Christmas Wreaths

[JamesWhitehead]

Sombre green: someone's dead. Baubles: xmas.

It was traditional in some families to place wreaths on graves, so that the dead could share in the season.

My mother certainly did it into the 1980s. I suppose they might have appreciated a libation more - a bottle of Bristol Cream, for instance - poured on the ground in the manner of the Greeks. Then it would have got all complicated with Auntie Gertie preferring advocaat and Auntie Phyllis a life-long abstainer . . .

The distinction between wreaths and garlands made by CuriousIdent is not one I recognize. Perhaps retailers now avoid the funereal association of the w-word? :adored:

 

[Frideswide]

Trust you lot to take it to extremes!

I think we can put that down as an extreme No!

 

[Frideswide]

Also Maiden's Garlands!

 

[Min Bannister]

The distinction between wreaths and garlands made by CuriousIdent is not one I recognize. Perhaps retailers now avoid the funereal association of the w-word? :adored:

Me neither.

This is all very interesting. I thought it might be a north/ south thing but it seems much more nuanced than that.

 

[Dr_Baltar]

I wouldn't necessarily regard a garland as circular like a wreath. I would more usually use that name for the open-ended lengths of tinsel you wrap around a Xmas tree, for example.

 

[escargot]

I suppose they might have appreciated a libation more - a bottle of Bristol Cream, for instance - poured on the ground in the manner of the Greeks.

The old Irish joke is that at the grave of a good friend a bottle of the finest whiskey is offered, first filtered thoughtfully through the kidneys...

 

[escargot]

I'd assume a holly wreath is meant to look like the mock crown that Jesus wore.

I have no real opinion about Radio 4.

Ah now you may be thinking of the carol 'The Holly and the Ivy', which labours the point a bit about how the various bits of the holly plant evoke aspects of the Nativity.

 

[escargot]

I wouldn't necessarily regard a garland as circular like a wreath. I would more usually use that name for the open-ended lengths of tinsel you wrap around a Xmas tree, for example.

Yup, 'garland' to me suggests something a little more tangled and open than 'wreath', which sounds more dense and formal.

You could also wear a garland, if say you were a Greek maiden or woodland spirit, whereas nobody wears a wreath.

 

[Frideswide]

garland to me is either something you can arrange in swags, or something more like a lei that drapes....

 

[EnolaGaia]

Yup, 'garland' to me suggests something a little more tangled and open than 'wreath', which sounds more dense and formal.

You could also wear a garland, if say you were a Greek maiden or woodland spirit, whereas nobody wears a wreath.

I think it's a matter of terminological divergent evolution. Both 'garland' and 'wreath' trace back to literally or representationally botanical artifacts, most commonly starting with bands (e.g., circlets) worn on the head.

If you check reference sources you'll find older / more formal ones in which they're treated as synonyms.

Nowadays we seem more prone to (e.g.) call a loosely plaited daisy chain worn on a girl's head a 'garland', and reserve 'wreath' for something more rigid. However, 'wreath' is still the preferred term for the rigid botanical crowns worn for (e.g.) certain Xmas celebrations (e.g., Lucia).

'Garland' is also used for looser, draping items like floral necklaces and the tinsel wrapped around Xmas trees.

My theory is that 'wreath' came to more commonly denote something rigid - whether worn on the head, hung on a wall / door, or erected on a free-standing tripod.

Meanwhile, 'garland' came to be a catch-all term for floral / botanical items used any which way as decorative add-ons.

 

[Frideswide]

"garland" is also used for eg the Castleton Garland!

 

[Swifty]

An elderly lady who lives a couple of doors down for us makes us seasonal wreaths/garlands/clumps of artificial flowers every three months .. it's a longish story why but she does so we've got her winter one on display in our front garden .. there was a bit of bartering this year about it, we got the feeling that she wanted to do one for us more than we wanted one because ..

A: "Don't tell anyone I've made it for you
B: "Can you find some fern for me, this exact type of fern" so we did but she rejected it
C: "These flowers are getting more expensive every year"
E: What happened to D?
and D: "Oh there it is!"

(thanks to the writers of the spitting image book for that final joke)

She's done a great job of it again though ..

 

[GNC]

I associate garlands with flowers, and a more spring/summery time of year. Always called the Christmas version a wreath, when there's not too many flowers about.