Bawming the Thorn

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Bawming the Thorn is a tradition associated with Midsummer. Bawming means to decorate and anoint; in this case a hawthorn. The thorn is usually dressed with ribbons, garlands, flowers and so forth as it is circled. As such it is associated with such rites as well-dressing, and the decorating of the Yule tree and maypole.

This rite is carried out every 20th June at Appleton Thorn in Cheshire, the thorn in question supposedly being a descendant of the holy Glastonbury Thorn:

Up with fresh garlands, this midsummer morn,
Up with the red ribbons on Appleton Thorn.
Come lasses and lads to the Thorn Tree today,
To bawm it and shout as ye bawm it ‘hooray’!