The Holly and the Ivy Those of you familiar with The Holly and the Ivy have perhaps puzzled over the meaning behind this old (17th-18th century) Christmas carol. Why does the carol couple two seemingly unrelated evergreen plants? If you take a close look at the lyrics, its hard not to wonder how it is that the ivy came to earn top billing alongside the holly when, in fact, it is hardly mentioned at all in the lyrics. Pagans had customarily decorated in winter with evergreens culled from the landscape long before the birth of Christianity. We can still identify with their thought-process, even today: when everything else on the landscape is dead or dormant, evergreens remind us of better times to come -- the return of a green landscape in spring. According to Dr. Leonard Perry, ancient pagans fashioned ivy into wreaths and garlands for decorations during the winter months. Ivy had close ties with the Roman god of wine, Bacchus (Dionysus). Holly, meanwhile, figured prominently in the Roman celebration of the Saturnalia (upon which the Christmas holiday was directly modeled), as it was considered sacred to Saturn. Among the Celts, holly played a major role in summer and winter solstice observances. Holly and other evergreens were subsequently adopted by common Christians as Christmas decorations in Roman times, despite protests from disapproving Church Fathers, who regarded the decorations as too pagan. Such protests notwithstanding, evergreen decorations were well on their way to becoming part of the Christmas tradition, symbols of the pagan past co-opted by the new religion. The people of earlier epochs were, by and large, closer to the earth than are we moderns. They paid attention to plant relationships that probably escape most 21st-century folks. They were also more inclined to the use of symbolism, including plant symbology. Noticing an ivy vine in the forest twining itself around a holly tree, for instance, afforded them ample reason to compare the two plants. Out of that comparison, a piece of plant symbology was born. And as a result of that plant symbology, the holly and the ivy will remain intertwined for ages -- not only in the forest, but also in song. Source and Images: AboutHome
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 14:26:15 +0000