By S PAUL
Recently, I came across a post on social media by some not so knowledgeable but over enthusiastic proponent of our ethnic faith criticising the use of green trees for Christmas and suggesting that the Tulsi plant be used instead. It set me thinking about the misconception in our minds about the practice of a conical shaped evergreen for decoration on the festive occasion. This concept of putting up a green tree in the Christmas season and decorating it with buntings and tinsel was born in Germany. It is mainly for the snowbound lands and the coniferous tree variety remains green even if covered and entirely buried in snow. Thus, it depicts life in the climate when every other life becomes confined to stillness by way of hibernation and humans seek warm shelters to survive. Therefore, such evergreen trees were first decorated during the 16th century in Germany. Due to a shortage of wood in the winter, people would bring evergreen trees into their homes or stack piles of wood in a pyramid shape, before decorating it with pines and candles – as a reminder of the spring to come. It is, therefore, necessarily a decoration for the festival and not a symbol of worship. Tulsi is a venerated plant of our culture and symbolic of our faith. It cannot be considered a decoration and cannot be used as decoration. That would be sacrilege.
The idea of a Christmas tree has now become universal because it is harmless and does not create pollution. On the contrary,if a cut tree is placed appropriately near a window to receive much sunlight and kept in moist soil and as long as the needles are green and there is light, photosynthesis continues occurring. A byproduct of photosynthesis is oxygen.
The wilted Christmas tree is biodegradable and, having an oily sap, it is turned into chips and spread on still snow-covered pathways, and subsequently gets back into the soil as compost. The western world has realised that cutting down trees from the wild is harming the environment so they have now resorted to having Christmas tree farming. This indicates that people are becoming more inclined to using artificial than real Christmas tree. Statistics show that of the trees used as house Christmas trees, 84 percent are artificial and only16 percent are farm-grown. Most of these artificial trees are produced in China and in some developing Asian nations and exported all over. Even though reusable year after year, eventually these t end up as trash, adding significantly to the non-biodegradable pollutants.
It may seem environmentally unethical to use farm grown Christmas trees but, on the contrary, these prove to be more environment friendly than the artificial ones. When these natural trees are harvested for sale, there are more than ten times as many left standing. For example, out of the 350-500 million growing on tree farms across the US, only 30 million trees are harvested for Christmas each year. Natural forests are spared. Buying real trees keeps tree farms in business and in turn keep our lands covered in healthy forest habitat that wildlife depends on to survive.
There are about 24 varieties of conifers that can be used as Christmas trees the world over. These are many kinds of Fir
(Devdaar), Spruce (Kail), Pine (Cheedh), Juniper (Hapusha) and Araucaria (Chillian pine). The climate for a coniferous forest or farm is typically cool and moist. Araucaria adapts vast climatic conditions from temperate to tropical. If we are keen for some semblance of piety in our own land and many Asian countrieswe may use the Ashoka tree. Types of Ashoka Tree are Saraca Indica (open umbrella type), Saraca pendula (long pencil shaped), and Saraca Longifolia (closed umbrella shaped). Arboriculturists may please correct me if my definitions are wrong. My experience is that Saraca Longifolia can very well be a Christmas tree in our Indian homes. I have even used Casuarina tree that grows profusely in our climates. Almost all leafy bushes that are topiarised can be used as Christmas tree.
Therefore, why can’t we try and develop this kind of farming? Our nurseries can grow such real Christmas trees in pots and sell or rent them out for the festival season. And why restrict the idea of using a decorated mini tree (5 to 7 ft in height) for use in the apartment houses even for festivals other than Christmas? We may then even export these.
