The holly tree needs protection
IN recent years, it has become ever more difficult to find holly if you go looking for it in the countryside. Yet, in national parks and woodlands, you can see where trees have been savaged and almost cut down in a cavalier way, obviously for sale later.
Nowadays in the run-up to Christmas, it is commonplace to see bunches of holly for sale on the streets and at various markets, which clearly have been cut in a crude way.
Under the Brehon Laws, the old Gaelic legal system, holly was among the protected trees. Moving to medieval times, it was classified among the most precious species of trees, also including oak, hazel, yew, ash, pine and apple. These trees were called “nobles of the wood’’.
Christine Zucchelli, in her book, Trees of Inspiration – Sacred Trees and Bushes of Ireland, relates that penalties for interfering with a tree from this class included the loss of a one-year-old heifer for branch cutting, a two-year-old heifer for fork cutting and a cow for base cutting.
Our native, evergreen holly is slow-growing and is often completely destroyed as a result of being hacked. It also grows well in shaded areas, often under native broadleaf trees and in hedgerows.
Holly berries, which only appear on female trees, are a popular winter food for many birds which also disperse the seeds from which new trees emerge. There’s a belief that a good crop of berries in late autumn heralds a harsh winter. This is a myth, however, as a bountiful crop of berries is more the result of a good summer than a sign of a rough winter.
In European folklore, holly trees were believed to offer protection from lightning strikes and were planted near houses for that reason. This belief is supported by modern science which tells us the spines on the leaves can act as miniature lightning conductors.
The festive season would not be the same without evergreen, holly leaves and red-berried twigs decorating homes all across the country, probably the tree most closely associated with Christmas.
It’s a time-honoured custom dating back to pre-Christian times when holly, and ivy, were used to celebrate the winter solstice; to ward off evil spirits and to mark the approach of new growth in spring.
In Christian symbolism from early times, the prickly leaves were connected with the crown of thorns, and the berries with Christ’s drops of blood.
Early on Christmas Eve as children, we remember being sent out looking for sprigs of holly (berries obligatory!) which we would pick from the hedgerows, though not too much. The twigs were later placed around the base of the Christmas candle, over the fireplace and crib and inside windows and doors, brightening the winter scene.
