What is one thing that is very often during Christmas? Decorations! Have you ever wondered how things have come to be Christmas decorations? Well I am writing this to explain to you how decorations got started and what they symbolize.
Well, let’s start with the Christmas trees. In many countries, it was thought that evergreen trees would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illnesses away. In the Northern Hemisphere, it was believed that on the Winter solstice, the sun god got very ill and weak and that the moon god took over. For this reason, they put trees up to represent when the sun is at it’s finest(or in the summer) and all the trees would sprout.The Ancient Egyptians believed something very similar. They believed in a sun god called Ra, and during the summer solstice when he was ill, they thought that it would make him feel better if they covered their homes with trees. You might wonder how this relates to Christmas, and the truth is, it doesn’t. People think it was originally meant for Christmas, but it’s not. The reason why people thought it was for Christmas was because people didn’t take the tree away until January. That’s why they thought it was for Christmas.
Now it’s time to talk about the mistletoe! Mistletoe is a plant that grows on willow and apple trees around the globe. If you want to know exactly where it came from, you have to go back all the way to the times of the ancient Druids. People hung them because they thought a sprig had mystical powers, like bringing good luck to the house and keeping away evil spirits. It was also used as a sign of love and friendship in Norse mythology, which is where kissing under the mistletoe comes in.
We are now going to go into a little more detail. The traditional colors of Christmas are gold, red, and green. There was actually 5 colors, not 3, and the missing ones are white and blue. Green came from the decorations, that mostly green. So, when you think of green during Christmas, you think of Christmas trees and mistletoe. Okay, now comes in red. Red is important because it’s the color of the holy berries that are used to represent God’s blood. Also, it was what St. Nicholas wore, and Santa Clause’s suit. Gold is also an important color because it symbolizes the warmth of the fire and of sunlight, which is very important during the ‘dark times.’ White is a Christmas color because white is for SNOW! Okay, last but not least, blue. Blue is one of the colors because it represents the sky, and or Heaven. It is also important because in medieval times, it was considered a color of royalty, and on most drawings of Mary, she is in blue to show her significance.
Now, you know how Christmas decorations came to be!
