School: Tomena

On this page

1. Festival Customs - The Twelve Days of Christmas

   

   Share Share Post

   There is an old custom at Christmas of decorating the house with holly and ivy. These days are supposed to be indicators of the weather for the coming year. The first of the twelve days is the indicator for January, the second for February and so on.

   Another sign which is eagerly watched is the rising or lowering of the flood on New Years Day and night. If the flood in the river rises the price of provisions for the coming year increases. If the water in the river lowers, prices will come down during the coming year.

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

2. Festival Customs - St Stephen's Day

   

   Share Share Post

   

   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.

   In this district as everywhere else the Wren boys are the great attraction on St. Stephen's Day. Boys gather together in bands and having killed a wren, they go from house to house gathering money. Someone plays a flute or melodean and two of the crowd dance in every house. They then sing a song and say some rhyme made especially for the occasion. They usually wear straw hats which cover their faces and often they exchange coats with one another so they would not be recognised.

   (continues on next page)

   Save Cancel

   Transcription guide »

   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.

   Topics

   1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
         1. Feast of St Stephen (~402)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   James Mc Dermott

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   60

   Address

   Gortullaghan, Co. Cavan