The Advent Wreath and the Christmas Tree
The Advent Wreath
The origins of the Advent wreath are found in the folk practices of the pre-Christina Germanic people who, during the cold December darkness of Eastern Europe, gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires as signs of hope in the coming spring and renewed light. Christians kept these popular traditions alive, and by the 16th century Catholics and Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their Advent hope in Christ, the everlasting Light. From Germany, the use of the Advent wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world.
Traditionally, the wreath is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens. Three candles are violet and the fourth is rose, but four white or four violet candles can also be used. Each day at home, the candles are lighted, perhaps before the evening meal – one candle the first week and then another each succeeding week until December 25th. A short prayer may accompany the lighting.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree probably originated from popular early medieval religious plays, "the Paradise Plays," performed in churches and town squares of Europe during the Advent season. The plays told the story of the human race from the creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise till the Birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. On stage during the play was a great tree hung with apples, symbolizing the Garden of Paradise. Soon people began the custom of putting a "paradise tree" laden with gifts and lighted with candles in their homes during the Christmas season to celebrate paradise regained through the coming of Christ.
Representing many things – the original tree of paradise, the life-giving tree of Christmas cross, the tree John the Apostle saw in the Book of Revelations, "a tree of life, which yields twelve crops of fruit, one for each month of the year…for the healing of the nations" – our Christmas tree is rich in Christian symbolism.