THE FOLKLORE OF PLANTS: Cedar

Lisa Karen Miller

          Between 1925 and 2004, an estimated 27 million miniature cedar chests were given to graduating high school girls through The Lane Company’s Girl Graduate Plan.

          I still have mine.

          Company lore says that employees started making these as a hobby in their homes, using offcuts of the cedar that lined the large hope chests.  Their wives and girlfriends went crazy over them, as they were just right for jewelry or trinkets. 

          The top brass took notice, and came up with the idea of giving them to graduating girls, to inspire them (or their parents) to invest in Lane hope chests or even a house full of furniture.

          People married young in those days.   

          No promotional scheme, before or since, was so successful for the company. For more of a stroll down this cedar-lined memory lane, visit lanecedarbox.com.

         Cedar became the wood of choice for wardrobes and chests because of its moth-repelling ability.  If lining your closet with it is not in your budget, you can buy small cedar blocks or balls, and spray them with cedar oil.  If these are combined with bags of lavender or thyme, moths won’t stand a chance.

          Just down the road is the Cedars of Lebanon State Park and Forest in Lebanon, Tennessee. For early settlers, the many Eastern Red Cedars there called to mind the Biblical cedar forests that grew on Mount Lebanon.  It’s a truly beautiful place to picnic, camp, or hike.

          A legend tells us that the early Cherokee people thought life would be better if there were no night.  They asked the Creator to make it so, and he did.  They toiled under the hot sun many more hours, found it hard to sleep, and began quarrelling among themselves.

          Sensing they had made a mistake, they asked the Creator to give them only night.  It was much colder, they couldn’t see to hunt, and crops wouldn’t grow.  A great many died.

          Those remaining decided the Creator had known what he was doing in the first place, and asked him to restore the earth as he had made it, with day and night, good and bad, joy and sorrow – everything in twos, as it should be.

          To show compassion for all who had died, he created a new tree – “a-tsi-na tlu-gv” – the cedar. In it, he placed their spirits. This tree holds powerful protection magic for the Cherokee. It is often placed above the entrance to the house, or carried in a medicine pouch.

          If you have even a drop of Cherokee blood, when you meet a cedar, you are meeting an ancestor.

© Copyright 2023 Lisa Karen Miller