The Story of Ivy...

What connects an Oxford murder, a door that is only opened once a year for 10 minutes, the killing of a goldcrest wren, cruelty to girls, a sheaf of corn, pinching and Vincent?

The answer is ivy.

Ivy appears frequently in customs and beliefs in Britain.

In the stories of ancient religion, the god-king Belin killed his twin Bran at midwinter and Bran killed Belin at midsummer. This was enacted on earth by the sacrifice of a sacred king.

Later, a child or animal was substituted for the king and eventually the killing was limited to the sacred birds of each god. Belin’s sacred bird was a robin and Bran’s was a goldcrest wren.

Until recently, in some places, the wren boys would go out on Boxing Day to beat ivy bushes with sticks to find and kill a wren which they would put on a stick and parade through the village.

Now this tradition is limited to folk song and dancing by wren boys and no birds are killed.

There are no customs related to killing a robin at midsummer but the old song says, “Who killed cock robin? I said the sparrow”.

In Devon dialect, the gold crest is cuddyvran, which means Bran’s sparrow.

A pole wreathed in ivy was traditionally put up outside houses that were selling ale. Ivy was sometimes added to ale to make it more intoxicating.

Today, ivy ale is only made at Lincoln College Oxford on Ascension Day. In the fifteenth century, a Brasenose College student was being chased by a mob of townsfolk, he got to Lincoln College gate and hammered and
screamed at the door but the door was not opened and the mob killed him.

In recompense, ever since, ivy ale is brewed at Lincoln College and a door opening into Brasenose College next door, that is kept closed all year, is opened for 10 minutes and Brasenose students are allowed through to get free ale. Then the door is closed for another year.

In some parishes in the past the last sheaf of the harvest was bound in ivy and given to the farmer as a reproach for laziness. The sheaf was fixed to a barn till the spring and was called the ivy girl, a name that was transferred to any assertive girl.

Church warden’s accounts mention holly and ivy being used to decorate churches at Christmas from the fifteenth century.

The carol The Holly and the Ivy was written by a broadside seller in Birmingham in 1710 and is made up of lines from older Christmas songs that were randomly joined together.

The lines “The Holly and the Ivy when they are both full grown, of all the trees that are in the wood the holly bears the crown” have a sinister meaning.

There is a manuscript in the British Museum that says:
Holly stands in the hall, fair to behold:
Ivy stands without the door, she is full sore a cold.
Nay, ivy, nay, it shall not be I wis;
Let holly have the mastery, as the manner is.
Holly and his merry men, they dance and they sing,
Ivy and her maidens, they weep and they wring.
Nay, ivy, nay, it shall not be I wis;
Let holly have the mastery, as the manner is.
Ivy hath chapped fingers, she caught them from the cold,
So might they all have, aye, that with ivy hold.
Nay, ivy, nay, it shall not be I wis;
Let holly have the mastery, as the manner is.

On Yule morning, Twelfth Night, the last day of Father Christmas’s (the Lord of Misrule’s) merry reign, the first over the threshold had to be a dark man, the holly boy.

Women were kept away till later when holly boys and ivy girls would contend for precedence with forfeits and ribald songs. But of course, in the end the holly boys always won. The holly bears the crown.

Our New Year customs come from Yule traditions as a January New Year only started in 1752 before that the new year started on Lady Day, March 25.

On the first of the month children used often to be attacked with the cry of “Pinch punch first of the month”. But if a child had an ivy leaf they could pinch their attacker 10 times.

Vincent van Gogh is famous for painting sunflowers. He painted them for Paul Gauguin’s room to make him feel at home. Gauguin was born in Peru and the sunflower used to be known as the chrysanthemum of Peru.
But Vincent’s favourite plant, that reminded him of his happiest days, grows over his grave at Auver sur Oise and that is ivy.