she-holly

I felt inspired to take a photograph of the holly bush in my garden as my solstice photograph.  This bush was in berry when we moved to the cottage last year, and the berries stayed on and lasted right through to the summer.  There only seemed to be one month or so when they weren't as prolific.  

The birds love this bush.  They use it as cover, darting to the bird table and returning to the bush with their food to eat in safety.  This year it has grown out considerably.  It feels like a friend in the garden.

As mentioned before I don't know a lot about gardening or species of plants, but this holly is not spikey - it's variegated although there are the odd branches with purely dark green leaves on.  So I always think of it as a female bush (gardeners correct me, but perhaps with some male non variegated bits?).

I looked up Holly in "The Illustrated Plant Lore" by Josephine Addison.  It's a book I picked up in a secondhand shop years ago.  It literally seemed to jump out at me, although I had no particular desire for it at the time, it has been so useful and interesting to look up 'plant meanings' and folklore.

We're all familiar with the tradition of decoration either with the symbol or plant, which Addison mentions comes from the Roman's feast of Saturn 17-19 December.  This was later adopted by the church, and she goes on to say that it was a symbol of welcome at a time when people believed in fairies and elves. (Now not excluded!).  A symbol of eternal life.  A tree near the house was to protect against thunder and lightning, demons, witches and the Evil Eye.

She also mentions that people believed the prickly male holly is lucky for men, and the variegated she-holly for women.  Nine holly leaves from the variegated bush could be used as love divination, gathered at midnight on a Friday and placed in a 3 cornered handkerchief, which was then tied with 9 knots and concealed under the pillow before going to bed.  Absolute silence was necessary from the time of gathering until dawn.

The tales and superstitions around holly go on, but if you are a believer in angel or master numbers, this photograph happens to be the 6666th taken on my camera!

Comments

[ginny]

wow love that.. hope your she holly brings you lots of luck x

[frances]

What beautiful holly, all deep green and white with those rich red berries. I do thank you for the little history lesson, too. Even with all out electric lighting, don't we still carry a bit of those centuries of getting through the December darkness within us?

Cheers!

[Sally Anne Wastney]

I love reading about ancient times and old folklore and traditions, I find it all fascinating. Your holly bush is beautiful !

[my baboo]

Great story Caireen, I love all the old magic and mystery of folklore, makes life so much more interesting. Enjoy the shortest day, we can now ditch the phrase 'the nights are fair drawin' in'. Lx

[melissa]

happy solstice, caireen. it,s been wonderful visiting you here this year. have a peaceful holiday. xx