Stratovania

First of all, happy birthday to lozenger8! It's summer in her part of the world, which must be nice. There's snow all over outside here.

I covered a lot of Christmas-related legends and mythology last year, and didn't really want to go into repeats this year. One subject that I don't think I said much if anything about, however, was the plants that are traditionally used as Christmas decorations. Here are a few that I could dig up some quick and interesting information on:


Holly - Not surprisingly, the use of holly as a winter decoration predates the birth of Jesus. Not only was the plant sacred to the Druids, who considered it a symbol of eternal life due to its status as an evergreen; but it was also associated by the Romans with Saturn, whose festival of Saturnalia was one of the forerunners of Christmas. When Christianity and Christmas took over, several legends relating holly to the life of Jesus arose. The red berries are said to symbolize the sacrifice on the cross, and some versions of the tale identify the crown of thorns and even the cross itself as having been made of holly. The plant is also sometimes said to have grown in order to hide Jesus' family from Herod's soldiers.


Ivy - A plant not only used as decoration for homes around Christmas, but also for college campuses, ivy is another evergreen, and hence another symbol of eternal life. Not only does ivy stay green in the winter, but it can thrive even in the shade, and clings to buildings like Spider-Man in plant form. It was associated with resurrected gods like the Egyptian Osiris, and was the traditional headgear for the Roman Bacchus. Like many pagan symbols of immortality, it eventually came to be associated with Jesus.


Poinsettia - The association of this bright red plant with Christmas is more recent and more specifically American than the others. The poinsettia is native to Mexico, and was used by the Aztecs to produce red dye. The legend making it a Christmas plant is said to date back to the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and involves poor children who were only able to bring weeds to church at the nativity season, but the weeds grew into beautiful poinsettias. A connection between the plant and the Star of Bethlehem has also been proposed. The English name for the plant comes from Joel Robert Poinsett, the United States' Minister to Mexico, who introduced it to this country. By the way, contrary to popular belief, the poinsettia isn't really lethal to humans, although it can cause diarrhea and other adverse reactions. It also used to cause our cat to throw up.


Mistletoe - While best known now as an excuse for kissing, the use of this parasitic plant as a Christmas decoration most likely results from the fact that it bears berries around the winter solstice. Interestingly, however, Wikipedia claims that mentions of mistletoe used in holiday decorating were rare prior to the eighteenth century. Mistletoe features prominently in European mythology, but in ways that don't seem to directly relate to winter. The golden bough that Aeneas used to gain access to Hades was said to have been made of mistletoe, and the plant was the cause of death for the Norse god Baldur. See, when Frigga made all things in the world swear an oath not to hurt her son, she neglected the mistletoe for some reason, and Loki took advantage of this fact. Oddly enough, it is also said to have been Scandinavia where the association of mistletoe with peace originated, with enemies declaring truces under the plant. This is also said to be the most likely origin for the idea of kissing under the mistletoe. Incidentally, Christian mythology also identifies mistletoe as one of the plants from which the cross was made, even though it isn't a tree. The legend says that it actually WAS a tree until the crucifixion, after which it shriveled into the hemi-parasite it is today.