{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 202/1920-12-23/p013","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Think of the Christmas tree—how beautiful it is, and in what a graceful way it appeals to the heart. But the Christmas tree is not something ancient, it is scarcely two centuries old—it became naturalised comparatively quickly within the countries of Europe, but it is only in recent times that it has adorned the Christmas festival What does it actually represent? I might say it represents the beautiful, lovable, more sympathetic side of that which in another way, a way which is less sympathetic and less fair, appears before the soul in modern human development. We may seek ever so deeply to discover the impulses out of which the Christmas tree has originated in what are really quite modern times, and we shall find mysterious and secret feelings out of which the Christmas tree has come, but these secret feelings all tend in the direction of seeing the Christmas tree as a symbol for the *Tree of Paradise*. What does this signify? It signifies that the feelings which people once experienced as they directed their gaze to the crib and the mystery of the birth of Christ Jesus at the beginning of our era are no longer there, such feelings have become more and more strange to us. It means that for modern humanity, this being born again within the soul has in a sense been lost and modern humanity desires to look back from the Christmas tree that displays the Cross to the origin of earth humanity which knows nothing as yet of the Christ, to the natural starting point of human existence—from Christ back to Paradise, from the festival of Christmas day on the 25th to the festival of Adam and Eve on the 24th day of December. This has become something beautiful, since humanity's origin in Paradise is also beautiful, but it is a diversion from the real birth-mystery of Christ Jesus. This regard for the Christmas tree has preserved all depth and inwardness of feeling and it comforts those who are men of good will as they look at the Christmas tree out of the inwardness of the human heart; it comforts them concerning that other aspect which in modern times has led men away from the Christ mystery to the primal natural forces of birth in human evolution.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. A Christmas Lecture","site_heading":null,"date":"1920-12-23","location":null,"word_count":383,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/202/1920-12-23/p013","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"MP1983","book_title":"The Search for the New Isis, Divine Sophia","publisher":"Mercury Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA202/English/MP1983/19201223p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/202/1920-12-23/p013"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/202/1920-12-23/p013","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1920-12-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 202/1920-12-23/p010","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/202/1920-12-23/p010"},{"locus":"GA 202/1920-12-23/p011","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/202/1920-12-23/p011"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 202/1920-12-23/p010","GA 202/1920-12-23/p011"],"length_check":{"de_words":374,"en_words":383,"ratio":1.02,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 202/1920-12-23/p010","passage_number":10,"text":"Sehen Sie, der Christbaum ist etwas Schönes, etwas, das in sehr anmutendem Sinne zu unserem Gemüte spricht. Aber der Christbaum ist nicht etwas Altes, der Weihnachtsbaum ist kaum zwei Jahrhunderte alt. Er hat sich verhältnismäßig schnell in europäischen Gegenden eingebürgert, aber er ist doch erst in der neueren Zeit zum Schmucke des Weihnachtsfestes entstanden. Was stellt er uns denn eigentlich dar? Er stellt uns die schöne, die liebenswürdige, sympathische Seite desjenigen dar, was auch in einer anderen Weise, in einer weniger sympathischen, in einer weniger anmutigen Weise uns in der neueren Menschheitsentwickelung vor die Seele tritt. Man mag noch so tief forschen nach den Impulsen, aus denen der Weihnachtsbaum in der neueren, neuesten Zeit eigentlich hervorgegangen ist, man wird nur geheimnisvolle Empfindungen finden, aus denen der Weihnachtsbaum entstanden ist. Aber diese geheimnisvollen Empfindungen tendieren alle dahin, daß wir im Weihnachtsbaume doch etwas zu sehen haben wie ein Symbolum des Paradiesesbaumes. Was aber besagt uns dieses? Es besagt uns, daß die Menschen doch immer fremder und fremder geworden sind demjenigen, was sich ihrer Empfindung darbot, als diese Empfindung sich richtete hin nach der Krippe, nach dem Geburtsmysterium des Christus Jesus, nach dem, was im Beginne unserer Zeitrechnung sich zugetragen hat; daß der neueren Menschheit dieses Wiedergeborenwerden des Menschen in der Seele in einer gewissen Weise abhanden gekommen ist und diese neuere Menschheit von dem Christus-Baum, der das Kreuz darstellt, zurückblicken will nach jenem Ursprunge, der noch nichts weiß von dem Christus: nach dem Ursprunge der Erdenmenschheit selber, nach dem natürlichen Ausgangspunkte des Menschheitswerdens, von Christus ab zurück zum Paradiese, von der Feier des Weihnachtstages, des 25. Dezembers, zu der Feier des Adam- und Eva-Festes, des 24. Dezembers.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":276,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/202/1920-12-23/p010"},{"locus":"GA 202/1920-12-23/p011","passage_number":11,"text":"Es ist schön geworden, weil ja der Menschheitsursprung auch schön ist als Paradiesesursprung, was sich da hingestellt hat, aber es ist eine Ablenkung von dem eigentlichen Geburtsmysterium des Christus Jesus. Es hat bewahrt alle Tiefe und Innigkeit des Empfindens, dieses Hinschauen zum Weihnachtsbaume, und es tröstet dieses Hinschauen zum Weihnachtsbaume, das in jedem Jahre aus der Innigkeit des Menschengemütes bei denen auftritt, die guten Willens sind, es tröstet dieses Hinschauen zum Weihnachtsbaume über das andere, das nun in weniger sympathischer Weise in der neueren Zeit abgelenkt hat von dem Christus-Mysterium und hinführt zu den ursprünglich-natürlichen Geburtskräften der Menschwerdung.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":98,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/202/1920-12-23/p011"}],"english":["GA 202/1920-12-23/p013"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":374,"en_words":383,"ratio":1.02,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 202/1920-12-23/p010","GA 202/1920-12-23/p011"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.06,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5418,"original_word_count":5132,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"MP1983","book_title":"The Search for the New Isis, Divine Sophia","publisher":"Mercury Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA202/English/MP1983/19201223p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 202/1920-12-23/p010","GA 202/1920-12-23/p011"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}