![]() Bundles of herbs, including tobacco (Nicotiana), sage (Salvia officinalis), cedar (Cedrus), lavender (Lavandula) and grasses are burned and the smoke directed around the body with a feather or feather fan. Native American “smudging” is a smoke bath to cleanse the body and physical spaces. It is a time for cleansing, both physically and spiritually. German folklore may hold the mulberry (Morus) as evil because the devil cleans his boots with the roots, but its bark purportedly kills worms in the belly, its leavesrelievepilesanditsfruitsmakeasyrupthat will heal sores in the mouth or throat. The berries of Lords and Ladies, aka cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum), for example, were believed to ease gout when beaten with ox dung. Farmers have been bringing in their crops since Lammas (1 August) but it is traditionally a busy time in the still-room, too, foraging hedgerows for herbs, berries, fruits and fungi, preserving them in alcohol, syrups and drying them. Mild nights and a full, harvest moon see the dog days of summer, heralding autumn, but there is still much to be done. Add to that St John’s Eve, 23 June, and the old midsummer, 6 July, and there are a lot of auspicious dates upon which to see fairies, dream of husbands, avoid the devil, drive out evil and cure various ailments. In the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice falls between 20 and 22 June, but one of the most significant days in the Christian calendar is St John’s Day on 24 June. True solstices, in winter and summer, are fleeting moments when the sun reaches its northernmost or southernmost point, but the day around that point will be the very shortest or longest of the year. Solstitium is Latin for “sun standing still”. Midsummer is still considered by many to be the most powerful time of the year, marking the beginning of three months of plenty, but there is a little confusion as to what midsummer means. Sixteenth-century engraving of “storm callers” – witches summoning weather systemsįor a time of year bursting with green promise, late spring and early summer were, surprisingly, known as the “hungry gap”: a time when stored supplies had dwindled and new plantings were not yet ready, but eagerly awaited. They gathered the fresh, sweet tips of spring greens such as Good King Henry (Blitum bonus-henricus), dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) and chickweed (Stellaria media) for food and medicine. Days had been getting longer since the winter solstice (21 December) and people were tired of root vegetables, dried beans and withered herbs. The Romans celebrated Flora, goddess of flowers the Greeks worshipped Persephone’s return from the Underworld. Spring was hugely important to our ancestors. Plants didn’t know this, of course, but it muddled folklore, making some customs even stranger to modern eyes. ![]() Any festivals set by the phases of the moon continued as ever, but set dates, such as Midsummer and Christmas, now fell on the “wrong” days. ![]() People rioted, demanding back the 11 days of their lives that had gone “missing” in the switchover, but there would be far-reaching effects too. In 1752, Britain changed its calendar from the old “Julian” style to the Gregorian version that most of Europe was already using. Harvesting leeks, from medieval handbook Tacuinum Sanitatis, the translation of eleventh- century Arabic medical treatise Taqwīm as‐Sihha. ![]()
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