HÉROUXVILLE AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE
THE CHRISTMAS TREE AND OTHER TRADITIONS THE PEOPLE OF HÉROUXVILLE ARE DEFENDING HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION.
Many of these traditions date back to Mesopotamia way before the Jesus era and therefore christianity itself. Since the conifer was the only tree to survive harsh winters it became a symbol of eternal life. The wreaths represented the circle of life. People would celebrate saturnalia,the coming of the new year. There would be feasts,someone would be named king for a day and order people to do all sorts of weird things. At the end of the day he would be killed or committed suicide. The mistletoe was the symbol of fertility.The pagans would dress up in order to chase evil and would light huge fire to replace the sun missed during winter months. Children were offered on the altar to insure good crops the following year.Eventually they were replaced by dolls given to children and guests.
The church was not that popular at the time of the roman empire.Thus the church had to draw people to it's faith so they adopted many of the pagan practices.
the wreath became the crown of thorn on jesus's head, the berries from the holly became drops of blood from Christ.the wearing of masks and costumes became Allsaints day, the king for a day became Epiphany, the candle stemmed from the fires pagan s would build to represent eternal life and just so many symbols became part of everyday life and people did not search their origins.Mistletoe was banned from the church because of it's fertility symbol ,thus avoiding orgies.
Hérouxville says we have traditions, yes we are catholic but singing ''O CHRISTMAS TREE''(O TANUNBAUM) HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION, OR C'EST DANS L'TEMPS DU JOUR DE L'AN'' IT'S NEW YEAR TIME''Again this song talks about farmers visiting one another and celebrating because it was the only time they could get away from the farm, animal slaughter was over and the silos were full.
Now the christmas card replaces the visiting cards they would leave each other.
herouxville
When I hear people saying that we are forcing Muslim kids to sing to a Jesus which is not their god I am taken aback. Most carols talk about a happy time expecting the new year and it's promises.Québecers talk about their ancestry. They were farmers not yuppies.
We can't very well sing ''o beautiful palm tree '' we don't have them, and we are not preventing muslim lebanese people from singing ''o cedar tree'' which they have on their flag.
Their forefathers considered our ancestors as'' infidels'' because of their pagan practices, Now it has become the opposite, our religion is in their way.
herouxville