圣诞节英语作文：The Christmas Tree

圣诞节英语作文：The Christmas Tree

Although it is generally agreed that the Christmas tree in its current form came from Germany in the early 19th century, the tradition of decorating a tree to mark winter celebrations dates back hundreds of years to Roman times, when they used to decorate evergreen trees with small pieces of metal to celebrate Saturnalia.

In medieval times the ‘Paradise Play’ was performed every year on 24 December. This depicted the creation of Man and the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and always included an evergreen hung with apples which represented the apple tree of temptation.

There is a legend that St Boniface, an English monk, came upon a group of pagans gathered around an oak tree who were preparing to sacrifice a child to the God Thor. In order to stop the sacrifice, and save the child’s life, St Boniface is said to have felled the tree with one blow of his fist. Later on, a fir tree grew in place of the oak and this, St Boniface told the pagans, was the Tree of Life and represented the Christ Child.

Legend also suggests that, in the late 16th century, Martin Luther (the founder of the Protestant religion) was the first to decorate an indoor tree with candles when he attempted to recreate the stars shining over a forest of evergreens.

The first mention of decorated trees being taken indoors came in 1605 in Germany - a country with a long Christmas tree history! The trees were initially decorated with fruit and sweets together with hand made objects such as quilled snowflakes and stars. German Christmas Markets began to sell shaped gingerbreads and wax ornaments which people bought as souvenirs of the fair and took home to hang on their tree.

Tinsel was also invented in Germany in about 1610. Up until fairly recently real silver was used, which was pulled into wafer thin strips by special machines. This was durable but tarnished quickly and mmany experiments took place to try and find an alternative - including a mix of lead and tin, which was too heavy and kept breaking. It was only in the mid 20th century that a viable alternative was found.

Artificial trees were invented in the 1880’s in a bid to try and stop some of the damage being caused to real trees due to people lopping the tip off large trees, thus preventing the trees from growing any further. It got so bad in Germany that laws had to be brought in to prevent people having more than one tree.

Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, is credited with being responsible for introducing the custom of the Christmas tree to the British public by decorating the first English Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841 using candles, sweets, fruit and gingerbread.

The popularity of the Christmas tree grew in Britain during the first half of the 20th century, with trees becoming bigger and more elaborately decorated with bells, baubles and tinsel.

However, the onset of the Second World War resulted in a ban on cutting down trees for decoration and people resorted to having small, artificial tabletop trees bearing home made decorations. These were often taken down into the air raid shelters when the sirens sounded to provide a bit of Christmas cheer!

This all changed following the war, and large trees were erected in many public places to celebrate Christmas. The most famous of these is the tree in Trafalgar Square, London which is an annual gift from the Norwegian government to give thanks for the help they received from Britain during the war. 翻译：

虽然人们普遍认为，在目前的形式的圣诞树在第十九世纪初来自德国，装饰树标记的冬天庆祝可以追溯到几百年前的罗马时代的传统，当他们用小的金属片来庆祝农神节装饰常青树。

在中世纪时代的“天堂”是在十二月24日起每年进行。这个描绘人的创造亚当和夏娃的堕落的伊甸园里有一棵挂着代表诱惑的苹果树上的苹果。

有一个传说，圣博尼法斯，英国僧侣，遇到一群异教徒聚集在一棵橡树，他们准备牺牲一个孩子神托尔。为了阻止牺牲，挽救孩子的生命，圣博尼法斯据说已经将树砍倒一拳。后来，一棵冷杉生长在橡树和这个地方，圣尼费斯告诉异教徒，是生命之树和代表基督的孩子。

传说，在第十六世纪末，马丁卢瑟(基督教的宗教创始人)是用蜡烛来装饰室内树第一次当他试图用星星闪耀在松柏树。

室内装饰树木被排在1605，在德国的一个长期的历史的国家第一次提到圣诞树!树木开始装饰水果和糖果一起手物体如羽毛状雪花和星星。德国圣诞市场开始销售姜饼和蜡的装饰品的人买了为公平的纪念品和带回家挂在树上。

金属也在德国发明了约1610。直到最近使用的是真正的银，这是拉成薄条的专用设备。这是耐用但很快就失去了光泽，许多实验，试图找到一种替代包括混合铅和锡，这是太沉重，不停的破坏。它只在第二十世纪中期，一个可行的替代品被发现。

人工树木在试图阻止一些损害而造成真正的树木由于人们砍掉举报高大的树木在1880年代发明的，从而阻止树木的进一步生长。就在德国如此糟糕，法律来防止人有一个以上的树。

艾伯特王子，维多利亚女王的丈夫，被认为是负责将圣诞树的习俗，英国公众的第一个英国圣诞树装饰1841使用蜡烛，温莎城堡的糖果，水果和姜饼。

圣诞树的人气增长，英国的第二十世纪上半期，树木变得更大、更精心装饰着铃铛，小玩意和金属箔。然而，第二次世界大战的爆发导致砍伐树木用于装饰和人民采取了一些小的禁令，人造台面的树木在家中作装饰品。这些经常被带到空气RAID庇护所当警报响起时提供一点圣诞快乐!

这一切都改变了战争之后，大型树木被竖立在许多公共场所庆祝圣诞节。其中最着名的是在伦敦的特拉法尔加广场的树，它是由挪威政府给他们收到了来自英国的战争期间，感谢帮助一年一度的礼物。

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