Thunder poppies

In England, poppies were sometimes called “thunder flowers” because picking them was believed to trigger lightning... 

Beginnen donderwolken op te doemen, stook dan vlug uw donderbloemen (When clouds with thunder approach, burn then your poppies fast) - Dutch saying

In Flanders the local name for common (field, corn) poppies is "donderblomme", literally "thunder flower". In Wallonia this becomes "tonnoire", after "tonnerre" (thunder)...

In the past, people used to gather red poppy flowers and make bouquets from them. These bouquets were then brought to the church where they were blessed by a priest...

When a thunderstorm approached, people would burn the poppies on the altar of the church to ward of the damaging thunderstorm...

Why?

Poppies start flowering May. Which is the beginning of the thunderstorm season in continental Europe...And flower until the thunderstorm season is over. These pictures  show thunderstorm frequency in Europe per month...

What is interesting is that the beginning of May, the beginning of summer, is when wild Eurasian cattle, Aurochs, used to start calving. It is also interesting that the beginning of Aug, the end of summer, is when wild Eurasian cattle, Aurochs, used to start their mating...

I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull"...

Which is why bull was the symbol of summer...

I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

You can read more about the origin of zodiac symbols and their link to the annual lifecycles of the animals used as symbols in my posts about zodiac signs which are linked to this page about "Zodiac"...

Anyway, if you look at the above thunderstorm distribution map, you can see that thunderstorm season in continental Europe starts in May and ends in Aug...

And interestingly, it is in August that Serbs celebrated the victory of Perun (Slavic thunder god) over Veles (The great snake, Dragon, Symbol of drought)...They battled all summer (summer being the hottest part of the year and also the part of the year with most thunderstorms)...

And guess what Serbs did to celebrate that victory which falls at the beginning of the mating season of Aurochs, which was characterized by wild bull fights for females? Serbs organized (and still do) bull fights

I talked about this in my post "Alidjun"...

Oh and guess what else they do to celebrate the victory of the Thunder god, at the end of summer, which is symbolized by a bull? They kill and sacrifice a bull...

I talked about this in my post "Bull of Grom Div"...

This link between poppies (bulls) and thunder (gods) is not only a European thing...

Beginning of May falls in the middle of Taurus...Anatolian thunder god arriving on a bull and holding a trident as a symbol of thunder. Why? Because Taurus is the peak of the thunderstorm season in Anatolia...

I talked about this in my post about "Uluçinar stelae".

And sometimes the god standing on a bull is even carrying poppies...

I talked about this in my post "Poppy god"...