What does christmas mean and where did the christmas tree and lights come from?
Where did the tradition of the Christmas tree and celebrating christmas come from. Did the cave men celebrate christmas too?
Christmas is from Anglo-Saxons "Christ-messe" and means the celebration of Christ. In most other languages the name of Christmas comes from the word for "birth" - Natividad, Noel, Nativity.
The arrival of Christ in the world has been celebrated from the early days of the Christian church. At this time, there were no universal standards so some people celebrated the birth, some celebrated the arrival of the Magi (aka three kings), Epiphany. They also celebrated on different days as the bible does not give any date.
The Church in Rome settled on December 25th some time in the late 3rd century. There was no traditional Roman feast on that day, though the Emperor did start a new one at about that time. No-one knows which came first. This date became the standard in the Western Catholic church and is kept by most protestants. Most Orthodox use the same date, but a different calendar, a few still use a different date.
The tradition of the Christmas Tree started in Europe and is first recorded in the 16th century, well into the Christian era. There is no evidence at all of any connection to paganism.
The first Christmas trees were put up on Christmas Eve and were decorated with fruit and nuts (now replaced by glass baubles and candy). Christmas Eve used to be counted as the Feast of Adam and Eve. The connection is obvious - the Christmas tree represents the tree in the Garden of Eden.
The birth of Christ, the second Adam, transforms the tree from a symbol of our fall to a symbol of our redemption