School: Cnoc na Biolaraighe
- Location:
- Watergrasshill, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Dll. Mac Carrthaigh
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- XML “Old Irish Customs Associated with May Morning”
- XML “Pishogues Associated with May Morning”
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- Many of our old Irish customs are supposed to have their origin with the Druids, particularly the custom of making butter on May morning and the lightning of fires on St John's Eve June 23rd.
In the making of "May Butter" as it is called, one the women of the house arose some hours before dawn on May morning she put some cream in a vessel and stired this with a spoon until it was butter. She then collected dew from the grass and gave the butter some kind of washing with it. All this had to be finished before sun rise as there would be no cure in the "May Butter" otherwise.
This butter was then put into a jar of some sort unsalted, as the charm was supposed to preserve it. It was used for all kinds of wounds and sores - You are not logged in, but you are welcome to contribute a transcription anonymously. In this case, your IP address will be stored in the interest of quality control.By clicking the save button you agree that your contribution will be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License and that a link to dúchas.ie is sufficient as attribution.
- Collector
- Crissie Riordan
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Skahanagh South, Co. Cork