Cardea - Was known as the "White Goddess" by various Latin tribes. She was the mistress of Janus, who guarded all doorways and portals. Cardea was called the hinge of the door of the year. An obvious connection with Janus who was the door, and the god of new beginnings. January, the first month of the year is named after Janus. Cardea's primary symbol was the hawthorn branch and her festival was celebrated in May.
Cardea’s tree was the thorn tree (hawthorne, whitethorn), the may tree, because it blossoms in May, and this would immunize the house against the vampire. The month is named from “maia” meaning Great Mother, or Mother Earth—identified with Cybele or Diana of the Ephesians—a goddess who was at Rome offended by marriage and had to be propitiated by burning five torches of hawthorn before the month began. From Lemuria at the nones of May, May was considered unlucky for marriage in classical times. That is the origin of the proverb, “Cast not a clout till May goes out”. People were not to take off their winter clothes until the end of May, then would put on their new summer ones, a tradition that came into Christianity at Whitsuntide. The proverb had nothing to do with the temperature, but was spoken in ancient Greece, and more recently in north eastern Spain, according to Robert Graves (The White Goddess). The forbidden period only ended on 15 June, the ides of June.
