Translated by Pietro Patrizi
In Casentino, the valley of inspiration for the writer Emma Perodi's masterpiece, 150 hectares of land are used for the Christmas tree's cultivation. Over a million seedlings of spruce (Picea abiens) but also of white firor of the more expensive Nordmannorsilver firs, are grown on marginal mid-hill and mountain land otherwise destined for abandonment with consequent hydrogeological degradation. It is one of the most important productions on a national level.
CANC (Consortium for the enhancement of the Casentino Christmas tree) was set up in 1998 to protect the product from misinformation and spread the culture of a tree grown in respect of the environment. Every year, during the Christmas period, the voice of the uninformed or overly informed is constantly renewed, accusing the producers of being the "environmental robbers", that is, of taking what they market directly in the forests, thus impoverishing them, but perhaps there is also the hand of those who are too informed and care for different interests; in any case there are many voices that often share in the cry of pain for the plundered forests without considering that the Christmas tree is cultivated and indeed, keeps alive an environmental balance made of geological stability, flora and fauna.
The Consortium has set itself the mission of protecting the work of its members, developing the consumer's awareness of the real Christmas tree which is much more ecological than other types, spreading its origin and cultivation techniques, through the knowledge of its own brand name.
The tradition of the Christmas tree
It seems that the tradition of the Christmas tree was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1441, when a large fir tree was erected in the Town Hall Square, around which young bachelors, men and women, danced together in search of a soul mate. This custom was then revived in Germany: a chronicle of Bremen from 1570 tells of a tree that was decorated with apples, nuts, dates and paper flowers.
The city of Riga (Latvia) is among those that proclaim themselves to be the site of the first Christmas tree: there is in fact a plaque written in eight languages which recalls how the "first New Year tree" was decorated in this city in 1510.
A chronicle from Strasbourg in 1605 tells that: "For Christmas the citizens bring fir trees ('Dannenbaumen') into the house, put them in the rooms, decorate them with paper roses of various colors, apples, sugar and similar objects".
The idea of the fir, an evergreen plant, as a representation of eternal life, comes from the pagan world and Christianity made it the symbol of Christ himself as its triangular shape would represent the Holy Trinity.
Originally the Church forbade its use, replacing it with holly which with its thorny leaves symbolized the crown placed on Jesus' head and the drops of blood with its red berries. The tradition of the Christmas tree is lost in Nordic culture, between Germany and the Scandinavian countries, developing around the symbolism of the Cosmic Tree of the Celts and the Germanic peoples.
By its nature, the tree, as a living being, regenerates, transforms itself, and is therefore seen as the symbol of life, showing beauty, tenacity and resistance to adversity: as such it becomes a sacred element for many cultures and many peoples.
The Vikings, who lived in the far north of Europe where the sun disappears for weeks, performed solemn rites to wish for the return of light. They believed that the fir, which did not lose its leaves even during the freezing winter, had magical powers. They decorated their homes with spruce branches to which they added fruit.
Thespruce(Picea Abies) was a sacred tree and considered propitiatory and an instrument of communication between heaven and earth, it symbolized rebirth and immortality. The ancestor of the Christmas fir was the solstitial fir, it was decorated with representations of the sun and with fruits, it was a symbol linked to fertility and abundance. Among its branches housed squirrels, birds, fairies and goblins.
But the elegant holly too had a profound meaning linked to immortality for the Nordic peoples. The evergreen tree culture was also present in the Greco-Roman environment. For the Greeks, the silver fir was the symbol of the goddess Artemis, protector of births. The tree was also sacred to Poseidon, god of the sea, because the masts of ships were made from its trunk.
Christianity transformed the pagan cult of the tree by superimposing it with a new meaning. Just as the winter solstice was Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, so the day of Jesus' birth was the moment of rebirth of humanity. In this new cultural climate, the same evergreen tree, an icon of immortality, became the tree of Christ's birth, a symbol of salvation and redemption.
In the Middle Ages, trees had a public value and were placed in the squares to celebrate the beginning of the new year. Another feature that developed over time was the presence of lights, initially candles placed on the branches, symbolizing the victory of light over darkness.
Only in the seventeenth century, mainly in Germany, did the fir tree pass from the squares to the houses, enriching itself with other ornaments such as paper roses, metal foils and sweets.
The Strasbourg chronicle noted in 1605: "For Christmas the citizens bring fir trees into their homes, put them in their rooms, decorate them with paper roses of various colors, apples, sugar and similar objects". A tree lit with candles in Hanover is documented in 1662.
In 1816 the first Christmas tree appears in Vienna and in 1840 in Paris; also in 1840 in London, thanks to Prince Albert of Saxony, Queen Victoria's wife who introduced this tradition to the Anglo-Saxon world. The Christmas tree arrives in Italy in the second half of the nineteenth century. Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of Umberto I, had one set up in the Quirinale Hall.
In the early twentieth century Christmas trees have a moment of great diffusion, becoming inevitable in the homes of European and North American citizens. The tradition of the Christmas tree in St. Peter's Square began in 1982 at the behest of John Paul II, who that year had received a fir tree as a gift from a Polish farmer who had brought it as a gift to Rome. Since then it has been a tradition that every year every European region donates a gigantic fir tree from its own forests to be hoisted in the center of the square, next to the nativity scene also offered every year from a different location in the world. With reference to this custom, now also acquired by some Christian families, of decorating a tree during the Christmas period, the Congregation for worship specifies: "Regardless of its historical origins, the Christmas tree is today a strongly evocative symbol, very widespread in Christian circles; it evokes both the tree of life, planted in the center of Eden, and the tree of the cross and therefore assumes a Christological meaning. "Gifts" can be added under the tree; however, among the gifts places must not be lacking for the poor: they are part of every Christian family."
The tradition of the Christmas tree in literature and art
Goethe describes the appearance of the Christmas tree in the episode of The Sorrows of Young Werther set in the Christmas period, describing the meeting between Werther and Lotte: “She was busy tidying up the toys she had given her siblings as Christmas gifts. He (Werther) spoke of the pleasure that children would have, and of the times when, at the unexpected opening of a door that allowed the tree adorned with lights, sweets and apples to appear, he was pervaded by the joy of paradise ".
Charles Dickens, author of the "Christmas Carol", also wrote a story dedicated to this Christmas symbol: "A Christmas tree" (1850) The author describes the joyful atmosphere of "a cheerful brigade of children gathered around that nice German toy”. The author writes again: "the tree was planted in the center of a large round table and towered high above their heads. It was lit by a great number of candles, and glittering objects glittered and winked everywhere. There were dolls with pink cheeks hidden among the green foliage, there were real clocks (...) hanging from countless twigs ".
Alexandre Dumas in “The Story of a Nutcracker”, which later inspired the composer Tchaikovsky, begins his story starting from a Christmas tree. “It rose splendid and loaded in the middle of the table covered with white and from its branches hung balls full of reflections and colored and small flowers of cotton candy that had corollas of very sweet sugared almonds and almond fruit; among the branches, the thousand candles, let a suggestive light filter through, which broke the half-light unexpectedly, as do the games for the illuminations for the great solemnities. (...) Precise and silent, from a branch of the Christmas tree, a serious and extravagant little man. It seemed that she had waited for that moment with docility and security: and Maria, in fact, absorbed it all with her eyes, enraptured by this discovery.”
Here are some verses of the poem by Nobel Prize winner Thomas Eliot in "The cultivation of Christmas trees"
There are several attitudes towards Christmas,
Some of which we may disregard:
The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,
The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),
And the childish - which is not that of the child
For whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel
Spreading its wings at the summit of the tree
Is not only a decoration, but an angel.
(...)
In the contemporary Harry Pottersaga, J.K. Rowling describes the wonderful Christmas decorations at Hogwarts Castle: “The great hall was a splendor. Not only was it decorated with a dozen Christmas trees covered with ice and with large festoons of Holly and Mistletoe that went from one side of the ceiling to the other, but magical snow, warm and dry, was also falling from above. "
The Christmas Tree, 1916, is a painting that the German painter Henry Mosler (1841 -1920) born in Tropplowitz, Silesia, (now Opawica in Poland) created to celebrate the symbolic tree of Christmas. At the age of eight, Henry moved with his family to New York and then to Cincinnati. He later returned to Europe studying painting in both Dusseldorf and Paris. Returning to America and specializing in painting genre scenes, he documented American life. His is the typical story of the American expatriate academic artist and painter, who sought training and career in European art centers such as Dusseldorf where he attended the Royal Academy.
Mosler returned to New York in 1894, playing an active and traditionalist role in American art, a society in which the tradition of the Christmas tree was deeply felt. The painter, in the canvas he painted in 1916, manages to capture all the amazement of the two brothers who stealthily admire the tree decorated with lighted candles under which they see the toys brought as a gift by Santa Claus. It is a family scene in which one captures all the typical curiosity of children towards a magical event such as that of Christmas day.
The atmosphere suggests that the scene takes place on the night of Christmas Eve when the expectation of gifts causes insomnia in children. The painter lingers on the lights of the candles whose reverberation reaches the bedroom and whose splendor is highlighted by the contrast with the shadow of the arm resting on the ground of the child who is kneeling while the little sister is caught in the act of opening a door. The intimate and domestic tone of the scene evokes memories of an experience linked to the impatience generated by the expectation of such an important event as Christmas.
The literary reference to Goethe’s work seems perfect where the author describes the feelings and memories of the young Werther who "spoke of the pleasure that children would have, and of the times when, unexpectedly opening a door that allowed the tree adorned with lights, sweets and apples, he was pervaded by the joy of Paradise”.
We wish a Merry Christmas to young and old with the verses that Dino Buzzati dedicated to this holiday
But what if he really came?
If the prayer, the letter, the desire
expressed like this, mostly for fun
was taken seriously?
If the realm of fairy tale and mystery
would come true? If by the fire
the gifts were found in the morning
the doll the revolver the train
the cat the teddy bear the lion
that none of you bought?
If your beautiful certainty
in science and in the goddess of reason
went to cards forty-eight?
With unforgivable lightness
maybe we trusted too much.
What if he comes seriously?
Silence! O Baby Jesus
please walk slowly
in crossing the living room.
Woe to you if you wake up the boys
what a disaster it would be for us
so educated so smart
patented disbelievers
we who believe in who knows what
with our atoms with our rockets.
Take it easy, Child, if you can.
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