Spring’s Awakening
The arrival of spring brings new life and growth after a period of dormancy during winter. Animals emerge from their winter slumber to begin nesting and reproducing. Plants awaken and stretch green tendrils of new life out into the world. And farmers enter the fields to prepare the earth and sow their crops. As I researched the topic of spring folklore, I soon discovered that much of it relates back to the concept of new life and new growth. Additionally, many folk beliefs and customs connect the spring season to the behavior of animals and plants.
Seasonal Divination & Birdsong
One animal species that seems keenly linked to the folklore of spring is birds. Their flocking behavior and their calls were thought to foretell weather and provide expectations regarding the seasons. For example, if birds in flocks separate in early spring, but then start to regroup in flocks again, it was believed that hard weather would be on its way, and that winter would extend up until May.
Elias Owen, in his book Welsh Folk-Lore: A Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales, describes how the song of the great tit was used to make both weather and season predictions. The great tit, a common bird in the UK with greenish-yellow plumage, has a distinctive "teacher-teacher" song. Hearing the great tit's call was considered a sign of rain. However, if the bird's notes were heard in February, it signaled that weather would be improving. Owen describes how the great tit's song indicated that winter was on its way out: "Its sharp notes rapidly repeated several times in succession are welcome sounds in hard weather, for they show that spring is coming."
Spring Faeries & Flower Lore
As spring arrives, flowers begin to bloom, adding much welcomed color after a long, cold winter. Terri Windling's blog, Myth & Moor, contains several posts on wildflowers and the folklore connected to them. She explains how wild violets are associated with change and transformation—they can symbolize rebirth, much like spring emerging from winter. She does, however, warn against bringing violets into the home—it was believed that doing so could "... curse the farmwife's hens and make them unable to lay." It was better to leave them outside near your doorstep (with a bowl of milk) for the faeries.
Bluebells are another spring flower often connected to folklore, especially faerie folklore. They are a favorite flower of the faeries, and for that reason, they were considered dangerous. Windling writes, "A child alone in a bluebell wood might be whisked Under the Hill and never seen again, while adults can find themselves lost for days, or years, until the faery spell is broken." Bluebells could also be seen as a type of death omen—hearing a bluebell ring was akin to hearing your own death knell.
Spring Love Charms
Conversely, hawthorn is a tree associated with fertility and May Day, which traditionally celebrated the return of spring. Not only did hawthorn serve as the ancestor to the modern maypole, but its leaves and flowers were used to create May Day garlands. I also came across a use for it as a love charm. Mabel Peacock, in her article "The Folklore of Lincolnshire" which appeared in the journal Folklore, explains how hawthorn was used by women to determine "... the identity of the person you are to marry ...." Essentially, the charm required "... “the first bunch of hawthorn you observe in the spring time, especially if you can find it on May Eve [April 30].”
To activate the charm, the curious woman would first break a spray of hawthorn partly through and leave it there, hanging. That night, she should have seen her future spouse in her dreams. In the morning, she "... “must gather the may; and if you have not already dreamed of him, it is certain that you will see him or his apparition ere you enter the house again.”
While this may have seemed like an easy solution to a very important question, Mabel Peacock warns that it could have the unintentional consequence of causing a hesitant person to feel compelled to marry unwillingly.
A Time to Sow & A Time to Reap
Spring season folklore extended to agriculture as well. I came across several sayings where the weather on a certain day would determine the quality of a harvest. For example, "If it thunders on All Fool's Day, it brings good crops of corn and hay." And here's another, "Hoar frost on the 1st of May indicates a good harvest." I looked into why hoar frost might yield a good harvest, but I was only able to discover more folklore on the subject. Hoar frost was also believed to be a predictor of future rain, so perhaps that was the reason for the saying.
There also existed folklore regarding when best to sow crops. In Wales, before the science of agriculture took hold, farmers used different customs and traditions to know when to sow their crops. Some utilized the practice of linking the sowing of different crops to the dates of various agricultural fairs that occurred in the spring. Other farmers favored an approach that consulted and observed nature. The flowering of trees and the appearance of birds were used as signals of when to begin sowing.
In the article "'A Time to Sow and a Time to Reap': The Welsh Farmer's Calendar" from the journal Folklore, J. Williams-Davies lists several examples of how farmers followed nature's guide when it came to sowing various crops. Some felt that the best time to sow summer cabbages was: "At the appearance of the hyacinth (blue-bell), and when the ring-dove (wood-pigeon) begins to coo." As for spring barley, the perfect time to sow was deemed: "At the earliest discovery of the cuckoo, and the white swol'n buds of the blackthorn."
Williams-Davies notes that this long tradition of farming in response to folklore and tradition was a result of careful observation and experience, and that this knowledge was passed down through generations.
This spring I've been taking walks on our local wilderness trails, and it's been fun to reflect on seasonal folklore while I listen to birdsong, notice flowers emerging, and observe the hills turning green. I live in Southern California, where weather conditions are often hot and dry. But the past two winters have been quite wet, and as a result, we've had a lovely, green spring (complete with a running creek!). But even the desert experiences spring. I wrote part of this piece in Arizona while visiting family, and on a morning walk I enjoyed bird calls and saw flowers on cacti. I hope that you, too, are enjoying the springtime wherever you may be.
I'm wondering if the Hoar frost on the 1st of May has to do with the chill hours required for stone fruits. Without enough hours of frosty nights, stone fruits cannot bloom and produce their crop. Thus, a cold winter, at least for these crops, produces a better crop. I believe similar chill requirements exist for some berries, flower bulbs, etc. They need that cold and dark to hibernate in a sense to be able to bloom in Spring.
Living in Kentucky as a public health nurse, I heard many folk stories, remedy and explanations for ailments, etc. I could really relate to your Folklore here. Thank you. Very enjoyable read. I now live far from the Bluegrass state on remote Big Island of Hawaii. And there is much “talk story” here as well. Aloha.