of the USSR).
Features of the New Year's tree as a talisman
For the New Year, they decorate the Christmas tree because on the eve of the holiday, evil spirits descend on the earth to mock people and inflict all sorts of mean things on them. The creatures of evil can spoil the festive table, steal some useful little things and bring chaos to the process of preparing for the celebration.
To ward off unholy “guests,” it was customary to decorate the house with objects that scared them away and did not allow them to cross the threshold of the home. Speaking about why the Christmas tree is decorated for the New Year, it is worth noting that Christmas tree decorations in combination with sparkles and tinsel performed not only an aesthetic, but also an applied function, keeping evil spirits from entering the house.
On the eve of the New Year, millions of Christmas tree markets open all over the world. It’s hard to imagine how many firs and pines are cut down every year!
No one dares to give a figure or estimate the volume of trade, because in every settlement, for the sake of a few days of holidays, irreparable damage is caused to nature. Let's think about whether there are reasons to refuse to buy a “live” Christmas tree for the New Year:
Reason #1. Historical
The New Year tree is the tree of death. It is believed that decorating a dead Christmas tree is an old Russian tradition. In fact, the New Year tree is of German origin and appeared on Russian soil recently.
In Rus', the New Year was celebrated in the spring, on the day of the vernal equinox - the beginning of the rebirth of Nature. The New Year's tree was a birch (the tree of life, love and prosperity). The birch tree is the first to bloom in the spring, and is considered the center of life-giving forces, scares away evil and brings health. After the baptism of Rus', the New Year began to be counted on March 1 according to the Julian calendar.
In the era of Peter the Great, the basis for holidays was not Nature or “holy scripture,” but the traditions of the West. Therefore, in 1699, Peter 1 replaced the Russian calendar with the Julian calendar, and ordered to celebrate the New Year as in Europe - on January 1. The spruce becomes the New Year's tree. Peter adopted this innovation from Protestant Germany. Severely and for a long time he implanted a new tradition (Christmas tree), since among the Slavs the spruce is the tree of death, and funeral rituals are associated with it.
Indeed, spruce was traditionally considered by the Russians to be the tree of death, of which a lot of evidence has been preserved. There was a custom: people who hanged themselves and, in general, suicides were buried between two trees, turning them on their faces. In some places, it was common to prohibit planting spruce near the house for fear of the death of a male family member.
It was forbidden to build houses from spruce, as well as from aspen. Fir branches were and are still widely used during funerals. They are placed on the floor in the room where the deceased lies (remember from Pushkin in “The Queen of Spades”: “...Hermann decided to approach the coffin. He bowed to the ground and lay for several minutes on the cold floor strewn with spruce trees”).
Fir branches line the path of the funeral procession:
The spruce forest was poured along the road this morning.
That's right, someone is being taken to rest!
The mortal symbolism of the spruce is also reflected in proverbs, sayings, and phraseological units: “looking under the tree” means getting seriously ill; “fall under the tree” - die; “spruce village”, “spruce house” - coffin; “to go or stroll along the spruce path” - to die, etc.
According to Peter's decree, everyone had to decorate with whole coniferous trees or branches - gates, streets, roads, roofs of taverns, but those who did not have the means for this were obliged to at least break off a branch and hang it on the door / gate at the entrance to the house. (In Western civilization, as we see, this branch also remained). Thus, the Christmas tree became the main detail of the New Year's city landscape.
Reason #2. Ecological
It will take at least 10 years to grow a beautiful New Year's spruce. And then, we are talking about a medium-sized tree, no more than one and a half meters high. Spruce grows slowly - after planting, the growth rate is only 3-4 cm per year. Subsequently, the speed increases to 10-20 cm, with a life expectancy of about 250 years.
Everyone can count: how many years has he been putting up a Christmas tree at home? Many will end up with... a whole park of cut down and destroyed trees. Also, everyone can count: how many trees has he planted in his life? For many it will turn out that - not a single one! Evergreen conifers are not some kind of weed, but a valuable species of tree. And New Year’s, stupid and merciless, deforestation brings great harm to the country: this means gratuitous loss of forest resources and harm to the environment.
Reason #3. Energy
This custom was clearly invented by the forces of destruction. By cutting down a tree just on the days when a new energy round is growing and “waking up” (at the winter solstice), people thereby “cut down” these energies, become destroyers of the Universe, because the tree has universal capabilities, and thereby destroy themselves, their families .
Can walking near a dead tree bring happiness to your home?
Think about it, this living creature could live, enjoy the sun, bring benefit to the world around us, including us (we all breathe oxygen). But for our one-day whim, it had to die. Doesn’t all this remind you of the rituals of black magic, where “songs and dances” are also performed around a dying living creature...
It is also necessary to “Celebrate” at night - this is the wildest game. I understand: the holiday has gone on for a long time - it’s fun and joyful, you can walk for at least several days... But what’s the point of waiting until late at night, when everyone is already tired of preparations, etc. It is obvious that you need to celebrate either at sunrise or in the morning or during the day... when there is a lot of strength, joy, positivity... This also indicates the black magic of the ritual...
A felled Spruce lives for a week or more, deprived of root nourishment, it draws energy on the subtle plane, drawing vital juices from the surrounding space.
It reeks of fear, death, pain, torment - Spruce was obviously chosen deliberately, it is perfect for a psi generator (it has needles that, when alive, have a very beneficial effect on the air (remember sanatoriums in coniferous groves, etc.).
It is obvious that the dying Spruce adjusts the space differently, in a negative way, and each tip of the needle becomes an outlet for her fears, pain, torment and permeates, pierces the space around.
We must get rid of the age-old tradition of carrying a cut down Christmas tree into the house and decorating it, as this is unworthy of a civilized person. A dead spruce cannot be a symbol of the holiday!
Decorating a felled fir tree is like decorating a dead person. Spruce is a living organism; its destruction, like any tree, violates the stability of the entire ecological system.
Reason #4. Ethical
Is it good to cut down a spruce? Or buy cut ones?
If this is done for fun, then it’s not good. After all, there must be a special meaning and resolution in the fact that someone’s life is taken away. To have a fresh spruce smell in the house, there is no need to kill the tree, but just break the branches, after asking its permission.
In addition, the death of trees is a reduction in the biogenic (passed through plants) oxygen that we breathe. So is it worth killing trees that are connected to many other lives?
In order to grow a New Year's beauty - a spruce about one and a half meters high - it takes at least ten years. And its lifespan is about 250 years. Stupid and merciless, New Year's deforestation brings great harm to the country: this means gratuitous loss of forest resources and harm to the environment.
The Christmas tree is the most important attribute of the holiday, without which it is extremely difficult to achieve that very “New Year’s” atmosphere. Since childhood, many of us have had pleasant associations with preparing for the New Year and Christmas, including decorating the New Year's tree! For some it is customary to install a pine tree in the room, for others - a Christmas tree, for others they make do with other trees, but the fact remains - without the sparkling lights of the main New Year's attribute, the celebration seems to pass by!
True, after the holidays the tree needs to go somewhere, and the main question is when to remove the Christmas tree? Where is a secondary question, but it is also relevant. The solution is simple: in Moscow, for example, there are many points that accept fir trees and pine trees. But we will definitely tell you exactly what day to throw away the Christmas tree, so as not to invite some kind of trouble upon yourself, and how to do it correctly according to folk superstitions.
When is the best time to throw away your Christmas tree after the New Year holidays?
Every year, after long holidays, many are puzzled by the question of where to throw away the New Year tree or pine tree. If you have an artificial tree, which is now in high esteem, as it preserves the “natural fund”, then you don’t need to worry - you just need to remove the toys from it and pack it back into a bag or box.
There is no need to choose a special day for this, but a “natural” Christmas tree is a completely different matter. A New Year's tree always implies some kind of special “holiday spirit”, magic if you like, because there are folk signs that are directly related to when it is better to throw away the tree.
According to popular belief, it is best to throw away a pine or Christmas tree before January 19, the holiday of Epiphany. However, recently, Russia has been celebrating the Chinese New Year, which falls on January 25 in 2020. Feng Shui traditions mean that the tree should still be standing when the “real” Year of the Rat arrives according to the Eastern calendar.
However, it turns out that the New Year's tree must stand for a whole month, and it may crumble. Thus, you can throw away your Christmas tree “properly” - before January 19, and celebrate the Chinese New Year by decorating a tall green flower.
How to properly throw away a Christmas tree
Of course, Russia has its own “traditions” of throwing away the main New Year’s attribute. For example, instead of taking the tree to a special collection point, it is simply thrown from a balcony or window. According to signs, this cannot be done, because in this way you can throw out of the house everything good that was supposed to happen in 2020.
The best thing to do is to do this: lay some newspapers or old wallpaper under the tree, and then remove the toys. Even if the needles fall off, they will not remain on the floor. After this, the tree is wrapped in a large bag and taken out. You can take it to a special Christmas tree collection point or to a special wood processing plant.
Signs and beliefs about the New Year tree
There is a wonderful sign for those who regret broken Christmas tree decorations. When you decorate a Christmas tree or pine tree, the toy falls and breaks, then this is fortunate. The main thing is to say it out loud in time: “For good luck!”
The pieces of the toy must be collected, and at this moment make a cherished wish. It is believed that it will definitely come true in the coming year.
Also, folk signs say that you must thank the Christmas tree for the New Year's mood and happiness that it brought to the house. Don’t forget to ask the tree to “take away” all the misfortunes with you, leaving you only the good.
Video
1700
Tsar Christmas tree
We borrowed the custom of putting up a Christmas tree for the New Year from Western Europe. This fact is considered a textbook truth. But with the author of the tradition, everything is not so simple.
There is a historical stereotype: Peter I, introducing a new calendar, due to which January 1 was not 7208, but 1700, at the same time decided to adequately celebrate the reform.
The most quoted historical document on New Year’s Eve is Peter’s decree: “On large and well-traveled streets, for noble people and at houses of special spiritual and worldly rank, make some decorations from trees and branches of pine and juniper in front of the gates, and for poor people, at least a tree or branch for each put a gate or over your temple."
That’s all true, but as we understand it, the merry king did not order the organization of New Year trees. And his “some tree decorations” did not fully correspond to the German Christmas tradition. In addition, the people are accustomed to celebrating the evening of Basil of Caesarea on the night of December 31 to January 1. Other names: “generous” (they walked like on Maslenitsa, even the term appeared: “Caesarean” pig, which was roasted whole), Vasiliev’s evening.
It can be assumed that full-fledged Christmas trees, decorated with sweets and toys, still stood in our capital at that time. But most likely - only in the houses of foreigners living in Moscow, primarily Lutheran Germans, who preserved their customs in a foreign land.
Since 1704, Peter I moved New Year's celebrations to St. Petersburg. There they walked like a king, and attendance at the New Year's masquerade balls of nobles was mandatory.
After the death of Peter, the custom began to die. There were no special persecutions against Christmas trees. The problem was that Peter’s idea did not take root very well among the people. During the period of Peter the Great's reign it was purely urban fun. They completely forgot to explain to the village why they need to hang apples and gingerbread on the Christmas trees.
Moreover, not the whole country immediately switched to the Peter the Great calendar. Since ancient times, the people of Rus' have celebrated the onset of the New Year on March 1st. And this continued until the end of the 15th century. In 1492, the Russian Orthodox Church decided to move the New Year to September 1.
To put it mildly, we had time to get used to it. And foundations are always difficult to break.
For example, in the Arkhangelsk province the New Year is still celebrated three times. The first two (new and old styles) are with the whole country, and on September 14 the Pomeranian New Year is also celebrated.
In addition, in Rus', spruce branches were often used to cover the path along which the deceased was carried to the graveyard. Therefore, the peasants somehow did not associate the Christmas tree with fun and celebration.
Finally, the Orthodox Church had little desire to promote Lutheran customs to the masses. Perhaps, only those who would now be called restaurateurs most steadfastly kept Peter’s covenants. The roofs of many taverns in Rus' were decorated with Christmas trees. By the way, after the New Year holidays the food was not removed from them at all. The very expression “going under the Christmas tree” in those days meant going to a drinking establishment.
1819
Second coming
The second “campaign” of the New Year tree against Russia was again undertaken from Germany. But this time - more successful. In 1817, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich married the Prussian princess Charlotte, who was baptized in Orthodoxy under the name Alexandra. The princess convinced the court to accept the custom of decorating the New Year's table with bouquets of fir branches.
In 1819, Nikolai Pavlovich, at the insistence of his wife, first erected a large-sized New Year tree in the Anichkov Palace. In 1825, a public Christmas tree was installed for the first time in St. Petersburg.
In those days there were no toys yet; the Christmas tree was decorated with fruits and sweets. 
“Under the Christmas tree,” which was installed in the capital on December 24, on Christmas Eve, the royal banquet was also held. The archives preserved the menu: soups, pies, beef with seasoning, roast with salad, pickles (the emperor simply adored them), Swedish jellied meat, Welsh rabbit, Norwegian cod, Abbey-style lamprey, ice cream.
The Christmas tree still did not take root in the villages. But the new fashion simply took over the cities, the Christmas tree rush began: expensive Christmas tree decorations were ordered from Europe, and children's New Year's parties were held in rich houses. “Yolka” was no longer called taverns, but a Christmas holiday for children with the distribution of gifts.
Under Alexander III, a new tradition was started: members of the imperial family performed at New Year's "corporate parties." As a rule, the emperor and the grand dukes went to the arena of the cuirassier regiment for the Christmas tree for the lower ranks of His Majesty's own convoy, the combined guards battalion and the palace police. A fantastic detail: the next day the Christmas tree was repeated for the ranks who were on guard the day before. Agree, there is some kind of simply unrealistic concern for his subjects.
1915
Elka is an enemy of the state
This continued until the First World War, which Russia entered in 1914. An active anti-German campaign began in the country. In the spring of 1915, Nicholas II approved the “Special Committee to unite measures to combat German dominance”; closer to winter, the liquidation of German colonies in the Volga region, southern Ukraine and the Caucasus began, as well as the forced resettlement of colonists to Siberia.
On the eve of 1915, German prisoners of war in the Saratov hospital held a holiday with a traditional Christmas tree. The press called this a “blatant fact”; the journalists were supported by the Holy Synod and Emperor Nicholas II. The tsar called the tradition “enemy” and categorically forbade it to be followed.
Actually, there was something paranoid about this ban. Okay, if only the enemy soldiers were having fun under the tree. But so are ours!
Here are the entries from the diary of Nicholas II: “I went to the military hospital for a Christmas tree for the sick,” “in Alix’s new room there was our own Christmas tree with a lot of wonderful mutual gifts...”.
Or here is the daily routine of Nicholas II on December 31, 1913. At 15 o'clock the tsar went to the military hospital and to the infirmary of the Hussar Regiment for the Christmas tree... At 23 o'clock 30 min. We went to the regimental church for a New Year's prayer service.
Well, what does “enemy tradition” have to do with it?! In principle, in this situation, the tsar was obliged to declare himself an enemy of the Russian people.
1919
Father Frost
without "browning"
After the revolution the ban was lifted. The German proletariat, even under church influence alien to the revolution, by definition could not be considered an enemy of Soviet power. And most importantly, Lenin loved the Christmas tree.
However, there were attempts at tradition in those days too. Even during the life of the leader, many of his comrades, prominent party members, tried to declare the Christmas tree a “bourgeois prejudice.” But they could not do anything with this religious relic. How to prohibit “prejudice” if the leader himself personally arranged a Christmas tree for the children in Sokolniki?
At the same time, he sometimes showed miracles of heroism. On January 6, 1919, when he was driving from the Kremlin to Sokolniki for the first New Year's children's party, the car was stopped by the raiders of the famous Moscow bandit Yakov Koshelkov. They literally threw Ilyich out of the car, put a revolver to his head, rummaged through his pockets, took away his money, documents, and Browning (Lenin’s armed guards and his personal driver did not resist so as not to endanger the life of the leader). Koshelkov did not recognize Lenin, which he later very much regretted: he told his accomplices that if he had taken Lenin hostage, he could have demanded the release of the entire Butyrka in exchange for him. Well, the money is a substantial ransom.
However, he did not regret it for very long; the security officers found and killed all the raiders within a few months. By the way, the Browning was returned to Ilyich. But that's not the point, of course. Lenin, having survived the stress, immediately took a new car and arrived at the children’s Christmas tree. He made jokes, led round dances, treated them to sweets, and gave everyone a gift - a trumpet and a drum. Well, the real Santa Claus.
Even on New Year's Eve 1924, when Ilyich was mortally ill and had three weeks to live, N.K. Krupskaya arranged a traditional Christmas tree. But after the death of the leader, the tree was dealt with. Our great-grandfathers heard the following verses:
Only the one who is a friend of the priests
Ready to celebrate the Christmas tree.
You and I are enemies to the priests,
We don't need Christmas!
Since 1926, decorating a Christmas tree was already considered a crime: the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks called the custom of erecting the so-called Christmas tree anti-Soviet. In 1927, at the XV Party Congress, Stalin announced the weakening of anti-religious work among the population. An anti-religious campaign began. The 1929 party conference abolished the “Christian” Sunday: the country switched to a “six-day week”, and the celebration of Christmas was prohibited.
It is strange that it did not occur to anyone that such formulations actually declared Lenin a malicious anti-Soviet, an obscurantist and simply a criminal.
1935
Hands got used to axes
Why, just eight years later, the authorities suddenly radically changed their attitude towards the Christmas tree is a mystery. It is believed that the rehabilitation of the Christmas tree began with a small note in the newspaper Pravda, published on December 28, 1935. We were talking about the initiative to organize a nice Christmas tree for children for the New Year. The note was signed by the Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Postyshev.
Unexpectedly for everyone, Stalin agreed.
And although there were no uncoordinated initiatives in Pravda, officials were in no hurry to organize Christmas trees. Even when they were allowed, many celebrated the New Year of 1936 without the forest beauty. Just in case, someone took the proposal as a provocation. The rest wisely decided that before chopping wood - in the sense of cutting down Christmas trees - it would be wiser to first monitor the fate of both the initiator of the Christmas tree rehabilitation and the initiative itself.
Fates turned out differently. At the Christmas tree it’s good, at Postyshev’s it’s not so good. At the end of the 30s, he was transferred from Ukraine to the post of 1st Secretary of the Kuibyshev Regional Party Committee. Arriving in the region, he organized an unprecedented campaign of arrests. Personally “exposed” a large number of enemies of the party and the people, sending thousands of people to camps or to be shot. Then he himself was arrested. On February 26, 1939, the military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to death and was executed on the same day. In 1955 he was rehabilitated.
Some historians call Postyshev “the man who returned the Christmas tree to the people.” The thesis is not indisputable.
Nikita Khrushchev will clarify in his memoirs that Postyshev, before writing a note in Pravda, approached Stalin personally with the idea. He reacted somewhat uncharacteristically, and therefore mysteriously. Khrushchev writes that the leader, almost without hesitation, answered Postyshev: “Take the initiative, and we will support.”
Which makes me think. Firstly, Postyshev was, to put it mildly, not a very significant figure in the party hierarchy. Secondly, Stalin never made significant ideological decisions at once. The decision was most likely carefully thought out and prepared. And hardly anyone else except the leader himself.
1937
Star and champagne
Postyshev was still alive when New Year trees began to be lit across the country. The first - in 1937 in Moscow, in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. Instead of the golden star of Bethlehem, a new one appeared - red. The image of Father Frost in a long fur coat, a high round hat and with a staff in his hand was performed by the well-known entertainer Mikhail Garkavi in those years. By the way, the tradition of celebrating the holiday with champagne is also associated with his name. The debut of “Soviet champagne” took place on January 1, 1937, when in the Kremlin, at a festive reception for the Stakhanovites, Garkavi drank a glass of sparkling wine for the first time while the chimes were striking. Let us note that we have only just begun to produce champagne. In 1937, the first 300 thousand bottles were bottled. Not everyone got it for the New Year.
At first, Christmas trees were decorated in the old fashioned way with sweets and fruits. Then toys began to reflect the era. Pioneers with bugles, faces of Politburo members. During the war - pistols, paratroopers, paramedic dogs, Santa Claus with a machine gun. They were replaced by toy cars, airships with the inscription "USSR", snowflakes with a hammer and sickle. Under Khrushchev, toy tractors, ears of corn, and hockey players appeared. Then - cosmonauts, satellites, characters from Russian fairy tales.
The Snow Maiden appeared in the early 1950s. The image of the granddaughter of Santa Claus was invented by Stalin Prize laureates Lev Kassil and Sergei Mikhalkov. From this moment on, the domestic New Year tradition can be considered complete. No fundamental changes in New Year celebrations have been noticed since then. Well, except that instead of a star, various politically neutral peak-shaped tops are increasingly being used. Mostly of Chinese design and manufacture.
The New Year will come in 12 days, and the holiday atmosphere already reigns everywhere: city streets, shops and, of course, the apartments of Vartovo residents. Carved snowflakes, garlands, shiny balls, candles... There are so many decorations! But the main thing remains from year to year - the festive tree. Perhaps everyone associates this tree with the New Year celebration. But we decided to find out why this happened and whether the residents of Nizhnevartovsk know the history of this tradition on the eve of the holiday.
In our survey, on the topic of installing a Christmas tree at home, although only 169 people took part, nevertheless, more than half answered that they had already erected and decorated a coniferous tree at home. Well, or its artificial version. According to the results, residents of Nizhnevartovsk prefer to place non-living Christmas trees at home. There were 105 such people. A total of 23 respondents preferred real spruce. Some decided to limit themselves to spruce branches.
A journalist from the portal NV86.ru also personally interviewed several people about why it is customary to put up and decorate a Christmas tree for the New Year. The answers turned out to be different, but interesting in their own way:
“They probably put it because it is the only tree that remains green all year round”;“I think this is connected with some saints or gods. Maybe to appease them and then everything will be fine in the coming year”;
“New Year is a family holiday. It seems to me that getting a Christmas tree, installing it and decorating it is not a task for just one person. Think for yourself - everyone takes part. As a rule, the father buys and brings a Christmas tree home, the children can make toys with their own hands, and the mother can hang them beautifully. That's the point. Unite, and then enjoy the fruits of your labor”;
“The Christmas tree grows in the forest. There's clean air there. With its needles, the Christmas tree cleanses and even sanctifies the houses and apartments of the people living in them. Moreover, at such a magical time at the turn of the year, when results are summed up and plans for the next year are laid”;
“The tradition of putting up a Christmas tree came from Germany or Norway. Peter the Great brought it to Russia.”
Speaking about how the tradition developed historically, the last option turned out to be the closest. The ancient Germans believed that spirits lived in the branches of trees, and by decorating the tree they tried to appease them. Perhaps for ancient people the branches of coniferous trees symbolized eternal life.
Peter I brought the custom of decorating the spruce to Russia. On the eve of 1700, Peter ordered to celebrate the New Year on January 1 (instead of September 1). At the same time, by decree of Peter I it was ordered: “along the streets... in front of the gates, place some decorations from trees and branches of pine, spruce and juniper... stand for that decoration of January on the first day.”
However, the tradition did not take root and was resumed only in 1818 thanks to Princess Alexandra Feodorovna, the wife of Tsar Nicholas I. Since the late 1840s, Christmas tree markets began to open in Moscow and St. Petersburg every winter, but it cannot be said that since then the tradition has been firmly entrenched. In Soviet times, due to the beginning of the persecution of Orthodoxy, the New Year tree was also banned, as it “reminded” of religion and Christmas.
Then, only in 1935, an article appeared in the Pravda newspaper under the heading “Let's organize a good Christmas tree for the children for the New Year!” Stalin supported the initiative, and the green beauty came out of disgrace and became a symbol of the coming new year.
Today it is difficult to imagine the New Year without a Christmas tree. For most, this is a tradition from childhood, which is thoroughly ingrained in the minds. By the way,
Children
