Paganism is on the rise. It all started with “The Wicker Man”
Human sacrifice apart, the film made a life shaped by ancient traditions seem rather appealing
WHEN KING CHARLES III put a picture of a Green Man on the invitations to his coronation in May, there was much discussion of what the leafy-faced symbol might signify. Was Britain’s new monarch hinting that he was a pagan? Or was he referring to the Green Man Inn in “The Wicker Man”, a classic British film which was released 50 years ago, in December 1973?
Most royal-watchers agreed that His Majesty is probably just a lover of the great outdoors and had not succumbed to Wicker-mania. (The Green Man is not so much a pagan symbol as one of rebirth more generally.) But the film is so influential that the theory cannot be discounted altogether.
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