On 12 January 2024, a researcher of the Bolgar Museum-Reserve Krivosheyeva S.V. held an event on “Christmas tree is the main symbol of the New Year” for nine pupils of the 3rd grade of Bolgar sanatorium boarding school.
At the event, children learnt about the history of the New Year holiday and the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. In the olden days, Christmas decorations were associated with the concept of a seed. Slavs believed that on the Days of the Winter Solstice the seeds of dreams and new ideas, good deeds and discoveries to be experienced in the coming year descend to the earth. Hence the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree – a symbolic expression of the dream of the future harvest, the seeds of which were “sown” during these festive days. The days of the winter solstice is a holiday, one of the mystical sides of which is the great mystery of opening doors between Heaven and Earth, and all the hidden things can come down to any person.
At the end of the event, the students watched the first fairy tale about a Christmas tree published by Hans Christian Andersen in 1844, which was called “The Spruce Tree”. It told about the fate of the spruce tree, which is used as a Christmas tree.

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