School: Clochar na Trócaire, Ballyporeen (roll number 10437)

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1. Festival Customs - Hallow Eve (continued)

   

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   Each Barn Brack contains a ring, a piece of cloth, a pea, a bean, a stick, and sometimes a button or a thimble. The ring signifies marriage in the near future, the cloth says that he will join a religious order, the pea is for poverty, the bean is for wealth, the stick is a sign death before the year ends, the button is for an old maid or a bachelor, and the thimble is for a dressmaker or tailor.

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2. Saint Stephen's Day Customs

   

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   The chief festival customs are, on Saint Stephen's Day all the boys go around from house to house hunting the wren. They wear old coloured clothes and masks on their faces. They get a holly bush and kill a wren. They put the wren on the bush and have the wren on their shoulders while they are going around. They sing and dance and play music in all the houses. They sing the wren song. The following is the words of the song.

   "The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

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