542 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF CHURCH 

 DECORATIONS AT CHRISTMAS 



I think there is very Uttle doubt that one of our old- 

 est and most general customs is that of decorating 

 our churches with evergreens, berries and flowers at the 

 season of Christmas. Pre-reformation or post-reforma- 

 tion, writes Joseph Jacob in The Garden (Enghsh). 

 evangehcal tinies or catholic revival, town or country, 

 made onlv a difference in degree. Wordsworth, John 

 Gay and Robert Herrick. to mention three poets of dif- 

 ferent ages whose knowledge of country ways and doings 

 is proverbial; Samuel Pepys and John PZvelyn, the dia- 

 rists of Cromwellian and Stewartian times; the fifteenth 

 century congregation of St. Mary-at-Hill in the City of 

 London (as we know from their own or from other 

 written contemporary evidence) ; all saw their churches 

 decorated for the brthday of Our Lord, and although 

 It is only a surmise, it is well within the bounds of proba- 

 l)ility if I suggest that the \'enerable Bede, Bishop 

 Swithun, Alban and ^lartyr, or Becket, the murdered 

 archbishop, must also have seen the same emblems of joy 

 and love when thev entered God's House on a Christmas 

 morning. Undoubtedly Holly and Ivy are the two plants 

 which alwavs have been, and which still are, associated 

 more than any others with the Nativity, .\hhough the 

 orderly sequence of appropriate and distinctive decora- 

 tions for the changing sea-ons has long been a dead let- 

 ter, we would feel there was somethng missing were we 

 to see none of the familiar leaves and trails somewhere 

 in the wreaths or devices of today. 



•■The Holy hitherto did szvay; 



Let Box nozi' domineere. 

 Until the dancing Easter-Day 



Or Easter's ci'e appcare." 



Our own feelings are sufficient to account fur the origin 

 of the practice. "There is a seemliness in making the 

 external correspond to the inward on occasions of ioy 

 and grief. There is something in the fitness of things 

 that connects decorations and best clothes with days of 

 peculiar importance or the entertaining of guests. It is 

 this, for e.xample, which must have suggested the parable 

 of "The Wedding Garment" to Our Lord, and which 

 must have made its meaning so clear to His hearers. 

 Hence we can see whv Christmas has always been asso- 

 ciated in the minds of Christians with outward signs of 

 joy both in their homes and in their churches. Impos- 

 sible but that it should be so. Why, though. Holly and Ivy? 

 What gives these two plants their peculiar position, more 

 especiaHv the first? Two explanations are offered : First, it 

 may be a relic of the old heathen festival of the Saturna- 

 lia,'which happened to be celebrated at Rome about a week 

 before the Christian Feast of the Nativity. \i this time 

 friends gave one another branches of Holly as an expres- 

 sion of "their goodwill, along with the presents which it 

 was customary to send. What more natural than to 

 transfer ths innocent custom, with its ready-made mean- 

 ing, to the great festival of the anniversary of Him who 

 came to bring peace on earth and goodwill among men? 

 Or, secondlv, its use may have arisen from the practice 

 of the Druids, who invariably hung in and around their 

 dwelling places hunches of Holly or other evergreens, in 

 order that the spirits of the woods might find a shelter 

 when their customary abodes were leafless and when the 

 weather was particularly severe, as it so often must have 

 been about the time of the old Christmas Day. 



In judging which of the above suggestions is the more 

 probable, it is well to bear in mind two facts : One, the 

 universal association of Ivy with Holly as appropriate 



for Yuletide decorations. Church accounts for 1486 ( St. 

 .Mar}-at-Hill, London) are e.xtant which include "Holme 

 and Ivy at Christinas eve," and for 1524 (St. Martin 

 Outwich, London), which have "Item: for holy and ivy 

 at Chrystmas." This may possibly be a relic of the Satur- 

 nalian times at Rome, when there is very little douijt men 

 were apt to drink "not wisely, but too well," and when it 

 is certain Ivy wreaths, with their supposed power of 

 lessening the intoxicating eft'ects of wine, were in much 

 vogue. The other is the strange fact that the only plant 

 which, as far as I know, is now absolutely taboo in church 

 decorations is the ^listletoe, the sacred plant of the 

 Druids, cut with imposing ceremonies and with golden 

 knives and with wide renown for its powers of healing. 

 I am however a little doubtful if this has invariably been 

 so, for John Gay (early eighteenth century), who was 

 intimately acquainted with rural life, distinctly says in 

 one of his poems this was so used; thus: 



"Christinas, the joyous period' of the year, 

 Now with bright Holly, all the temples stroiv, 

 And witli Lazcrcll green, and sacred niistleto." 



If Mistletoe was ever admitted as equally suitable with 

 Holy and Ivy as part of the Christinas adornment of our 

 churches, then probably the Druid origin is the true one. 

 If, on the other hand, it was not so, then the Saturnalian 

 is the most likely one, more particularly when the associa- 

 tion of Ivy with Holly is so universal. Personally, I 

 favor the Roman -origin as being on the whole the more 

 probable. 



A word in conclusion about the factors in the Christ- 

 mas decorations. Nowadays we use everything that 

 comes to our hands. Yew, Box, Laurel, Cupressus and 

 Thuya are more often, I expect, seen than not. But it 

 was not always so. In the days of Herrick the poet 

 (time of Charles I) there was a certain well-defined 

 sequence of plants which were to be used for the different 

 seasons, and there is no reason to suppose that the rota 

 was not strictly adiiered to. He thus writes of house 

 decoration : 



"Doii'u zcith the rosemary and bayes, 



Do-tcn with the mistletoe. 

 Instead of holly, now upraise. 



The greener box, for shoz\.'. 



Then youthfulbox, wliich now hath grace 



Your houses to renew 

 Grown old, surrender must his place 



Unto the crisped yew. 



When \ew is out. then Bircli comes in. 



And many flowers beside. 

 Both of a fresh and fragrant kine. 



To honour ll'hitsontide." 



In another poem on the same subject the poet seems 

 to allude to the old idea of the evergreens being origin- 

 ally put up as shelters for spirits : 



"Dozen ZK'itJi the rosemary, and so 



Dozen ziith the bales and mistletoe; 



Dozen zvith the holly, ivie. all 



Where zvith ye drest the Christmas hall; 



That so the superstitious find 



No one least branch there left behind; 



Ear look, hozv many leaz'es there be 



Neglected there, maids, trust to me. 



So many goblins you shall see." 



From this last quotation it seems possible to suggest 

 a third idea as to the oriLrin of this Christmas custom of 

 decorating churches and houses, ^\■ith regard to the 



