 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(July 2016) |
Festive ecology explores the relationships between the symbolism and the ecology of the plants, fungi and animals associated with cultural events such as festivals, processions, and special occasions. Examples of topics are given below.
The plants traditionally associated with Christmas – holly, ivy, mistletoe, common yew - have had special roles in earlier religions and past cultures. Some early religions in Europe had midwinter festivals to celebrate the return of the sun from the shortest day. In the 4th and 5th centuries, 25 December was gradually adopted as the date for Christmas in Europe in order to superimpose on the existing mid-winter festivals. The winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, on what is now 17 December, was the start of the Roman festival of Saturnalia. This was a week of public feasting, dancing, singing and gambling. Houses were decorated with evergreens and bunches of holly were given as tokens of friendship. When this festival was absorbed into the Christian calendar, holly and the other evergreens were absorbed as well.
Holly is palatable to livestock despite its spines and was extensively used as a winter fodder for livestock in medieval times in England and Wales, particularly in Cumbria, the Pennines and the Welsh borders. [1] Hay and grains for wintering stock would often have run short in these upland areas. This would mean that the livestock would eventually have to be slaughtered, causing real problems to medieval economies in the following years. Thus, a supply of fresh browse would have been extremely valuable. Written records of payments and agreements involving the use of holly for livestock cover a wide period from the late 12th century to the mid-18th century, by which time the practice had been largely abandoned. [1] An early reference to the practice occurs in “The Dream of Rhonabwy”, a Welsh story from the Mabinogion, a remarkable collection of medieval literature. [2] Written before the 14th century, The Dream of Rhonabwy refers to the mid-12th century in Powys. The floor of the old black house of Heilyn Goch is described as being covered in the urine and dung of cows together with branches of holly whose tips had been eaten by the cattle.
 |
Ivy was used in garlands by the ancient Greeks and the Romans for religious ceremonies and for celebrating at other, more secular, occasions. It was strongly associated with Bacchus (Dionysus), the Greco-Roman god of wine. Since Roman times, ivy has been associated with wine and wine-making. Branches of evergreen ivy tied to a pole was often used as the “sign of the bush” indicating a place where wine or alcohol was for sale. Hence, the proverb “Good wine needs no bush” meaning that it is not necessary to advertise well-made goods. Ivy is less commonly seen in houses in Britain at Christmas compared to holly and mistletoe and it may be that established religions opposed its use in Christmas wreaths because of its association with drunkenness.
Mistletoe is an evergreen plant well known for its association with oak trees and Druids first documented by Pliny the Elder who wrote about the ceremonies of the Celtic Druids in Gaul in his Naturalis Historia. [3] These Druids held the oak in particular veneration, used oak leaves in their ceremonies, and regarded anything growing on oak trees as having been sent from heaven. On the rare occasions when mistletoe was found growing on an oak, it would be gathered with great ceremony. A priest in white clothing would cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle and allow it to fall onto a white cloak; two white bulls would then be sacrificed. According to Pliny, it was believed that mistletoe in a drink would make any barren animal fertile and that it was a remedy for all poisons. Special powers are attributed to mistletoe by a wide range of cultures, both within Europe and further afield. [4] The use of mistletoe as an all-heal and a cure for barrenness is reputed to have a very ancient history. [5] The link between mistletoe and fertility persists to this day in Britain in the tradition of kissing underneath bunches of mistletoe at Christmas. In the early 19th century, it was traditional for each man who kissed under the mistletoe to remove one berry. Once all the berries are gone, so is the potency.
Yew trees continually put out new stems which coalesce with the existing trunk resulting in trees of great age. The merging of old and decaying wood with vibrant young shoots has led to the yew being traditionally associated with reincarnation and immortality. [6]
The custom of dressing the Arbor tree – a black poplar growing in Aston-on-Clun in south Shropshire – with flags on flagpoles every 29 May is almost unique in Britain, [7] although "Bawming the Thorn" at Appleton Thorn in Cheshire is not dissimilar. [8] New flags are attached to wooden flagpoles on the Arbor tree which remain throughout the year.
The Arbor tree is a male black poplar tree growing beside a stream at a place where four roads meet. Written records of the Arbor tree only extend back to 1898, but the tradition of dressing the tree is reputed to date back to a local wedding in 1786. The custom has developed and acquired new meanings, particularly since the 1955 when a pageant was devised. The pageant and the celebrations associated with the tree dressing are evolving in response to those living in the local community as well as to the external recognition now accorded to this unique tradition.
The present black poplar grew from a rooted cutting taken from the old tree which was said to be at least 300 years old when it collapsed in 1995 and had been repeatedly pollarded. Black poplar is an extremely unusual tree to be associated with notable events or traditions, which are more likely to involve pedunculate oak, sessile oak, common yew or hawthorn ( Crataegus ).
The black poplar (Populus nigra var. betulifolia) is an uncommon native tree in Britain. Black poplars are associated with alluvial soils in river valleys and floodplains generally south of a line from the River Mersey to the estuary of the Humber with particular concentrations across the Midlands from the Welsh Marches to East Anglia and notably in the Vale of Aylesbury (Aylesbury Vale). [9] A male clone (cloning) was much planted in the suburbs of Manchester in the late 18th century as it grew well in the polluted atmosphere and it became known as the ‘Manchester poplar’. Growing to a height of some 30 metres, the bark of the black poplar is distinctively ridged and furrowed and has characteristic large burrs or bosses. When mature, the tree forms a huge dome of massive spreading branches which arch outwards. This spreading habit is dramatically different from the elongated shape of the Lombardy poplar (Populus nigra ‘Italica’) which, surprisingly, is a cultivated variety of the black poplar that was imported to Essex from Turin in 1758 and widely planted because of its unusual shape. The black poplar is also a different species from the more widespread black Italian poplar (Populus x euramericana or Populus x canadensis) which is a hybrid between the black poplar and the North American eastern cottonwood ( Populus deltoides ).
Poplars are unusual in that there are separate male and female trees. Male black poplars are far more numerous than female trees in Britain and seedlings are, therefore, very rare. [10] Regrowth occurs from the branches or trunk of fallen trees which root into the underlying soil. Growing in river valleys and floodplains, the trees can be uprooted by floods and grow again in a new location.
Accounts of other traditional customs on 29 May are usually linked to Royal Oak Day (Oak Apple Day) and include the surviving customary rights in Grovely Wood at Great Wishford, Wiltshire, and Garland King Day at Castleton (Derbyshire).
The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern Pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as "quarter days" and the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days", particularly in Wicca. Differing sects of modern Paganism also vary regarding the precise timing of each celebration, based on distinctions such as lunar phase and geographic hemisphere.
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant.
Populus is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar, aspen, and cottonwood.
Populus nigra, the black poplar, is a species of cottonwood poplar, the type species of section Aigeiros of the genus Populus, native to Europe, southwest and central Asia, and northwest Africa.
"The Holly and the Ivy" is a traditional British folk Christmas carol, listed as number 514 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The song can be traced only as far as the early nineteenth century, but the lyrics reflect an association between holly and Christmas dating at least as far as medieval times. The lyrics and melody varied significantly in traditional communities, but the song has since become standardised. The version which is now popular was collected in 1909 by the English folk song collector Cecil Sharp in the market town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, England, from a woman named Mary Clayton.
Viscum album is a species of mistletoe in the family Santalaceae, commonly known as European mistletoe, common mistletoe or simply as mistletoe. It is native to Europe and western and southern Asia.
In the recent Druidic tradition, Alban Arthan is a seasonal festival at the Winter solstice. The name derives from the writings of Iolo Morganwg, the 19th-century radical poet and forger.
Christmas flowers are the popular flowers used during the festive season of Christmas. In many nations, seasonal flowers and plants such as Poinsettia, Christmas cactus, holly, Christmas rose, ivy and mistletoe form a major part of traditional Christmas decoration.
Cantabrian mythology refers to the myths, teachings and legends of the Cantabri, a pre-Roman Celtic people of the north coastal region of Iberia (Spain). Over time, Cantabrian mythology was likely diluted by Celtic mythology and Roman mythology with some original meanings lost. Later, the ascendancy of Christendom absorbed or ended the pagan rites of Cantabrian, Celtic and Roman mythology leading to a syncretism. Some relics of Cantabrian mythology remain.
Phoradendron leucarpum is a species of mistletoe in the Viscaceae family which is native to the United States and Mexico. Its common names include American mistletoe, eastern mistletoe, hairy mistletoe and oak mistletoe. It is native to Mexico and the continental United States. It is hemiparasitic, living in the branches of trees. The berries are white and 3–6 millimeters (0.12–0.24 in). It has opposite leaves that are leathery and thick. Ingesting the berries can cause "stomach and intestinal irritation with diarrhea, lowered blood pressure, and slow pulse". This shrub can grow to 1 meter (3.3 ft) by 1 meter (3.3 ft).
Ilex, or holly, is a genus of about 480 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The type species is Ilex aquifolium, the common European holly used in Christmas decorations and cards.
Many types of trees found in the Celtic nations are considered to be sacred, whether as symbols, or due to medicinal properties, or because they are seen as the abode of particular nature spirits. Historically and in folklore, the respect given to trees varies in different parts of the Celtic world. On the Isle of Man, the phrase 'fairy tree' often refers to the elder tree. The medieval Welsh poem Cad Goddeu is believed to contain Celtic tree lore, possibly relating to the crann ogham, the branch of the ogham alphabet where tree names are used as mnemonic devices.
The ritual of oak and mistletoe is a Celtic religious ceremony, in which white-clad druids climbed a sacred oak, cut down the mistletoe growing on it, sacrificed two white bulls and used the mistletoe to make an elixir to cure infertility and the effects of poison. The ritual, known from a single passage in Pliny's Natural History, has helped shape the image of the druid in the popular imagination.
Phoradendron macrophyllum is a species of flowering plant in the sandalwood family known by the common names Colorado Desert mistletoe, bigleaf mistletoe, and Christmas mistletoe. It is native to western United States and northern Mexico from Oregon to Colorado to Texas to Baja California, where it grows in many types of wooded habitat at elevations up to 1700 m.
Coniferous swamps are forested wetlands in which the dominant trees are lowland conifers such as northern white cedar. The soil in these swamp areas is typically saturated for most of the growing season and is occasionally inundated by seasonal storms or by winter snow melt.
Christmas traditions include a variety of customs, religious practices, rituals, and folklore associated with the celebration of Christmas. Many of these traditions vary by country or region, while others are universal and practiced in a virtually ubiquitous manner across the world.