Doors: Christmas wreaths

As I’ve been meandering around the local streets in recent days, I’ve been delighted to see how many people have decorated their front doors with lovely Christmas wreaths, some the more traditional arrangements of woven greenery adorned with ribbons and natural objects like cones and seedheads, others presenting a more modern take on these ancient twistings.

 

The word wreath comes from the Old English words writha, meaning ‘to writhe’, and wrīthan, meaning ‘to make into coils, plait’, which, over time, has become the circle of twisted materials we now recognise. However, the concept of a wreath goes back long before the Old English words, perhaps as far as our pagan ancestors, though the earliest historical references come from Ancient Greece. Green crowns of laurel feature in Greek mythology and, in both Ancient Greece and Rome, wreaths of laurel, oak, olive and other leaves were awarded to the heroic and to victors in athletic contests and in battle, as well as being worn by priests officiating at sacrifices and by brides during their weddings.

 

The idea of a Christmas wreath seems to have developed around the same time as that of the Christmas tree, perhaps as a way to make use of the excess trimmings of those trees. The tradition of having a Christmas tree in the house is believed to have originated with the Germans in the sixteenth century and to have been introduced to Britain by Prince Albert after his marriage to Queen Victoria in 1840, though at least one historian disputes that account. Alison Barnes writes on the History Today website that it was ‘“good Queen Charlotte”, the German wife of George III, who set up the first known English tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December, 1800.’ (Barnes’s article also gives more information about the first German Christmas trees.) 

 

Returning to the Christmas wreath, its circular shape is thought to have a Christian meaning, the never-ending circle a  symbol of eternal life (though it’s also an easy shape to create and to hang). And the use of evergreen foliage is thought to have been equally important, symbolic also of immortality and, during the harshest days of winter, of hope for the spring to come.

 

Whatever the meaning we each choose to attribute to the Christmas wreath, there can be no doubt that they are an important, often colourful, always welcoming addition to our doorways during the festive season and, in these dark, depressing and devastating days of global pandemic, they are a feast for the eyes and a welcome source of good cheer.