Evergreens
Evergreens
The custom of decorating houses at Christmastide with evergreen plants—holly, ivy, box, laurel, mistletoe—is sometimes said to have originated when Christianity was introduced into Europe in order to typify the first British church, built of evergreen boughs. More probably it extends back into antiquity. In Druidic times, people decorated their houses with evergreen plants so that the sylvan spirits might come there to shelter from the severity of winter until their leafy bowers were renewed in the coming year. It was a widespread superstition that it was unlucky to remove evergreen Christmas decorations until after Twelfth Night.
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Evergreens