Welcome to May's section of Ecoliteracy for Educators.

To kick off this month, I wanted to delve a little deeper into the Ogham Tree Alphabet and Celtic Tree Calendar after reading about the 9 sacred woods to burn on the 4 Cross-quarter days (Lunar Fire Festivals) in the Wheel of the Year:
Beltane (1 May),  Lughnasadh (1 August), Samhain (31 October) and Imbolc (1 February).

The 9 sacred woods are the first 9 which appear in the Celtic Tree Calendar:
Birch, Rowan, Ash, Alder, Willow, Hawthorn, Oak, Holly and Hazel.

Of these nine, we'll be looking at Alder, Birch and Hawthorn this month so you may wish to start gathering the dead branches from these trees as you observe them throughout May to season ready for the next fire festival (Lughnasadh) in 3 months' time.

From 4th May you'll have access to resources exploring the ID and folklore of:
Flowers:
Bluebell
Dog Violet
Garlic Mustard
Wood Sorrel

Then after the Hawthorn Full Moon on Monday 16th May the section on trees will be released so as to not overwhelm you with new resources! These are the trees for May:
Trees:
Alder
Birch
Beech
Hawthorn