School: Cill Mhíde (C.), Caisleán Nua (roll number 7959)
- Location:
- Kilmeedy, Co. Limerick
- Teacher: Eibhlín Ní Bhraonáin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0496, Page 332
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: Cill Mhíde (C.), Caisleán Nua
- XML Page 332
- XML “Christmas”
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
- One of the greatest festivals of the year has just passed by, the festival of Christmas. Our Lord was born in a stable on the first Christmas Day, and tradition says that Our Lady is believed to be wandering homeless on that night with the infant Jesus as she did 1938 years ago. People light two blessed candles on that night to guide her to their hospitable Irish homes. Other people tie a white handkerchief to the door for the same purpose.
Tradition says that the animals bow down their heads at twelve o clock on that night to honour Our Lord and also that water changes into wine at the same time. Christmas Day falls on the 25th Dec. and the day succeeding it is St. Stephen's Day, it commemorates the death of St. Stephen who was stoned to death on that day, and was one of the first martyrs who died for the faith. It is usual for the boys of this country to dress up in various coloured clothes and go out "with" the wren looking for money.
- Collector
- Nancy Enright
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Kilmeedy, Co. Limerick
- Informant
- Thomas Cotter
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 50
- Address
- Kilmeedy, Co. Limerick
