School: Elphin (B.) (roll number 1753)
- Location:
- Elphin, Co. Roscommon
- Teacher: Mícheál Ó Cianáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0250, Page 372
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: Elphin (B.)
- XML Page 372
- 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
- In ancient times people had great feasts and some of them have survived up to the present day. One of the first feasts of the year is Pancake Tuesday. It is sometimes called Shrove Tuesday or Pus Tuesday. Nearly everyone got married in Shrove long ago and those who did not get married on Pus Tuesday would have pusses on them with disappointment. Shrove Tuesday is the last day in Shrove.A great feast of pancakes takes place on that day because a great fast will be held after that. The pancakes are made on Pancake Tuesday night. Another great feast is St. Patrick's Day. It got its name because St. Patrick died on that day and it falls on the 17th of March. People wear shamrock and harps in their hats or coats in honour of him. That day recalls to our minds what the Saint did for us when he was in Ireland.St. John's Day is the next feast of the year. A bonfire is held is held in every village in Ireland on St. John's eve. When the young people cannot get turf they gather money and have a feast with it. Bonfires are usually held at a crossroads in the country or near the towns.(continues on next page)
