A grim
denunciation of such decorations and the lights which accompanied them
may be quoted from Tertullian; it makes a pregnant contrast of pagan and
Christian. "Let them," he says of the heathen, "kindle lamps, they who
have no light; let them fix on the doorposts laurels which shall
afterwards be burnt, they for whom fire is close at hand; meet for them
are testimonies of darkness and auguries of punishment. But thou," he
says to the Christian, "art a light of the world and a tree that is ever
green; if thou hast renounced temples, make not a temple of thy own
house-door."{27}
That these New Year practices of the Empire had to do with the
_Weihnachtsbaum_ is very possible, but on the other hand it has closer
parallels in certain folk-customs that in no way suggest Roman or Greek
influence. Not only at Christmas are ceremonial "trees" to be found in
Germany. In the Erzgebirge there is dancing at the summer solstice round
"St. John's tree," a pyramid decked with garlands and flowers, and lit up
at night by candles.{28} At midsummer "in the towns of the Upper Harz
Mountains tall fir-trees, with the bark peeled off their lower trunks,
were set up in open places and decked with flowers and eggs, which were
painted yellow and red.
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