Lá Ḟéile Ḃríde — Three Traditions

1937 - 1939

I

Collector: Imelda Kenny

Location: Gaintí, Gaillimh.

Informant: [Unknown]

St. Brigid is one of the greatest of our Irish Saints and it is not to be wondered at that the Irish people show her so much honour. There are customs attached to her feast day, which are handed down from father to son. On the first of February one of the most common of these is that the Fear a tighe gets a reaping hook and cuts a bundle of rushes. If they are not to be had he gets a bundle of oaten straw. Then he hides outside the house until the bean an tighe has a feast ready.

He again leaves the house and walking all around the homestead in the direction of the sun, picks up the bundle, and completes one circuit.

When he reaches the open door all within kneel down and listen to his petition. He makes a second and a third circuit, always with the same petition at the door and he same response within. At the completion of the third prayer, the Fear an tighe enters the house, lays the bundle of rushes under the table and asks all to partake of the meal which is laid on the table.


The feast over, the rushes, or straw are placed in the middle of the family circle, and young and old begin to weave the rush cross of St. Brigid. The crosses are then blessed and one is hung up in each room and every out house. In the kitchen it was usually placed in the rafter and left there from year to year. When worn out, it was burned.


Another custom (though now not so much practiced) was known as "Brat Brighde". When the members of the family had returned to res, the Fear an tighe used to get a garment belonging to each one and hide them somewhere outside. This was done so that Brigid and here holy women would find warm warps on their journey during the night to visit all who had honoured her. The door of the house used to be left unlocked so that St. Brigid and the holy women could come in and warm themselves at the fire which used not be quenched.


The cross was made by getting two pieces of stick and forming them together in the shape of a cross. Then the rushes, or straw, were woven in and out, under and over, these sticks beginning in the middle.


Below is a sketch of the cross which is made locally-

Great care would be taken to have the rushes, or straws, lying flat when making the cross.

Besides the St. Brigid's cross, it was also customary on May morning for the the head of the house to go out early, cut a branch of a May bush- the whitethorn also a furze bush, bring them in to the house and put them up in the kitchen under a rafter where they would remain until next May day when a fresh one would be got.


It was, and is, also customary to "spill Saint Martin's Blood" on St Martin's grave, or some days before the feast. A goose, or a sheep, is usually killed, he blood is sprinkled at the doors, and sometimes the bloods used be kept in a piece of flannel cloth an was used as a cure to relieve a sudden pain which a member of the household might get.

II.

Collector: Seán Ó Chonghaile

Location: Tuaim, Gaillimh

Informant: [Unknown]

St Brigid

The feast of Saint Brigid is celebrated an the first of Febuary. It is one of the biggest feasts held during the year in Ireland. There is a feast in every Catholic house on that night. When the table is laid and everything ready they make a play in honour of Saint Brigid. One person is Brigid most likely the mother or a girl of the house, she puts on a cloak and goes outside the door and knocks, she tells them to say their prayers, they tell Saint Brigid to come in then Brigid caomes in and sits at the head of the table. Then they celebrate the feast. When the feast is finished they all join in the rosary. Each person makes a cross and hangs it on the door.


Another custom the children have is to go from house dressed in old clothes carrying sods of turf or turnips scooped into faces which they name the " Brideog" and every one gives them some money.

The reason we make the cross is because St Brigid was passing a house and she saw a poor man dying. She asked them a few questions and found out that he and his family were pegans. She began then and explained the coming of god into this World, and how he died on the cross for love of us. She then made a cross to show them. After that the sick man was converted by Saint Brigid.

III.

Collector: Rita Cunney

Location: Corr Odhar, Maigh Eo

Informant: Mr. Cunney

In this part of the country the people have several customs that they practise on the thirty-first of January - "Brighideóg Night." They greatest custom of all is the practice of going out as "Brighideógs."


In preparation for going out as "Brighideógs", the children or any one else who is going, disguise themselves, so that no one can know them. They dress in old clothes of their parents, or in their own old clothes turned inside out. They mask their faces with pieces of cloth or curtains. Some-times they make straw or rush hats to keep the veils on. When they have themselves well disguised, they get an old "colpán" and "Miss Biddy" and set out on their journeys. "Miss Biddy" is a doll that is made from old rags or an old turnip, carved, and painted with soot.


When everything is ready, the "Brighideógs" set off, children from eight to thirteen in groups of two and three, and the others _ from fourteen to about thirty years of age in big crowds ruled by a captain. The children dance and play French Fiddles and get a penny or a sweet each. When the big people come in, they play a flute, or a fiddle or a melodeon. They spend about a quarter of an hour in each house. Sometimes they fight and steal cakes, but if they steal anything they return it the next day. The children stay out until about ten o'clock but the bigger ones remain out until about twelve.


The children spend the money they get in buying sweets, and sometimes in buying books and pencils in school. the men spend the money they get in buying cigarettes or tobacco.

— CREDIT —

Credit to the Dúchas project at the National Folklore Collection, University College Dublin.

Please find more of their fascinating work here:

https://www.duchas.ie/en/info/res

Also check out the brilliant folklore podcast, Blúiríní Béaloidis

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