>My wife asks "Why are red and green Christmas colors?
>
>Does anyone know the answer?
>
>Jim
Dear Mrs. Jim:
Holly (cf. carol, "The Holly and the Ivy"). Green = alive in winter (cf.
mistletoe). Red = blood (of Christ). Or so my folk memory tells me. Holly
was the only tree bearing green leaves and red berries in winter in the
British Isles before the advent of exotic ornamentals. My (English) family
still puts a spring of holly on the Christmas pudding (as per Dickensian
illustrations), although it gets fried in the burning brandy.
BTW: one could write a book identifying and tracking down the history of
the many Christmas traditions that Dickens gathered together in _Christmas
Carol_: many of them are medieval.
Lyndon Reynolds.
- - -
Lyndon Reynolds (Emory University), [log in to unmask]
Aquinas Center of Theology
1703 Clifton Road #F-5
Atlanta, GA 30329, U.S.A.
(404) 727-8861 FAX: (404) 727-8862.
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