2014Myths and Flora - Hazel - First Day Cover

Hazel (Corylus avellana) is a bushy tree with a smooth bark form the birch-tree family, which fruit is an edible nut (hazelnut), prevailing throughout Europe, Little Asia and North Africa. The Hazel represents in Celtic and Irish tradition a fruit of science, and is often linked to bewitchment procedures. A symbol of patience and mystical experience, from which will appear life fruits is often used in magic as a means of protection. In expectation of St. George's Day, peasants put crosses of hazel fagot on crops and buildings, in protection of a town's hail. This is a safe haven from lightening and hail, so shepherds in times of storms put on themselves hazel branches or hide under hazel trees.
The hazel is often a motif of love tradition with South Slavs. A symbol of transmitting strength has preserved in the tradition when a pregnant woman carries hazel in her bosom, which she puts in the water when first bathing her baby. A girl, who wishes to attract a boy, must during the summer time take a hazel branch and hit the boy on the back with it three times. After this, he will not be able to look at another girl. On hazel branches, fairies like to sit because on those branches devils must not, and the snake that lives under the hazel tree has special powers. Whoever would fry a "hazel“snake and put a piece in their mouth, would understand animal language. (Radoslav Dodig)