The Celtic tree calendar: what wood are you?
December 8, 2007
I learned from J.K. Rowling’s website today that the Celts associated a particular tree with the time of year.
For example, we’re in the Season of Elder (the tree), which spans from November 25 - December 23.
I love trees (on the right is birch — you can tell because the bark peels off like onionskin), so this tidbit of info made my day.
My name, DuBois, means “of the woods”, and of all the natural landscapes — mountains, sea, desert, prairie, etc — I love the forest the best.
Jo Rowling used the calendar to assign wands to her 3 main characters according to their birthdays.
Harry’s wand is made of holly, Hermione’s is vine, and Ron’s is willow.
So what’s your wood?
Celtic Tree Calendar
Dec 24 - Jan 20: Birch
Jan 21 - Feb 17: Rowan
Feb 18 - Mar 17: Ash
Mar 18 - Apr 14: Alder
Apr 15 - May 12: Willow
May 13 - June 9: Hawthorn
June 10 - July 7: Oak
July 8 - Aug 4: Holly
Aug 5 - Sep 1: Hazel
Sep 2 - Sep 29: Vine
Sep 30 - Oct 27: Ivy
Oct 28 - Nov 24: Reed
Nov 25 - Dec 23: Elder
What’s really cool is that these trees all have enormous significance and usefulness, more about which I learn everyday.
Useful as well as beautiful
I’ve grown to appreciate hazel and willow as incredibly useful trees, thanks to Malcolm gathering them for various bushcraft and prehistoric uses.
He uses hazel to make bows and drills for Stone Age fire kits (here’s an example of one lying in a field of heather), but I’ve pinched several lately to make knitting needles.
You can make a lot of things out of them: fences, baskets, even entire shelters.
You can use the bark of any of these trees to get beautiful colours from when dyeing fibres. I’ve gathered some elder today which I hope to use to dye some white wool to a nice mocha and lavender colour.
My birthday wood is hazel, which was so useful it was widely coppiced (cutting the branches back so that it produces many slender, straight branches) in Britain for centuries.
What’s your birthday wood?
Mine appears to be reed. Did you know that each letter of the Gaelic alphabet is also associated with a tree? I seem to recall seeing some kind of permanent display in Kyle of Lochalsh.
Howdy, Rachel, this is so interesting.
My tree is Rowan. So should I change my name from Maple?
I heard something about the letters and tree association, Katherine. Next time I’m over that way I’ll see if I can find the display or you can see the list at http://www.gaelicmusic.com/Gaelic-Alphabet.html.
You know Maple, I did a Google on maple and Britain, thinking maybe maple trees weren’t indigenous to Britain and that’s why the Celts didn’t mention them in the calendar, but at least once source claims they are. Both pretty trees though