by Phoebe Farag Mikhail

Historically, Egyptian Christians never celebrated Advent with evergreen trees – they don’t really grow in Egypt. So, growing up even here in the US, Christmas trees didn’t feature much in our family Christmas traditions.

What did feature were the weekly Advent praises vigils (called Kiahk Praises), a special form of the Coptic Orthodox Church Midnight Praises that include extra hymns meditating on the mystery and glory of the Incarnation of the Logos. They focus heavily on the Mother of God and how the Son of God took His humanity from her. One favorite hymn looks at the burning bush in Exodus as a type of the Incarnation:

The burning bush seen by Moses
the prophet in the wilderness
the fire inside it was aflame
but never consumed or injured it.
The same with the Theotokos Mary
carried the fire of Divinity
nine months in her holy body
without blemishing her virginity.

Hymn of the Burning Bush, Coptic Orthodox Church Kiahk Psalmody

I now have my own children, and my husband and I are figuring out our own way to celebrate our Coptic Church traditions in a different context than where they were developed, while also embracing traditions in our current context that align with our faith. So we adopted the Christmas tree and shared with our children its European Christian origins, how evergreens are always green just as “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), and how the lights remind us of the Light of the World.

One year, however, my husband’s mother came to visit us from Egypt. We drove home from church one evening and she noticed the Christmas trees going up in late November, aflame with lights and shining ornaments. “It’s for the burning bush,” she observed. And in that instant the Western Christmas Tree became Coptic: a visual reminder of the burning bush, a symbol of the mystery of the Incarnation.

Now, when we put up our Christmas tree, we sing the Burning Bush hymn, grateful for being able to connect Eastern and Western traditions in this way, and most of all grateful for great connection we celebrate this season, when God became man.