School: Druim (roll number 16557)

On this page

1. Festival Customs

   

   Share Share Post

   Christmas day occurs on the twenty-fifth day of December. It celebrates the birth of Our Lord. The custom in this district is to decorate the house with holly and ivy and that night the door is left open, for any poor person who would be wandering about should find shelter and on every window throughout the house long coloured candles are lighted.

   Saint Stephen's feast day is on the twenty-sixth of December. On this day the men and young boys of the locality dress in gaily coloured garments and go in procession from house to house gathering money, when they enter they dance and sing : -
   "The wren, the wren, the king of all birds
   St. Stephen's day was caught in the furze.
   Although he is little, his family's great.
   I pray you good lady, give us a treat
   My box it would speak, if it had hit a tongue
   And a penny, or two, would do it no wrong.
   Sing holly, sing ivy, sing ivy, sing holly,
   And a drop just to drink, would drown melancholy
   And if you draw, it of the best,
   I hope in heaven your soul may rest,
   But if you draw it of the small,
   It will not agree with the wren boys at all."
   With the money, they gather they either divide it amongst

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Larkin

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   13

   Address

   Knockmoyle West, Co. Galway

   Informant

   Mrs Ellen Larkin

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   40

   Address

   Knockmoyle West, Co. Galway