The symbol of the pine cone is not only linked to the Sicilian imagination, but has very ancient roots that date back to the Babylonian, Egyptian and even Greek civilizations
A symbol that everyone surely knows, an object that you probably have at home or that perhaps you have just given to newlyweds, but whose long history you perhaps don't know: I'm referring to the ceramic pine cone .
In Sicilian culture, the pine cone represents good omen, health and prosperity , in fact, it is often given as a gift on the occasion of a wedding. However, the symbol of the pine cone is not only linked to the Sicilian imagination, but has very ancient roots , it is in fact found in the Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek civilizations
The scientific name of the pine cone is strobilo, commonly called cone. The pine cone is the ''fruit'' of the pine, an evergreen tree, and therefore embodies the life force, eternity, continuous regeneration and is also associated with the idea of the divine and immortality.
The seeds symbolize generative force and fertility. In Sicily, as we were saying, precisely to wish for prosperity, the pine cone is given as a gift to young couples, but today it is also given on other occasions: births, graduations, anniversaries or to inaugurate a new home. The Sicilian pine cone is now a real good luck charm.
Let us now discover the meanings of the long iconographic tradition linked to the pine cone. The pine cone has often been associated with the pineal gland (or ''third eye'').
It is an endocrine gland of the brain which has the shape of a pine cone and has aroused interest since ancient times, in fact it was also studied in the Middle Ages, in the Renaissance, up to the accurate studies of today.
Its dimensions are very small, equal to approximately one centimeter in length and half in width, and its weight is around half a gram. In many cultures it is considered the seat of the soul, even according to Descartes, a seventeenth-century French philosopher.
All these meanings are carefully preserved by the hands of skilled ceramic artisans , who create pine cones of large or small dimensions, with extraordinary mastery.
Do not underestimate, therefore, the gift of a pine cone, which, as we have seen, is not a simple ornament but much more.