Sacred Groves
A sacred grove or sacred woods are any grove of trees of special religious importance to a particular culture. Sacred groves were most prominent in the Ancient Near East and prehistoric Europe, but feature in various cultures throughout the world.
They were important features of the mythological landscape and cult practice of Celtic, Baltic, Germanic, ancient Greek, Near Eastern, Roman, and Slavic polytheism, and were also used in India, Japan, and West Africa. Examples of sacred groves include the Greco-Roman temenos, the Norse hörgr, and the Celtic nemeton, which was largely but not exclusively associated with Druidic practice. During the Northern Crusades, there was a common practice of building churches on the sites of sacred groves.
Ancient holy trees still exist in the English countryside and are mentioned often in folklore and fairytales.
Read more about Sacred Groves: Sacred Woods, Groves and Trees in Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words sacred and/or groves:
“I never drank of Aganippe well,
Nor ever did in shade of Tempe sit,
And muses scorn with vulgar brains to dwell;
Poor layman I, for sacred rites unfit.
Some do I hear of poets’ fury tell,
But, God wot, wot not what they mean by it;
And this I swear by blackest brook of hell,
I am no pickpurse of another’s wit.”
—Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586)
“In the groves of their academy, at the end of every vista, you see nothing but the gallows.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)