In ancient Rome, ivy, Hedra helix, was a symbol of wine and merriment but was adopted by Christians as a sign of the human weakness that needs to cling to divine strength. In England it was frequently used as a greenery with which to decorate churches at Christmas, particularly in company with holly, with whom it is celebrated in song. In Scotland it was useful in divination. Young women would pluck an ivy life, hold it to their hearts and say: “Ivy, Ivy, I love you;/ In my bosom I put you,/ The first young man who speaks to me/ My future husband shall be.”
The plant, when hung in milksheds, was said to prevent souring and was also a preventative for baldness and corns. Its other medicinal uses can be read in this early-modern account:
The juice of the berries or leaves snuffed up into the nose, purges the head and brain of thin rheum that makes defluxions into the eyes and nose, and curing the ulcers and stench therein; the same dropped into the ears helps the old and running sores of them; those that are troubled with the spleen shall find much ease by continual drinking out of a cup made of Ivy, so as the drink may stand some small time therein before it be drank.
And as for ivy’s Christmas companion, holly, an English legend proclaims: “Whosoever against holly doth cry,/ In a rope shall be hung full high.” For, when the oak and ash trees babbled to the wind, and betrayed the Saviour’s hiding-place, the holly, the ivy, and the pine kept the secret hidden in their silent hearts; and for this good deed they stand green and living under winter’s icy breath, while their companions shiver naked in the blast. Not till the risen sun has danced on Easter morn shall the oak adorn a Christian household and prove itself forgiven.