The Holly and the Ivy

Holly and ivy have a long association Christmas and with luck, you dear reader, have now got the famous tune stuck in your head. 

The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn

Looking more closely at this association, I shall start with the gendering of the plant in folklore. Holly was said to represent the division of the sexes as the male and female flowers rarely occur on the same tree. The berries therefore only appear when both plants of both sexes are near one another. The association of evergreens and winter is long standing and it was believed that bringing smooth, female holly into the house in New Year would result in the wife ruling the house for the year. If it was prickly, male holly that crossed the threshold first, the man would rule (Moore: 555).  

A variety of sources refer to these two types of holly, the male and female hollies, and ivy appears to come in later with its female connotations; Adding  itself to the general jumble of early pagan traditions of holly with its later Christian influences. 

Holly and Christianity is a fairly easy connection to make with its prickliness evoking Christ’s crown of thorns and its evergreen nature, the eternal life promised. 

Back to Christmas, it was considered bad luck in Derbyshire to not have holly and Mistletoe in the house by Christmas. In Oxfordshire, it was believed that holly should only be brought into the house on Christmas eve and removed on the twelfth night. If this wasn't done, it was believed the devil would come to the house. If the holly was burnt a death in the family would follow which conjures images in my mind of the traditional Christmas arguments followed by secretive evergreen torching.

Social history is always tricky as people in general don’t record what is normal and as a result, the records for decorating churches are all quite late. What they do reveal however is the tradition, both pre and post-reformation, of using holly to decorate churches. 

For example, St Mary-at-Hill in London in 1486 lists 3 pence worth of Holly and Ivy for decorating on Chirstmas eve. In 1505 at St Lawrence's in Reading for2 pence is spent on holly for Christmas decorations while in 1689, the churchwarden account lists "candles and orniment 'holly and ivy'" being used to decorate the church of St Martin's in Chester and costing 2 shillings. 

Finally the most easily recognised pagan everygreen, mistletoe has a role to play. Despite being most often associated with the New Year, in 1672 Bilston chapel in the Black Country is described as "dressed with holly and mistletoe".

Notes

Drury, S. "Customs and Beliefs Associated with Christmas Evergreens: A Preliminary Survey" in 

Folklore, Vol. 98, No. 2 (1987), pp. 194-199

Moore, A. "Mixed Tradition in the Carols of Holly and Ivy" in Modern Language Notes, Vol. 62, No. 8 (Dec., 1947), pp. 554-556

  

The Medieval Garden Enclosed

http://blog.metmuseum.org/cloistersgardens/2008/12/18/the-holly-and-the-ivy/