Brambles

 

Folklore, Customs, Legends and Mythology.

Mari Cameron-Taber  · pdsnSrteoos576c97 l2l:0613e44t21 9fi10rYhafe0md6afyt94cc71tt  · 

Christians had a story involving the Bramble. It was that when the devil was thrown out of heaven he landed on a bramble bush. This made him so angry that he cursed the plant and spat upon it.

Because of this, it was wrong to eat the fruit of the bramble after Michaelmas, September 29th, because the devil enters them.

This belief had a few variations. In Celtic Brittany it was said to be because of the fairies, and, in Wales, simply because they were poisonous by that time.

This is not actually the case, however certain insects do begin to lay their eggs on the ripened fruit during October which could well have been the cause of some stomach upsets.

Bramble wood was used in basket weaving and to make beehives, in a similar way to willow and bramble was often planted with hawthorn, sometimes known as the fairy tree, in hedgerows in order to bind a hedge.

Perhaps the close association to these very pagan trees and old ways is what made the Christians link the Bramble to a story about the devil.