jQuery: When creating a new element, do I need the ending tag?

var $div = $('<div class="error">').appendTo($('#header'));

When creating new elements and adding them to the DOM, do you need the ending tag? why or why not? Do I only need the ending tag if i'm placing content into the tag i'm creating? like so:

var $div = $('<div class="error"> Error-Homie! </div>').appendTo($('#header'));

or could I create an element with content in it, but leave out the ending tag? Good? Bad?

var $div = $('<div class="error">').appendTo($('#header'));