[2024]

holunder, holler | elder (sambucus nigra)
an old cultivated and medicinal plant with a long history in folk customs.

it's just the very coloured substance in elderberries (anthocyanins) which is deactivating virusses and bacteries very well. this must have been the discovery and experience already thousands of years ago, in the stone age.

in spring 2024, i found my favourite small forest ravaged. as if someone vacuumed the forest floor... all the undergrowth gone, larger trees partly cut off, huge piles of branches, all the elder flattened to the ground, dried, laying there like bones. in the middle of this emptied out forest sat a man on a tree stump coughing... like an allegory for the forest; the man clearly needed medicine, too. long story short, the elder was in many ways in my mind and asked for a place in the records...
the tree of life and death in many cultures, often planted nearby the house, so to protect it but also to burry the dead under the tree. the benevolent patron saint of the people, animals and plants with  profound healing power. therefore it was forbidden to cut it down mindlessly and only widows and children were allowed to do so. the name similarity to holda (als in german fairytale: frau holle), the goddess of winter, is no coincidence. the hollow branches of the elder tree were also used as flutes in ancient days.