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A Celtic Easter in Ireland

Posted on: March 27th, 2012 by Sine Treanor 5 Comments

It usually seems to be a gloomy time of year when the Christmas festivities are finally over and the dark days of winter stretch before us. The bad weather arrives with a vengeance and unless you are lucky enough to be able to escape to warmer climes for a couple of weeks, there is little respite from the cold weather and not much to look forward to. At last, however, it’s time to reset the clocks to summertime and even though it may still be cold and wet, the days finally become longer and we have Easter to celebrate. Easter for many people is the beginning of spring, which is surely one of the best seasons, with all the new plants shooting and a sort of renewed hope for better times and a long, hot summer.

Daffodils

Daffodils - Emblem of Spring and Easter


Easter in Ireland is very special and in many areas a sacred time of prayer and fasting. Traditionally on Good Friday, no one works on the land, just in the house. Other customs include cleaning the house thoroughly inside and for the outside, applying whitewash. This is when you are meant to acquire new clothes, to fast on Good Friday and keep quiet from noon until 3p.m. You are meant to shed no blood, do no work with wood and not hammer any nails. You should visit church, but you have to remove your shoes. You are not supposed to fish with nets or lines on Good Friday and traditionally no fishing boat puts out to sea, instead they gather bia tragha-shore food-seaweed and shellfish for the main meal.

It was thought that if you cut your hair on Good Friday it would prevent headaches in the year to come. If a child was born on Good Friday and baptized on Easter Sunday, it was believed that he or she would have the gift of healing. Any eggs laid on Good Friday would be marked with a cross and eaten on Easter Sunday and eggs that hatched on this day were thought to produce healthy chicks. On Easter Saturday hundreds of small candles are lit in churches from the Paschal candle that has been blessed by the priest. On Easter Sunday a quiet traditional meal would be eaten at home, consisting of leek soup and roasted spring lamb. This would sometimes be followed by a cake dance, the cake being the prize for the best dancer.

Of course today, many of these customs are no longer observed, but the study of them gives a fascinating insight into the lives of people years ago. The Easter Sunday dinner nowadays is similar to the Christmas meal. It can be turkey or lamb, along with potatoes and vegetables. Desert will vary, but usually the children enjoy eating their chocolate Easter eggs!

Of course when you are grown up, chocolate Easter eggs don’t necessarily have the same magic, but if you want to give a special gift to someone dear to you, or if you are getting engaged at Easter, what better gift could there be than a beautiful piece of Celtic jewelry placed inside an Easter egg? It doesn’t need to be a chocolate egg, you can buy decorated cardboard eggs in various sizes, which would hold a ring box and delight both the giver and the recipient. A gift to your mother of a Celtic Cross pendent, or a beautiful pair of Celtic earrings would be especially welcome when presented in this way. For father, husband or fiance’ there are also possibilities, such as tiepins, cufflinks and pendants. If you give a gift of Celtic jewelry this Easter, it will be especially memorable.

Saint Patrick & Saint Patrick’s Day

Posted on: March 6th, 2012 by Sine Treanor 3 Comments

It’s fairly certain that virtually everyone who is Irish, or is of Irish descent will have heard of St Patrick and be aware that his special day is celebrated on March 17th. This is the day when he is believed to have died, in the year 461 AD, but many may not be aware of his life story, much of which is shrouded in legend and myth.

Saint Patrick as Bishop

Saint Patrick Portrait


However, there are some facts about his life of which we can be sure, because they originate from two letters, written by Patrick himself, which amazingly still survive and provide some details of his life which are universally accepted as true. He may have been born in either Scotland, or Roman England, but from the letters we know that at around sixteen years of age he was living in Wales with his family and was captured by Irish raiders, who took him to Ireland as a slave. He was finally able to escape after six years of mostly imprisonment and returned to his family. He later entered the Church and perhaps surprisingly, returned to Ireland, (this time as an ordained bishop) in the north and west of the country. Legend says that he saw God in a dream and was instructed by Him to escape with a ship.

The more uncertain information about Ireland’s’ patron saint is that he was born in the latter half of the 4th century AD and his real name was most likely Maewyn Succat, but the Roman version was Patricius. His father was a British-Roman army officer named Calpurnicus. The events that followed his escape from slavery are believed to be that after his return to Wales he traveled to France, where he joined a monastery and studied for about twelve years under St. Germain, the bishop of Auxerre. After being ordained as a bishop, he dreamed that the Irish people were calling him to return and teach them about God.

There is an important document called The Confessio, which is Patrick’s spiritual autobiography. It refers to a dream he had after his return to Britain, in which someone named Victoricus delivered to Patrick a letter titled “The Voice of the Irish.”

Saint Patrick Shamrock

The Shamrock is strongly linked with Saint Patrick


Of the many legends associated with St Patrick is the story that he used the three-leafed shamrock to explain the idea of the Trinity, which is the concept of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is the reason why the shamrock is so strongly associated with him. Another legend tells that Saint Patrick rid Ireland of all venomous snakes by putting the curse of God on them. He then drove them all into the sea where they drowned. In the literal sense, this is very unlikely to be true as it is highly improbable that there were ever any poisonous snakes in Ireland. It is more likely to be symbolic as the serpent represents evil and could mean St Patrick’s mission to remove the pagan influences from Ireland. This mission lasted for about thirty years until his death in the 5th century AD, March 17th, which is now commemorated as St Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in America in 1737 in Boston, Massachusetts. New York City held its first official St. Patrick’s Day parade in 1766 and the saying goes that on this day “everybody is Irish!” Nowadays more than 100 U.S. cities hold Saint Patrick’s Day parades.

A Trip to Costa del Bog!

Posted on: February 15th, 2012 by Sine Treanor No Comments

As we have been lucky enough to avoid the recent inclement weather that seems to have befallen the rest of Europe, it seemed a shame to waste the lovely mild weekends we’ve been having. So off we went on our family rambles again. This time to the wilds of the local Bog!!

A Picturesque Irish Bog

Beautiful rich brown earth stretching as far as the eye can see, with only tall fir trees to break the horizon. Had I been alone I could have enjoyed the peace and tranquility of this ancient place. However, on this occasion, two boys and a hound had other ideas! (We brought the dog as it’s one of his favorite places to run.) We wouldn’t be spotting any wildlife today with all that noise. The hares and otters would be hiding for sure! I’ve even spotted deer close to the trees in the past. But today the best we could do was a swan on the lake. (She didn’t stick around for long either!)

This bog is still worked for turf so there are markings in the ground and sods left over from last year lying around. A great number of country people still burn turf to heat their homes. Turf in one form or another is still Ireland’s prime source of fuel for fireplace/cooking/electricity generation, etc. The range is still a big part of the Irish country kitchen.

It is used for cooking and also heats not only the kitchen but radiators all over the house. The fire can be kept alight for decades…. literally! Ashes are added on top at night. This keeps the embers hot. Then in the morning the ashes are removed and fresh turf added and before long a good hot fire is burning again.

Turf used to be cut by hand in Ireland using a peat spade called a sleán

Turf used to be cut by hand in Ireland using a peat spade called a sleán. This part is done by machine for the most part these days. Though in our area there are still a great many cutting it themselves.


Cutting Peat

The wet sods are then spread out using a turf-fork. After a few days the sods are moved to dry ground and built into small stacks, by standing three or four sods up on their ends against each other. This is called footing the turf.


footing the turf

The stacks are left to dry throughout the summer months in the sun and wind. When the sods are dry they are transported to the home and stacked in sheds or built into a large pile and covered. A week turf cutting would provide enough fuel to last the year. It’s a family occasion and everyone helps out.

At this time of year all is quiet up here. You might meet the occasional dog walker or jogger. But the work won’t begin again until late spring. Before we knew it we had put a couple of miles behind us. The air is balmy and you can almost taste the ‘healthiness’ of it. Even with children and hound in tow this place will cleanse your very soul. We’ll all sleep well tonight!

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