T~Tinne~Holly Holly is male, and symbolizes paternity and fatherhood, and the fight. With the Ivy and the Mistletoe, the Holly has always been regarded as a potent life symbol, both for his year-long foliage and for his winter fruits. Concealed within the verses of the “song of Amergin,” chanted by a chief Bard as he landed on the shores of Ireland, is the line “I am a battle-Waging spear” wood of the June tree was generally used for spear shafts. The old name for Holly is Holm, preserved in such names as Holmsdale, Surrey. With the coming of Christianity, the Holly became the Holy tree, the tree symbolic of the crown of thorns. A Druid sacred tree, sacred to the Winter Solstice because of its red berries and evergreen leaves.