School: Stoneyford, Thomastown (roll number 3029)
- Location:
- Stonyford, Co. Kilkenny
- Teacher: Finghín Mac Íobhair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0849, Page 097
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Stoneyford, Thomastown
- XML Page 097
- XML “Festival Customs”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- St Stephen's Day falls on the 26th of December every year. On that day the boys gather old torn clothes and masks and go out after the Wren. Those boys go from door to door singing songs and gathering money. One of those songs which they sing is:
"The wren, the wren, the King of all birds, St Stephens Day she was caught in the Furze. Up with the kettle and down with the pan, Give us something to bury the wren."
St Patrick's Day falls on the 17th of March. Everyone attends Mass that day and wears a Shamrock in honour of St. Patrick. Our Lord died on Good Friday and the people fast from meat on that day. Easter Saturday, mass is said and Easter water is given out. Easter Sunday, the people eat a lot of eggs and drink Easter water. The Feast of the Assumption falls on the 15th of August. The people go to Lady's Well and say prayers there. The people also drink the water of the well and it is said that there is a cure in it.
On Hallowe'en night the people put an apple in a bath of water and try to take it out with their mouths.
