Cultural Significance
Silver Birch is Finland's national tree. Occasionally one uses leafy, fragrant boughs of Silver Birch to gently beat oneself in a sauna. The boughs are called vihta or vasta. This has a relaxing effect on the muscles.
Land of the Silver Birch is a traditional Canadian folk song, though the birch referred to is actually a different species, Paper Birch Betula papyrifera.
In Sweden, the bark of birch trees was ground up and used to make a form of bread. The removal of bark was at one time so widespread that Carl Linnaeus expressed his concern for the survival of the woodlands.
Read more about this topic: Betula Pendula
Famous quotes containing the words cultural and/or significance:
“The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative social values, raising tradition on a pedestal. It expresses and confirms, rather than explains or questions, the sources of cultural attitudes and values.... Because myth anchors the present in the past it is a sociological charter for a future society which is an exact replica of the present one.”
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“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
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