It’s late October and I’m bent over, kneeling on my green gardening pad to try and take the pressure off my knees. Bending is a problem because I’m all wrapped up with several thick layers, including my wax jacket and the waterproof trousers I used to wear for biking in wet weather. I’m here to help dig a test pit in the Orchard, after all those Sunday afternoons watching ‘Time Team’ in the 1990s, I am finally doing it myself. It’s hard work, this wet clay is really heavy. But it is rather addictive, as you move down carefully taking off the earth inch by inch and thinking that the next layer might be the one where you find something really exciting. We’ve already got a large spoil heap and on top perches the little robin who has adopted our pit. He came to see us both days and sang for his supper, thanking us for all the worms.
Robins seem to have a special affinity with man, is that why they have become associated with our biggest annual celebration? They began appearing on Christmas cards when these first became popular in Victorian times, and are still there today. The early postmen wore bright red jackets and were known as ‘robins’ or ‘redbreasts’. Early cards showed the bright red post-boxes along with a robin holding a card in its beak. Nowadays robins can be seen on all the supermarket shelves on packaging for a whole range of items, as well as on Christmas tree decorations. Even if the practice of sending cards continues to dwindle, there will always be the robin worn on a Christmas jumper or decorating the wrapping paper used for Christmas presents.
The robin is also found in earlier folk tales associated with Christianity and the birth of Jesus. There was said to be a robin in the manger who flapped his wings to fan the fire which was in danger of going out. The flame revived, mother and baby were kept warm, but the little brown bird scorched his breast. There is a different version which takes place later, when Jesus was on the cross. A robin pulled out a thorn from his crown and sang to him to try and ease his suffering. In this version a drop of blood fell onto the robin’s breast and coloured it.
We seem to have at least two resident robins in the Orchard which is surprising as they are usually very territorial birds. It is interesting that they are always referred to as the ‘red robin’ because when you really look, their breast is orange. This tells us that the bird was named before the English language had a word for orange – rather like the ‘scarlet pimpernel’ flower which looks perfectly orange to my eyes. The robin has been our national bird since 1960, and is a favourite of the public, especially gardeners and those who like to feed their wild visitors.
I straighten up to stretch my back, I can see the holly tree already decorated with many scarlet berries shining through the drizzle. Perhaps they foretell a hard winter to come? Like the robin, holly has a place in both Christian beliefs and earlier pagan myths. The robin helped to keep the new-born baby Jesus warm and was rewarded with his red breast, the holly protected Jesus from King Herod’s men and was rewarded by being made evergreen. In this story, Mary hid the baby under a holly bush which sprouted thorns to protect him. Later, prickly holly became associated with the crown of thorns worn at the crucifixion and its berries symbolised drops of Jesus’s blood.
It is said that holly was sacred to the Druids and thought to offer protection against evil spirits and bad luck, but it must have been rather uncomfortable when worn in the hair. At one time in Ireland holly was planted near houses and churches to ward off witches and protect against lightening. It was brought into houses for decoration before we had Christmas trees. During the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which took place around this time of year, holly wreaths were given as gifts – so they at least go back at least two thousand years. Worth remembering when you hang one on your front door.
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| Holly & Ivy photos courtesy of Christine Davis |
One of my favourite Christmas carols is ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ and we have plenty of ivy in the Orchard too. Nearest to where I’m crouched in the mud, it scrambles out of the hedge and climbs the old apple tree trunk, if we let it. Because it clings and won’t easily let go, ivy has come to symbolize fidelity, and also eternal life because like holly it is an evergreen. These beliefs go back as far as ancient Greece and Egypt. In early times, holly stood for the man and ivy for the woman, and this symbolism continued at least into Tudor times. Henry VIII wrote a love song telling how he (the holly) would be faithful to his beloved (the ivy). With the holly crown being associated with Christ, the Christian tradition associated ivy with the Virgin Mary, so the two plants remained linked.
Cecil Sharp collected and published the lovely carol that we know. ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ is also related to an older carol described by Sharp as: "The Contest of the Ivy and the Holly", a contest between the traditional emblems of woman and man.
Holly stands in the hall, fair to behold:
Ivy stands without the door, she is full sore a cold.Nay, ivy, nay, it shall not be I wis;
Let holly have the mastery, as the manner is.
Holly and his merry men, they dance and they sing,
Ivy and her maidens, they weep and they wring.Nay, ivy, nay, etc
Ivy hath chapped fingers, she caught them from the cold,
So might they all have, aye, that with ivy hold.
Nay, ivy, nay, etc
Holly hath berries red as any rose,
The forester, the hunter, keep them from the does.
Nay, ivy, nay, etc
Ivy hath berries black as any sloe;
There come the owl and eat him as she go.
Nay, ivy, nay, etc
Holly hath birds a fair full flock,
The nightingale, the popinjay, the gentle laverock.
Nay, ivy, nay, etc
Good ivy, what birds hast thou?
None but the owlet that cries how, how.
Nay, ivy, nay, etc
Well, poor ivy may not have many birds but it is a very important plant for wildlife. Both the nectar and the berries are very valuable resources when other food is scarce. In late autumn the flowering ivy can be alive with all sorts of bees and wasps, and the beautiful red admiral butterflies. The holly blue butterfly is another one you may see in the Orchard, there are two generations. The first spring caterpillars to emerge eat mainly holly, the summer ones move on to ivy. Holly berries also provide food for the birds.
Ivy was sacred to the Egyptian god Osiris, the ruler of the underworld. And in ancient Greece, it was sacred to Dionysus the god of both wine and orchards. Both holly and ivy have long been used to decorate Churches, they are mentioned in churchwardens’ accounts from the fifteenth century. I love tucking sprigs of both these evergreens behind the picture frames on Christmas Eve, it’s become one of my own traditions.
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| Holly King copyright Anne Stokes |
There is quite a lot of folklore associated with holly and robins, not least the eternal battle between the Holly King of Winter (a wren) and the Oak King of Summer (a robin). At the Winter Solstice the robin or Oak King drives the wren or Holly King away, days now start to lengthen as the wheel of the year turns once again. The reverse happens at the Summer Solstice when the Holly King returns.
Christine Davis December 2023
Sources
Gemma Sharp at Gardenbird.co.ukhttps://interestingliterature.com/2021/05/ivy-symbolism-in-literature-religion-mythology-analysis-meaning/ For a full account of ivy in literature
Oxfordreference.com for Christmas decorations
Scottish Wildlife Trust
Wikipedia
https://www.wildlifewatch.org.uk
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