School: Cill Fhearga (roll number 15128)

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1. Festival Customs (continued)

   

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   plaiting straw into the shape of crosses and hanging them to the roof in honour of Saint Brigid. The making of those crosses from sheer practice had grown to be a very fine art and show some remarkable workmanship in neatness and design. On this night also the older people watch the rivers to see if the water would rise. If it reached a high water mark they believed that provisions would rise, and on the other hand if the water fill provisions would do the same.
   They also compiled their own Almanac from the Twelve Days of Christmas that is from Saint Stephen's Day to the sixth of January inclusive. Thus Saint Stephen's Day was to represent the month of January and the following day the month of February and so on to the end of the year. According to how the weather came on these particular days the corresponding months were to be the same and the people had more belief in it than in the modern weather forecasts now prevailing.
   A common belief is that the sun dances on Easter Sunday morning and the people make a practice of rising early and going to an elevated place to have a good view of the sunrise. I have seen it myself dancing in all the

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Eileen O' Rourke

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim

   Informant

   Joseph Boles

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   40

   Address

   Gortnacorkoge, Co. Leitrim