April - the month to slash and burn

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

- T.S. Eliot

Often when I think about the word April, I hear the phrase “April is the cruellest month” in my head. I tend to agree. April can be cruel indeed, or at least ugly; usually not the time of lilacs yet up here in the North (this year, it snowed on the 3^rd of April), it’s the time of harsh, merciless light; half-decayed trash revealed from under dirty, grey patches of snow... not my favourite season.

But the word April has nothing to do with the Finnish name for this spring month, huhtikuu. What does huhtikuu mean, then?

This is one of the month names where the importance of agriculture is evident; various months have been named after the work that used to, or, indeed, is done then. Huhti comes from the word huhta which means a field created by the old slash-and-burn technique. April was an ideal time to go and fell the trees that would later, once they dried, be burned to create a field – huhta. As fars as I understand, a huhta was a field that used to grow conifers while a kaski was a field from which birch and other deciduous trees had been felled.

Since I don't happen to have a picture of a slash-and-burn field, here's a photo of the first spring flowers! My daughter brought them for me last Wednesday. :)