Trees
Sacred Thorn Tree Day and the Hawthorn Moon Month begins annually each year on this date, It goes from May 13 – June 9. This is a great time for magic concerning peace, prosperity, protection, fertility and marriage.
The Hawthorn is a prickly sort of plant with beautiful blossoms. Called Huath by the ancient Celts, and pronounced Hoh-uh, the Hawthorn month is a time of fertility, masculine energy, and fire. Coming right on the heels of Beltane, this month is a time when male potency is high — if you’re hoping to conceive a child, get busy this month! The Hawthorn has a raw, phallic sort of energy about it — use it for magic related to masculine power, business decisions, making professional connections.
The druids were said to use it’s leaves and flowers to make medicinal teas. And the wood from the Hawthorn was known to provide the hottest fire. The Greeks and Romans saw the Hawthorn as a symbol of marriage. Although in Medieval Europe, the Hawthorn was associated with witchcraft, and was therefore seen as unlucky.
This magical little tree is also associated with the faeries. When the Hawthorn grows in tandem with an Ash and Oak, it is said to attract the Fae. It is also said that a Hawthorn growing on a hill near a sacred well is a marker for the faery realm.
In Ireland, Hawthorns covered in “clootie” prayer strips guard sacred wells. These are little strips of cloth blessed in the well, and then tied to the tree with a prayer. It was also the custom to hang old clothes on hawthorn bushes all month beginning on this day to avert poverty.
To celebrate the Hawthorn tree, pray to the Goddess Cardea, for the Hawthorn was her sacred tree. She is known as the Goddess who protects the home, put a piece of Hawthorn over any windows or doors in your home for protection from this Hawthorn Goddess.
Collected from various sources including: Paganwiccan and Love of the Goddess
The Cold Food Festival or Hanshi Festival is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated for three consecutive days starting the day before the Qingming Festival in the Chinese Calendar, which falls on the 105th day after dongzhi (April 5 by the Gregorian calendar, except in leap years). It is celebrated in China as well as the nearby nations of Korea and Vietnam. At this time of year, the sky becomes clearer and buds sprout in the field. Farmers sow various seeds and supply water to their rice paddies.
The Cold Food Festival started from the ancient tradition of setting fire by rubbing wood pieces together and the tradition of lighting new fires. Due to the change of seasons and the change in the type of wood available, the ancient practice was to change the type of fire-starter-wood used from season to season. Fire is lighted anew upon the start of each season. Before the new fire is officially started no one is allowed to light a fire. This was an important event during that time.
The traditionally practiced activities during the Cold Food Festival includes the visitation of ancestral tombs, cock-fighting, playing on swings, beating out blankets (to freshen them), tug-of-war, etc. The practice of visiting ancestral tombs is especially ancient.
In China ancestral worship used to be practiced during the time of the Cold Food Festival. It was later moved to coincide with the Qingming Festival. However in Korea, where the festival is called Hansik , the tradition of ancestral worship during the Cold Food Festival still remains.
In the modern version of Hansik, people welcome the warm weather thawing the frozen lands. On this day, rites to worship ancestors are observed early in the morning, and the family visits their ancestors’ tombs to tidy up.
Falling on the 105th day after the winter solstice (April 5 by the Gregorian calendar, except in leap years). At this time of year, the sky becomes clearer and buds sprout in the field. Farmers sow various seeds and supply water to their rice paddies. The custom of eating cold food on this day is believed to originate from a Chinese legend (see Tomb Sweeping Day), but recently this custom has disappeared.
Since this day coincides with Arbor Day, public cemeteries are crowded with visitors planting trees around the tombs of their ancestors.
In Vietnam, where it is called Tết Hàn Thực, the Cold Food Festival is celebrated by Vietnamese people in the northern part of the country on the third day of the third lunar month, but only marginally. People cook glutinous rice balls (see recipe and more info) called bánh trôi on that day but the holiday’s origins are largely forgotten, and the fire taboo is also largely ignored.
Source: Wikipedia
Also known as Celtic Faery Day, Faeries called Lunantishees are honored on November 11. Lunantishees were believed to be a tribe of fairies and guardians of the blackthorn tree, and so on this day, these trees or branches from these trees must not be cut. Should on person manage to cut a stick, some misfortune will surely befall him or her.
To honor these fairies on this day, tie a black ribbon around the trunk of a blackthorn tree and wish them well.
In celebration of this day, here’s a nice little poem from Flower Fairies:
The Sloe Fairy
When Blackthorn blossoms leap to sight,
They deck the hedge with starry light,
In early Spring
When rough winds blow,
Each promising
A purple sloe.
And now is Autumn here, and lo,
The Blackthorn bears the purple sloe!
But ah, how much
Too sharp these plums,
Until the touch
Of Winter comes!
Note:
The sloe is a wild plum. One bite will set your teeth on edge until it has been mellowed by frost; but it is not poisonous.
The eleventh day of Christmas (Jan 4th) is Evergreen Day. An evergreen tree is a tree that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous trees which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.
The term “evergreen” can refer metaphorically to something that is continuously renewed or is self-renewing. One example of metaphorical use of the expression is the term “Evergreen content” used to describe perennial articles or guides about topics that do not change frequently.
On the Internet, evergreen is a term used by some ad agencies to describe a Web site that is updated on a daily or other frequent basis. A Web site that is evergreen is considered more likely to attract both first-time and repeat visitors.
In magick, evergreens are considered to have a cleansing, and revitalizing power. The aroma of evergreen trees reinvigorates and replenishes psychic and magical energy.
The Death of Tammuz also known as Noosardel (sprinkling water on the path of God) was another Yultide holiday celebrated with an early morning worship service, a tree, and a burning log.
“Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’s house
which was toward the north; and, behold,
there sat women weeping for Tammuz.”
~Ezekiel 8:14
In the legend, Tammuz dies young and his birth is honored on his birthday which coincided with the Winter Solstice. This was celebrated on or around December 21st. Part of the ritual involved cutting down a young evergreen tree as a way of commemorating the premature death of Tammuz. Along with this, the Babylonians would also burn a Yala (Yule) log, called “the log of the son.” It was burned in the fire to symbolize the death of Tammuz. The next day the evergreen tree would be decorated with silver and gold. The log that was burned was now alive again as the Tammuz tree.
“..for one cutteth a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax;
They deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with hammers,
that it move not.”
~Jeremiah 10:3-4
Found at: Assyrian Voice
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