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Show ? Christmas tree is yule symbol rliristmas Tree! Today d it as a central dec" ' "L our season's festiv-- festiv-- ilil'n a focal Point around :? ''ur loved ones gather. 5 Tree just seems as :s ,;;alu-ays belonged to the :;: "' s celebration! Yet we St ,Mt this cheery heart-3; heart-3; :"J has not really been i: so' very long after all. lN CMistma9 Tree origi- in the 16th century Ger-v. Ger-v. ' :li fronl where this beauti- rU.tale of its beginning " Lr wood-cutter, his wife X Z l'ved deep ln the f0r" 1 one stormy Christmas '" ,vhile they were enjoying ;i? "', simple fare, they heard ; . kingat the door. When they opened it th-found th-found a cold and hunv imT boy outside. The fnfy tle comd the tat ered , 7 Wel" shared their frS TS him and their vfm &l With insisted on rivC 6 SOn Hans tothenprufcUhiSo- was" awLrnr' of angeIs and yoimg guest they found hT none other thJS ''Ihave accepted your sin, and here is Mine to y0U" e fromaa lir ff a nom a fir tree and set it in sis? To Martin Luther has been attributed the first putting of lights on the Tree One evenin the ' story g-0es Marfan was inspired by the' td KefleCti0n n the snow! laden branches of a tree Wishing Wish-ing to recreate for his 'family the beauty he had seen, he US ,h0me a sma11 te and affixed lighted candles to the branches. Luther, the custom of the Chnstmas Tree spread more rapidly in Protestant areas but we find it all over Europe by the 1800s. The use of the Christmas iree flrst came to our shores during the American Revolution Revolu-tion with the Germans. Christian tradition has endowed en-dowed the Tree wth rch significance. sig-nificance. It is an evergreen l?i r symbol of eternal life, and the lights are to be reminders that the Babe in the manger is the Light of the world. Today in more than two-thirds two-thirds of U. S. homes, as well as throughout Christendom, the Christmas Tree is a happy part of the Holiday tradition! |