Beauty Today: the Pillow

Some like it thin, some like it thick. Some like it firm, some life it soft. But everyone loves a pillow. Pillows are the epiphany of comfort. Whatever shape, size or filling, you are bound to find a comfortable pillow somewhere. I know I definitely have a favorite pillow – the traditional American rectangular shaped ones, synthetic and medium. Right now I have a traditional European (or at least German and Romanian, I’ve been told the Netherlands have different sizes) one which, for those of you who don’t know, is a huge square. I believe it measures at 80 x 80 cm. We had bought these pillows at IKEA before moving to Tbilisi, in the fear that we wouldn’t find a single pillow in this country that would fit our cheap but nice IKEA bed sheets that we also bought from Germany. This, I find to be uncomfortable, and have, since then been complaining about how annoying it is to sleep on such a pillow. My complaining is why I decided to write about the beauty of pillows this week. I wanted to force myself to find the beauty, even in this huge cube of a pillow, and I must say, that I am very glad I did. Okay, maybe the pillow and I haven’t become best friends, but I sure do appreciate it. I appreciate it because I couldn’t imagine sleeping on a wooden or porcelain pillow.

The pillow can be tracked back to Mesopotamia, which is today’s Iraq, and ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed the head to be sacred, so they  decorated their pillows (which were usually solid wood with a curved middle) with lavish decorations. These pillows have been found in Pharaoh’s tombs signifying that they were only for the rich and famous. The Chinese also used wood but also jade, bronze, bamboo and porcelain. I think the Chinese pillows are the most interesting, not only because they are made from so many different materials, but also because of the many different shapes they came in. You could have a pillow shaped like or decorated with pictures of animals, plants, humans or geometric figures. These pillow were sometimes called “Opium Pillows” by opium smokers. Why? Because when they smoked opium, they would say that the hardest pillow felt like a cloud. The Japanese also used similar types of pillows but they had one other type famous mostly to the Japanese – the tall hard pillow which protected Japanese women’s extensive hairdo’s by cushioning the back of their necks. Interesting enough, the reason why the Asians would not sleep on a sack of hey or rice or something softer, was because they believed that soft pillows would rob the body of its vitality and energy. They also believed it was bad for blood circulation and that it was unable to keep demons away.

The Greek and the Romans however, liked their comfort, and it was around this time period when softer substances were used to make pillows. Straw, reeds or feathers were commonly used, stuffed into a heavily embroidered pillow case. During the 16th Century, the pillow in its said form became more popular and it was most likely around this time that the pillow also started appearing under the heads of those that were not nobility. These pillows however, were less than ideal, and I know this first hand. No, I didn’t live in the 16th Century, but I did live in a Communist country, which was like going back a few hundred years while the rest of the world evolved happily with their synthetic pillows. These stuffed pillows were less than ideal because you had to change the stuffing on a regular basis since the feathers would get moldy and sometimes you could even find vermin entangled in there. I watched my grandma sit for hours taking out the feathers of our enormous pillows and stuffing it with new feathers. Not only was it extremely time consuming, but it didn’t look like a fun job. I always wondered where she got all of the feathers from – our chickens looked like they still had all of their feather. It was such a perplexing question for my young brain at the time, but because I was almost certain that she went stealing the feathers off the neighbours chickens, I never asked her.

It was also around this time that little pillows were taken to church so that the lovely madams could kneels on something soft rather than something hard, like in the previous centuries. And, speaking of church, I’m sure somewhere you’ve seen a bible placed on it’s very own little, most often silky, pillow. I bet this was originated during this era as well. Pillows became a luxury, and the best of the best had to have one. Then, slowly it found itself in the homes of the middle class and by the 20th century, even the poorer families were able to afford pillows. Even so, despite it’s new found popularity, the pillow was still able to retain its luxury, but nowadays, the pillow is just the pillow. There really isn’t anything extremely luxurious about it, everyone has one, two maybe even several pillows in their homes. Pillows are used as decoration on couches, but even more than that, they’re used for comfort on couches. Have you ever sat on a couch without some nice fluffy decorative pillows to soften the hard edges? Well, it’s not that great. Nowadays we are incredibly fixated on comfort, so much so that style has become a little dry, but that’s for another post. Let’s just conclude that, although my German cube pillow is not the best, I am so glad that I don’t have to sleep with my head on a stone, porcelain, wood or bronze pillow or some stuffed sacks. For the same reason, I hope that tonight when you rest your head on your cloud 9, you will enjoy your pillow a little more than the night before.

4 Responses to “Beauty Today: the Pillow”

1. Candice says:

   November 18, 2009 at 19:15

   Reading this article all bleary-eyed over a cup of coffee at 9 a.m. really, really makes me want to crawl back into bed.
   Candice´s last blog ..Who the hell is Raffi?

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   • K says:

     November 19, 2009 at 00:54

     Yeah, it would make me want to crawl back into bed too. 9 AM seems like an incredibly early hour for me nowadays – people in Georgia start their day at 10-11, so I’ve grown accustomed to waking up quite late. It’s going to suck going back to Canada in a couple of years…

     Reply
2. Mr. Apron says:

   November 18, 2009 at 21:20

   My wife and I have ridiculously expensive wool pillows. Thankfully, the pillowcases are not made of wool, too.

   I like people who buy tons of throw pillows for their bed. They’re funny.
   Mr. Apron´s last blog ..Well, Deflower Me & Call Me in 3 Days, It’s… DEAR APRON Time!

   Reply
   • K says:

     November 19, 2009 at 00:56

     Wool pillows, eh? (I know you enjoyed that Canadian touch there) That’s interesting. I think I like my cotton ones better… and cotton pillow cases. But, I guess I’m not funny, because I only have one pillow, although it’s so huge it can count as one…

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