August 1996
There are many plants that are traditionally used to decorate during the holiday season -- holly, spruce, fir, mistletoe -- but how did these plants get to be "traditions"? Why were they used in the first place? Some of them came to be associated with the holidays for their uses as decoration or flavoring, since holly with its red berries is one of the only colorful plants in the winter, and sage and juniper berries were often used to season the roast goose or turkey. But most of them were originally used because they symbolized a quality or emotion important to the spirit of the holidays. We have forgotten many of these symbolic meanings over the years, but there is renewed interest in recovering our holiday "roots." I have found a few interesting references to the use of herbs in the holiday season.
Costmary, or alecost, leaves were used to add spice to holiday ale, or wassail, in old Europe. Ivy and bay laurel were long used, along with other greens, to help celebrate winter solstice in early Europe, ivy symbolizing friendship and bay laurel associated with Apollo, god of light, as a reminder that the long winter would soon melt into spring.
Everyone, of course, is familiar with the legend of the three kings and their gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Frankincense pods and myrrh gum are both scented plant materials that could be classified as herbs, and are becoming available today through potpourri material dealers. They could be used to make a "potpourri of three kings," blending these two with gold yarrow. Yarrow also has significance in the Christmas tradition in its own right, as it is sometimes called carpenter's weed (for its purported folk-healing powers against cuts) and associated with Joseph the carpenter, the earthly father of Jesus.
Rosemary has one of the nicest of the Christmas legends. It is said that the flowers of rosemary were originally white, but the Virgin Mary laid her blue cloak upon the fragrant branches one day, and the flowers took on the soft, clear-blue color of that sacred garment. Until the 20th century, rosemary was a very popular Christmas evergreen, right up there with holly and mistletoe. A gilded rosemary sprig was a treasured gift. Why it fell out of use is a mystery, but it is starting to make a comeback with the use of rosemary in holiday wreaths and rosemary topiaries as small Christmas trees. Perhaps the use of rosemary, which symbolizes remembrance, can help us, in these commercialized times, to remember the meanings of our winter holidays.
(Originally published as "Holiday Herbs," by R. Peter Madsen, Information Officer, Department of Horticulture, Virginia Tech, in The Virginia Gardener Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 12.)