Oak

The prehistoric Indo-European tribes worshiped the oak and connected it with a thunder god, and this tradition descended to many classical cultures. In Greek mythology, the oak is the tree sacred to Zeus, king of the gods. In Zeus’s oracle in Dodona, Epirus, the sacred oak was the centerpiece of the precinct, and the priests would divine the pronouncements of the god by interpreting the rustling of the oak’s leaves. Mortals who destroyed such trees were said to be punished by the gods since the ancient Greeks believed beings called hamadryads inhabited them. In Norse and Baltic mythology, the oak was sacred to the thunder gods Thor and Perkūnas respectively. In Celtic polytheism, the name druid, Celtic priest, is connected to Proto-Indo-European *deru, meaning oak or tree. Veneration of the oak survives in Serbian Orthodox Church tradition. Christmas celebrations include the badnjak, a branch taken from a young and straight oak ceremonially felled early on Christmas Eve morning, similar to a yule log.

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