Thursday, December 10, 2009

TRIVIA BITS … CHRISTMAS WREATH

TRIVIA BITS … CHRISTMAS WREATH
The first sign of Christmas is the hanging of the Christmas wreath from the front door of the house. People take a lot of pain to make their wreaths look different from those of the other people. Most of them have never ever tried to find out the history and origin of the Christmas wreath. The Christmas wreath dates back to the ancient cultures of the Persian Empire. During that time, wreaths were believed to be a symbol of importance as well as success. They were much smaller in size than the present ones and were known as 'diadems'. People used to wear the wreaths as headbands, sometimes along with jewels also. Somewhere around the 776 BC, Greeks started placing wreaths, made of laurel, on the head of the athletes who came first in the Olympic Games. Even in ancient Rome, the chief of leaders, like Julius Caesar, used to wear wreath on his head, just like the crown of a king. The transition of the wreaths from a headgear to a wall/door decoration is not known with much accuracy. However, it is believed that once an athlete decided to save the headgear as a souvenir of his/her victory. From then onwards, started the tradition of using wreaths as a Christmas door/wall decoration.

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