- To this day it is employed to stir the juice of the grape previous to fermentation, and so sanctifying it by contact with the fruit of the Sacred Tree. This is still practised by the Greeks in Asia Minor and in Greece, though introduced in times of remote antiquity. The Fir Cone communicates to most of the Greek wines that peculiar turpentine or resinous flavour which is found in them. Although the sanctification motive has departed, the resinous flavour is all that survives of a once most sacred ceremony, as having so close a relation to the worship of the Sun and the heavenly bodies.
has a reticule-shaped bag in which, no doubt, the sacred emblem was reverently deposited when not in use for the performance of these high religious ceremonies.
The same emblem "survived" in the Greek worship. I annex a tracing from a wood engraving in Fellows's Researches in Asia Minor, 1852 (p. 175), showing the Fir Cone as the finial to the staff of office of the Wine-god Bacchus.
In like manner, it appears to me highly probable that "The Christmas Tree," with its lighted tapers, which is introduced at that sacred season for the entertainment of our young people, is "a survival" of the worship of the sacred tree and of the Sun. The toys which are hung on the twigs of the tree may also be "survivals" of the offerings which were usually made to the Sun and the heavenly bodies. If I am correct in my conjecture on this subject, it throws a very interesting light on what is considered as a mere agent for the amusement of children.
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