All  

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ Mobile

A woman in a forest holding holly. Credit: LoloStock / Adobe Stock

Decking the Halls of History: The Pagan Origins of Christmas Decorations

Print

The idea of hanging up decorations in the middle of winter is older than Christmas itself. Decorations are mentioned in ancient descriptions of the Roman feast of Saturnalia, which is thought to have originated in the 5th century BC.

Some 900 years later, a Christian bishop in Turkey wrote disapprovingly about members of his congregation who were drinking, feasting, dancing and “crowning their doors” with decorations in a pagan fashion at this time of year.

The 6th-century Pope Gregory the Great took a different line. The Venerable Bede, an English monk, records that English pagans had celebrated the start of their year at the winter solstice and called it “the night of the mothers”.

Gregory recommended that these celebrations should be reinvented rather than banned. So the construction of green boughs and natural adornments was instead focused on churches – using plants that have retained their festive significance to this day.

Nature, of course, has a role to play. In countries like the UK, midwinter greenery is limited. The leaves that are available – holly, ivy and mistletoe – became obvious choices for decorations. Mistletoe had long been revered by druids, while holly and ivy were celebrated in English songs at least from the 15th century.

Holly, ivy and mistletoe have been used for thousands of years as decorative greenery during festivities. Credit: alterimago / Adobe Stock

Holly, ivy and mistletoe have been used for thousands of years as decorative greenery during festivities. Credit: alterimago / Adobe Stock

King Henry VIII composed one which begins: “Green groweth the holly, So doth the ivy, Though winter blasts blow never so high, Green groweth the holly.” (I have modernised the spelling, but it was never very catchy.)

Greenery was cheap and perhaps for that reason is not mentioned in descriptions of domestic decorations from medieval Europe. Aristocratic households preferred to display their wealth by bringing out their best tapestries, jewels and gold platters.

Wax candles were another form of conspicuous consumption, as well as a nod to religious significance. But descriptions of Christmas festivities well into the 17th century focus on the decoration of the person rather than the house. Strange costumes, masks, role-reversing clothes and face-painting are all repeatedly mentioned.

Christmas masks from Romania. Credit: salajean / Adobe Stock

Christmas masks from Romania. Credit: salajean / Adobe Stock

Early emphasis on domestic decorations does appear in a Christmas song by the English poet and farmer Thomas Tusser, written in 1558. It opens: “Get ivy and hull [holly] woman, deck up thine house.” Clearly, the decoration of family homes was considered to be work for women – and this too has become a persistent tradition.

In the following century, Christmas celebrations became a matter of heated argument between reformers and traditionalists, with the reformers attacking what they saw as pagan revelries.

Creating modern traditions

It was the Industrial Revolution which came much closer to destroying Christmas than the puritans managed, by taking away traditional holidays in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Social reformers responded by energetically reinventing traditions.

The emphasis remained heavily on female responsibility for decorations, however. The British magazine, The Lady, asserted in 1896 that any hostess whose decorations were “meagre” was a disgrace to her family.

What then would be expected by this date? A middle-class woman might have been guided by the song which opens with the celebrated instruction to “Deck the hall[s] with boughs of holly”, published in 1862.

This song is itself a good example of the ongoing recreating of traditions throughout history. The new English lyrics were written to accompany a 16th-century Welsh melody, whose original words made no mention of holly or decorating. The 1862 lyrics were almost immediately updated to remove encouragement of heavy drinking.

Still relatively new in Britain and the US at this time, though rising in popularity, was the German custom of the decorated Christmas tree, which was first recorded in the Rhineland in the 16th century.

Its decorations were mainly candles and small presents, which were often homemade food and sweets. By 1896 the tree might be accompanied by a display of printed Christmas cards bearing images of holly, mistletoe, seasonal food and bells. Newer images included robins and, of course, Father Christmas. Another innovation was the arrival of electric lighting in the 1890s, which made possible the invention of fairy lights.

Arguably, the Industrial Revolution, having failed to destroy Christmas, eventually absorbed and expanded it. Affordable, mass-produced toys, gifts and decorations turned Christmas into the festival we know today and made decorations possible for almost all households, even in big cities where foliage was scarce.

One man who played a major part in creating and spreading affordable versions of decorations was the American entrepreneur and retail mogul, F W Woolworth. His decision to import large quantities of glass baubles and stars, originally produced by family workshops in Germany, did much to spread this new medium.

Alongside these came paper garlands and decorative Christmas stockings, as well as painted tin toys. Another idea which started in Germany was tinsel. This was originally fine, sparkling strips of silver, but was later mass produced – first in cheaper metals, and then plastic.

Today, of course, plastic is widely out of favour. As a result, perhaps we will see further reinvention of our Christmas decorations and traditions – which, from a historical perspective, is a tradition in itself.

Top image: A woman in a forest holding holly. Credit: LoloStock / Adobe Stock

The article ‘Decking the halls of history: the origins of Christmas decorations’ by Anne Lawrence-Mathers was originally published on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.

 

Comments

Hi All,

I first heard of this historical Footnote in Religious History on PBS. They covered a variety of topics such as the decorating of the trees, exchanging of gift giving, and lastly The Real St. Claus, St. Nick.

I think I'm not sure but, I thought it was a panel of scholars who studied The Christmas Holiday Academically bear in mine I might have been somewhere 10 or 11 year's old.

What the panel had to say was quite eye opening, I remember when the program had ended my mother informing me that was the reason why Old School Adventist did not observe The Christmas Holiday as well.

in my youth I remember sharing classrooms with children whose families were Jehovah Witnesses. Because my classmates were curious we asked of the Jehovah Witnesses why they didn't observe Christmas?

That was their answer The Festival of Saturn and the decking the Halls to celebrate Saturnil to kick off the celebration in Ancient Rome.

That reminds me speaking of Ancient World celebrations to particular deities how many Sun Deities are there in The Ancient World?

Like in the case of Ra the Sun-god of Egypt or was their more than one in Egypt like that of Greece & Rome?

This is all I have on the Topic Decking the Halls of History besides my mild curiosity about the sun-gods.

There is one more thing that I would like to share about the Decking the Halls; the ongoing debate of when Jesus was born. It's probably due to the fact December 25th, was a Sacred holiday dedicated to a pagan style of worship (an as I understand this worship has never really gone away).

I feel the way the Church thinks is that this has been going on for so long the decking the Halls and decorating the Christmas Trees in Church as observance of Christmas, why stop now.

So far I am only aware of three church faiths make that two Church faiths that do not observe Christmas like above mentioned Jehovah Witnesses and The Puritans.

Alright, everyone, Goodbye!

ancient-origins's picture

Ancient-Origins

This is the Ancient Origins team, and here is our mission: “To inspire open-minded learning about our past for the betterment of our future through the sharing of research, education, and knowledge”.

At Ancient Origins we believe that one of... Read More

Next article