Meaning and History of the Wreath

The earliest Christmas wreaths were made from holly during Roman times. Holly was looked on as having magical powers to the ancient Celts as it was one of the few plants to survive and look beautiful in the winter. The Celts picked holly boughs and put them in their houses to ward off the evils they believed lurked about in the darker months. Roman soldiers are believed to have brought the idea of decorating with holly back from Britain.
Holly was used by the Romans during their winter solstice celebrations and became sacred to Saturn, the sun god the Romans worshipped. The week long winter solstice celebrations of the Romans honored Saturn. Holly wreaths with their bright red berries were given as gifts. Holly was everywhere during these celebrations – on the public buildings, in the streets and shops, inside and outside of homes. The tradition of giving wreaths as gifts started here. Holly was thought to be lucky so the more you had the better off you were.
Early Christians in Rome would decorate their homes with holly to avoid persecution during the winter solstice festivals even though they didn’t worship Saturn. Over time the meaning behind the tradition of holly Christmas wreaths blurred and it eventually became a symbol of Christian faith. It was used to explain the life and death of Christ. The leaves represented the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus at his Crucifixion, when he was mockingly crowned "King of the Jews". The Romans usually placed wreaths of Laurel leaves on those who won a battle, excelled and won a tournament or they were just normally worn by Caesars as a "crown " to represent their position. A wreath placed on some one's head let everyone know they were exceptional, the best, God-like or Ruler. The wreath of thorns that was forced into Christ's scalp, was to add insult to injury and done with such cruel brutality. The red berries were interpreted by Christians to represent Jesus’ blood as it appeared on the crown of thorns. This was incredibly sacred because it represented the sacrifice Christ made for all mankind to redeem, save and forgive all from sin, with his own blood in pure torture. The holly bush was one of the few evergreen plants in Northeast Africa. The undying green came to represent everlasting life and hope and the shape of the circle represented eternity and everlasting life in heaven granted by God because of Jesus' sacrifice. The round shape also symbolized eternity. A circle has no beginning or end. For all these reasons one would think the wreath would be the main decoration for Easter. BUT.....

The Roman Emperor Constantine gave official status to Christianity and forced all the pagans to be baptized into the Roman church. He needed to join the Christians and pagans and so pagan rituals and idols took on Christian names and pagan holidays like winter solstice festival became Christian holidays. December 25th was the birthday of the Gods to the pagans. And the Winter Solstice was the most "holy" time and the most important religious time for the pagans. Eventually many pagan symbols and traditions were melded into Christian symbols and traditions. Including the Christmas tree. (that is for next post)
Now the Wreath, no matter how religious you are, symbolizes the celebration of the holiday, on your front door welcoming people into your home, showing your spirit of Christmas and is the most simple decoration, used as a sign of love, care and respect in cemeteries, not over commercialized with mandatory "Keeping up with the Jones' "variety of new yearly trend decorations and
a the second biggest universal symbol for Christmas.

Meow for now,
Catraven =^..^=