The animal itself
Antlers are shed and regrown every year, the fastest growing tissue of any mammal, up to 2.5 cm a day. The animal deliberately loses its weapon each winter and rebuilds it.1 of 2 calendars · 90 searches a month
Stag
Starting again after a clearance.
Which calendar assigns it, and when
Celtic calendar
24 December – 20 January
Its tree
Birch
Only the Celtic calendar assigns this one. Anyone born in these dates gets a different animal from the other system — the two agree on 4.7% of days →
What it stands for, and where that came from
Starting again after a clearance — authority that is regrown rather than held.
Honoured in: Celtic and Norse royal symbol; the stag on the Gundestrup cauldron.
The symbolism usually grew out of the behaviour rather than the other way round — which is the part worth keeping when the rest is set aside.