Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/185

 Rh Jena. He had already accepted the invitation, but he wrote again to say that he could not come, his beloved called him to Weimar. He sent a note to her, saying: "On Thursday I'll come to Weimar; do not accept any engagements for Christmas Eve. I hope you will decorate a pretty tree for me, as you are the cause of my missing the one at Griesbach." He had just asked Frau von Lengefeld for the hand of her daughter. In Weimar he received the answer: "Yes, I will give you the best and dearest I still possess, my good Lottchen." A year later, the Christmas-tree shed its lustre in his own home, and he stood beneath it with his wife.

In 1799 no Christmas-trees were to be found at the Christmas-fair in Leipsic, although the custom is mentioned as far back as 1767.

In 1807 Christmas-trees were to be had in Dresden at the time of the winter solstice, ornamented with gold tinsel, coloured bits of paper, gilded nuts, and candles.

In Hamburg Christmas-trees were well known as early as 1796, and in 1805 Johann Peter Hebel dedicated a poem to the Yule-tree in his "Allemanic Poems". In Berlin it can be traced to 1780, but the pine or Scotch fir was used there, not the bright green fir common now.

It was only by degrees that the fir imported from the Hartz supplemented the pine, and now we only find that gloomy tree in use in the poor eastern districts of Berlin.

At the beginning of the present century, the élite of Berlin did not practise the custom, as it was not fashionable among the French emigrants, and was looked upon as vulgar. Instead of that, according to Schleiermacher's Weihnachtsfeier (Christmas Celebration), they used to decorate the table on which the presents were laid with myrtle, amarynth, and ivy. About the year 1816, however, we find that the Christmas-tree was adopted in all the homes by rich and poor in Berlin.

In the fairy-tale of the Nutcracker, by Fouqué and