Culture
Holly - more specifically the European holly, Ilex aquifolium - is commonly referenced at Christmas time. In many western cultures, holly is a traditional Christmas decoration, used especially in wreaths and illustrations, for instance on Christmas cards. Since medieval times the plant has carried a Christian symbolism, as expressed in the well-known carol "The Holly and the Ivy". However, the association of holly with winter celebrations almost certainly pre-dates Christianity. Druids wore holly wreaths on their heads.
In heraldry, holly is used to symbolise truth.
The Norwegian municipality of Stord has a yellow twig of holly in its Coat-of-arms.
Read more about this topic: Ilex
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“The best hopes of any community rest upon that class of its gifted young men who are not encumbered with large possessions.... I now speak of extensive scholarship and ripe culture in science and art.... It is not large possessions, it is large expectations, or rather large hopes, that stimulate the ambition of the young.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“To assault the total culture totally is to be free to use all the fruits of mankind’s wisdom and experience without the rotten structure in which these glories are encased and encrusted.”
—Judith Malina (b. 1926)