End of Hawthorn Celtic Tree Month

According to the Ogham calendar, May, the month of the female Hawthorn, leads up to the fertile Oak month following on from Mayday, or Beltane. The Hawthorn is a small tree that grows with a dense, many branched and twisted habit. Hawthorn usually doesn't grow much bigger than a shrub, and is popular in England as a hedge plant due to its impenetrable growth and has even been used to pen livestock. The origin of the name Hawthorn comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'haegthorn', meaning hedge-thorn. Hawthorn has a light, hard, apple-like wood that provides the hottest fire known when it is burned. It is a deciduous tree dense leafed and thorny with short trunk. New shoots and leaves are reddish. It has a distinctive white blossom with strong scent in May and red berries (haws) later in the season. Height 10 - 15 m. It is long lived - 250 years.It may also be noted that its leaves and blossoms are used to create a tea to aid with anxiety, appetite loss and poor circulation. Its juice can be used in the treatment of asthma, rheumatism, arthritis, and laryngitis.


Other common names are Whitethorn and May. Whitethorn originates from the contrast of
her smooth gray bark with the powdery black bark of the Blackthorn. The name May comes from
the time that the tree flowers and because the blossom is used to form garlands on houses and
maypoles for Mayday. The custom of gathering Hawthorn blossoms was known has "Going a Maying".
It is also the tree used at marriages for it reflects the union of the forces of nature.


The Greeks and Romans saw the hawthorn as symbolic of hope and marriage, but in Europe it was associated with witchcraft and considered to be unlucky. It was thought that sleeping in a house with hawthorn blossoms would cause great misfortune. This seeming contradiction is to be expected from a tree with such beautiful blossoms and such deadly-looking thorns. It is a generally unlucky tree and its name, translated from the Irish Brehon Laws, had the meaning "harm".


The Hawthorn blossom, for many men, has the strong scent of female sexuality and was
used by the Turks as an erotic symbol. The monks of Glastonbury perpetuated it and sanctified
it with an approving tale that the staff of Joseph and the Crown of thorns were made of Hawthorn.


Hawthorn blossoms have potently erotic perfume and were thought to enrich fertility. In
Celtic times most divorces took place at Beltane, the beginning of light half of the year when
the hawthorn is a mass of blossoms and new leaves. In many cultures, the month of the Hawthorn
(May) is a month of bad luck for marriages. However, to destroy a Hawthorn was to incur great
peril to the person responsible.


The Hawthorn tree is embodied in the character of the chief giant Yspaddaden in a Welsh
romance of Kulhwch and Olwen. A guardian figure who tries to protect the virginity of Olwen.
He is felled and the blooms of summer soon open, thus symbolizing the advance of summer defeating
winter at last. It is associated with Govanna (Vulcan) a smith god that is the custodian of
the celestial fire and higher powers of the mind. Thus it is symbolize as the Chalice as it
too represents divine secrets and everlasting life.