School: Sruthar (C.)

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1. Signs of Death - Pisreoga about Wakes and Funerals (continued)

   

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   Signs of Death. Pisreoga about Wakes and Funerals.
   Before a funeral leaves a house, people lay the coffin on two chairs outside the door, and prayers are said. When the coffin is removed, the chairs should be overturned. This is supposed to banish all misfortune. The mother of a family should not go to the funeral of her first child. If a wedding and a funeral meet on the road, one of the bridal party will soon die.
   There is a place outside Cong where all funerals stand when passing to throws a wooden cross. There is a heap of crosses there now. This custom had its origin at the time the monks lived in the Abbey at Cong. One day, as the monks went out to meet a funeral, they discovered they had no Missal to recite the funeral prayers. The line of monks was so long that the first monk told the monk next to him to pass the word on to the others till the message reached the monk beside the Abbey door, and in this way the first monk got the Missal without any trouble. This monk then made a wooden cross, and placed it on the roadside , and ordered that one of its kind should be made and placed there every time a funeral passed by, and hence the meaning of the heap of Crosses on the Roadside.
   (Nóre Ní Dhubhdha Cathair na mBroc From Father James Dowd 60 yrs.)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. seánra
      1. creidiúint (~391)
         1. creidiúint choiteann (~2,535)
   2. gníomhaíochtaí
      1. gníomhaíochtaí sóisialta (~7)
         1. deasghnátha aistrithe saoil (~573)
            1. bás (~1,076)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Nóra Ní Dhubhdha

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Cathair na mBroc, Co. Mhaigh Eo

   Informant

   James Dowd

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   60

   Address

   Cathair na mBroc, Co. Mhaigh Eo