Welsh Love Spoons Featuring a Bird Symbol

Bird Symbol

The bird symbol is deeply meaningful and wide-spread. They are symbolic of love, peace or, in the case of the stork, a new birth.

Birds are commonly associated with love due to the fact that most bird species are known to be monogamous.

We find the stork depicted in numerous ancient mythologies; most notably Greek, Egyptian and Norse. Its association with new born babies is expected to have derived from Germany at least six hundred years ago. Around this time, summer was commonly associated with fertility. Summer was also when the storks would migrate, only returning to Europe in the spring nine months later. As a result of these coinciding events, the stork found its place as a symbol of new birth.

Another popular bird symbol is the dove which is symbolic of peace. The most notable depiction of this association is found in the story of Noah. After Noah sent a dove to find land after the flood, it returned with an olive branch. Both the dove and olive branch then became symbolic of the new era of peace on Earth, and God’s peace with humanity.