School: Pádraig Naofa, Droichead Banndan
- Location:
- Bandon, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Pádraig Ó Faoláin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0314, Page 007
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
- Christmas CustomsIt was an old custom in this country not to eat any dinner on Christmas Eve but to eat two suppers on that night. At one of those suppers fish was eaten. Another custom was to bake a cake and then to hit the cake three times against the door. Both of those old customs have long since died.During the season of Christmas many farmers never locked their doors and they kept the Christmas candle lighting all through the night. It is said that such was a custom among the farmers long ago but like all the other old customs that has long since died.When lighting the Christmas candle it is the custom to have the youngest member of the house light it. Before lighting the candle he first blesses himself and then sprinkles holy water on himself and the candle.Another custom that still exists among the people is singing the song of the wren. On Saint Stephen's Day a number of boys go from door to door singing this song. Each person gives the wren boys a few pence. It is said that on the sixth of January the water turns into wine and it is said that if anyone stayed up to drink a sup of water he would die.
