Many people still have beliefs about certain days, months, and feasts. People say that if you get up early on May day and wash your face in the dew of the grass and let the sun dry it, you would not get sick for the rest of the year. It is not lucky to give away milk on May day. People get up early to get to the well first on May morning as it is believed to be lucky People do not redden graves on Monday. People do not visit the sick for the first time on Friday. The 15th of July is St. Swithin's day and there is a rhyme about it.
"St Swithin's day if it dost not rain. For forty days it will remain."
"If they is thunder on all Foll's day. It brings good crops of corn and hay."
"A wet and windy May, fills the haggard with corn and hay."

kill a pig. If you went to another person's well the first on May morning you would be taking away that person's luck. If you met a red-haired woman the first thing in the morning you would not have any luck for the day. It is unlucky to borrow on May day or on New Year's Day.

It was a custom on May Day that if you washed your face on the dew you would be grand for the year. If you met a brown snail you would be married to a foxy woman. There was a man there long ago and a neighbour called to him for milk on May Day. He was eating his breakfast and he told him to go out and milk a cow and he never thought that it was May Day morning for it was said that if a neighbour milked a cow first he would have the produce of the year.

The people in older times would not leave out their cows on May Day night for fear the produce of the year would be taken from them and they could not make any butter. It is said that if you saw a red haired woman on May Day morning that you would not have any luck for the year. It is said that the old would not give away the milk on May Day.

Long ago there were a lot of traditions about May Day but now all these are done away with. It was customary on May Day to have a crowd of girls go out on May morning and wash their faces with the dew. It was said that the first snail they would meet no matter what colour it would be their husband would be the same colour. It is said too that no horse should be harnessed or no butter made on May Day as people can take butter from their neighbours by means of charms on that particular day. One evening as a man was coming from the bog he found a piece of rope. It happened to be May evening so he brought it along with him thinking he was doing no harm. The next day he was churning and he was astonished to find twice as much butter as usual. This happened a few times and at last he sent for the priest. There was Mass in the house but it was all of no avail. The priest asked him had he anything from another man's stall. At last he thought of the rope which was up on the stall window. He showed it to the priest who burned it and from that out he had his right amount of butter.

of February. On that day the candles are blessed that are used in the Churches throughout the year. The mistress of almost every house in the parish sends two or three pounds of wax candles as a present to the priest for the altar The old women long ago used to say that when Candlemas Day would come around that you could throw your candles and candlesticks away meaning that the days were long enough and that there were no more candles required.
May Day falls on the 1st of May. There are many old sayings about May Day. The old people used to say that if you plucked flowers on that day the fairies would carry you away. It is an old custom that no red sod should be turned on that day.

eat as many eggs as they can and sometimes we hear men boast of the number of eggs they ate on the different Easter Sunday mornings. Many people get up at day break to see the sun rise as its supposed to dance as it rises on Easter Sunday mornings. Children get Chocolate eggs at Easter.
Old people say, "May Day is a delightful day, bright colours to play the way." People put May Tree as they call sycamore on the doors and windows on May Day and sometimes people decorate their horses and donkeys with May Tree on May Day. It is said whoever washes in the dew of May Morning will grow up beautiful. Whoever goes to the well first on May morning is supposed to be lucky for the year.
People used to be very careful of their cows on May morning as it was said that if anyone milked the cow that they would have all their butter for the year. I once

people get up very early to see the sun and the moon dancing. It is an old proverb, that the sun and the moon dances in the east on Easter Sunday morning.May Day. = People put a leaf of Maypole hanging on the door. It is said that if you sleep out of doors on May Day you would get a stroke from the fairies. You should never pick flowers on May Eve, or May Day.St John's Day. = Some people go to Wether's well on that day. On St. John's Eve bonfires are lit. St. Martin's Day. = It is an old saying you should draw some blood. In olden times the blood was kept, and it was a cure for a pain in the side.

in the Kitchen the woman of the house invited the evil minded woman to see her dairy: When they were going down to the dairy the evil minded woman produced a drop of whiskey in a bottle and told the woman of the house to go back to the kitchen for a glass so that they would have "a little drop". While the woman was procuring the glass the other woman must have done the harm with the milk because from that visit onwards the cream and butter vanished from the house and she had not a quarter of her former butter in the churning of the following week. In putting two and two together she put the loss down to the evil minded neighbour - as she saw "with her own two eyes" that the neighbour's butter was doubled. She made up her mind to get her butter and pruduce back - so when her evil minded neighbour had gone to town one day selling her butter - she stole to her neighbour's dairy and brought back a Pannikin (?) of cream with her and from that day on she had her usual yield of butter and cream.Mrs Reidy also says "that it was a custom during the month of May to put a tiny knob of butter into each cooler and when this cream was made into butter you had the May butter and therefore the May yield of cream and produce continued through the year."She also says that "a certain woman visited a house on the day previous to the 1st May with the intention of footing or cutting turf on that day. She stayed in the house that May Eve and was first up on May day

Long ago the people of this part of the country were very superstitious; they would not oblige a neighbour with milk or butter on May Day because they were under the impression that some people had a charm for taking the neighbour's butter on that day. They used to sprinkle the cows with holy water on May Eve to prevent the neighbours from taking the butter. They used to churn on May Day for they believed there was a great cure in butter made on May Day. If a neighbour entered the housed while the churn was being made he should take a Greas at the the churn or they would think he would take away their luck at butter-making etc. for the year.

Some say it is very lucky to churn on May day and May day butter was supposed to cure any sore, though I heard another old woman still living say it was wrong to churn on May day. It is most unlucky to give anything away on May Day. When I was a child a man refused to give the scholars the kindling for the school fire on May morning though he gave it every other day.No one should leave the house while the churn is going on without(Mrs M O'Sullivan, Ankail House, Tahilla)

On May Eve the last day of April people go around the fields shaking holy water on the gaps and on the cows and on all the animals and on the hens and ducks. It is said that any person shouldnt sit on the grass May Day. If a woman comes looking for eggs on May Day that shows that she is going to do harm on you. If a person washes his hands on the dew on May Day it is said that can rip many knots for that year. When a person pulls grass he would get alot of falls and that the faires would carry you away

If you take three meals of nettles between old May Day and

We have May Day the first of May. The day before it is called May Eve. People put up May bushes May Eve. May is in honour of the Blessed Virgin. In olden times no one used to borrow anything from another May Day it was considered unlucky. In olden times it was a custom to borrow a churn from another. When they would get back the churn and when they would go to churn the next day they could get no butter for about four churnings

goose or a turkey for Christmas Day. May Day people make a May Bush

There are many old customs connected with May Eve and May Day.

Many superstitions are still current locally. Long ago May eve was the great day for these practices. They are not carried on nowadays. Wells were "skimmed" on May morning. This was supposed to bring the good luck of the well users to the skimmer and wells were guarded on that night. On May eve also eggs were put in the clay in the four corners of the gardens. This brought the "produce" of the garden to the person who planted the eggs. A ball of hay or dried grass was flung into the meadows and this brought a good crop to the thrower and left a very poor one to the owner of the meadow. Milk was "taken" from the cows by leaving something in the byre or at the milking place. The person who did this got an increased supply by milking a sugan or a spancel tied to the rafters. People were also supposed fo take the "luck" of a place by leaving something in the house on May day, usually a bit of a bramble placed unobtrusively at the hearth.
It is unlucky to lend anything on May day. It is unlucky to move into a new house on any day except on Friday. It is unlucky to take a cat with you from your former house. You should never sweep out the ashes on a Monday. The first Monday in the new year is hansel Monday. It is lucky to receive money on that day but if you pay out money on that day you will be paying out for the rest of the year. When you build a new dwelling house put silver usually a two shilling piece at the four corners for luck. They are put in the foundation. You should not knock your old house but allow it to fall. If you build

Sean Bealtaine. Old May Day was the 12th May was the hiring day for servants both men and women. On that day servants and Masters congregated together and settled for the year. This custom is now done away with.

On May Day the houses are decorated with hawthorn blossoms. This day was a day of great fun in the district in olden times as on that day the May Queen was chosen. Then attended by all her companions who were dressed up especially for the occasion she proceeded to the village green where a May pole had been erected. Then holding on to the coloured ribbons hanging off the Maypole the boys and girls dance around it until late in the night.
On Saint Stephens day boys and in some places grown up men gather together and go in procession from house to house with decorated bushes singing the Wren Song. On the day before Saint Stephens day they kill the wren and hang him on a bush decorated with ribbons. The money they get they sometimes spend it on a dance and moretimes they divide it among

May Day because they believe that the milk goes with it, or if it has to be given away salt is put in it. People believe if they make a class with a black hen's egg on May night that they will dream of them man whom they are to marry, but if they talk or laugh the class is broken. Some people leave a worm on a plate and if in the evening the worm has three lines made on the plate the people will have no bad luck for three years and they keep the plate. If a child brings in only one nóinin on May Day his parents will have only one beast on their land on the next May Day. The people do not throw out ashes on May Day because they believe they would have no fire for the rest of the year. If there is a back door in the house no water is thrown out that door on May morning especially the water with which the people wash their faces.