And
so we come to the great Feast of Christmas and the end of the year.
Christmas, like Hallowe’en, was also an ancient time for
commemorating the dead and approximated to the winter solstice.
Holly, as a means of decorating the house, is now joined by
commercially‑produced streamers and tinsel; and the Christmas tree,
still absent in simple traditional country homes, has come from
central Europe to invade our cities and towns. One of the most
beautiful of our old Irish customs is that of lighting one large
candle in the kitchen window on Christmas Eve, as well as a smaller
one in each of the other windows of the house. This was said to be in
honour of the Holy Family who sought shelter on that night long ago,
and the lights also served as a beacon for lonely and homeless
wayfarers. The placing of a large log (bloc na Nollag) at the
side of the open hearth in Irish homes for the Twelve Days of
Christmas had a possible counterpart in the tithe éigin
(‘need fires’) custom in Gaelic Scotland. The religious observance of
Christmas is, of course, the principal expression of the Feast in
present‑day Ireland, as it has been down through the centuries.
There
is no trace that I know of in Irish tradition of the European
celebration of the Feast of St. Stephen (December 26) by horse-riding
around castles and such; the fact that he is regarded as the patron
saint of horses does not seem to have left any mark in this country.
The day was, instead, popularly observed by “wren-boys”
(say ‘ran‑boys’), groups of boys or young men who went from door to door carrying a
holly bush, on which was either a dead wren; or something to represent
the bird. They sang a song which began:
“The
wren, the wren (pronounced ‘ran’), the king of all birds,
St.Stephen’s Day was caught in the furze;
Although he is little, his family is great,
So rise up, landlady, and give us a treat; (say ‘trate’)
Bottles of whiskey and bottles of beer,
And I wish you all a Happy New Year.”
When
the song had ended (often in the grey dawn, as rival groups tried to
be first in their visit to each house), they would be given some
money. All wore masks or some other facial and bodily disguise, in
the traditional manner of carnival singers the world over. This
custom is still strong in some areas, but has died out almost
completely in others. People in many districts still abstain from
meat on St. Stephen’s Day; the reason popularly given for this is
that, when plague threatened the parish in olden times, the people
prayed to St. Stephen to save them—which he did—and ever
since they have thanked hbim in this way. It is possible too that,
since meat was a comparative rarity in olden times, people ate so
much of it on Christmas Day that they did not feel like eating more
the next day.
Lána Leanbh (Children’s Day: Feast of the Holy Innocents) fell on
December 28 and, for some unknown reason, was known also as Lá
Crosta na Bliana (“The Cross Day of the Year”). The
word “cross” (crosadh) here signifies prohibition:
people would not begin any kind of work on that day or dig a grave or
get married.
New Year’s Eve, the last night of the old year, was known as Oíche
Chinn Bliana (Year’s End Night) and Oíche na Coda Móire
(The Night of the Great Feast). Candles were again lighted in the
windows and special food was eaten. It was a night which was
associated with the dead too, and both they and absent members of
families were remembered in the family rosary. As the New Year, with
its many uncertainties, was near at hand, a cake of bread was dashed
against the door to banish the danger of hunger, and the rise or fall
of rivers was observed to foretell whether prices would correspond
during the ensuing year. There was no general tradition of bidding
goodbye to the old year and welcoming in the new one, which is now
internationally observed in modern times.
From the booklet, ‘Irish Folk Belief and Custom’, by Seán Ó
Súilleabháin (1903 – 1996), published in 1967 for
the Cultural Relations Committee of Ireland.
