THE MICHIGAN DAILY
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4,1957
oyland Fascinates Young Visitors
OLD TRADITION:
Christmas Tree Custom
Came from Germany
By JANET SMITH
Oaks, maples, agd elms of Ann
Arbor will soon be rivaled by the
balsam, pine and spruce from the
Upper Peninsula for Christmas
trees are coming to campus!
The exact origin of the Christ-
mas tree is obscure, but folklorists
have offered several explanations.
Some think that it has to do with
the worship or invocation of the
"spirit of vegetation," and relate
it to other ceremonial trees, such'
as the May Pole.
Another story associates it with
St. Boniface, who is said to have.
cut down a sacred oak on Christ-
mas Eve, beneath which human'
sacrifices had been. offered. As it
fell a young fir tree seemed to
appear, unstained with blood. The
saint proposed this tree as a sign
or emblem of the new faith.
Nature Transformation
Others connect the Christmas
tree with an old legend about a
marvelous transformation of na-
ture at the birth of Jesus, when
the rivers flowed with wine and
the trees blossomed in the midst
of ice and snow.
The Christmas tree has come;
to the United States from Ger-
many, although it did not gain
its present popularity until the+
nineteenth century. The German
tree has no decorations hanging+
from its branches. The tree alone
is considered a thing of beauty,
and the Germans attach a reli-
gious feeling to it.
The Christmas tree was intro-
duced m Finland in 1800, in Den-
mark and Norway in 1830, in
France in 1840, in England in the
1840's, and in Sweden in 1863.
First Account
The first historical account of
the Christmas tree is found in the
notes of a Strasburg citizen, writ-
ten in 1605, who said, "At Christ-
mas, they set up fir trees in the
parlours at Strasburg and hang
thereon roses cut out of many
colored paper, apples, wafers, gold
foil, and sweets."
So, from Strasburg to Ann Ar-
bor, the Christmas tree comes to
a college campus. University resi-
dence halls , will receive their
trees through the Residence Halls
Office.
Sorority or fraternity houses
will get their trees from the Inter-
Fraternity Council.
Distributes 87 Trees
Dorm residents from the Upper
Peninsula will have a part of
home placed right in the middle
of their lounge or dining room.
The Residence Halls Office will
distribute 87 Scotch and red pines
that were grown about 350 miles
from Ann Arbor, about 40 or 50
miles beyond the Straits of Mack-
inac.
Leonard A. Schaadt, business
manager of the Residence Halls,
said that there was a greater va-
riety of trees in previous years
with balsam and spruce having
been added to the list. These
trees, however, often were cut too
soon and were not fresh.
This year the trees will be cut
and brought to Ann Arbor imme-
diately afterwards, s o m e t im e
around December 6.-f
Size Determines
The trees will be distributed ac-
cording to the size of the resi-
dence hall with one for the lounge
of each house; one for each large
lounge serving the whole dorm,
one for each dining room, and
trees for, any other appropriate
place.
Schaadt commented that all
tree decorations used in residence
halls must be fire proofed. Today
Christmas tree lights usually take
the place of the candles which
were originally ased - probably
for safety reasons.
The first mention of candles on
trees comes from a Latin work
written by Karl Gottfried Kissling
in 1737. He tells of a woman who
set up a little tree for each of her
children, lit candles on or around
the trees, placed presents beneath
them, and called her children one
by one into the dining room to
take the trees and gifts intended
for them.
Mistletoe Oiven
In addition to trees, wreaths,
greens, roping and mistletoe will
be distributed to residence halls.
As Schaadt laughingly said, "We
want to make these boys and girls
happy."
Contrast this with the custom
in Munich, where Christmas trees
also appear in the cemetery.
Graves are decorated on Christ-
mas Eve with holly and mistletoe
and little trees with gleaming
lights, perhaps to let the departed
share in the brightness of the
holiday.
Fred Zinger, head of Fraternity
Services Committee of IFC, said
that as in previous years the com-
mittee will sell trees to fraterni-
ties and sororities. About 50 trees
will be'brought from Grand Rap-
ids and other places in the lower
peninsula and sold to about three-
fourths of the fraternities and
sororities, said Zinger.
Santa Sells
Santa, too, is selling trees this
year. You can find him passing
out candy and talking to the chil-
dren at a local tree lot. The own-
er said that children tell their
mothers, "We just have to buy
our tree from Santa."
"To buy a tree with a heart" is
the slogan attached to every tree
sold by the men's club of the Ann
Arbor YMCA. This service group
will be selling Scotch pine, red
pine and balsam fir for the fifth
year.
The group will obtain 18,000
trees from Muskegon and the Up-
per Peninsula. Proceeds will be
used by the club for various proj-
ects, mainly camp improvements
for the YWCA of Ann Arbo?.
Work All Night
"You have to be up all night
to sell Christmas trees." said Mrs.
Joseph Yanitsky, "because you
never know when a person wants
to buy a tree." Mrs. Yanitsky, an
Ann Arbor resident for 30 years,
finds selling trees a very interest-
ing job." She has sold trees for
12 years and has the help of 10
members of her family.
,VIrs. Yanitsky said that she
likes to "joke around" with her
customers, and find out where
they live. She sells trees to people
from all over, some of whom have
never seen a Christmas tree be-
fore.
Cut Own Trees
If her customers want a tree
cut smaller or branches trimmed,
Mrs. Yanitsky hands them a
hatchet and saw and says, "cut
it the way you want to."
The Christmas tree is essen-
tially a domestic institution, but
found its way into Protestant
churches in Germany and from
there into Catholic churches. The
tree may have been Christianized
by association with the old legend
of the Tree of Life.
Christmas
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K an TaET .- ANR Br
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/ RELIGIOUS ARTICLES 4,
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RIGHT TO THE'JAW-Rich lands a haymaker on a bounce-back
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Story by SUSAN HOLTZER
Pictures by FRED SH IPPEY
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