This is a clip from the Weird Walk Home. You can access the entire episode now on our website and all podcast platforms.

The tradition of bringing evergreen trees and evergreen plants into the home during the winter months is a long-standing one.

In researching for this episode, I found several conflicting claims about the original year

that this practice was established, and therefore I must simply say that the tradition has been

around for quite the age. Appropriately, I may add, as it is often

said that the evergreen is the only type of plant to survive the harsh winter in a lively state,

and that people in years past would bring them into the home in order to encourage cheer,

during this time as a reminder that more life would return soon.

In truth, it makes perfect sense to me that people would fill the winter season with as much merriment,

food, drink, and activity as possible in order to distract

themselves from the bleak reality of the weather outside, with its uncomfortable temperatures

and explicit dangers. But could there be more to the bringing in of the evergreens?

Could it be that human people are not the only ones coming home for the season?

A popular figure in Pagan Paths is the Green Man.

Who is he and what might he have to do with our beloved living room Evergreens?

According to a website called Spiritof the Greenman.co.uk. The green man is found in many forms throughout history.

He is to be found in many different guises, but the common feature is the face covered by foliage,

very often sprouting from their mouths.

He is often found carved in wood or stone in medieval churches and cathedrals.

Why they were included in the construction of these buildings by the Masons has perhaps been lost in the mists of time.

Some people suspect that he was a bridge between the new beliefs of Christianity and the pagan

beliefs it replaced.

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