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GEOPARK BLOG

GEOPARK ARTIST PROJECT - ANNA KELEHER Researching the Agency of Things + Talking With Things. Supported by the National Lottery though Arts Council England

Ancient logo - Wreath 

I'm finding out about the Geopark and that means getting around and about doing things I don't normally do. I've been helping out around the Geopark, learning what it is and what happens within it.

Today I had fun helping Geopark Rangers Sarah, Emily and Meg to run a drop in Tree Dressing/ wreath making workshop next to the farmyard at Occombe.

Many people of different ages and abilities dropped in to make Natural Christmas wreaths. The workshop set me thinking  about how Nature shapes Culture and I also thought a bit more about the Circle.

Wreath - an Ancient Logo !!

Young willow, hazel and birch wands cut from the hedgerow are just the right length to make a wreath to hang on the front door around Christmas time. The flexible greenwood stems seem almost to want to bend into  shape. Three or four bendy sticks wound into a circle form a stout support for evergreen leaves and red holly berries. And the wreath doubles as a mid-winter crown. The Greeks and the Romans wore wreaths a lot and we know that the leaves they chose to adorn them with had special meaning for them. For many of us Ivy and holly are very Christmassy plants.

The wreaths we made today will look lovely on our front doors at home, for sure, but can you imagine them on the tiny doors of cosy Bronze Age roundhouses, like those of prehistoric Dartmoor?

As we all know the circle is a very ancient symbol, its meaning forging a connection to the sun, moon and planets and also to the cycle of the seasons. Have you noticed how fond we still are of the circle today?

Think plate, coin, eye, wheel, pizza, football, the five circles of the Olympiad and of the circle logo was chosen for both the Global and National Geopark Logos.

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