Southern Welcome

The Welcoming Pineapple

The pineapple has been a universal symbol of hospitality and welcome for many centuries all over the world.

During the colonial days in in America, a hostess's ability to have a pineapple for an important dining event said as much about her rank as it did about her resourcefulness. So sought after were the prickly fruits that colonial confectioners sometimes rented them to households by the day. Later, the same fruit was sold to other, more affluent clients who actually ate it. As you might imagine, hostesses would have gone to great lengths to conceal the fact that the pineapple that was the visual apogee of their table display and a central topic of their guests' conversation was only rented.

The Pineapple symbolized the utmost in welcome and hospitality to your visitor. Often when the visitor spent the night, he was given the bedroom which had the pineapples carved on the bedposts or headboard--even if the bedroom belonged to the head of the household.

I took these pictures in Charleston, South Carolina. The pineapples are everywhere. I wish I would have taken a lot more pictures of them. Charleston is such a welcoming and charming southern city. One of my favorites.