Tree of Many Lives

I asked the Internet about apricots, history and culture, and got an overwhelming response. They were first cultivated 4,000 years ago, in China and central Asia, and were exported along the silk road. They were spread throughout the Eurasian steppe by  nomadic horse-riding tribes - I assume that's the same people who spread the ancuent language that evolved into the languages of western Europe, including English. Chinese traders introduced them to Persia and from there they spread throughout the Islamic world by the Arabic people of the Calphate, centred on Baghdad, and eventually throughout the Mediterranean

In the middle-east it has become embedded as a cultural symbol in so many of the countries and turns up in touching folk sayings from many of them. It is the national fruit of Armenia, and its Latin name, Prunus armeniaca, derives from the Greeks mistaken belief that it originated there. Because its flowering is unreliable, the Egyptians and Palestinians refer to something that might happen "in apricot season" in the same way that we might say "once in a blue moon". Many countries make a thick, sweet cordial from it that they call "moon of the faith", probably originating from Syria. The Turks say "the only thing better than this is an apricot in Damascus" as we might say "it's the best thing since sliced bread". Jewish people have a festival in which they eat all kinds of fruit, including especially stone-fruit like apricots, which ends with the words

"May all the sparks scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, or by the sin of the first human against the fruit of the tree, be returned and included in the majestic might of the Tree of Life."

The Romans called apricots "the precocious one" because it flowers so early. It does that not only in the warm middle east, but also in freezing Britain. And its flowers are sensitive to frost and wind, which makes it a ridiculous tree to grow in Oxfordshire - but we planted it anyway. True to form, its buds are breaking - I can see pink petals emerging from some of them. The coming warm week will bring them on at speed. We should be prepared to protect them if the weather turns frosty - our efforts last year were haphazard at best, but there are many more buds this year. 

The nearby village of Aynho is famous for its apricot trees. These were encouraged by the aristocratic family that bought the manor in the 17th century, and many cottages have one growing against a south wall. The modern village has embraced them and incorporated them into its annual festivities. I have not yet been offered moon of the faith