THE MAGIC IVY

According to the ancient legend, a young man named Cisso, who performed in the festivals in honor of Bacchus with reckless jumps and acrobatics, had a serious accident one day. 
The divine Bacchus, who had become attached to the young man, to prevent me from dying, was then transformed into a plant, ivy, capable of tearing apart any surface. 
From the ancient legend was born the artistic habit of portraying Bacchus with an ivy crown on his head and with the chalice wrapped in ivy branches.
Since, therefore, the planta is sacred to Bacchus, among the Greeks and then among the Latins, the convention spread that surrounding the forehead with a crown of ivy prevented the effects due to intoxication from excess wine. The belief was so rooted that even the ancient writers documented that, to appease a hangover, it was enough to boil some ivy leaves in wine and drink it all. 
The ancients also believed that the plant could separate the water from the wine with its leaves, in reality nowadays it is known that the fibers of the ivy leaves do not separate the water from the wine but absorb the molecules pigmented by wine and other liquids. 
Even today, in the taverns of small urban centres, it is a village tradition to hang a sprig of ivy outside the door to signal the production of wine.
In Celtic mythology, ivy was once connected to the cult of the snake and dragon, which represent the symbols of the afterlife.

Finally, in recent decades it has been discovered that helix ivy has the ability to remove harmful substances from the air, especially in closed environments, in particular formaldehyde which is automatically produced by electrical objects commonly used in homes. Recent studies carried out by NASA, the American aerospace agency, have scientifically demonstrated that ivy has proved to be a very efficient plant for purifying the air, therefore, in summary, it can be said that it is the best houseplant one can have.

In the language of flowers and plants, ivy symbolizes continuity and fidelity. It is the most suitable plant to be given on Valentine's Day because of its heart-shaped leaves that cling inextricably to everything around them. Even in ancient Greece it symbolized union and fidelity, crowns of ivy leaves were, in fact, used to crown the heads of the spouses on their wedding day. When you give a seedling as a gift, it means being attached to the person to whom you give it.