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Celtic tree calendar · Celtic tree month 6

Hawthorn

Hawthorn · Huath

Hawthorn (Huath), month 6 of the modern 'Celtic tree calendar', 13 May – 9 June.

The hawthorn or may-tree blossoms around Beltane, and in folk belief it was a fairy tree, unlucky to bring indoors or cut down. In the tree calendar it represents fertility, protection and the threshold to the otherworld.

The thirteen tree months come from Robert Graves' The White Goddess (1948), not from ancient sources. The tree associations of the Ogham letters do go back to medieval Irish scholars, but there is no evidence for an ancient Celtic tree calendar.

Personality

creative · fertile · lively · protective · curious · adaptable

In the modern 'Celtic tree calendar', a person born in the Hawthorn month (13 May – 9 June) is described as lively, creative and full of hidden depth, appearing ordinary on the surface but with great energy within. The scheme was created by Robert Graves in The White Goddess (1948) and later Pagan writers; there is no evidence for it among the ancient Celts. Hawthorn corresponds to the Ogham letter Huath.

Modern writers draw on the hawthorn's folklore: it blossoms around Beltane and May Day, and in Irish and British belief it was a fairy tree, unlucky to cut down or bring indoors. Hawthorn people are therefore said to be fertile in ideas, curious, adaptable and protective of what they love, with a link to thresholds and the otherworld. Their challenges are described as restlessness, a prickly defensiveness and a tendency to scatter their energy.

In love Hawthorn people are portrayed as passionate and loyal, needing variety and fun; in work, as creators, entertainers and those who generate new ideas. Like every tree-month portrait, this is a modern contemplative reading rather than ancient tradition.

Sources and further reading