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"...

Uluçinar stelae

In 2007 two stelae, each bearing figures of the Storm-god leading a ruler and a duplicate Hieroglyphic Luwian text, were discovered at Uluçinar (formerly Arsuz), on the Turkish coast south of İskenderun...

The inscription is the work of a Suppiluliuma, son of Manana, king of the land of Walastin, now understood as the Luwian designation of the Amuq plain with its capital at the Iron Age site of Tell Tayinat...

The stelae, probably dating to the later tenth century BC, record the successful reign of the ruler who "achieved things his father or grandfather could not" like conquer the city of Adana and the land of Hiyawa (most likely Ahhiyawa, the Hittite designation of Greeks)

All his military victories and the abundance of grain and wine in his kingdom, the king attributes to the mighty Storm god. On both stelae, the king is depicted holding grapes in his right hand and grain in his left, while being led by the hand by the Storm god, his patron deity...

On the first stela the storm god, stands on a bull under the winged sun disc... 

On the second stela the storm god, stands on a plant under the winged sun disc... 

Why?

Well here is why: This is a chart showing yearly temperature and precipitation in Eastern Anatolia...

The late April early May (Taurus) is the time of maximum precipitation and maximum thunderstorms. The time when Thunder god arrives to the land of the Hittites...Hence the bull...This is also start of summer...Hence the winged sun disc...

The inscriptions are from the article "Two new inscribed Storm-god stelae from Arsuz (İskenderun): ARSUZ 1 and 2" by Belkis Dinçol, Ali Dinçol, J.D. Hawkins, Hasan Peker and Aliye Öztan

One more thing: Look at the end of the spring rain season. Jul/Aug. The Storm god is leading the king who is holding grapes and grain towards the end of the summer (symbolised by a bull) and the end of the rain season. And Jul/Aug is the beginning of the grain and grape harvest in Eastern Anatolian plateau. 

In "The Palaeoethnobotany of Tell Tayinat, Turkey" we read that "Hittite texts discuss the process of harvesting grains in some detail. The harvest (BURUX) would occur in Jul/Aug."

Here is something interesting. 

Summer starts on the 6th of May, in the middle of Taurus (end of April beginning of May) and is symbolised by a bull. 

Autumn starts on the 2nd of August, in the middle of Leo (end of July beginning of August) and is symbolised by a lion.

You can read more about the beginnings of seasons in my post "Two crosses"...

You can read more about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

You can also read about why are the zodiac signs where they are on the zodiac circle (spoiler: it has to do with reproductive cycles of the animals used as zodiac symbols) in the posts linked from my page "Zodiac"...

Now, the autumn (lion) succeeds summer (bull). The autumn (lion) ends (kills) summer (bull). End of July beginning of August. Lion kills Bull. But also harvests begins...

Killing of the bull = Killing of the grain = Beginning of Harvest?