School: Teach Chaoin (C.) (roll number 6681)
- Location:
- Tagheen, Co. Mayo
- Teacher: Bríd, Bean Uí Áinlighe
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0096, Page 86
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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
- (continued from previous page)St John's Eve.
St. John's Eve occurs on the 23rd June. On that night "bon-fires" blaze all over Ireland. These are generally built at a cross-roads or in the middle of a village on a height. The turf is procured in the neighbouring bogs or each neighbour fives a bagful. A huge bone is placed in the middle of the fire and as the flames ascend the shouts and laughter of the people can be heard for miles around.The villagers sit around the fire for a couple of hours and tell stories and sometimes sing songs and amuse themselves for a couple of hours. Often too they have a little feast consisting of fresh milk, milked from the cows in the neighbouring fields and loaf bread bought in the nearby shops.When the feast is over the people go in procession around the fire and recite the rosary. When time to go home each one takes a "live" sod and throws it into his own fields so that his crops may be successful during the year. Others carry the sod or live coal to the byre and pass it under and over the cattle's bodies. This action they believe protects the cattle from sickness.(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Annie Fallon
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- Mr John Harley
- Relation
- Relative (other than parent or grandparent)
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Farmhill, Co. Mayo
