Although Christianity tried hard to obliterate all signs of the earlier Pagan beliefs, it sometimes wasn’t averse to adapting Pagan traditions to serve its own purposes. This included the lighting of candles, the use of incense and the use of plants for 'magical' or ritual purposes.
In fact, much of what we actually know about pagan practices in Europe comes from Christian edicts listing what was, and was not acceptable! These edicts continued into the early middle ages, showing just how persistent pagan practices were, and how difficult they were to remove.
Basically, whatever could not be absorbed was demonised. Mistletoe is a good example of a plant that was so closely associated with paganism (and druidry in particular) that it was banned from churches for many years.
The ban on bringing plants with white flowers into the house is another example. In the UK and many parts of northern Europe these were collectively known as 'Mother Die' plants. The received 'wisdom' was that if you brought these plants indoors you would cause your mother to die.
I suspect this was to discourage people from earlier pagan practices which seemed to focus on bringing plants indoors for certain festivals, or at least hanging them above windows and doors.
So, for example, in ancient Greece or Rome there were Spring festivals in honour of Hermes / Mercury to make the land fertile. As soon as people saw the first green shoots they went out into the fields to collect some greenery and bring it indoors, believing that its life force could transfer from the plants to people, animals and fields.
The Church appears to have taken this festival over (as it did with so many festivals it could not eradicate) claiming that the ‘greenery’ represented the Palms in the Biblical story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.
This might seem a wild claim, especially since palms don't grow in much of northern Europe. BUT, in actual fact, rather than use real Palms on Palm Sunday, for centuries the Church retained the same local plants that had always been used in the earlier Pagan rites. At one time or another such substitutes included Box, Olive, Cypress, Bay, Beech, Holly, Juniper, Yew, Myrtle, Red Cedar, and Willow.
These ‘Palms’ were often taken home on Palm Sunday to be hung up in the house or even placed in the corners of newly sown fields to protect them.
Likewise the Roman Catholic tradition of ‘receiving the ashes’ on Ash Wednesday, which dates from 1091, may actually have its roots in something much older. Nowadays the ‘ashes’ are mostly from charcoal but originally they were from the burned ‘Palms’ of the previous Palm Sunday, which were not palms at all, but Box sprigs. Since very early Pagan times, both the ash and smoke from a Box twig was believed to have magical properties.
So in fact the Christian church was not only using a plant revered by Pagans but also was doing so in a form that Pagans would have well understood!
Apologies for not having replied to your comments recdently - I really do appreciate your kind thoughts and blessings... I am trying to get back to blogging and commenting again but at the moment it takes much longer than it used to. Hope to catch up with everyone again soon! 
) only to bump into someone he didn't know who started to rant, 'It's like bloody Paris here!' (only he didn't say 'bloody.')
