Celebrating Christmas in a cemetery may sound a bit strange, but the beautiful Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, hosts a special gravesite tree-trimming each year to commemorate the life of a man many know for popularizing decorated and lighted Christmas trees in the United States.
I spotted this little evergreen standing guard by a marker for H.C. Schwan when we visited Lake View Cemetery earlier this year.
The graveside tree is a nod to Rev. Heinrich Christian Schwan as "father of the American Christmas tree", although the serene setting belies the turbulent times Pastor Schwan experienced as he first introduced the beloved tradition of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree from his childhood in Germany to the largely German congregation at Cleveland's Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1851.
Christmas trees as a regular symbol and tradition of the holiday date back to 16th century Germany, and most of the earliest instances of Christmas trees in North American seem to happen in areas home to concentrations of German immigrants.
It comes as no surprise then that the young minister from Hanover, Germany, wanted to share his traditional tree with his congregation during his first year celebrating the holiday in the United States.
Rev. Schwan brought a freshly cut tree in from the forests surrounding Cleveland and, with the help of his wife Emma, decorated it with cookies, colored ribbons, nuts, and candles. A beautiful silver star tree topper the minister treasured from his childhood provided the finishing touch for that first Christmas tree.
Most of his congregation enjoyed seeing the tree and the happy nostalgia it evoked from past holidays spent in their German homeland.
Many Cleveland residents and the local press were not so charmed.
Newspapers described the church's Christmas tree as a "nonsensical, asinine, moronic absurdity" and scathingly characterized the congregation as "these Lutherans...worshipping a tree...groveling before a shrub", while urging Cleveland residents to shun those engaging in "such heathenish, idolatrous practices" and refuse to patronize businesses owned by the German congregants.
Rev. Schwan kept his tree up for a little while, but eventually took it down and threw his tree topper into the trash.
Emma Schwan found the silver star, rescued it, and encouraged her husband to continue the Christmas tree tradition.
The minister researched the history of the Christmas tree and found much to support it as a Christian custom to express the joy of Christ's birth in many countries. So, he actively educated people about the tradition and displayed a Christmas tree his church the next year.
Rev. Schwan was not first to display a Christmas tree in the United States, but most acknowledge him as the first to have a decorated and lit tree in a church. His efforts to popularize the tradition apparently paid off, because the practice displaying decorated Christmas trees spread nationwide over the next few years, even appearing at the White House when President Franklin Pierce displayed the first Christmas tree there in 1856.
Rev. Schwan remained at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church as pastor until 1881. He also served as President of the church's Missouri Synod from 1878 until 1899, and he wrote religious texts that appeared in Lutheran catechism books for many years.
Rev. Schwan died in 1905, but the tradition of displaying Christmas trees lives on in the United States-a tradition I love carrying on in my own home each Christmas season.
© Dominique King 2009 All rights reserved
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