frankie.incensein Seasons & Celebrations · Chicago ·
ReadingRead: smell beats the carols at bringing Christmas back
Fun fact: Rachel Herz's review of odor-evoked memory reports that memories cued by a smell are rated more emotional than memories cued by words, images or sounds, and that they tend to date from the first decade of life. As a choir director I take that personally [we rehearse carols for weeks, and one whiff of church frankincense gets there faster].
I read it next to the club's Class on smell and memory, which sorts the research from the myth. So I definitely want to know: which holiday smell takes you furthest back, and how old are you when you land?
Footnotes welcome.
4 comments
rafa_azahar
Hello friends, anise takes me furthest, my grandmother's pestiños. I am six years old again. Un abrazo.
bev.boston
My late husband's aftershave on a Christmas sweater. I'm not a child in that one, but it's the strongest.
ingrid_berlin
Glögg on the stove at my grandmother's in Uppsala. I am eight, and the bass note is clove.
frankie.incense
A Lyon study of 25 adults found that pleasant and unpleasant odors, and the episodes tied to them, were remembered better than neutral ones. Six, eight and Bev's sweater so far, which fits Herz nicely [Bev's I'd file under emotional rather than early]. I definately owe this thread a frankincense story.