School: Gleanntán

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1. Festival Customs (continued)

   

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   the colour of her future husbands head from its colour and if there was a snail in the shell it would mean a tradesman of some kind as a husband.
   Hallowe'en is a night of sport. Nuts are put around the fire and whoever owns the nut that flies away first will be married first. Apples are tied to the roof of the house, and a person is handcuffed and blind-folded, and he tries to catch the apple with his mouth.
   On St. Stephen's Day the boys and girls go around with the wren saying "The wren, the wren, that you may see is guarded up in a holly tree, we hunted it up and we hunted it down 'till one of our wren boy's knocked it down.
   Shake, shake, shake in the box all silver and no brass. I have a little canteen under my arm and a penny or two will do it no harm". May is supposed to be a very [?]aory month, and the old people would be terrified if a "sídhe gaoithe" or (fairy wind) came whirling round them. It is supposed that this wind will not go away without taking something with it, so the old people used to pick a handful of grass, and throw it with the air so that the wind would go.
   "Aonach a dip" or the fair of the onions is held in October in Midleton. It was a custom to have all the farmers go to that fair and

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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)

   Languages

   Irish

   English

   Collector

   Mary O' Leary

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   13

   Address

   Glounthaune, Co. Cork

   Informant

   Mrs Brigid O' Leary

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   41

   Occupation

   Farm-labourer's wife

   Address

   Glounthaune, Co. Cork