In neighborhoods of single family homes many if not most front doors sport a wreath of some sort. Double doors have two wreaths, for visual balance. Where I grew up, on the other hand, a wreath was something you ordered from the florist when somebody died. A wreath was something funereal that ended up in the cemetery decorating a grave. Certainly not anybody’s front door. So I was curious what the meaning of the ubiquitous front door wreath might be.
I have asked around but so far I have not found anybody who had a better explanation than “my parents always had a wreath on the door”. I could make a few guesses. What if the roundness of the wreath — no beginning, no end — symbolizes the home owner’s wish for permanence, the “home sweet home” idea. In the past this certainly made sense. The house remained in the family, generation after generation. When you consider, however, how common it now is to sell and buy real estate, and also how mobile the population has become, passing things on to the next generation is more of a fiction than a reality.
In Antiquity winners of sports events and emperors (being also winners of sorts) wore a laurel wreath on their heads to symbolized victory. “Hail to you, wearing the winner’s wreath”, goes the text of a German hymn. It is unlikely that this might be the meaning of the common door wreath unless the owners of the house celebrate the paying off of the mortgage, which certainly qualifies as a victory.
There is considerable variety among wreaths. Some are made from real sticks, branches, flowers, and berries. Most, I am afraid, from more durable and less wilt-prone plastic. The plastic ones in particular, if they were meant to propitiate any gods, will not do. The gods would know the difference. So whom are we kidding? Not anyone, actually. I have concluded that hanging out a wreath is just something we do. It does not mean anything beyond that. It is done by religious people as well as by more secularist folks.
Except right now, in the Christmas season, when all the regular wreaths are replaced by advent or christmas wreaths, i.e. wreaths made from green branches of deciduous trees. Suddenly a bit of religious or spiritual sentiment is injected into the practice. The evergreen material of which the wreath is made now may signify faithful endurance, no flagging or weakening, come summer or winter. The round shape of the wreath stands for life. Perhaps once around for this life, and then round and round for eternity, rather a stern warning for the faithful.
But the green christmas wreaths, as well as their plastic stand-ins, are also enthusiastically hung out by heathens who decidedly are in the majority. How else can one explain the prevalence in my neighborhood of inflatable Snoopies, snowmen, and reindeer on peoples’ front lawns and the apparently complete absence of manger scenes and shepherds carrying lambs.
And there are not many wise men in evidence, either. But I will let that go.
(c) 2017 by Herbert H. Hoffman.