Crown headgear: Encyclopedia II - Crown headgear - As an emblem

Crown headgear - As an emblem

A Crown is often an emblem of the monarchy, a monarch's government, or items endorsed by it; see The Crown. A specific type of crown (or coronet for lower ranks of peerage) is employed in heraldry under strict rules. Indeed some monarchies never had a physical crown, just a heraldic representation, as in the constitutional kingdom of Belgium, where no coronation ever took place; the royal installation is done by a solemn oath in parliament, wearing a military uniform: the King is not acknowledged as by divine right, but assumes the only hereditary public office in the service of the law; so he in turn will swear in all members of "his" federal government.

• Costume headgear imitating a monarch's crown is also called a crown. Such costume crowns may be worn by actors portraying a monarch, people at costume parties, or ritual "monarchs" such as the king of a Carnival krewe, or the person who found the trinket in a king cake.

• The Eastern Orthodox marriage service has a section called the crowning, wherein the bride and groom are crowned as "king" and "queen" of their future household. In Greek weddings, the crowns are usually made of flowers (synthetic or real) and are kept by the couple as a reminder of their special day. In Slavic weddings, the crowns are usually made of metal and designed to resemble a monarch's crown, and a parish usually owns one set to use for all the couples that are married there since these are much more expensive than Greek-style crowns.

• Children, mainly girls, sometimes connect flowers together in a chain, and wear the wreath as if it were a crown (illustration, left).

• Crowns are also often used as symbols of religious status or veneration, by divinities (or their representation such as a statue) or by their representatives, e.g. the black crown of the Karmapa Lama, sometimes used a a model for wider use by devotees.

The heraldic symbol of three crowns, referring to the evangelical three kings (wise men or magi), is believed thus to have become the symbol of the swedish kingdom, but is also fits the historical (personal, dynastic) Kalmar Union (1397-1520) with Denmark (actually the senior partner) and Norway.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "As an emblem", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki