Celtic tree month of Coll (Hazel) commences  (Aug 5 - Sep 1)

Like other Iron Age Europeans, the Celts were a polytheistic people prior to their conversion to (Celtic) Christianity. The Celts divided the year into 13 lunar cycles (months or moons). These were linked to specific sacred trees which gave each moon its name. Today commences the Celtic tree month of Coll.

Hazels are a group of about ten species of trees and large shrubs that are native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The botanic name of the genus is Corylus, and it is placed in the family Corylaceae, though some botanists include this family within the Betulaceae.

The nuts obtained from the species Corylus avellana are the common edible hazelnuts. This large shrub is grown extensively for its nuts. Nuts are also harvested from some of the other species, including the filbert, from the Balkan species Corylus maxima, however the terms hazelnut and filbert are often used interchangeably, particularly in the USA, where imported filberts were grafted onto native hazel rootstock.

The term ‘filbert�?may derive from ‘full beard�?(German vollbart), for its long, leafy husk, or simply because hazelnuts mature on or around the feast day of Philibert and Fabrician, August 22 (Middle English, from Old French (nois de) filbert, [nut of] Philibert). Both types are sometimes called cobnuts. There is also an Australian 'hazel' tree (Pomaderris apetala) grown especially for ornament and its fine-grained wood and edible nuts.

According to folklore, seeing hazelnuts in your dream means peace, harmony, and profitable business ventures. Dreaming that you are seeing or eating hazelnuts signifies true and dependent friends.
Coll, the hazel, is symbolic of wisdom and druidry. Through its use by water dowsers, hazel symbolises divination of hidden or lost things.

Holy Rood Day, September 14, is traditionally known in Britain as Devil’s Nutting Day (a custom which persisted in England until the First World War), or the Day of the Holy Nut, and hazel nuts gathered today are said to have magical powers. If you find two on one stalk on Nutting Day, they will guard against rheumatism, toothache and evil spells from witches. But you must not gather nuts early in the morning, as that is unlucky.

Prognosticating the future was always an important part of Samhain (Halloween), and European girls would look for signs of their future husbands in the way hazelnuts burned on the kitchen fire-grate, on 'Nutcrack Night' as Britons sometimes called Halloween. Hazelnuts�?greatest magical potency is at Samhain, when the veil between the material and metaphysical worlds is thinnest.

Wishes are said to be come true if, when making the wish, one adorns the hair with individual twigs or with 'wishing caps' made of hazel twigs.

The cutting of hazel should be done at the waxing moon, because when the moon is waning, the sap of the hazel wood goes down into the root, leaving the wood brittle and without pith. Or, so it is said. The same is true of willow and pine (but you can cut gum trees at any old time if you're a fair dinkum Aussie).

Adam, Eve and hazel

According to one ancient legend, after banishing Adam and Eve from Eden, God gave both of them the power to create any animal he desired. To create this beast Adam had to strike the sea with a rod of hazel. The first animal that Adam created in this manner was the sheep, while Eve created a wolf which attacked the sheep. In order to control the wolf, Adam then created a dog. The dog overcame the wolf and harmony was restored. Thus, the mystical properties of Corylus was attached to humankind's breeding of the domestic dog from the wild wolf, with the former's abilities to protect humans and their husbandry from its ancestor.

The legend of Fionn MacCuill

In Irish mythology, MacCuill (Fionn mac Cumhail; MacCool), one of the last Tuath kings, may have been so-called because he worshipped the hazel (coll). Hazel, in fact is associated with him in legend:

The ancient Irish believed that there were fountains at the head of the largest rivers of Ireland, over each of which grew nine hazel trees that at certain times produced beautiful red nuts. These nuts fell on the surface of the river, and when the salmon in the river came up and ate them, the fishes�?flesh gained red spots.

It was believed that whoever could catch and eat one of these Salmon of Knowledge would receive praeternatural powers. (Moreover, it was hazel nuts that gave the bards their ability to write their poems and songs of the ancient legends.) A bard lived by the river Boyne, and caught such a salmon. The hero Fionn (Finn; Finne), who was studing under the bard for seven years, cooked the fish and burned his thumb. While it cooked, he burst a blister on the salmon, which burned his thumb; Fionn then sucked his thumb. As piece of the salmon's skin had become attached to his thumb, which Fionn then swallowed, thus gaining special knowledge, including precognition. He then knew how to gain revenge against his rival, Goal mac Morn, and in subsequent stories was able to call on the knowledge of the salmon by sucking his thumb.

 

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