We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. The bush was often of hawthorn. In this festive way communities welcomed in the summer. Thank you for the marvellous information.love to read about folk traditions and seasonal celebrations. They also used them to decorate grottoes, shrines and church altars.
While archaeologists are mainly concerned with the physical remains of past cultures, folklore can help us understanding how some of these people thought and … People would leave personal possessions at the well, tie items to nearby trees, and pray for good health when walking clockwise around the well. Each of these quarterly days indicates the start of a new season. The hymn ‘Queen of the May’ is sung in Catholic Churches on May Day and during the rest of the month. Children would often scatter the flowers outside their neighbor’s homes as a sign of goodwill.One of the more older customs, still practiced today, is visiting holy wells during the Beltane festival. Spring is marked by 1 February (St Brigid’s Day), autumn by 1 August (Lúnasa) and winter by 1 November (Samhain). The cows were safe-guarded through attaching flowers around their heads and sometimes red ribbons or bits of rowan were tied to their tails. It was and still is very common to have a home altar either in the kitchen or outside in the farmyard. Camera shy Brian is a proud Donegal man and regular contributor to our site. One such custom involved decorating the cows with yellow May flowers and performing rituals to protect them from thieves. Mayday has long been the day for superstitions and forecasts for fertility and harvesting. Superstitions surrounding May Day. Throughout Ireland, there is a strong tradition of formally showing welcome, through the spreading of rushes. I have written three books for The History Press and quite often comment on places and customs on radio. Bonfires were a feature of May Eve throughout Europe but the tradition survived mainly in the east of Ireland and in parts of Munster.
Although there were small local and family bonfires to ensure good luck, the tradition of larger communal fires survived especially in the cities, e.g. Geographically, the tradition was strongest in Leinster and the Midlands, stretching west to Galway and northwards to south Ulster and Donegal. Cailleachs, old women or hags, are considered bad deity’s or witches and who would go from home to home to steal butter or milk during the morning of May Day.
Old traditions involved lighting bonfires at sunset on Oíche Bealtaine (or May Eve - April 30) on prominent local landmarks. Doing so would also have their own herd produce a lot of milk for the remaining of the year.It was also believed to grant your neighbor butter and milk of May Day for if you didn’t your cows would fail to produce milk for the rest of year but don’t part with coal or salt and this would bring bad luck.Most superstitions surrounding May Day have all but gone from today’s society and so have their customs.The Divine Comedy is one of Ireland’s most respected indie-pop bands. People also sought protection for themselves, their homes and livestock against supernatural forces.May Day was regarded as the symbolic start of a busy season of farm work. It was thought these flowers would bring luck to the household and keep Cailleachs from entering the home. It was considered bad luck to let the herd out to pasture before noon of May Day as it was believed the fairies would come along and steal the herd.People believed they would be granted good luck if they milked the neighbor’s cow on the morning of May Day. It was similarly decorated to the May Bush.May Poles were popular in some large towns and possibly indicate a certain English influence. It was often accompanied by a procession and sports and festivities. Flowers, dancing, and bonfires featured strongly in the festivities.
May Day traditionally marked the start of summer hurling and in Kilkenny, women gifted men with new hurling balls on this day.In parts of south Ulster, there was an effigy of a female May Queen carried on a pole in a procession. Each of these quarterly days indicates the start of a new season. Remember most of this from my childhoodThis site has been invaluable for me. In the west, the bonfire night was most celebrated on St. John’s Eve and elsewhere Halloween was the night for fires.Dancing was a feature of May bonfire celebrations. There were also folk customs associated with the eves of these festivals marking the seasonal transition.
In Ireland Mayday is surrounded by a rich folklore tradition, most of which dates from 19 th century. It also featured around the May Pole or where communal May Bushes were burnt. This has been described as representing a winding serpent and as representing the movements of the sun. They usually accompanied this with a prayer such as ‘God Bless the Work’. There were also folk customs associated with the eves of these festivals marking the seasonal transition.As in much of northern Europe, May Day in Ireland, was a celebration and welcome of the summer. People also took stock of their food supply that had to sustain them until the crops could be harvested later in the year.Traditions associated with May include May Bushes, May Flowers, May Boughs, May Poles and May Bonfires. Women tried with snails on flour to foretell the man that they would marry.Furze which is also known as gorse is in flower from February to May.This was also a time to study the weather and weather in the month of May would forecast what was expected to follow in the summer.In summary, May Day in Ireland was a festival to welcome the summer and to protect the family and livelihood of the farm from supernatural forces. The day marks the coming of summer and was celebrated in a festival called Lá Bealtaine so it comes as no surprise that the Irish had many customs and traditions surrounding this time of year.We Irish are very superstitious so a lot of old customs surround superstitions with many occurring on May Day.On the eve of May Day yellow flowers, such as buttercups, marigolds, and primroses, were gathered and spread around the outside of each home. The name Bealtaine is said to derive from Old Irish, meaning "bright fire" (Belenus was the Celtic sun and 'healer god').
Instead of a small bush, a larger part of a tree was used.
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