An image of both friendliness and security, a place where you can leave your gate open. 

Eventually they reached an open gate – open because in those days life in the country was so secure that a closed gate signified either unfriendliness or else that the owners were away from home.

See another gate, installed for the express purpose of being able to open it in welcome.

Source: Miklos Banffy, They Were Found Wanting, trans. Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen (London: Arcadia Books, 2011 (1937)), p. 125

Photo credit: congerdesign at pixabay