Crown of Thorns - Good Friday

[Bruce Williams]

Hi Folks,

I'm guessing you were were expecting to see a photo of the "Crown of Thorns" euphorbia, E. milii. Well you'd have been wrong - the photo is of the common hawthorne Crataegus monogyna.

Ancient folklore (in Britain, Ireland and France anyway) identifies the hawthorne as the plant that was used to make Jesus's "crown-of-thorns". So it has particular relevance for tomorrow, Good Friday.

I collected a sprig on this afternoon's dog walk by the Grand Union Canal and photographed it at home using a light tent. Minolta A2, stacking ~12 frames with CombineZM.

Easter greetings to all.

Bruce

[Ken Ramos]

Beautiful image Bruce, great stacking

[Cyclops]

Crikey bruce,your Hawthorn is way ahead of ours! Here they're just coming into leaf,and another name for it is Mayflower,so yours are a month early! Where you live,Cornwall!?

[Planapo]

Bruce, you´ve composed, lit and stacked a real nice picture! It would make a classical Happy Easter card.
(Well, over here we do send Happy Easter cards to each other and I know the Britons make a real fuss about their Happy Christmas cards but dunno if they make it about Happy Easter cards as well? )

I hope you don´t mind (ugly Betty always annoying other people with her IDs, doesn´t she!? ) but I think the plant you photographed isn´t Crataegus monogyna which looks a bit different to the trained eye and flowers later when its leaves are already well developed. (Hence results Cyclops´ astonishment). To me what you´ve shot looks like Prunus spinosa as the Crataegus this is another common thorny shrub of the Rosaceae.

Happy Easter to ya all mates!
And a special jolly cheerio goes to the British Isles
Betty

[Cyclops]

Ah yes, Prunus spinosa or Blackthorn would make semse as it flowers before the leaves unfurl!
I was viewing this on my phone when I posted before so the picvs were a bit smaller and split in two strangely!

[DaveW]

Anything with spines and red blooms seems to have got dubbed "crown of thorns" in the past. Euphorbia milii of course never grew in the correct place to have been a candidate for the original crown of thorns.

As to hawthorn or "May Blossom", this also probably gave rise to the saying "Ne'er cast a clout till May is out" meaning don't discard your winter clothing until May indicates the warm weather has come.

Many presume this means the month of May, but seasons vary whereas May Blossom or hawthorn responds to a later season by flowering later so is more likely to be the "May" referred to in the rhyme:-

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/till-may-is-out.html

DaveW

[beetleman]

A wonderful picture Bruce....I love the moss on the branch, it adds more green to the whole mood of the picture. Everything looks so fresh.

[Cyclops]

Many presume this means the month of May, but seasons vary whereas May Blossom or hawthorn responds to a later season by flowering later so is more likely to be the "May" referred to in the rhyme:-

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/till-may-is-out.html

DaveW

Ah but Hawthorns flowers come after the leaves, unlike Blackthorn which flowers on bare branches,like Bruce's pic.

[crotermund]

Beautiful picture, Bruce. I agree with Doug regarding the green moss on the branch. It has great color and really complements the flowers well.

[Bruce Williams]

Thanks for all your comments guys.

Betty (and Larry) - You are of course completely right about my mis-identification. Your comments explain a lot...

I picked this sprig from a very long hedge running alongside the canal towpath. The hedge was a random mix of Hawthorne (in new leaf), interspersed with (what I now know) to be Blackthorn in blossom (without any leaves). It should have been obvious that they were different species but I didn't have my thinking head on.

So, recognising the leaves as Hawthorne (with total absence of common sense and logical thinking) I just assumed the flowers were Hawthorne too.

So thanks for all the info. I am now that bit wiser

Bruce

[Cyclops]

So thanks for all the info. I am now that bit wiser

Bruce

Its a service we provide

[Bruce Williams]

Betty - I can't answer for all 60 million of us Brits, but I would say the sending of Easter cards (although not unknown) is not a particulary common practice. We mainly give chocolate eggs to kids (and sometimes wives and girlfriends) on Easter Sunday and that's about it.

I think there are some odd regional practices involving Easter bunnies and Easter bonnets but I've not personally seen anything of them.

Bruce

Oh and Morris dancing I think - or is that just May Day

[DaveW]

According to the Web Betty these are our British traditions, but most are very local and do not happen around my way!

Easter

"Easter day is named after the Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, whose feast took place at the spring equinox. Easter is now the spring feast of the Christian church, commemorating the resurrection of Jesus. It falls on a Sunday between 22 March and 25 April, according to the church calendar.

Traditionally, Easter eggs, dyed and decorated or made of chocolate, are given as presents symbolising new life and the coming of spring.

Egg rolling competitions take place in northern Britain on Easter Monday; hard-boiled eggs are rolled down a slope, with the winner being - according lo local preference - the one which rolls the furthest, survives the most rolls, or is successfully aimed between two pegs! The best publicised event takes place at Avenham Park in Pieston, Lancashire.

Easter parades are also part ot the Easter tradition, with those taking part wearing Easter bonnets or hats, traditionally decorated with spring flowers and ribbons."

As you can see Easter has nothing really to do with Christianity, the church just adopted an existing pagan festival, hence the eggs symbolising new life.

DaveW

[MacroLuv]

Very nice Bruce. I like the moss on the branch also.

That's right, Dave.
Very similar situtaion was with Slavic populations.

As various Slavic populations were Christianised between the 7th century to 12th century, Christianity was introduced as a religion of the elite, flourishing mostly in cities and amongst the nobility. Amongst the rural majority of the medieval Slavic population, old myths remained strong.

This was because, from a perspective of a Slavic peasant, Christianity was not seen as the replacement of old Slavic mythology, but rather an addition to it. Christianity may have offered a hope of salvation, and of blissful afterlife in the next world, but for survival in this world, for yearly harvest and protection of cattle, the old religious system with its fertility rites, its protective deities, and its household spirits was taken to be necessary. This was a problem the Church never really solved; at best, it could offer a Christian saint or martyr to replace the pagan deity of a certain cult, but the cult itself persisted, as did the mythological view of the world through which natural phenomena were explained.

Folk songs, stories and festivals long ago lost their original sacred, mythical character, as well as their original meaning, and were downgraded to a level of mere superstition or a meaningless tradition that was continually repeated and passed down over generations who, for the most part, did not know what they were doing. People entertained a general vague idea that some festivals must be celebrated in a certain way, some stories must be told or some songs must be sung, because that was the way it has always been done. Cults of old deities were mixed with worship of new Christian saints, old rituals blended among new Christian holidays, and, over centuries, general mess was made complete.

Folk celebrations of various Christian festivals and popular beliefs in various saints. It is, for instance, quite clear that a popular saint in many Slavic countries, St. Elijah the Thunderer, is a replacement of old thunder-god Perun. Likewise, traces of ancient gods can also be found in cults of many other saints, such as St. Vitus, St. George, St. Blaise, St. Mary, St. Nicholas, and it is also obvious that various folk celebrations, such as the spring feast of Jare or Jurjevo and the summer feast of Ivanje or Ivan Kupala, both very loosely associated with Christian holidays, are abundant with pre-Christian elements. These beliefs have considerable religious and sacral significance to the people still performing them. The problem is, of course, that the elements of pre-Christian religion are hopelessly mixed into popular Christianity.

Slavic Calendar was apparently lunar, and began on the first day of March, similar to other Indo-European cultures whose old calendar systems are better known to us. The names for the last night of old year and the first day of new year are reconstructed as Velja Noc/Velik Dan (Great Night/Great Day). After Christianization, these names were probably passed onto Easter. In Slavic countries belonging to Orthodox Churches, Easter is known as Velik Dan/Great Day, whilst amongst Catholic Slavs, it is known as Velika Noc/Great Night. The names blend nicely with the translation of the Greek Megale Hemera, Great Week, the Christian term for the week in which Easter falls. In pagan times, however, this was a holiday probably quite like Halloween. Certain people (shamans) donned grotesque masks and coats of sheep wool, roaming around the villages, as during the Great Night, it was believed, spirits of dead ancestors travelled across the land, entering villages and houses to celebrate the new year with their living relatives. Consequently, the deity of the last day of the year was probably Veles, god of Underworld.

There was a large spring festival dedicated to Jarilo, god of vegetation and fertility. Processions of young men or girls used to go round villages on this day, carrying green branches or flowers as symbols of new life. They would travel from home to home, reciting certain songs and bless each household with traditional fertility rites. The leader of procession, usually riding on horse, would be identified with Jarilo. The custom of creation of pisanki or decorated eggs, also symbols of new life, was another tradition associated with this feast, which was later passed on Christian Easter.

The summer solstice festival is known today variously as Ivanje, Kupala or Kries. It was celebrated pretty much as a huge wedding, and, according to some indications from historical sources, in pagan times likely followed by a general orgy. There was a lot of eating and drinking on the night before, large bonfires (in Slavic - Kres) were lit, and youngsters were coupling and dancing in circles, or jumped across fires. Young girls made wreaths from flowers and fern (which apparently was a sacred plant for this celebration), tossed them into rivers, and on the basis of how and where they floated, foretold each other how they would get married. Ritual bathing on this night was also very important; hence the name of Kupala (from kupati = to bathe), which probably fit nicely with folk translation of the future patron saint the Church installed for this festival, John the Baptist. Overall, the whole festivity probably celebrated a divine wedding of fertility god, associated with growth of plants for harvest.


In the middle of summer, there was a festival associated with thunder-god Perun, in post-Christian times transformed into a very important festival of Saint Elijah. It was considered the holiest time of the year, and there are some indications from historic sources that it involved human sacrifices. The harvest probably began afterwards.
It is unclear when exactly the end of harvest was celebrated, but historic records mention interesting tradition associated with it that was celebrated at Svantevit temple on the island of Ruyana (present-day Rugen), a survived through later folklore. People would gather in front of the temple, where priests would place a huge wheat cake, almost the size of a man. The high priest would stand behind the cake and ask the masses if they saw him. Whatever their answer was, the priest would then plead that the next year, people could not see him behind the ritual cake; i.e., he alluded that the next year's harvest would be even more bountiful.


There probably also was an important festival around winter solstice, which later became associated with Christmas. Consequently, in many Slavic countries, Christmas is called Bozhich, which simply means little god. While this name fits very nicely with the Christian idea of Christmas, the name is likely of pagan origin; it indicated the birth of a young and new god of Sun to the old and weakened solar deity during the longest night of the year. The old Sun god was identified as Svarog, and his son, the young and new Sun, as Dazhbog. An alternative (or perhaps the original) name for this festival was Korochun.

[rjlittlefield]

Beautiful picture, Bruce!

CombineZ was probably the perfect choice for this subject. The black background promotes problems with halo, and CombineZ generally handles this better than Helicon Focus does.

I was viewing this on my phone when I posted before so the picvs were a bit smaller and split in two strangely!

The split is probably because Bruce has posted what is logically one image as two separate images. On most computers, the browser displays them side by side as if they were one. Apparently your phone displays them as two separate.

Bruce, be aware that this side-by-side presentation also causes problems on smaller computer monitors. It makes the text wrapping use a very long line, which then requires scrolling to read the posts. This is not really very reader-friendly, and I recommend against it as a matter of course. For most subjects, limiting to 800 pixels is a minor loss of detail, and if you have another host on which you can place images, you can always link to a larger version. Just remember to put it between 'url' tags so that it displays as a link, instead of an 'img' tag that would display as an inline image and affect the line wrapping.

--Rik