21 DAYS OF SPRING

EASTER – WHAT’S IN A NAME?

As we are engulfed in a crisis, the fact that today is Good Friday and the start in UK of the Easter weekend, has been almost forgotten. BBC Radio 4 has been running a series throughout Holy Week called “The Passion in Plants” which explores the meaning of various flowers and trees and their significance in the Passion – Easter story.

Pussy Willow

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and traditionally a huge day in the Christian calendar in Spain with massive processions. Not so this year with the lockdown. Palm Sunday marked Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey when he was greeted as a hero by crowds waving palms. As Palm trees are not native to UK, the tradition was to substitute this with Pussy Willow with its silvery catkins bursting into bright golden flowers.

Yew tree – photo taken at Stourbridge Cemetery

Another name for the Sunday before Easter is Yew Sunday as this was used in processions and for church decorations. In fact the Yew has a far deeper spiritual significance going back to Pagan times. Its ability to constantly regenerate has led to the tree being connected with resurrection and eternal life.

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Hawthorn just coming into leaf – prior to blossoming

The Hawthorn also has connections with the Passion, in that it was thought to be used to make Christ’s crown of thorns. However, it had associations with both life and death long before this. It is said that if you wash your face in the dew of the Hawthorn before dawn on 1 May, it will ensure your eternal youth and good looks. So that’s where I went wrong. On the other hand, taking May flowers into the house is considered unlucky and thought to presage death. Common in our hedgerows and streets, the Hawthorn has been widely used by farmers as a thorny barrier to stop stock wandering. The sickly smell of May flowers has been attributed to it absorbing the smell of death on the London streets during the plague.

Creeping Speedwell

But the story that has most intrigued me this week is that of the humble Speedwell flower, found along our paths and roads. The photo above is of a member of the same family, which goes unnoticed and which provides ground cover in much of our neglected scrub. The Latin name for the Speedwell (aka Bird’s Eye) is Veronica officinalis and it is named after the lady who stepped forward from the crowd watching Jesus struggling with the cross on the way to Calvary and wiped his brow with her shawl. It is said that this shawl bore an indelible image of Christ.

The Speedwell – speed you well – is seen as a good luck symbol for travellers as it is so common along roads. It was often sewn into the clothes of travellers to keep them safe on the journey. The connection with the Passion lies, not only in its habitat alongside pathways but also in the name of the merciful lady – Veronica.

There are lots of other fascinating tales in the series “The Passion in Plants”. If you have a love of language and the origin of names, give it a listen.

It leads me on to my last point for today on a similar subject. As I love butterflies, I have often wondered why the generic name varies so greatly in different countries. Often in Latin-based languages, words such as this are quite similar but butterflies seem to vary enormously. The German is Schmetterling – which as Victor Borge once described, sounds like someone sneezing. Apparently it has some association with our English Butterfly as it is said to be from an old Middle High German word meaning butter.

Yellow Butter-fly

A few more examples include Mariposa (posar = to rest, mari suggests femininity) – Spanish; Borboleta (borboletar = to flutter) – Portuguese, dalan-de – (God’s fire) Scottish and Papillon (from Latin) – French. The Latin is used for the name of the Swallowtail.

Papilio machaon – Swallowtail butterfly – photo taken in Belgium

But the name that it most intriguing is the Greek – Psyche. The ancient Greeks used the same name for butterfly as for the soul which sums up the feeling that butterflies inspire the world over.