[ May, 2014 ] On the second day of our trip in Basque country in Spain, we went to San Sebastian by bus.
When we were walking towards the old town, I found a lovely accessory shop.
Its name is Eguzkilore, looks difficult to pronounce, doesn’t it.
Apparently this is a name of a flower and often translated as ‘sunflower’.
But in fact it is a stemless carline thistle.
They used to put this flower on the door of their houses like a wreath so that they could ward off evil spirits and keep out witches called Lamia.
Lamia can be a good nymph who helps people’s work, but when she is not in a good mood, she harms people.
The reason why it is translated as ‘sunflower’ is because literally it means ‘flower of the sun’.
In Basque they thought that the sun was the god’s eye.
The shape of this pendant looks exactly like this thistle.
This shop has got 6 branches only in Basque.
