Today’s quiz: What is a wreath?

A) Holiday decoration

B) A sign of victory

C) A symbol of Advent

D) A request for longer days in Scandinavia

E) The representation of earth, wind, water, fire

F) The circle of life

G) A fund raiser for the Albert Lea Art Center

H) All of the above

I) None of the above

It’s probably not fair to give you a test before discussing the question, but please bear with me.

For more than twenty years, the Albert Lea Art Center has been sponsoring the annual Festival of Trees. It is the opportunity for area organizations and friends to decorate a tree, oftentimes with a theme that is unique to their mission or passion, and to make that tree available for the public enjoyment. This event has grown from a small display often trees in 1987 co-sponsored by the Wa-Tan-Ye Service Club to three galleries of holiday decorations in 2009. The Festival is a fun piece of Christmas tradition in Albert Lea. Please consider this your invitation to join us between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Last year, for the first time, we decided to sell decorated wreaths for a fundraiser. It turned out to be a successful and fun project, so we are doing it again this year. Wreaths donated by members will be on sale with the proceeds all going to the Art Center. Please plan to do a bit of your own holiday decorating and help out the Art Center at the same time. Your support is much appreciated.

Back to the quiz – Before writing this column, I checked my dictionary for the definition of the word wreath. The answer was simple and direct and didn’t give me the help that I wanted, so I turned to Google. This is what I learned.

Wreaths are an eternal part of the holiday season and their use goes back thousands of years. In ancient Greece the wreath was awarded to victors in sporting events, and in Rome a wreath was a sign of victory in sports as well as war. It was hung on the door of the homes of the winners in battle.

Instead of numbers to identify houses, ancient tradition finds the decorated wreath as identifying a particular house. For example, “My home is the one with the autumn leaves/sunflowers/family crest on the wreath.” This reminds me of the old cities and towns that identified businesses by the decorative signs over the door – fish for the fish market, a pretzel at the bakery, a shoe at the shoe repairman.

In Scandinavia, wreaths feature candles which light the winter nights and are a sign of hope encouraging the god of light to turn the world towards the sun once more.

In many churches in America, the Advent wreath with its four candles symbolizes the coming of Christmas, and for many years it has been a significant part of the Christian holiday.

Native American tradition emphasizes the circle of life representing the four directions: north, east, south and west.

Early pagan rituals of mid-winter featured wreaths containing four candles which represented earth, wind, water and fire.

Today’s Christmas wreath still symbolizes many different things to many different people. Because the shape of the circle has no beginning or ending, it represents eternal life, and the evergreen boughs signify strength of life.

Maybe for you, the wreath simply means a lovely decorative piece for your home. Whatever its meaning, it promises to enhance your holiday season.

How did you do on the quiz? If you answered H) All of the above, you either read my column before answering, or you know a lot more about wreaths than I do/did.

Please stop at the Art Center, enjoy the holiday decorations and Christmas trees, and take home a “circle of tradition.”

Bev Jackson Cotter is a member of the Albert Lea Art Center, where the Festival of Trees and sale of wreaths will be held from Nov. 27 through Dec. 31.