Twelfth night used to mark the turning of the year for the peoples of England. Twelve days prior had been Midwinter, marking the return of the Sun after the longest period of darkness in the running of the year, the twenty-first of December. On the eve of Twelfth Night, the Wild Hunt was said to ride the skies looking for prey, which meant anyone foolish enough to be out on that evening. Farmers would make sure that all livestock was safely in on that night or they could awake the next morning and find themselves short a few head of cattle or sheep.
Herne was a force of nature, answerable to no one save himself, and was said to reside in the oak tree in Windsor Park. He would serve as a reminder to the people that nature is impartial to them, their needs, and desires, doing what it must when it must. Although the longest night of the year may have passed, the worst of winter could still be yet to come.
I was reminded of oak trees again today when reading through the morning paper full of war and horror, I came across this one article in The Globe and Mail about one an older oak tree in Canada and what steps were being taken to preserve it.
About one hundred kilometres (80 miles) outside of Montreal in Montebello, Quebec is the former residence of Louis–Joseph Papineau. Papineau was the leader of an uprising in 1837 in Lower Canada (Quebec) that demanded representational government for the colonies. Upper (Ontario) and Lower Canada were ruled by an appointed Governor General and a few wealthy individuals. Due to their nepotistic nature they were known derisively as The Family Compact.
Papineau's attempt at change was a failure and he and other leaders were forced to flee to the Untied States where they spent ten or so year in exile. When he returned to Quebec in 1845 he set to establishing his home in Montebello and it was while having the lands cleared for its building that he preserved this solitary oak to give his home a sense of history.
Today, 170 years later, the tree is beginning to suffer from symptoms of old age and is in need of assistance. Parks Canada (the supervisors of all national parks and historical sites in Canada) sought out the help of an arborist to try and devise a means of preserving the three-hundred plus year-old tree.
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
There's the idea of oak trees as representing enduring strength. Then again, they can represent an implacable obstacle, as per the wasted narrator of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "That Smell" when he declares "Oak tree, you're in my way."
2 - Vicki
Would you be willing to share a picture of your tattoo?
I am trying to design exactly what I want for my next tattoo. It will be a tribute to my brother who passed in May. I think an oak tree would be very appropriate for him.
Another little tidbit about oaks/acorns is that during the 'burning times' one pagan would give another a gift of an acorn. It was a silent way of saying "Pssst, I'm a witch too."